Nate Dickson Thinks...

I was running a D&D session for some friends the other night in which they had to enter a market run by and for the undead. The party's rogue decided to go dress the part, so that she could blend in more easily. In real life this was accomplished by her player searching pinterest for an outfit she wanted.

When she came back I said “okay, so, you're dressed like that, and somehow Sarah McLachlan is playing in the background, even though she's never done a tour in Faerûn.”

The comment got a polite laugh from the party, and I realized, after the session ended, that the song I was referencing was released in 1997.

Roughly two years after our rogue player was born.

So I shared a link with the party so they could familiarize themselves with my old-person music. To me, the song is current enough that I just figured it was part of everyone's background. I'm not a devoted McLachlan fan. I think her music is good but there is a lot of good music in the world. It didn't really occur to me that anyone with whom I'm playing would have missed this particular track on account of being two years old.

So there's a number of things I take away from this story:

1. Sarah McLachlan's Building a Mystery was the perfect song for the moment. The rogue in question is a spoiled heiress who was trying to look all dark and gothic, which is exactly what that song is about.
2. I'm old, etc etc. I'm used to this one already. It's interesting to me that my friends, the ones who I hang out with and play D&D with, are roughly half my age. This particular party is the aforementioned rogue player, her husband, and her sister. Honestly once you get past a certain age those age gaps don't seem to matter any more.
3. Being old isn't really a bad thing. It just means I've got a deeper well to draw from for finding a bon mot. Or bonne chanson in this case. Yes I just looked that up on google translate.
4. It's awesome that the world is such that you can share things like this so easily, and so freely. Now these D&D kids have a new song in their own musical quivers should they ever have the need for it!

#100DaysToOffload 80/100