December 05, 2005

• Gaze not into the abyss of RPGs, for the abyss gazes back...(probably with some bitchin' modifiers of some sort.)
• So we were playing Car Wars, where you design a car and attempt to destroy all the other competitors in the arena. The cars, naturally, have weapons and armor etc. Two of the players, N. and K., were experienced at Car Wars, Ken was the GM, and D. and I were the new players. D. and I, incidentally, were not particularly friends. My car was primarily designed for ramming, which I thought would be a good and fun strategy. Unfortunately, I didn't have fireproof armor, and K. and N. both had flamethrowers, so I couldn't get near their cars. That reduced my effective targets to 1, at least until they ran out of juice or their weapons were damaged. The early parts of the game were rampant with lucky dice throws, so people were getting overconfident. D. went after K. and attempted some maneuvers which were ill-considered (especially after he was warned of the riskiness by the GM) unless he could pull off some miraculous throws. He failed those throws, and basically had his car mostly destroyed and in a spin to hit the arena wall. It just so happened that I was behind this whole scene, and I was in range to be able to hit his car from the front just when the rear of his car hit the wall. Now, to be fair, his car was out of commission anyways, it's just that I would get to do nothing else that entire game other than this, so I figured I'd live for the moment. As we were working out the details, D. kept getting more and more angry. Thinking, perhaps, that we were picking on him, rather than he having just made a series of bad choices. So he hits the wall, and I tear through his car, and he's basically left with a few tires that go bouncing off into the distance. Then, and this is the point of this story, he freaks. He takes his yellow, transparent 20 sided die, and he throws it at the wall of the room. It rebounded three or four times, while he storms out of the room. SLAM! goes the door to the room. STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP down the hall SLAM of the door to the stairwell STOMP STOMP stomp stomp stomp slam stomp sto... out of the building. Apparently, D. has an anger management issue. Anyways, we were all stunned, and the GM, who didn't know D. as well as the rest of us did, says, "How is he going to face us tomorrow?" We found the die, and it had a chip taken out of it from the impact of the wall. That die is a holy object to this day.
• And so it begins...
• Aeonite had a great story the other week, about playing Unknown Armies. He'll probably friends the LJ entry now, or even delete me from his Flist completely. The things I do for you people!
• My fiance plays D&D with a group of guys who have been playing together for about 20 years. I figure that I don't have to, he's got it covered. Analog? please...
• I, um, still play tabletop RPGs...
• *casts magic missle at the dark*
• *Lightening Bolt! Lightening Bolt! Lightening Bolt!* Yeah, I still play. Come on, I bought a d4 got to use it somehow, right? Other than as a caltrop... }:-)
• Yeah, if you're such a powerful sorcerer, MCT, why are you casting Magic Missile?
• I wanted to play with this group of guys in high school, but they wouldn't let me because I'm a girl. Then they would wonder constantly why none of them had girlfriends.
• I was never cool enough to be invited to play RPGs. Yes, you read that right.
• I was going to tell my story, but it turns out to be Sandspider's. Go figure.
• I don't play "RPGs"! I tell collabrative group stories set in the paradigm of Mythic Europe.
• I actually haven't played an RPG game for quite a long while, but have some fond memories of several different systems and scenarios. I think the most enjoyable system I ever played was Chivalry And Sorcery, which as far as I'm aware was never a very popular RPG system, but probably deserved to be. Of course, it helped that we had a great GM, who was not only a creative storyteller, but knew the system inside and out, encouraged players to look for creative solutions to problems, and generally made it easy to immerse yourself in the game. In retrospect, it was a little bit of a shame that I was dating the woman for whom he had declared undying love. She used to play in the game as well, and I probably should have taken some kind of hint from the fact that her assassin character spent a lot of time trying to whack my Paladin character (who was gradually going insane, which led to some fun situations where I could play him as unpredictably as I liked). I also played a great deal of Cyberpunk, more because that was what most of the people I knew who RPGed were playing, than because it was a system / genre I loved. I have lots of notes about crazed Cyberpunk scenarios I was subjected to littered through my journals. I played a lot of CP games with a GM who was notorious for 'no-one gets out alive' storylines, and often his regular players would just get into a suicidal firefight at the earliest opportunity, which would upset the hell out of the GM because it meant he wasn't going to get the chance to kill us off in the fiendishly creative ways he'd planned.
