I’ve always been a big fan of role playing games and usually am having the most fun when I’m actively changing my personality to be the character I’m playing as . It started out with Everquest back in the 90’s and there was a culture in that game where it was almost taboo to not be pretending you were your character. It came easily enough since I was always pretending I was one thing or the other, be it a World War 2 soldier or a mage. Perhaps that’s why I finally went into art because you’re basically playing pretend in your mind and making those things real… at least on paper.

I got to enjoying telling people my personal clan’s past along with the foes I had vanquished. I died valiant deaths without feeling the sting of a real dagger, I piloted suicide missions to defeat enemy nations, I built whole civilizations and watched them fall as the Huns or the Persians invaded and crippled my flanks. And since games of the past often had a “minimalist” style story telling, I often made up stories of what was really happening the whole time.

This now gets translated to tabletop games when I’m playing with friends. I became less afraid of judgement and more into the fun of being someone or something else. Maybe this is the first steps of multiple personality disorder but screw it, I’m the admiral of the Dread Armada of the Old Earth Empire.

-Sean