D&D’s Early Influences on Me

People talk about how gaming influenced their lives, and I’m no different. On top of the usually impacts and benefits, I experienced spelling and grammar quirk when I was younger as a result of D&D. My 3rd grade elementary school teacher was the first to point it out. In my homework, I would “anglify” some words and spellings because many of the early D&D products I was avidly reading were using those versions rather than the American versions.

• Colour
• Ochre
• Sabre
• Armour
• Theatre*
• Saltpetre
• Dreamt
• Sepulchre
• Rumour
• Spectre
• Grey

* As a child, I also thought this spelling meant the place where plays were performed, and theater meant the place for movies.

I somehow avoided the ce/se and z/s spelling shifts. To my teacher’s credit, she never penalized me for these “mistakes” and by middle school, I’d lost most of these (except dreamt, which I still use if I’m not paying attention).