• I wanted to play with this group of guys in high school, but they wouldn't let me because I'm a girl. Yes, I don't get that either. I think most of the groups I played with would have been desperately happy if a female joined in, and yet I know a number of women who found it hard to get involved in RPGing because of the 'boy's club' mentality they encountered. In fact, the girlfriend I mentioned above was very one of the few women active in Brisbane RPGing circles at the time.
• "Yeah, if you're such a powerful sorcerer, MCT, why are you casting Magic Missile?" Dude! At higher levels with an empower feat MM is still completely useful. ....oooo, dork.
• In this household there are at least five of us who can be counted on to play at the drop of a hint, and there are two other households close by who are just as keen.
• I recently started playing again after a break of 7 years or so. Ars Magica is now the game of choice, and I must say that I'm having more fun playing it than any game I can remember since 9th grade or so. Of course, we're generally less concerned with the level of our characters or how high (or low? I can't remember) the savings throw versus poison is, and instead care more about the creation of the story itself... much more to my liking than the old Thac0 days of DnD.
• Yeah, if you're such a powerful sorcerer, MCT, why are you casting Magic Missile? Because my MM pwns all, beeyotch! Also a reference to this little gem (may have to skip an ad page to get to it).
• I play FTF (indie games like Burning Wheel, Dogs in the Vineyard, and My Life with Master) every other week, an irregular game every couple of months, and maybe another irrgular game with different people next year. I also game by email (rules-light systems like Amber and Everway), which is sort of all the time. It's sort of like being on Monkeyfilter compared to being at the water cooler. Between the two and the gaming conventions I attend, I'm getting the best gaming of my life now. I was also a late bloomer as a gamer because the boys in junior high wouldn't let me game, meredithea. For a long time I was the only girl in our group. I briefly overlapped with a girl who graduated from college after my freshman year, but it was a long time before there was another girl who stuck around for more than a few weeks. It was a running gag that girls were like Highlander: "there can be only one". Now there are a lot of women in my gaming circle (local and extended) and I think I have more fun because of it. /girl nerd and happy about it
• Exactly what I was referring to, MCT. Although I first heard of it through the Summoner Geeks short, it apparently started as an audio-only skit by The Dead Alewives, and had a great intro about how there's this new danger to today's youth from the dangerous and satanic D&D. Great stuff.
• Of course, we're generally less concerned with the level of our characters or how high (or low? I can't remember) the savings throw versus poison is, and instead care more about the creation of the story itself... I always enjoyed games a great deal more when playing with a GM who wasn't a stats-fascist. That's also why I probably never really enjoyed D&D / AD&D, because it always struck me as a system that encouraged 3 hours of working out encumbrances etc and 1 hour of actual creative gameplay. Of course, a lot of that still comes down to the GM, but for some reason in my experience I'd usually encounter the GMs who were going to be a pain about stats in the AD&D games I played.
• There was this one day on the streets of Bosnia when it was just me and my RPG standing off against hordes of angry ... oh wait... not that kind of RPG.
• Yeah, like THAT would do you any good against a Silver Dragon. /scoff
• Well it depends, what is the AC of the dragon and does my RPG have any to-hit bonuses?
• It has a +7 vs. Ogres
• you know, if i had this thread 10-20yrs ago, i could of tracked you all down and beaten you up for your lunch money. invested wisely, that could be a big chunk of change about now...sigh.
• Yes, but now, because of the magic of RPGs, we've learned that all we have to do is be higher level than you and we get to take your phat l3wtz. That nice pension plan of yours will make a great golden parachute for a level 20 corporate executive.
• That's also why I probably never really enjoyed D&D / AD&D, because it always struck me as a system that encouraged 3 hours of working out encumbrances etc and 1 hour of actual creative gameplay. Completely depends on the GM. I've played really fun, fast-moving AD&D (all 3 editions) with a good, well-prepared GM. And I've played stupid, slow-as-molasses nit-picky stat-stuffed games with bad GMs, both AD&D and other systems. The GM is the single most important element of gameplay, not the game system.
• I'm going to vote for Cal of Cthulhu (the classic version, NOT the D20 one) as one of the potentially funnest games ever. No levels or classes; even the most powerful characters are no match for the baddies, so confrontations with evil can and often do end with your mangled corpse lying on top of the corpses of your friends; and assuming you survive that long, you'll most likely go stark raving mad in three or four adventures. The funnest game I played was at a gaming convention, with five complete strangers and a really good GM. The roleplaying was a blast, the GM set up a scenario that was honestly spooky (involved someone seeming to be Jack the Ripper in 1920s Chicago) and the four hour session went by all too quickly. My local gaming group had two women in it,although at the moment it is down to one. Judging by what I've seen at the conventions I go to once a year or so, the proportion of women to men in RPG-world is increasing slowly over the years. About time too.
