several different ways. I'll try to keep it brief, though each of these could be a whole essay unto itself 1. a presentation of many archetypal themes, charact

several different ways. I'll try to keep it brief, though each of these could be a whole essay unto itself 1. a presentation of many archetypal themes, characters, monsters, gods, and demons pulling from a wide variety of sources and mythologies that I had not previously been exposed to. this was horizon expanding. encouragement to go out and actually learn about the source cultures that the D&D material was inspired by. 2. a fascinating system for dealing with moral and ethical judgments. the "alignment system" with its two orthogonal axes of Good<->Evil and Law<-->Chaos, and the interesting distinction between various kinds of neutrality (apathetic/passive vs. actively balanced, for example). 3. introducing me to the premise that play and socialization are primarily _creative_ and _imaginative_ activities. being raised on a diet of television and video games made this part particularly important as a counter-balance to all the passive entertainment that was being done to me.