Talkin' to the teacher 'bout D & D

I was at JG’s parents evening (well, late afternoon) the other day and the subject of his concentration in class came up. On one section of his report, which I was given to review before the meeting, it read

“Ways in which you can support your child in achieving his targets:

Playing games which promote listening and concentration skills”

Well, I thought, what better game for this than D&D? JG listens and concentrates for three hours on a Sunday afternoon – surely that proves it works. With this in mind, I brought up the subject of the great game, explaining what it was and telling her how it could benefit children, promoting group co-operation, creative thinking, mathematical skills, building confidence, art and craft, etc, etc.

All the time, I could feel the sweat breaking out and the cheeks reddening as I listened to myself and realised just how weird the whole thing must sound to someone who’s not familiar with D&D. Indeed, there was a blog post about it the other day (damned if I can remember where now)

“Oh…right…” was her somewhat less than enthusiastic reply. I could see in her eyes the desperate urge to move on to the next subject as quickly as possible.

If I'd ever wanted to start a school-based D&D group (which I do), this was one teacher who was not going to be waving the banner for me from the touchline.

I can’t be the only one who gets more than a little red-faced when he has to explain D&D to non-gamers. It happened at the library when I had designed a poster to try and attract new gamers. I almost find myself making excuses for just how geeky I think I'm sounding.

Does anyone else find themselves turning red or feeling awkward when the subject of D&D comes up in non-gamer company?

Or is it just me?