You meet in a tavern … Well, we actually met in freshman year during science class. Fine, that’s not entirely accurate either. They both knew each other from elementary school, and I first became friends with one of them in math back in middle school and the other over the course of freshman year. From messing around in class to going out every other week to hang over dinner, the three of us guys have stayed friends ever since then.

Senior year and the discombobulation (to put it lightly) of the pandemic caused us to lose contact for a while, but, as with all true friendships, we never felt as if we abandoned each other. One of us, during the first time we hung out since graduation, put it like this: “we’re picking up where we left off.”

Indeed we did, and among the first things we started doing when we resumed hanging out again was picking up Dungeons & Dragons. The trio of guys that were once grouped around a lab table and joked around now at around my dining table, character sheets in hand and our sets of dice at the ready.

Knowing my friends and I, it seems to me that we were destined to play it. One of them is a computer science proto-philosopher whose the best source of memes and enjoys finding order in chaos. My other friend, a filmmaker and stand-up comedian in the making, is a master storyteller. I’m the Tolkien-fanatic medievalist theologian whose downed countless hours in Skyrim and Oblivion.

For any Dungeon Master, we’re either a match made in heaven or a dumpster fire waiting to happen. For the three of us, we couldn’t have asked for a better party to adventure with. And thankfully our DM, one of my friend’s cousins in fact, is both merciful and tolerant of our bullshittery. So far, everything’s gone smoothly—at least, as smoothly as a D&D session could go. We haven’t become murder hobos (yet), so that’s something to be proud of.

As of writing this article, we’ve had four sessions—three for our first campaign and a one-shot (a single session adventure) that ended up being a continuation of our initial campaign.

With each session, we brought with us not only our character sheets and dice but the interests, hobbies, and experiences that I mentioned earlier. Rather than being a clusterfuck of chaos, our sessions were a kaleidoscope of creativity, bullshittery, intentional mayhem, and an endless source of laughs.

There was something undeniably beautiful in how we would be as engaged in the lore of the world our DM thrust us in just as much as we would an oddly-crooked painting hanging on the wall of a ship’s captain’s quarters.

The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience. There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you’re involved in…

Gary Gygax | Interview with The New York Times

By the end of our sessions, we were admittedly mentally exhausted from the intense improvisation and decision making, but we were also incredibly gratified at what we accomplished within a couple hours. We had no reason to despair—after all, next time we’ll pick up where we left off.

I’m glad, not only that we picked up D&D together, but that we reconnected and have stayed friends all these years. The way our banter and energy with each other has stayed the same yet likewise grown as we have is a testament to our bond. Whether we’re heroes or murder hobos, we’ll always have each others’ backs.

Guys, if you’re reading this, see you next session (or when we hang out). And thanks for everything.