• i could of tracked you all down and beaten you up for your lunch money. *brandishes +5 Mace of Man-Pretty Destruction*
• Yeah, if you're such a powerful sorcerer, MCT, why are you casting Magic Missile? Actually, the higher the level of your wizard, the more devastating the magic missle spell can be. That's because you get to add missles every level or few levels or something...I forget exactly. So instead of flingign one 1d4 missle at you, a high level sorcerer is casing, say, 20 or 30 of the little buggers. Which can smart, if you don't split them up to different targets. Plus, it's a quick cast. At least, that's the way we always played it.
• My GM never worried about encumbrances. Life was too short, we realized even in jr. high school. We could pretty much carry everything we could find. Not technically accurate, but a hell of a lot more fun.
• Mmm... Car Wars. My older brother and his friend Sam were big into RPGs. He got my younger brother and I to play, and he paid for the books and such so heck, cost us nothing. We did some Car Wars and a short-lived attempt at a space game (Might have been Star Wars related, can't remember exactly) that used a hexagonal grid board. Hard to play 3D on a 2D board though. From what I remember most everyone thought Sam was generally a tool but he had all the D&D books, liked to play DM, and was pretty good at it, so my brother tolerated him (although he did keep fucking with him - he claims [with witnesses] that he once put a live woodchuck in Sam's car, which pretty much ended any upholstery Sam might have had - what with the woodchuck chewing it and Sam shooting the woodchuck, in the car, with a shotgun... like I said, kind of a tool.) I had a couple of characters I liked, and still use the names in computer-based RPGs. I have my AD&D books and dice in some box in my basement. I haven't used them in close to 15 years, but my inner geek won't let me part with them either. Kind of got burned out on it when playing with a friend who was the worst DM ever. As in, by his rules, I once killed a red dragon with a single dagger throw. When that sort of cheap crap starts happening it takes the fun out of it. Kind of like playing Doom in god mode - sure it's fun for a bit, but after ten minutes of watching your enemies explode on contact what's the point?
• On a related note - anyone besides me think that fantasy football, etc. is just RPG with a sports veneer to make it seem less geeky? I tried to tell this to my friend, but he wouldn't buy it (don't think my "I hit you with my +10 quarterback" comment helped my case any).
• clf--that comment would have played better had you used "I hit you with my +10 Linebacker of Butkis". Quarterbacks never lay the hits down. Or, at least, seldom.
• NERRRRRRRRRD!@j
• Dick Butkis?
• So speaking of geeky secret pastimes I like to muck around with other people's source code. Today I mucked with a Metafilter-specific script, and I ended up with this greasemonkey script that adds a nifty litte [quote] link at the end of people's comments. Clicking the link stuffs the preceding comment into the comment box. Like so: petebest: " Dick Butkis? " I'm sure you can see the usefulness of this. I'm sure it might be happier posted elsewhere, but that would be self-linking. I'm sure it would be happier posted somewhere besides my tired old (166mhz!) server, but I know nothing about Greasemonkey and how these scripts get spread around in the first place. Basically I made it for me, because I like how it works on MeFi, and hacked it for banana compatibility. If it breaks your browser, not my fault, and I'm not likely to keep it updated, and it might very well be an annoyance to the original author of the Mefi greasemonkey script, but what the heck. (Only downside is it grabs the entire post, which ain't so good when quoting a long post...)
• Wow, somewhere around AD&D we tried Gamma Wars and whatever that western one was. Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and GM's handbook. We had painted figures, cool dice, the whole thing. And yeah, we started with the Original books by Gygax....Sigh. What a dork. Should have been meeting girls.
• imlass: I'm pretty much a big girl nerd, too. It's more fun that way :) I got through high school (after being booted out by the RPG boys) by writing a collective novel with a couple of friends. We wrote it in a spiral and passed it back and forth between classes like a massive note. When one of us would get stuck, story-wise, the other could always find something fun to write. I thought that this creative effort could be compared, somewhat, to the fun you have in RPG. Hi, clf!!
• Uh, yeah, hi! Have I really been missing in action that long? Doesn't feel like it... Damn students taking up all my time! :)
• Hey, wow, who knew there were this many geeks on the internet? I played a game or two of Car Wars -- loved it, but didn't play enough to get a good strategy. I mostly remember setting up a heavily armed RV, and getting cut to ribbons by a copule of dirt-bikes with less punch but more mobility. The game I liked best was called "Bushido,' set in fudal Japan. Spent a many hours playing that with my step-brother and a couple friends.
