Disasters in Dating (Dungeons and Dragons Edition)

The Atlantic Film Festival is happening here in Halifax this week.  On Sunday night, I had the opportunity to go watch a series of short films at Empire Theatres Park Lane.

The shorts were enjoyable for the most part, specifically “The Chase” a short film by Mary Alice Corton & Joe Zanetti (my top pick of the night).

However it was a different short that really took me aback;  this one was called “Gamers: A Love Story”.

Gamers may not have been my favourite film of the evening, however it was the one that hit closest to home.  It told the story of five teenage gamers who get caught up in the fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons with a female lead who wants her romance inside of the D&D world to spill out into reality.  I kind of fibbed to those present with me, and pushed off the similarities between characters in the movie, to those of my students.  When in actuality, the D&D role playing misfits in this movie were almost identical to my teenage self and a few friends that I had at the time (you know who you are).

DW had been a childhood friend and we had basically grown up in each others houses.  It was his older brother Andrew that got us into Dungeons and Dragons one year.

Andrew, DW, myself and two of Andrew’s friends; would meet once, sometimes twice a week to play the role playing game.

In D&D a whole universe was created, where me and this group of friends took center stage.  Our imaginations were allowed to roam as freely as we decided, the sky was the limit.

I loved my character, she was an elfin wizard, named Theriries who although was limited in battle, made up for it in game progression.  Very quickly though, I realized that my character was only as good as the people playing with me and from day one, I relied on Andrew’s character, the Fighter, Adotlin to save me at every turn, which he always did.  Happily.

For months our two D&D characters lived, loved and battled together.  And for months I waited for Andrew to cross over into the real world and make a move outside of the game.

Tired of hearing me go on and on about D&D and my hero Adotlin, my friend (another J, but not one of the “J’s”), who was in one of Andrew’s classes, decided to make a move for me and see what this fantasy romance was all about.

In classic form, she wrote Andrew a note asking if he “liked” me

To which he replied, “yes.  she is really cool”

My friend wanting to DTR (define the relationship) further, sent the note back with “are you going to ask her out?” to which Andrew replied, “why would I do that?”

High School J was very confused, so she sent the note back again, stating, “because you just said you liked her and you guys have some freaky fantasy love story in your basement going on anyway.”

Andrew’s response.  ”Well I love Theriries.”

At this point, high school J  ended her note passing and told me that I really could do better then this guy.  I would have none of it though.  If he loved Theriries then clearly he loved me.  I mean we were the same person, aside from the whole magical powers thing.

I showed up early to DW’s house and helped Andrew set up.  I asked him about the notes and explained my theory that if he loved Theriries he must “love” me.

Andrew looked up from the table with a very puzzled look.  ”You mean you model Theriries after yourself?  I always pictured her as a blonde.”

And with that my Dungeons & Dragons days were over, and my distaste for blondes begun.