I was in a new relationship with a man who asked me, "Do you like to play Dungeons and Dragons?"
What the hell was Dungeons and Dragons? I didn't know, but the question made me nervous.
"It's like adult imagination time," he said. "You create a character and roleplay as them, making decisions as they would along your adventure."
I thought he was describing a video game, something you play online with others.
"No, you sit in a room with three other people and your DM and you act out the story with each other as it unfolds."
"What's a DM?" I asked.
"A Dungeon Master." He replied. "The person who plays all the other characters you get to interact with, along with any monsters you fight. He also helps keep the storyline on track."
Sounded pretty nerdy, but then again he was pretty nerdy and if this was something he was into then I wanted to give it a shot too. I met the DM (his roommate at the time) and was told to come up with a character I could see myself playing and what her strengths and weakness may be. He said he would help me put those qualities into stats on my character sheet. When the explanation of what race and class I could be was over, I quickly chose a Human Ranger, creating an image based on what costumes I had available to me. I assumed I had to dress up as the character I'd play and thought they would all dress up as well. So Human Ranger seemed the easiest costume to create.
The day I came over to play I quickly realized that nobody was dressing up and they explained to me the difference between LARPing and Role Playing. I felt even more embarrassed because I'd been so clueless and that I'd even been a bit excited to act with these people in costumes and play pretend. Now they were looking at me like I was some silly child. I actually felt like I was not "Cool" enough to play with now.
I sat down at the kitchen table, drinks and snacks and dice were everywhere, our character sheets and pens in our hands and the DM sitting at the end with a cardboard screen propped in front of him to keep his dice-rolls secret.
"Give us your character's backstory," The DM said. "And what she looks like today."
So I did and thus created my character: Kyra Kane.
I played with Kyra in a year long campaign and she has inspired so many pieces of art, a comic and now a novel in which Im currently writing. I've created so many characters in which I love over the years, but I always go back to Kyra. She was the most important and influential creative thing in my life and I have a nerdy boy to thank for it.