Dungeon Hence Dragon

For those of you into the "Lingo" you may have noticed a comment on the previous post concerning DMing. And you people will already be aware, pray tell, what this acronym represents. For those of you not in the know I shall illuminate.

DM stands for Dungeon Master. Now before you reach for the back space button like some mad... Back Space Buttoning Type Person, hear me out. Much is misunderstood about Dungeons and Dragons and if you don't believe me read up at Mr Wikipedia for a history lesson.

Now, personally, I don't give a hoot or any other onomatopoeia's what other people think about me playing D&D but I do get a little tetchy that the stereotype has become so ingrained in mainstream media that the mere mention of a protagonist's having D&D as a hobby immediately turns that character into not only a geek (for which I proudly wear the mantle) but more disturbing gives such a character an unverified and undiagnosed mental disability by giving the impression that any minute he (or rarely she) will soon don a medieval weapon of some sort and start shooting/slashing at passers by with little regard for human life. I realize I may not be helping matters by having just created the worlds largest sentence but you know where I'm coming from.

It's a hobby. It's something to do. Now I'm not saying that there are absolutely no "strange characters" out there playing D&D. Of course there are. There are also some very unusual people barracking for sports teams, some who play video games, some who find collecting cutlery stimulating, some who go to work and come home and do nothing every day, some who mow lawns, some who go to nightclubs, some who balance cheque books, even some (and they are very few) who write blogs. In other words there are unusual people in every walk of life.

And maybe, just maybe, if we embraced them all with equal compassion and interest, those who actually do have mental conditions might be diagnosed sooner and get the help they need and perhaps feel better about having done so.