• Our game was Traveller. Something really exciting about very technical space battles. That was truly a game that could get bogged down in stats. Ooooh... and psionics! so, how many of the RPGers out there were also Dr.Who/Blakes7 nerds?
• /raises hand, loses girlfriend.
• I used to play Vampire: The Masquerade (although not the modern version, the campaigns were usually set in medieval England). I remember one particular session ended up very much like Aeonite's story linked above -- long time protaganist finally cornered when we were all buffed on Elder's blood, I rolled the beastiest of beasty combat rolls and blicked the him in one hit. DM just about burst into tears. But for me, the best bit was having an excuse to sit around cracking jokes with a bunch of good mates for hours on end, although some of the funny was overly nerdy: Prince of city: "What happened to ?". Player: "Oh. Well, he tripped, fell, and burst into flames sir!". *snicker* Guess you had to be there. Also: Hi planetthoughtful! Wow, another Brisbanite!
• /raises hand to Zanshin, too, but does not lose girlfriend Meredithea, your notebook sounds a lot like some of the email games I'm in now. It's normally one character per player, but there's a lot of collaboration. I know I'm supposed to tell a war story, but I know that war stories really don't interest people who weren't there very much. (I find them fascinating, but I'm weird.) The best thing that happened to me at the gaming table, though, was meeting my husband. After I split from my ex, I was looking for a new group and a college friend asked me to join his table. There was this guy there, and soon enough I was painting a miniature for his character and we all know where that leads. :)
• My game, at least the game I put the most effort in, is definitely Live Action Role-Playing Vampire. I'm the Storyteller (Game Master) of my own Vampire LARP in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz By Night. I also play in a game myself, up in San Francisco. I'll tell you about a character I used to play. My game in San Francisco is part of a network called One World By Night. The character was a Nosferatu, a clan of disfigured spies and secret gathers. I gained access to the archives of the mailing list for the Nosferatu, and found a great deal of information about the Tremere, which are the magic using clan, and about their magic. There are about 6 years of postings in the mailing group, and I went through them, gathering all the information on the Tremere I could find, cross referencing etc. I ended up with a 15 page document, with references, that had uncovered a great deal of secrets of the Tremere. I knew about things most Tremere players didn't know. I ended up getting some experience points for it, and it helped shape my character into becoming one of the more prolific Nosferatu Loremasters (basically hoarders of arcane secrets) of the organization. People who I had never met knew about me when I visited games on the east coast. I had people in Brazil ask for my advice, as well as advising local princes on how to fix their domain's problems. And before the character got caught by the Tremere, I managed to pass off the info to my clan, as well as the rest of my information.
• All I know is I've never seen a grown man actually ROFL until one of our games. He was our GM who, on another occasion, forgetting that I'm a historical archaeologist who knows way too much about old handwriting, tried to make an antique map. He showed it to me and I read outloud it as I knew how: The Southern Plainf. (A long s is not a final form, but he didn't know that.) The plainf keep coming up. He also made a red herring which one of our players RAN with, knowing in his heart of hearts he was an actual clue. Also, Call of Cthulhu. One player played a Shaggy-like coward. Any time he entered a new room, in order to prevent SAN loss, his first action was 'I cover my eyes!' The GM finally got sick of that and put a pit in the room.
• As a kid I played Gamma World, Top Secret, Marvel Super Heroes and of course D&D. We used to cheat at them all. Even the level one guys would be juggernauts with perfect rolls and weapons we found in the Deities and Demigods book.
• Some memories from the Chivalry and Sorcery campaign I was involved in: One of the most devastating spells in the game turned out to be the fairly innocuous sounding "withdraw moisture" spell. From a suggestion in an RPG magazine we worked out that the spell was entirely directional - so it wasn't a matter of only being able to point at someone's tankard of beer and lower it by a couple of inches, you could float a field a millimetre thick at waist height over an area defined by your proficiency at magic. The net effect was like weilding a huge, invisible blade against any attackers, because they'd end up neatly cut in half as the moisture in their bodies at that height suddenly disappeared, and the affected flesh crumbled to dust. Egad, entirely diabolical! At one point in the campaign we found ourselves fighting on the loyalist side of a Dwarven civil war, where the "Deep Dwarves" (ie those that inhabited the lowest part of the mine network) had rebelled. The mine system was located beneath a plateau on which a very large lake was situated, so our solution was to block off all of the lower exits and flood the deeper levels with water from the lake. I mean, these are Dwarves, so that kind of engineering is sort of a given. We were widely celebrated by the loyalist Dwarves until the mines were attacked by a group of dragons and the Dwarves decided to kick us out because it turned out the dragons were after us, and not the Dwarves. A lesson in the politics of convenience, that one.
