It's near the end!

Back in the first half of 1992, I sat on the steps leading down to the water at Wollongong's Continental Pools with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2nd Edition), which I'd borrowed from Paul Gray (who was in Year 10 to my Year 7) that day so I could make up a character.

I can't remember what my character ended up being (though I'd venture it was a half-elf bard...I loved bards back then and - but I digress), and I can't remember anything about who ran the campaign, the world it was set in or any of the adventures my character (who, if he was a bard, was probably named Cacofonix after the talentless harpist from Asterix comics) took part in.

Those memories are lost to the ether, but 17 years later I can easily be back on that step, ignoring school-mandated swimming lessons in favour of reading David "Zeb" Cook's introduction to the rulebook. Salty water evaporating from my legs as I nod through the opening chapter designed to ease the newcomer into a strange, niche hobby.

It's weird what you keep.