I have always had a passion for games. I have intense vivid memories of board and yard games from my youth that still bring a smile to my lips. Today, with more than half a century of life behind me, games are still an important and vital pastime.

As I sit here composing this missive, I can look up from my desk straight to my board and card game shelving, and to the right of that my bookcase with numerous Role Play Gaming books.

This weekend is Role Play Gaming, last night my friend Ray ran his D&D game and this afternoon it’ll be my turn to entertain my friends with character and combat.

I can remember when I first learned of the concept of RPGs, I was a teenager reading an issue if Asimov’s Science-Fiction Magazine, and an essay in the back described the whole concept of the unending, open world style of role play games. Instantly I knew I wanted to play that sort of game. A manner of gaming that seemed custom made for a young man more at home daydreaming than upon a sports field. A few years later I did become acquainted with D&D as my first RPG and after that this world has never been enough.

The Role Playing Games have never eclipsed traditional games for me. Truly one of the best gifts I have ever received was a card game Cthulhu 500, a comedic, vicious game of car racing filled with terrific puns derived from the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Games are important to me and I think vitally important to a healthy life. Mammals are animal that play. Young mammals learn their essential behaviors by way of play and for humans the act of play and games keeps our brains elastic and ready to learn. I feel smarter and more capable of learning today than I ever did as a young man and I credit a large part of that to my passion for games.