• Also: Hi planetthoughtful! Wow, another Brisbanite! Sweet Jebus on a buttered raisin bagel! A Brisbane MoFi meetup suddenly looks entirely possible!
• Games I played regularly at some point between ages 12-18: D&D, Marvel Super Heroes, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (powered by the Palladium system, and surprisingly good). Games I played as an adult: Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage: The Ascension, In Nomine and yet more Call of Cthulhu. I haven't done much gaming since 2000 or so, but it was a huge part of my life for years. I'll agree with deadcowdan about the sheer awesomeness of Call of Cthulhu (particularly the Delta Green variant, which is the single best set of RPG supplements I've seen in 20 years of geekery).
• and soon enough I was painting a miniature for his character and we all know where that leads. For some reason when I read this sentence the following scene played against the backdrop of my brain: Her: "So, babe, would you like to head back home so I can 'paint a miniature for your character'?" Him: "Awww, not just yet, hon." Holds up miniature. "You already did such a good job on Slorn The Majestic." Her: "Um. No... I was wondering if you'd like to, you know, go home so we can paint your, er, miniature." Him: "But, babe, it's my turn." To the others at the table. "She's always going on about wanting to paint miniatures. Sometimes I think that's the only reason she plays the game, aha ahahaha." Others at table: Squinting at him with hormone-driven disbelief. Him: "So, do I have the initiative? Anyone? Slorn is so gonna kick this guy's ass."
• I never had the chance to play Call of Cthulhu. Hmmm. I wonder if anyone's got a game going in Brisbane that would welcome a new player? Hmmmm.
• This link (openrpg.com) might be of interest to others in this thread who want to get involved in 'analogue RPG' (sorry cabingirl, just the way I think of it) via digital medium. I'm going to spend a little time looking for a beginner Call of Cthulhu game I can join, just to get a taste of it.
• My first boyfriend introduced me to his gaming group, and I was hooked. Our first session lasted 13 hours, and my dad was fuming mad because I've never gone home so late before (10pm). I was 19 years old. We were predominantly AD&D 2nd ed players, although we did branch out into Ars Magica (it didn't last long - we drove the DM nuts with our individual mental quirks - my character only talked to her cat, and another character was a kleptomaniac), Star Trek, Battletech, Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Quest. I was usually the "tank" of the team. It was generally acknowledged that nobody else did bloodlust as well as I did. We also tried gaming with other groups, but almost everyone else were more interested in being points hounds (or munchkins) than actual role-playing. One memorable conversation ended when a chap said, "It's hard to fight gods, because they always win initiative." We really didn't know what to say after that. I've tried PbEm (Play by E-mail) and also playing via chat programs, but it just didn't have that very visceral feel to it. And things got kinda awkward after I broke up with my boyfriend. Which was a pity because that group rocked. Anyway, my last great RPG memory was Valentine's Day, about four years ago. The relationship was very, very short-lived, but he was a sweet guy and he liked spending money. I got the 3rd ed. AD&D Dungeonmaster's Guide, Player's Handbook and Monster's Manual from him as a Valentine's Day gift. I never had such a happy February 14th.
• Anyway, my last great RPG memory was Valentine's Day, about four years ago. Can I trade my memories of valentine's day 2002 with yours? Please?
• I would, planetthoughtful, as long I get to keep the books. Even though I never had the opportunity to use them. *sigh*
• Hey, plush dice! Just saw this on BoingBoing. I love dice, especially d12s and d20s.
• I remember seeing a set of solid silver with ruby insets RPG dice once. I'd have given someone else's eyeteeth for them, really I would've.
