How to Explain Dungeons and Dragons to People Who Don't Play

I personally have never played Dungeons and Dragons before, however I have a cousin who has, and I've become quite aware of the way the game is played, along with doing quite a bit of research myself.

It started out that Dungeons and Dragons was a game which was considered Satanism, because of the roles that characters tend to play in the game. This was in the 80's, though. Today, the definition of players is quite simple; they're all nerds. This is a stereotype, of course, but if you've ever seen someone who plays Dungeons and Dragons you would typically hold them as a nerd in society.

I personally believe the game has a lot more than nerdy aspects behind it. There is definitely a huge social role to the game, it's more of a social gathering to me, than a nerdy game that people play when they get bored. This game is no different than monopoly or scrabble; people play it to have fun and get some good social bonding time in.

If you're someone who likes to socialize, likes having drinks with your friends, and likes meeting with people on a regular basis to perform activities, then you're definitely a nerd enough to play Dungeons and Dragons, because these are the only characteristics that all players have in common!

Dungeons and Dragons is a game based around trust, imagination, and rules. The rule set obviously varies from play group to play group, because people tend to modify the rules to make them the most suitable for their personal imagination and fantasies.

Each person has their own character in which they will create and use to play with on these select play date nights, if you will. You'll choose a race and class, and then typically go on quests which are assigned to characters based on the Dungeon Master's opinion. Of course these quests are going to vary quite widely by play group too, since these quests can contain just about anything.

From what I understand, the game is endless and never gets boring. I've never played though, and actually became slightly interested in playing after hearing and reading about the game. Of course I'm not interested in the negative social views attached with playing the game, as well as the fact that finding a play group is obviously going to be quite difficult seeing how they're rare to come by. These groups are usually pretty quiet about their game play, they resume normal lives and are just normal people with different, more imaginative hobbies and minds.

This may all sound a little nerdy, but in order to understand, apparently you're going to need to play. If you're interested in playing, go rent books, get an understanding. I'll bet that the easiest way to really understand the way the game truly works though, is to go find someone who plays and figure it out from there.