My Dungeons and Dragons Life

POSTED BY: OPPYH
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 18:29
VIEWED: 13088
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SIGMANUNKI

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 6:03 PM

I started playing in my early teens and played consistently for years. Unlike some that started playing in Univeristy, that is when I started to slow down and stop. I'd still like to play and/or DM, but the people I used to play with are now too busy to be able to.

But you asked from some stories as well, so here's one in short form. I don't know if it would be considered a 'good' story, but it's one none-the-less.

One campain (2nd ed), my buddy was DM'ing and his girlfriend was playing. He wanted to play with skills and since I was a fighter I didn't pick literacy... and he enforced that. Fortunately, his girlfreind was playing a wizard; her character started to teach mine.

After a few weeks (real life time) of playing I thought that since they were getting along so well that maybe they would be good to get married. So, while my buddy was in the bathroom I presented the idea to his girlfreind, she agreed.

After the game resumed, my character bought a ring, got the wizard, went to the library (where our chars spent all there time; my buddy was getting curious at this point) and proposed.

My buddy got all wide eyed and said "NO! She says NO!"

Our chars did get married, but he payed the ultimate price. Later, while in a dungon, a ceiling fell on him size 10'x10', puddle'O'characater.

Other than D&D, I've played BubbleGum Crisis, Cyberpunk and Shadowrun.

----
"Canada being mad at you is like Mr. Rogers throwing a brick through your window." -Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 6:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by OPPYH:
Excellent. your stories are great. Thank you Gary Gygax. I can't wait to start playing again. I always wanted to get into Ravenloft, always seemed a bit too creepy when I was younger, but now I'm ready explore some castles of the undead.

I liked Ravenloft (although I never actually got to _play_ any of it, I enjoyed the boxed sets), but my favorite D&D setting was Planescape. That one really got my Sensawunda.

Besides D&D, also did a lot of Marvel Superheroes (which is kinda still with me - I currently run a diceless, statless MUSH online combining Marvel Comics and Lovecraft themes), and some Cyberpunk, a tiny bit of Vampire, GURPs, RIFTS, Paranoia, Teenagers from Outer Space, and a bunch of of assorted 'let's play this for a week' games.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
This week: My spoiler-free Serenity review

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 6:27 PM

Oh, and my favorite death story.

I had a character, Darius Sonnovale ('Son of Ale') - a half-elven thief/acrobat. He was one of my more well-rounded tabletop characters, I fleshed out his history, developed him some particular quirks (he had a big superstition about stealing from tombs, and outright refused once when the opportunity presented itself).
So, as it turns out, he died on his second adventure (ironically, the character I created on the spot to replace him and join the rest of the party, didn't flesh out at all before hand, never wound up dying at all, but that's another story).

It happened something like this:
Our party was paid to gather spell components for a wizard. We got some of them, but there was one type that was in a swamp, one full of bullywugs. So after a few negative encounters with them, we were getting kind of suspicious - we had a line of twine set up with bells to alert us to danger when we slept, etc, and we saw some of those mushrooms in an empty clearing, and we knew it was some kind of trap, because we'd come to understand the mushrooms were sacred to them. So, we came up with a plan... my character would wrap the twine-with-bells around himself, and go running through the clearing, and the rest of the party would run in and attack the people who showed up to ambush us. Okay, we did, bullywugs jumped out, battle was joined... the party lost. Except me. The decoy. Somehow, I, alone, escaped. But I knew I couldn't leave my party there, so I snuck around following the Bullywugs to their camp, where they had the party, all naked and weaponless, as well as a few other humans in a cage as live meat. So my character decides he'll cause a distraction by throwing his waterskin on their fire, and then opening the cage. It worked, everyone got free... except we were all recaptured, myself included... but some of the NPCs got away. The DM was feeling generous, and decided that NPCs would return to try and rescue us in a number of days determined by a die roll, then said that they'd eat the NPCs first, once a day, but there was still one day left between rescue and the last NPC dying, so one of us had to buy it. Random die roll time, and me, the one who risked my neck to save them all when I could have run, gets roasted on a spit. The next day they're released by an NPC and manage to get out of the swamp naked. So yeah, an ignoble end, but fun anyway (I later revived the character for another game, with a modified version of the same story, except with a new ending - that they got a druid to reincarnate him... sadly in the body of a talking, intelligent raccoon. That was for an online statless Planescape game, and he was fun to play)