• *rolls eyes at the lot of you, smokes petulantly* ok, i'll admit, i did bust out laughing when i saw a guy wearing a tshirt that simply said (in white letters on black) '+1 Shirt' you gotta admit, that's funny
• The entire list of my geekery would take forever. I'm not the geekiest girl I've ever met, but I'm at least in the top five. To narrow it down to the systems I played the most, I'd have to list D&D, AD&D, Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2020, Vampire: The Masquerade, Changeling: The Dreaming, Gamma World, Teenagers from Outer Space, Toon, Doctor Who, Shadowrun, GURPS, Chill, The Fantasy Trip, and a large number of home-brewed games. The most frustrating part was the GMs. One in particular was willing to run a game, anytime. We soon learned not to take him up on it. Every game, regardless of system, characters, or beginning plot line, eventually saw all characters transported into the Rocky Horror Picture Show and assuming the roles of the characters in the movie. And I always wound up being Magenta, even when I was playing a cartoon lop-eared rabbit in Toon. There's a story from a game that I have yet to live down. It was a merry collision of a Cyberpunk game around the time it first appeared, and my Spoonerism affliction. I was reporting to my team the existence of a Solo (hired bodyguards and assassins in Cyberpunk, for those of you who haven't played) in position as a sniper. It started off that I tried to say sniper and Solo at the same time, and stuttered over it for a while. I finally gave up, and the entire sentence came out, "There's a Snolo on the rooptoff with a snifer riple!" Close to 20 years later, and even people who weren't at that game still sometimes ask me about hanging out on rooptoffs, and what caliber that snifer riple was. I haven't played much in several years. The folks I used to game with all decided that they preferred to LARP, and I don't LARP. Where it helps their suspension of disbelief, it impedes mine. And all that running around the streets in Mountain View in the middle of the night made my arthritis very, very unhappy. And every once in a while, I still miss gaming. I keep thinking I'll grow up someday, but not yet apparently.
• Close to 20 years later, and even people who weren't at that game still sometimes ask me about hanging out on rooptoffs, and what caliber that snifer riple was. Awwww, thank you for sharing this Christophine! Honestly, I think one of the wonderful things about the people I used to RPG with is that most of them understood that from some perspective it was a slightly absurd thing to do, but that didn't diminish the fun and thrills of it. Of course, the ones who weren't able to sense some of the wonderful absurdity usually became the GMs I least enjoyed playing with. I haven't played much in several years. The folks I used to game with all decided that they preferred to LARP, and I don't LARP. I don't think the live action stuff was very popular in Brisbane when I last regularly played, and I wouldn't be able to tell you if it is now. I know we have a number of 'medieval societies', which I guess is LARP removed of the fantasy / scifi element. I've wandered along to a couple of these, but I've always been struck by the excessive snobbery and cliquishness of these groups, so I've never bothered following up on any of them.
• Hee hee, planetthoughtful! Actually he had to drag me away from the table, not the other way around. I had a huge collection of miniatures and painted regularly and I'd offered to paint for people in the new group (it was something I'd done in the old group and I missed it). While we were on the phone talking about the miniature and what colors he wanted it to be, he casually asked if I had plans for Halloween, which was in a couple of weeks. I allowed as how I didn't, and he asked me if I wanted to go see a band we both knew at a local club. So we set it up and finished talking about the miniature and hung up. It took me a couple of minutes to realize he'd asked me out on a date and I'd accepted. I guess that's my war story.
• So, in other words, love conquers all...or at least has a +5 chance on a D20. Or something like that. Silliness aside, that's a nice war story.
• Shhh! Don't you guys realize they're trying to get all of us geeks in one room so they can throw a net? *slips back out using cloak of +4 invisibility*
• Oh, my best memory was getting called away from a game we were playing at the picnic table on a lovely summer day, being away longer than I'd intended, and coming back to find that all the miniatures on the table were wearing grass skirts, weed-stem sashes, tiny daffodil parasols and grass neckties. I guess it was a protest of my prolonged absence. It was hilarious.
• *slips back out*
• Okay, here's mine. It was junior high school, 1984-85ish. Our art teacher let us use the art classroom (which was a trailer attached to the school proper by a sidewalk) to play AD&D during lunch, since it was creative, you know. So one day somehow an outsider, a mid-to-high popularity kid whose last name I think was Slade, weasels an invite to the game, claiming curiosity. For whatever reason the DM (my best friend) admits him, we explain the game in a nutshell, and he sits in on one session, claiming loudly several times to be creeped out by all the spellcasting and sorcery. (Geraldo's Satanism exposes and their ilk were all the rage.) He doesn't come back. So anyway, a few days later we're setting up to play and the principal walks in. He says Slade has been telling his friends and parents that we're doing black magic at lunchtime in the art room, and that he witnessed us "moving the dice with our minds" and talking evil. Since we're all introverted to the point of invisibility and know how people demonize D&D, we nearly shit, thinking best case there will be a suspension, worst case a torch-bearing mob. Luckily the principal was a rational sort and said he had promised the parents who'd called him that he would sit in on a game or two and see what was what. So that's what he did. Of course we were nervous as hell (authority figures! casting critical eyes! AAAAAGH!), but somehow managed to continue the campaign with the interested observer there. He asked a few questions about the game, about the dice, whether we could in fact move them with our minds (this last obviously tongue in cheek, even to geeks like us), and in the end got bored and assured us he knew we were just playing a game, and we didn't have to worry about interference anymore. Of course some of Slade's friends started taunting us with questions about devil worship, but backed by the principal's approval we started playing it up, pretending to cast curses and smiling cryptically at their threats. I dont' think we scared them, but eventually they got bored and left us alone. Exciting, huh? Then there was that time I hit level 12 and the head of the coven told me it was time to learn the real spells...
