It astounds me how I've managed to get this far through life without playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The closest I ever came as a kid was Heroquest, a superb little board game produced out of a partnership between MB and Games Workshop. The present situation of my social circle in Los Angeles - namely, that I haven't really got one (it's more of a Very Small Social Line at the moment, possibly a Social Triangle) - means I'm unlikely to get to tackle the game at home. It's also not the sort of thing I reckon I could just jump into at, say, the PAX West Coast Train Trip. I was tempted to ask to join in on this year's train journey but I don't really know enough about the game to avoid wasting people's time. Methinks it may do me some good to listen to the Penny Arcade/PvP D&amp4 podcasts.

In September I picked up Deep7's Red Dwarf: The Roleplaying Game. It's a lot simpler than I imagine D&amp to be. I've read the rulebook backwards and forwards and I reckon I know enough to get a game going, with me in the unfortunate position of AI (the Red Dwarf RPG equivilent of a Dungeon Master). It's just a case now of getting some friends together and rolling with it.

Er, that pun was unintentional. Honest.