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
This week: My spoiler-free Serenity review

VLADT

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 7:28 PM

I've been playing since the late 70's. (79-80, I was 23 when I started.) I've been playing ever since. We have a core group of five people and a couple of others who come and go. There are three of us who DM. One does Forgotten Realms, one does Shadowrun, the other does Ravenloft. We use the same charactors in all three. We try to play every other week.

Vlad

VETERAN

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 7:33 PM

I first started playing in junior high, back in the '70's. After my first few characters I managed to keep one alive for years, we had a whole epic adventure based on my friend's variation of the Celtic Mythos. I still have his character sheet along with all the NPCs I picked up along the way. Recently we created versions of them all in a NWN world another friend set up. It worked out pretty well.

I was talking with the guy who DM'd the old game the other day. He's trying to talk me into playing the old way again. After reading your post I'm inclined to get back to it. After all I have to hold back the Forbold Warlords long enough for the true king to be chosen by the Lea Fael.

OPPYH

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 8:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Veteran:
I was talking with the guy who DM'd the old game the other day. He's trying to talk me into playing the old way again. After reading your post I'm inclined to get back to it. After all I have to hold back the Forbold Warlords long enough for the true king to be chosen by the Lea Fael.

Although the 2nd edition of D&D was a great time, I bought all the original books(monster manuals 1, 2,Deities and Demigods, players handbook, DM guide,etc.) I'm really going to play old style. I recently looked through The 3rd edition Monster manual at Barnes and Noble, the illustrations were fantastic, and I liked some of the new monsters, (crystaline Troll anyone?) but as far as the rules and everything go, I didn't know what was going on. Don't think I'll ever invest in 3rd edition D&D.

VETERAN

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:01 PM

Well we played a little loose with the rules. For instance, we found combat took too long and seemed unrealistic so we started to use Arms Law from Iron Crown Enterprises for melee. It added a more fun to the game too, especially the fumbles table

OPPYH

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by VladT:
I've been playing since the late 70's. (79-80, I was 23 when I started.) I've been playing ever since. We have a core group of five people and a couple of others who come and go. There are three of us who DM. One does Forgotten Realms, one does Shadowrun, the other does Ravenloft. We use the same charactors in all three. We try to play every other week.

Vlad

Is a good Ravenloft Campaign better than a good Forgotten Realms campaign? It just seems Ravenloft would be a more eerie atmosphere, and would add volumes to the role-playing experience.

OPPYH

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Veteran:
Well we played a little loose with the rules. For instance, we found combat took too long and seemed unrealistic so we started to use Arms Law from Iron Crown Enterprises for melee. It added a more fun to the game too, especially the fumbles table

Oh yeah, definately. For my group it was always give, and take from all different D&D editions. The easiest way is the best way. My friend had every single Handbook from the 2nd edition,(Fighters, Thieves, dwarves, etc.) sad thing is, we only used a handful of them, leaving about 20 or so to sit on the shelf undisturbed. Man, he spent a lot of money on those things.

TRESCHONDE

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:42 PM

I'm still very much a role player. Back in the day when I was younger I played alittle D&D, but mostly played Vampire:TM. Nowadays, I play a rpg called Deadlands. There's a specific reason I bring up Deadlands.. not only is it the best tabletop rpg I've ever played, and exceptionally fun.. but it's a Western. And one of the expansions turns it into a Space Western. I've heard of people that have created Firefly mod systems for Deadlands, although I've never tried any myself. But for anyone who thinks they would enjoy fighting the undead with a six-shooter and a deck of cards, go grab a book for Deadlands. You'll love it.

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