• Moved the dice with your mind, huh? Get me a beer.
• TenaciousPettle, that is a frickin' awesome story! Thanks and props to your old principal for being so level headed.
• I never really ran into the "D&D equals Satanism" issue when I was playing. The one time I encountered it while trapped in the midst of a not-too-difficult-to-bear bout of mild hysteria of a group of born again christians, I deflected it with a comment that went something like, "Huh, personally I think heavy metal music is much more dangerous to the souls of impressionable young people. After all, they're listening to all those subliminal Satanic messages without even knowing it." That caused a great deal of earnest excitement and lead to me feeling a mild pang of guilt because no-one had picked up that I was being sarcastic.
• planetthoughful: I do know that LARPing was reasonably popular in Brisbane up until a few years ago. Friend of a friend ended up marrying a mad-keen (hell, just plain insane actually) LARPer - they used to play at the Old Museum building, apparently, which is probably the only vaguely 'gothic' building in the whole town. Couldn't agree with Christophine more wrt the suspension of disbelief - frankly, the idea of scissors-paper-rock combat did absolutely nothing for me. Actually, come to think of it I guess I'm not much of a role-player, rather simply enjoy 'playing the game'. That, and the humour value in watching people trying to find the most amusing ways to bend the rules.
• Did anyone else play "Star Frontiers?" It was a sci-fi spinoff of D+D, also made by TSR, but they gave it very little support in terms of publishing adventures and whatnot. I was a Vrusk (insect alien with 6 or 8 legs)
• I was pulled aside by my sixth grade teacher after one of another of those "D&D player goes nuts and kills family" news reports and counselled to "be more social".
• Oh, geez, I was one of those kids with the D&D-fearing hardcore Xian parents (though, given that my mom was such a hardcore evangelical, it's surprising what I was actually allowed to do: more than some kids in that situation). In high school, most of my friends were gamers, and would have all-weekend sessions, and I wasn't allowed to play until I turned 18. Additionally, we lived in a really dull town, so a lot of the college age alternakids who weren't into drugs would LARP on weekends... it wasn't considered painfully dorky, just mildly so. Mostly it was considered something to do. I started in a Vampire LARP, which was mostly fun until real-life social drama got involved. After some of us left that group, either to get away from our exes or because we were bored, we formed a tabletop group for about a year or so. My favorite of the games we played was AD&D, because my friend was an excellent GM... his campaigns were interesting and well-researched, but slow-moving. We also tried Kult for a few sessions, and had a few brief flirtations with others (Cyberpunk, Shadowrun). Somewhere around the house I also have books for Stormbringer and Changeling, as well as most of the games I've mentioned, but I don't really play anymore. I might if I could find a good group. What I mostly do now is sporadic contact with computer-based RPGs (I liked Morrowind a lot) and very occasional boardgaming, when I can talk people into it, usually LOTR-themed Risk, or Dread Pirate. Looking into Carcassonne or Settlers of Catan for the future; have always loved Talisman but can't afford a copy. (Talisman is kind of like a cross between the original D&D board game and actual D&D with a GM, in that there are stats involved and the game itself sort of fills the GM role.) Funny thing is, my fiance kind of looks down on gaming... but he and his friends are major, major comic book geeks, all of whom get together every few weeks to talk about comics, all of whom know significant and disturbing details about very minor superheros, at least one of whom works for Marvel or DC, and I'm like, "You guys read about men in capes and tights. DISQUALIFIED." So comic book guys think they're less geeky than tabletop RPG players, and D&D/etc players think they're less geeky than gamers who play games that involve miniatures. One could add this to one of those geek hierarchies. At any rate, my best friend and several of fiance's other friends like board games, so it's not like I feel adrift.
• So, we're not talking about Rocket Propelled Grenades then? *sigh* I got nuthin'.
