"Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood..."

"...Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect..." - KING HENRY V

Welcome, friends, to my tale. I have no inkling how my quest will proceed. But I hope that perhaps you will find some kinship in my words, and will lend ear, eye, and perhaps even arm to this weary fellow traveler.

Ok, maybe I should dispense with the purple prose and just get down to it. My name that I use in gaming circles is Drance. I've used it for almost two decades now, and to me it's the tip of a momentous iceberg. It's a tether to another time in my life, when I sallied forth with brave companions to conquer evil. We did that in the world of our imaginations, while simultaneously found a safe place in the real world where we could vent our worries through shared storytelling. Is there any other more ancient tradition than human beings coming together to tell tales?

Ok, I know I'm still sort of waxing poetic, so I'll be even more straightforward:

I'm a 30-something male with a wonderful wife, great kids, dog, and a mortgage. I love my life very much but I also need a creative outlet. I was a long-time roleplayer up until about 10 years ago, when circumstances of all sorts conspired to draw me away from the hobby (as an aside, I use the word hobby but I think I need to find a stronger term in the near future). Within the last three years, I've had a personal resurgence of interest in roleplaying once again. This prompted me to search the Internet for the current state of affairs when it came to roleplaying, and it's been an enlightening experience so far.

Who cares, right?

Another blog by some old dork lamenting the long-gone halcyon days of his gaming youth? Do we really need another one?

Well, I've been reading lots and lots of other blogs by other gamers my age, and they've inspired me to not only re-explore the hobby but also to lend my voice to the growing din. Call it a show of solidarity on my part.

To sum this first post up, in the coming days I hope to share my experiences as I explore my current resurgence of interest in gaming, and perhaps delve into the impetus behind it, as much for my own self-edification as for consumption by others who read this blog.

Does any of this make any sense? Who knows? All I know is, I felt compelled to share. I hope I truly have something to contribute. Or at the very least, I hope I figure out what the roleplayer in me is looking for...

As always, happy gaming!

Drance