Roleplaying as therapy.

One of the reasons I love role playing so much is that it takes my mind of all the worries of the day-to-day grind. It lets you escape into a world where everything is possible and let you act out fears, wants, dreams, fantasies, worries and all that jazz in an environment where you don't have to be afraid of stigmas, taboos and retributions that will affect you as a person.

When you play for long enough your character takes on a life of its own and you end up role playing situations that you would not ever put yourself into. One session we had, one of the characters snapped crazy and killed one of her own children. It was heart wrecking and disturbing and we fought with emotions on many levels, but as the player said: It was what the character did. It was not a choice the player did, the character went bat crazy. I was really impressed with Mr. K for putting us in that situation and sticking to it. An I was immensely impressed with the player that also stuck to it and played out something that was so difficult and disturbing.

I have been through many emotions with my characters. The strongest always come when playing with the characters I have had the longest and invested the most in. There have been times when my pulse have been raising when my character have been hit and her life seemed to be forfeit. I have been sitting with tears in my eyes as a dear friend of my character passed or left. Been flustered in outrage at a betrayal or in awe and puzzlement when something I totally did not expect happened. The measure of emotions pored into the game always correspond to the mood I'm in and how invested I am in the character.
When a character is new there is always the period of awkwardness when you get to know the group and the characters personality. The challenge is when you have learned to know your character and end up in a position where you as a person would do one thing, but the personality of your character tells you that he or she would do something different. This is especially difficult if the situation is morally questionably. This is especially something to remember when you choose alignment. If you choose to play an evil character how far are you willing to take it? Would you be willing to have your character do things that you would not even think of in your nightmares? Would you let your character do something so evil that it would make your hair curl and your milk curdle?

Examples of episodes that have made me extremely emotional in one way or another are:
When the pregnant-with-twins Mmimas, meaning well and trying to save the harbor from a storm, were out using all her magical powers to still the wind and waves around the harbor enough to let people save lives and equipment and was struck by lightning on her way home almost killing her and her children.
Or when Mmimas's new animal companion, the black panther "Pusi" was killed when attacked by jungle savages. I had tears running down my cheeks when she buried her.
Or the anger and sense of injustice i felt when we were at the hands of a tyrant who killed and resurrected one of our group just to torture her.
Or the joy and pride when our characters were given their titles and the huge statue from the king.
Or the gloating and feeling of triumph when I the big boss (a 7 headed hydra) that Mr. K had planned for us was transformed into a harmless goat, that we soon after killed with no problems, all within the first 6 seconds of combat. All because of a well placed "Balefull Polymorph" by the lovely wizard Cordelia.

There are mostly fun and hysterical episodes though. Like the episode where one character was trying to explain the birds and the bees to another character and used sticks and seeds as and analogy.
Or when the druid went totally berserk on the barbarian because he was chopping wood.
Or last session with the girl group when Mmimas was in labor and the wizard Cordelia had to teleport to the middle of the ocean to get a hold of the poor sod that is the father of the child.
Or when the artificer in another group walked straight into the wall because she was too busy thinking of how many limbs she wanted to give her next construct and ended up tipping a whole plate of beer cans onto a very grumpy dwarf and started a bar fight.
Or when the warrior and professional temptress, Vanyelee, lured a guard from the gate with the promise of a lust-full thrust in the shadows and chopped his head of while he was trying to untie his pants, and then repeated the whole process with the guard at the next gate.
Or when a very irritated and annoyed half-orc used an equally angry and frustrated dwarf as a battering ram!

As you can probably tell... anything can happen when you role play.

When I have a really bad day, if I have the energy, I long to immerse myself in a session of Dungeons and Dragons. To grab my character sheet and embark on an adventure.

Mrs. K.

Happy Easter

Happy easter and Blessed Ostara for all you adventurers out there!

Things have been so busy here that I have been unable to set time to finish the post about creating your first character... or any other posts for that matter. I am currently working on the "PC sheet" for my main char Mmimas Nasnan Liljason, and some other projects, and will publish some more posts over the easter. But for now: Enjoy the hollidays.

Mrs. K