Have you ever wanted to be someone else, if only for a weekend ? possibly a dragon-slayer or futuristic space marine?

If so there is a small but growing group of Role Playing Game (RPG) players operating on the Island who explore alien worlds each week.

And to those concerned about being classified as a geek, RPG player James Hrubos has a ready response.

?How many people can say that they sell computers on weekdays and slay dragons on Saturdays? Some people associate ?geekdom? and ?nerdyness? to gamers, but to this I say nay! Embrace your inner geek! Besides, I can personally say some of the people I have met through gaming are a heck of a lot ?cooler? than the average barfly I meet sitting off at Docksiders.

?It?s a freeing and wondrous feeling to ?live? the life of another character during a gaming session, whether wielding a sword among a stout party of adventuring companions in a fantasy realm or firing a high calibre rifle as part of a highly trained group of soldiers working for freelance police services in the dark and gritty future.?

RPG player Garan Madeiros said there was a real sense of camaraderie brought out by playing RPG.

?We all share a common bond,? Mr. Madeiros said. ?Dungeons and Dragons is fun because it?s like watching a movie but you make it up yourself. You make the plot and script and everything.?

Another RPG player, who only wanted to be known as Doug, said the biggest draw to Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was the social aspect.

?Gaming, like sports or other group events, provides an opportunity to socialise and compete,? Doug said. ?Everyone has certain societal needs that they look to fill. Some like to compete heavily in everything they do, others like to gather to chat and gossip. Gaming provides a venue that, for many, allows the opportunity for group interaction, social competition and ultimately recognition and admiration among their peer group.?

Today there are hundreds of RPG games to play, having grown from its fantasy D&D origins over 30 years ago to encompass science fiction, horror, mystery and superhero genres, Mr. Madeiros said.

?I had a couple of superhero characters,? he said. ?Hellfire had explosive fists and could fly around. He was a lot of fun. There was also the Lynx. She was a cat superhero with claws and heightened agility and catlike speed and strength.?

Every Saturday people met at his comic shop to play ?Heroclix? ? a tabletop game with miniature models of Marvel superheroes ? as well as ?Mechwarrior? ? set in a fictional Battletech universe.

Tomorrow he should hold a ?Heroclix? tournament from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., he said, while collectable card games ?Magic? and ?Yugioh? are played on Saturdays.

?I usually have a couple of guys in the store at any given time playing said games,? Mr. Madeiros said. RPG players create their own characters and roll dice to determine whether they survive the onslaught of fictional opponents.

When a character?s hit points run out, they are dead and can no longer be used, he said.

However, Mr. Madeiros has kept his favourite character alive for 15 years, even though he said he is now in ?retirement?.

?They get like family, like people,? he said. ?It?s like if you have a character from a comic book you get to know the character and get to know how they would think in a certain situation.?

RPG players take turns to be ?games-master? who effectively referees the game and creates the scenario that the players take part in, he said.

?Usually the games-master creates the scenario and any adversaries like monsters or villains,? he said. ?I had a guy who was a space marine assigned to a suicide squad.?

But despite his deadly assignment in a world like the movie Aliens, Sgt. Marcus (Lucky) Cutter was really a nice ? if superstitious guy ? deep down, Mr. Madieros said.

Mr. Hrubos has played D&D since 1992 when he was 12-years-old. ?A friend of my older sister introduced me to D&D which I picked up rather quickly. Since then I graduated from little one player games with me running and an old high school friend as the solo player with Advanced D&D second edition up to D&D third and 3.5 editions,? he said.

He said one of his favourite characters ? who he played for six months ? was Jules Tannic, a dashing looking man with the garb and style of a landed gentry but the mouth of a British dockworker and an attitude to match.

?He was the character that everyone loved to hate, simply because they always knew he was up to no good but could never actually prove it,? Mr. Hrubos said. ?He was also a telepath who specialised in mind control.? Anywhere from 15 to 20 RPG players were on the Island at present, Mr. Madeiros said. However, he hoped to increase numbers and organise the groups.

?For me the best group size to play in is four to six people. But they have huge groups. There is no limit to the amount of players you can have in one game. It has been known at conventions to have three or four different game-masters and have 20 to 30 people playing,? he said. ?I prefer to sit down with a group of friends. Four to six hours is the average game length but they can be 30 minutes. I have heard of 24- and 48-hour games. The way you determine an outcome is, you make a roll and combine two skills to reach a target number. For example if you have ten strength and five skill then the base is 15. Then you roll the dice and add 15 to see if you make a certain target number.?

A simple D&D scenario involved models of each character moving on a dungeon map. The characters will be attacked by monsters controlled by the games-master and players must defend themselves by rolling dice.

Players attack monsters by rolling a dice, and if they are successful, roll again to determine how much damage is dealt out and depending on the monster, one successful roll maybe enough to slay it. Mr. Hrubos said because actions in the game were role-played out in speech and gestures all the details were up to the player?s imagination and the referee?s descriptions.

?It?s like impromptu acting with a set of hard-written rules to help determine what your character can and can?t do,? he said.

The fictional characters had ratings for physical characteristics, like strength, speed, dexterity and intelligence, Mr. Madeiros said, but basically could have any skill imaginable, including being good gamblers, being streetwise, surgeons, or even thieves. However, Doug conceded there were certain negative stereotypes associated with RGP players. ?Some individuals enter gaming with emotional baggage: low self-esteem, poor social skills, lack of self-respect, etc.,? he said. ?When a person enters that safe space of a gaming group and becomes proficient with the game they will receive adulation and recognition from their peers that can allow them to blossom into better individuals. If the gaming group is the only source of social success, however, then naturally that individual is going to focus more and more of his or her attention to gaming ? often to the detriment of other activities and social niceties.?

But he said simply getting involved in other social activities, like sport, would quickly open up RPG fanatics to reality.

?Would I recommend gaming to someone new?? Mr. Hrubos asked. ?Most certainly! If you are looking for a fun social activity that doesn?t require a huge output of money to participate in and provides a friendly social atmosphere then I definitely recommend it. The best way to try is simply to find a group that is having a weekly game and ask if you can sit in and observe, sometimes the games master will even provide a pre-written character for the player to step in and pick up should he or she feel up to it.?

Doug said it could be daunting to enter the RPG community as it was typically a bit insular in nature due to the small group sizes involved.

?However, like most hobbyists, if you are genuinely interested in learning about gaming they will quickly open up ? possibly deluging you with a stream of nonsense sounding words,? he said. ?Confusion can lead to frustration and abandoning a very rewarding hobby before you begin. The best way to learn is to do, or at least watch.?

@EDITRULE:

Play a D&D demo on www.wizards.com/playdnd/. Anyone interested in playing RPG in Bermuda can log on to www.firstsalvo.com/forum/index.php or contact him at comicnorthrock.bm.