So, yes, I played Dun­geons and Drag­ons. I still would, if I had the time, or the group of friends, or some­thing. I enjoyed the cre­ativ­ity, the friend­ship, the fun. I even kind of enjoyed the geek­i­ness of it all. Heck, I even attended the annual con­ven­tion held by the com­pany that owns Dun­geons and Drag­ons. Actu­ally, I guess it was there that I real­ized that I was but an ama­teur in the depths of D&D geek­i­ness to which one can sub­scribe. The cos­tumes, the car­ry­ing on in real life of char­ac­ters and plots, the seri­ous­ness with which some of the silli­ness is taken.

Now, on the 35th anniver­sary of the game, comes this. A gam­ing group that gets together to play on a weekly basis has begun to make videos of their adven­tures. With cos­tumes. And “spe­cial” effects. You really have to watch it to believe it. Yes, it is work-safe, but only if you’re not afraid of dying of embar­rass­ment. Even if you’ve never heard of D&D, you can’t help but feel for these glo­ri­ously geeky folks.

I can hardly stand it. I have to go watch it again.

[Note: yes, at first blush this looks like ama­teur­ish fetish porn, but as you watch they come across more like hope­less geeks and less like East­ern Euro­pean immi­grant hook­ers… I mean, the sheer geek­i­ness of the magic mis­sile effects, and the flip-book giant cen­tipede… and the soft-focus horse-riding… pure inno­cent genius.]

See: The trailer for their adven­tures — low res and: The trailer for their adven­tures — high res and: The Dun­geon Majesty web site