Studying

Back in grade school, high school, and college, I wasn't a fan of studying. In truth I'm one of those lazy people who gets bored easily. Reading is one thing, studying is another thing. The latter involves repetition and reviewing, a chore that gets dull too quickly. (On the other hand, a subject like Math can't be studied because there's nothing to review. I can work on problems and that's it. And Math is designed in such a way that once you know how to solve a certain problem, you know how to solve the rest so there's really no need of say completing a word problem that involves simple addition.)

Early this week I received news that if everything goes as planned, there'll be a one-shot D&D game this weekend. I miss playing D&D and it's been a year since I last played an authentic game. So I'm really looking forward to the game this weekend. It's a high-level game however, 20th-level at the very least, so creating a character will be far from quick.

I'm quite familiar with the game and one of my goals whenever I create a character is to optimize them... within limits of course. An example of a limitation would be that it might fit well into a story, for example, or perhaps a restriction such as no spellcasting or easy to use. Right now, my current plans for the character is that 1) it won't be using Polymorph spells (basically spells that alter a character's form and abilities) because it leads to too much game imbalance and rules clarifications, 2) won't be spending much time buffing, and 3) relatively easy to use.

In order to fully optimize a character, one needs to be familiar with all the options that's available. Unfortunately, D&D releases hardcover books every month (a hardcover is usually twice as large as most hardcover fiction books but thinner... barely 200 pages at most, but they're usually in full-color) and I have quite a huge collection. I found myself last night, doing of all things, studying.

Not that I mind of course. For me it's fun, assembling data as if it were a jigsaw puzzle and suddenly discovering pieces that "fit". What's interesting for me is how we perceive certain subjects. I mean the only other thing I dislike more than studying is doing research. Yet when it comes to subjects like say anime, I don't mind doing the leg work. Simply put, there are certain subjects for me which are interesting, even if they're boring and tedious to the rest of the world.