Do not take the title seriously. I have not mastered the art of teaching a camel how to role play let alone throw fudge dice...yet. I thought it would be a catchy title for this blog entry. The subject, which was inspired by a conversation with our Ann Dupuis, is about role-playing in the combat zone.

Role playing permeates our society on all levels and the military is no different. The men and women in uniform do not just deposit their love of games and their hobbies at the door when they put on this uniform.

I, myself, am in the United States Air Force presently deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation: Enduring Freedom and nothing has changed for me. I sit at my little section on the maintenance work bench with my laptop running, with my Fudge dice lying beside my machine and the Fudge rulebook open to the page I was just reading. The only difference being that I've got sand in my rulebook. Life is stressful over here with many people stuck in together in close quarters with each other and games are a way of relaxing.

What is the thing I'm trying to say? Am I just rambling? There is a good chance of that, but what I want to say is games are important here. It keeps our minds off of what is going on outside the wire and the possibility of some random mortar coming in silently and taking us out.

I sit at my little spot with my computer online, papers all around me for the FUDGE game that I'm GMing through the IRC chat listening to the advice of my friend Jonathan Susara on how to run the game while trying to keep up with all the information and questions being put to me. It is great to just concentrate on the game that I'm playing instead of what is going on around me. You do not know how nice it is to look up from my computer thinking, "where am I? oh, that's right. Afghanistan." Role playing is a way that I can escape the stress here temporarily.

This is the first part of a little blog post I am going to try to write. I am a FUDGEr and have not yet been able to convince my friends to play just yet, but there is a Gaming group here in Bagram that I have not yet been able to make contact yet (as of the workload and they are on the other side of the base, a good hour an half trip by bus there and back). They play Dungeons and Dragons and I'm hoping to go and see them and maybe get their stories for all of us here.

So, look forward to that post hopefully forthcoming. Have a great day and keep throwing those fudge dice!