Quote:
Originally posted by Optimist Prime
my advice is to you stop dating nerds and find a cool frat boy
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Where do you think some of us learned to play D&D? I met my husband through D&D at his fraternity. My freshman year there were 10 brothers and 3 pledges that played on a weekly basis. They played every Saturday from noon to 5-ish, ran out to grab food, and made it back to the house for Star Trek: The Next Generation at 6.
Yes, I *am* a geek. :P
Your enjoyment of D&D will depend on who you're playing with and what their playing style is. We game with one other couple, and with a second couple where the guy runs the table and the girl sometimes plays. It's a combination of storytelling and problem-solving, with the problems solved with a lot of dice-rolling and mathematics.
In long-running campaigns, you'll have people who are at 12th level or something, and have been playing those characters for years. If you come in at 1st level, yeah, you'll turn into paste during the first combat. Not fun.
In some areas, there are "Living Greyhawk" campaigns where you run your character through self-contained scenarios that usually take about 3-6 hours (4 hour average). Many people will have one low-level character (say, 3rd level, kind of a newbie), and one high-level character (say, 12th level, powerhouse), so they can switch them around. If you're playing in a low-level group, it's much easier to keep up.
I got frustrated with the 7-hour marathon sessions that kept on going for weeks at a time. The shorter sessions are much more fun.
And I agree that you can't let it run your life. If your main conversation with friends is that you just levelled your halfling rogue and picked up +1 mithril chain armor that gives you +2 to your AC and blah blah blah, you need to find a new hobby! But if you just play with friends on the weekend, no biggie.
If you like reading fantasy novels and watching fantasy movies, you'll probably get into it pretty easily. If you hate fantasy and hate doing math, you won't enjoy it as much.
[As a side note, there is a hierarchy of sci-fi/fantasy/etc fans. Allow me to say that regular D&D'ers are slightly above or slightly below Live Action Role-Players (I wouldn't dress up to play, no way), and everyone and everything is waaaaaaaaaay above furries. Ewwwwwwwwww.]