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D&D Against M.D.

Back in 1985, I was pretty excited when this dot-matrix printed letter arrived in the mail addressed to me. I was 15, and I had probably attended three such tournaments by this point. I'm sure I called and registered immediately. The Tin Soldier was the only dedicated hobby and game store in Dayton in the late '70s and mid-1980s; it was in a pretty distant southern suburb from where I lived, and we rarely found a reason to go to that part of town. These tournaments were an exception, though, and my dad would drive me and my best pals down to the Tin Soldier to play in them, where we got to experience players and Dungeon Masters with wholly different styles and approaches, and then usually parted with some allowance money to pick up a cool new 20-sider or a couple of Ral Partha minis selected carefully from the hundreds hanging from the hooks on the shop's walls. The master of ceremonies at these events was a local TV celebrity (remember those?) named Doctor Creep, who hosted Shock Theater on Friday nights on one of the local affiliate TV stations. He always showed up in his trademark makeup and costume driving a black hearse. 

I found this letter the other day in the old suitcase I used as a young teenager to store and haul all of my D&D books, dice, and accouterments. I wish I could call (513) 435-3295 right now on my parent's rotary phone and ask them in my most adult-sounding voice if I could please be registered for the noon game in the upcoming D&D tournament.

And, yes, I have my own dice.


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  1. rredmondJanuary 22, 2018 at 4:21 AM

    What an awesome bit of your history! Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

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