I love you @aggroed and this post makes me really happy. Happiest of Father's Day to you, the lady and the munchkins.

One of the fondest dad game memories was right after my 11th birthday and his 50th (2 weeks later). I had received Hero Quest for my birthday (which I still have and treasure) and he had just opened his gifts after breakfast.

We gave him a copy of The Lost Vikings for his Gateway 386. As we sat there that Sunday morning in the living room I was assembling all the small furniture for Hero Quest while he was installing the Lost Vikings, both of us chomping at the bit to grab the keyboard.

We talked about each of the hero types and rules of Hero Quest, and after mentioning something about how much it sucked that the wizard couldn't wear armor or use many weapons, he pointed out that the wizard also had really crazy powers no one else did. If the someone played a wizard with a group of people protecting it, that person would make or break the game. After that he told me Hero Quest looked a lot like a cross between a board game and Dungeons & Dragons. I had heard of D&D the year before, but back then the only kid I knew who liked it was a jerk and a bully so I had no interest in learning. When I asked my dad what it was he said it was really popular in the 70's, and was like making up a story as a group of people playing as heroes... Perhaps one day I might want to check it out when I got older, along with his constant suggestions of reading The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

The Lost Vikings installed successfully, and we spent the next several hours into the mid afternoon at the keyboard, trying to solve all the puzzles of each level, using the unique skills of Erik the Swift, Baelog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout.

I didn't start playing D&D until 10 years later (a year after he died) after my sophomore year of college ended, and v3.5 had just arrived on the bookshelves. v3.5 got me hooked. To this day I always respect my casters, prefer playing them in games, and will always heal, aide or defend them as best as I can.

It's quite likely were he still on the mortal plane as a man in his 70's that we would be rolling dice, sipping beer, telling tale tales with terrible jokes, and frequently laughing together at the table. He'd probably enjoy the casting, absent mindedness, silliness, and powers of wizards, marvel at the earthiness, nature, and survival magic of druids and rangers, and laugh at the poetic charm, utility, and lewdness of quick witted bards.