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A structured schedule outlines specific gaming times, snacks, and activities, reflecting the culture of early role-playing and comic-store trips.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/","Story & Novel",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-bassoon-king-excerpt-schedule-of-dd-marathon-extravaganza/510443/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-bassoon-king-excerpt-schedule-of-dd-marathon-extravaganza/510443.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Stanley","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-05",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How does the excerpt explain the start of the D&D obsession?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It links the narrator’s passion for fantasy and sci-fi to the arrival of Dungeons & Dragons and describes how group play became a weekend escape.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What activities are included in the marathon schedule on Friday?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Friday’s plan includes gaming, ordering pizzas, using makeshift weapons and shields, and continuing through late-night monster battles and treasure hunts.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What happens during the Sunday portion of the marathon?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Sunday covers finishing the Castle of Garadrel, celebrating with snacks, sneaking brief adult-magazine moments, and completing the next week’s homework while watching Columbo.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},510443,1791375116,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,87,91,95,100,105,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":22,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},2336477405376,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","THE N ERD OF GOD  \nMy obsession with all things fantasy and sci-fi dovetailed into reallife with the advent of the second-greatest game ever invented (nextto chess, of course), Dungeons & Dragons. For the twelve of you whodon’t know, D&D is a role-playing game where you pretend to be awizard or thief or warrior and you endlessly battle fictional monstersin treasure-laden dungeons while eating Cheetos.  \nMy friends and I would leave school on a Friday afternoon to diveinto a weekend-long Dungeons & Dragons marathon extravaganza.Myself, John Valadez, Steve Wilmart, Mike Wentzel, Chris Cole,George Evans, and Shawn and Tim Higgins (our malevolent dungeonmaster, who spookily resembled Art Garfunkel) would live in a differ -ent world from Friday night at four p.m. until around Sunday at six p.m.This world was filled with orcs and morning stars, dexteritypoints, labyrinths, twenty-sided dice, healing potions, action minia -ture figurines, and intricate maps, painstakingly etched onto graphpaper. It was fueled by Fritos and Dr Pepper and the desire to “level -up” our characters until they were invincible. This was the world ofthe imagination. Scrawny, self-hating wimps transformed into fiercebarbarians and dazzling wizards all across the basements of America.I would most often play Ragnar the Radical, my eleventh-levelfighter who was adept with both bow and sword and, because hismoral alignment was “chaotic neutral,” could do whatever he damn  \nTHE BASSOON KING  \nwell pleased. Which was tremendous fun. I would spend my days inclass not paying attention to the teacher but sketching Ragnar overand over again. Ragnar fighting an ogre. Ragnar shooting arrows intothe shield of a Frost Giant. Ragnar looking majestic in his cape on topof a snowy mountain at sunrise, gazing off at the horizon, knowingthat there was more evil to fight with his “Reaping Strike.”™  \n23659  \nARTIST: Rainn Wilson, circa 1980  \n23659  \nTHE BASSOON KING  \nI also played Queekag the monk, who was a martial arts expertbut, because he couldn’t wear any armor, was a sitting duck if we gotattacked by a bunch of goblins with crossbows, let me tell you. I ad -mire Queekag to this day. His resolve, his discipline, his mystery, hisbo staff. More of a man than I’ll ever be. I suppose in some ways,Queekag was the male role model I never had. The man I still to thisday strive to be. Itinerant, wise, self-sufficient, spiritual but an asskicker at the same time. Influenced, obviously, by Kwai Chang Caine,the Shaolin monk from the seventies TV show Kung Fu, so deftlyplayed by David Carradine. And by the Buddha.  \n# Schedule of D&D Marathon Extravaganza\n\nFriday  \n4:00–9:00 p.m.: Play Dungeons & Dragons, usually at Shawn Hig-gins’s house.  \n9:00–9:30 p.m.: Order pizzas and run around outside with broom -stick swords and garbage-can-lid shields until the pizza guy gotthere.  \n9:30 p.m.: ChugDr Pepper from the two-liter bottle and make fun ofShawn’s Adam’s apple (which was like a second head, it was sohuge. It was like the little alien baby in Alien had gotten stuck inhis pale, freckly esophagus and lay there, threatening to burst outof his rubbery neck. Hi, Shawn!).  \n9:45 p.m.–1:45 a.m.: Fight monsters and get treasure.  \n2:00 a.m.: Go spend the night at John Valadez’s house, watch wres -tling, and eat rocky road ice cream.  \nSaturday  \n9:30–10:00 a.m.: Count Chocula.  \n10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.: Play D&D.  \n52  \n23659  \nTHE N ERD OF GOD  \n2:00–3:00 p.m.: Run around in the woods with Chris Cole’s bow andarrow and shoot it at a bunch of old tires.  \n3:00–9:30 p.m.: Strive to finish clearing out the dungeons of Aktar,making sure to find Hosgurd’s key (which we would need to get thetreasure from Klur the Copper Dragon, of course).  \n9:30–10:00 p.m.: Snack on fruit from the giant boxes of free producethe Higginses had stacked in their garage from their divorced, ab -sent father who ran a food distribution company and supposedlysent bananas and apples over by the pallet in lieu of making child","cbCaiqh8r9Bzc7tw","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqh8r9Bzc7tw","pdf",789278,"English","# Schedule of D&D Marathon Extravaganza\n## Friday\n## Saturday\n## Sunday","[{\"question\":\"How does the excerpt explain the start of the D\\u0026D obsession?\",\"answer\":\"It links the narrator’s passion for fantasy and sci-fi to the arrival of Dungeons \\u0026 Dragons and describes how group play became a weekend escape.\"},{\"question\":\"What activities are included in the marathon schedule on Friday?\",\"answer\":\"Friday’s plan includes gaming, ordering pizzas, using makeshift weapons and shields, and continuing through late-night monster battles and treasure hunts.\"},{\"question\":\"What happens during the Sunday portion of the marathon?\",\"answer\":\"Sunday covers finishing the Castle of Garadrel, celebrating with snacks, sneaking brief adult-magazine moments, and completing the next week’s homework while watching Columbo.\"}]","THE BASSOON KING - Excerpt - Schedule of D&D Marathon Extravaganza | PDF",1791241330,11]