Need something to do this weekend with a small group of friends? Don’t have a lot of money? Why not take your group on an adventure? You don’t need to worry about gas money; there is no driving involved.

The adventure you’re going on takes place in your mind. Wait! Come back.

Okay, what I’m offering you isn’t the flashiest. In fact it’s stereotypically one of the least sexy things you can do.

But ignore the mainstream opinion. You’re too smart for that, I can tell. Instead make up your own mind, try this out.

The games I’m talking about consist of dice, pen and paper. You’ve probably heard of “Dungeons & Dragons,” this is a lot like that. I’m talking about tabletop roleplaying games, and while these games have a bad reputation in more ways then one, they can be a lot of fun.

Tabletop RPGs are sort of like a combination of books and video games, except they give a lot more narrative control to the people playing them. The games often consist of four to six players and a central referee or game master or GM.

The GM’s job is to create challenges for the players to overcome and generate story elements for the game to follow. If it was a TV show the players would be the main characters who drive the plot. The GM would be the plot.

This actually makes them better than video games. What you give up in flashy graphics, you get back in freedom. The GMs are free to write a story they want to share with their friends, and the players aren’t limited to a set of pre-determined options thought up by a designer. They can attempt pretty much anything they can imagine.

Through gaming I’ve fought goblins with spells and steel, flown with a whole league of superheroes, robbed a high tech lab of its prized experiments, survived a post-apocalyptic wasteland and created entire worlds for my friends and I to adventure in.

You might have made fun of these games, but have you ever given them a try? There’s a lot of bad press with RPGs for some key reasons that I’ll try and clear up.

They are not the sole domain of social inept nerds (though there’s nothing wrong with that). It can actually be a great way to meet some really cool people, and it’s definitely more face-to-face communication than playing a video game. Some of your favorite celebrities like Robin Williams, Matt Damon and Vin Diesel have all played RPGs.

It’s also not just a male activity. Throughout my five years of tabletop gaming, my group has had at least one female member half the time. I got my girlfriend, who initially scoffed at these games, to play and she is now a complete addict.

They won’t make you start worshipping the devil. As long as you have a firm grip on reality versus fiction, you don’t need to worry about gaining homicidal tendencies or becoming a satanic wizard of some kind. These are games are imaginary, that’s why they’re fun.

If you already play D&D (or any RPG) I probably don’t need to tell you any of this stuff. But if you don’t, I sincerely hope you give it a try. They’re not for everybody and they require communication and cooperation from everyone involved but you can find a good time.

To get started, here are a few tips:

There are a lot of free games out there. They’re not all great, but a simple Google search can pull them up. Though most games aren’t cheap even if you do pay for them considering the amount entertainment that numerous people can enjoy from a single purchase.

You’ll need a variety of different dice. You can again find free random number generators online but a physical set is your best bet if you’re serious.

Be patient and open-minded. This might be an initially weird experience for you and it might make you shy or nervous, but just relax, it’s for fun.

Seth Schroeder is a junior journalism major.

He can be reached at 581-2812 or scschroeder2@eiu.edu.