• Shhh! Don't you guys realize they're trying to get all of us geeks in one room so they can throw a net? Huh. They're dealing with Geeks, the only known subculture where you could guarantee that at least 50% of the members will at any one time be carrying a leatherman, multi-purpose pocketknife or, indeed, a fully functioning lightsabre. Let them throw all the nets they like!
• One could add this to one of those geek hierarchies. Such as this one.
• planetthoughtful wrote: "Huh. They're dealing with Geeks, the only known subculture where you could guarantee that at least 50% of the members will at any one time be carrying a leatherman, multi-purpose pocketknife or, indeed, a fully functioning lightsabre. Let them throw all the nets they like!" Well hell, that hit home. OK, show of hands. What'cha got on ya right now, geek-tool wise? I'm sporting a SwissBit swiss army knife with built-in USB key.
• Compass and an AC/DC bottle opener?
• Swiss Army Knife Cybertool, my constant companion.
• Uh, a buncha business cards and valid tickets for the New York subway and the Paris Metro, just in case I have to go there before I have a chance to go home first.
• Another memory I have of playing Chivalry and Sorcery was that our GM would often scribble a note and had it to one of the players. Sometimes the notes contained meaningful information about what your character had observed, sometimes they'd just say something like, "Laugh, as though I've just told you something important." I never encountered this with other GMs, so I don't know if it was a common practice elsewhere, but it very much added to the general intrigue of the game.
• Dreadnought carries a mini maglight at all times. You can really hurt someone if you hit them on the head with one of those things.
• Dreadnought carries a mini maglight at all times. You can really hurt someone if you hit them on the head with one of those things. And, bonus, you can use them to see things in the dark!
• OK, show of hands. What'cha got on ya right now, geek-tool wise? Oil flasks and iron rations. And a ten-foot pole (in my pants).
• I got two tickets...to the gun show
• I used to carry a bag of mixed dice everywhere I went, but since most of my geeky stuff is at my family's former apartment (which we still own but no longer live in), I don't have any right now. *hides face in shame*
• There, there, Aln, shame is a useful emotion. It helps you build your character. (aha ahahahahaha! ... Egad, I'm channeling petebest from the NASA thread...) Here's a maybe crazy idea. Is there any interest among the RPGing Monkeys to set up an online game? Maybe a PBeM / IRC sort of thing?
• I have had three (3) RPG phases in my life (well, four if you count MMORPGs, which I just started playing over a year ago). First, my older brother let me play AD&D with him and his buddies when I was in jr. high. My brother collected and painted the tiny lead figurines, and had all the books. Even as the dreaded tag-along little sister, I think I pulled my own weight pretty well. I also had a crush on one of my brother's friends. Second phase was in college (still AD&D), playing with other art sudents and theater students. That was a riot, plus we had a highly skilled and creative DM who made up his own campaigns. He wouldn't let us smoke in the apartment though, so that sucked. Third phase was when I lived in Maine, playing with a coworker and his friends in an old single-screen, second run movie theater after hours (one of his friends was the projectionist; he later treated a bunch of us to a private screening of Reservoir Dogs) AD&D again (I'm a sucker for the classics), and for the first time I had my own shiny set of dice! The translucent kind, in a suede bag. Classy! We smoked a lot of weed and drank a lot of Guinness. Good times, good times. I don't carry anything geeky at the moment, unless you count a Terry Pratchett novel as geeky. My Swiss Army knife is just the basic penknife, no USB ports or +2 vorpal screwdrivers or anything.
• Everyone in my AD&D group had the suede dice bags with the translucent dice--and not just one set of dice in the bag, either, sometimes three or four, which made the bags heavy. What's more, we would tie them to our belt loops on the right or left side (below the obliques, for you anatomists) and wear them all day--not just at game time. Surprisingly, the only problem this caused was not attacks by jocks for our singular geekiness, but attacks from other game group members. Okay, one attack, really--one day I snuck up behind our DM and whacked his dicebag (ooer, missus) to get his attention and hopefully startle him. The force of the hit caused the bag to go out to the end of its strings, loop round like a tetherball, and planted the weighty suede-encased plastic bits with force directly into his crotch. Even he had to laugh--weeks later, when he found it was funny--but it did lead to careful recalibration of the length of slack allowed in our bagstrings and preemptive calculation of the sack-to-scrotum trajectory. Good days.
• or, indeed, a fully functioning lightsabre Can't stop laughing at that! It's only funny 'cause it's true...