Your Best RPG Memories

[IggytheBorg]

I figure there have to be some pen and paper RPG enthusiasts 'round these parts, and I didn't see a separate board fro them, so I guess I'll post this here.

I was (and truth be told, still am when I can get the boys together) a huge fan of RPG's. I played many, but 1st Edition AD&D was the king of them all, of course.

I had a campaign I strted in my senior year of high school going for well over a year with 4 friends. I was the DM, mainly because I was the only one willing to devote the time & effort into doing so, and I owned all the rule books. I also had a firmer grasp of the rules than most of my friends (my current profession is most fitting, no?). So when we decided to do this, I had THE IDEA. This wouldn't just be a loose conglomeration of random adventures, or playing a few modules over a couple weekends at someone's house.

Ohhhhhh, no. This. . . THIS would be that much vaunted holy grail of RPG enthusiasts everywhere: a CAMPAIGN. Stories that built upon each other, and culminated in a truly epic grand finale.

THE IDEA was this: I had an old school edition of Deities & Demigods, the one with all the Elric, Fafhrd and Cthulhu stuff still in it. And I had just discovered Lovecraft in a big way. Being the horror nut I am, it was inevitable: my pitiful band of heroes would someday have to face the coming of Great Cthulhu himself, and battle the god for the fate of the world.

Obviously, this was something that would take some time to build up to. But I had ideas for all that, too. I set the campaign in a city-state loosely based on Sanctuary, the anthology series edited by Robert Lynn Aspirin (the 1st 3 volumes of which are incredible fantasy reading, BTW). They'd have to defeat some minor menace on their 1st mission, and in so doing run across a group of Cthulhu worshipers engaged in a foul ritual, interrupt it, and forever earn the enmmity of the Old Ones' followers on earth. Bands of assassins would dogtheir steps from then on, until they were forced to investigate just what the hell was going on, and try to put a stop to it. I got them involved in city politics, assisting a minor noble in a coup and gaining huge influence and gaming potential.

I'd spend a great deal of time trying to figure out plausible ways to get them to various locales, like forests, swamps, deserts, the arctic, the Abyss. . . . And then spend hours crafting the maps and opposition creatures they'd face. I'd think about monsters' strategy and tactics while watching TV, or lifting weights, slow periods manning the register on weeknights at work, calculus class. . . any time my brain wasn't otherwise occupied. And I had a notebook I'd jot down my ideas in (I still possess this, and I love to look at it and all the grand dreams that never quite truly saw the light of day).

They didn't even get halfay thru what I had planned for them before college in different states and then the business of getting jobs and other RL commitments ended the campaign. But we could have gone for YEARS on the ideas I had, given the time.

2 of the 4 players in the party were terrific role players, who really enjoyed that aspect of the game, and made it a lot more satisfying for me, because they paid attention to the stories and parts of the worls I had so painstakingly crafted, and interacted with its populace in a more meaningful way then just killing them. The other 2 were a power gamer and an idiot, but hey. . . they rounded out the party.

My best moment as a DM: The PC's were tramping theu the woods, when a green dragon comes crashing thru the trees ahead of them. Power Gamer (a ranger - so chosen as his class becasue they get 2d8 HP @ 1st level, w/ a suit of plate mail and a +5 Defender sword (randomly rolled, but permitted by me for foolish reasons I'll get into in a later post, if anyone actually replies to this thread) decides they should subdue it and force him to take them to its treasure trove. They succeed in doing this, an it flies them to a distant mountain peak w/ a cave wherein is his hoard. My distaste for Power Gamer's antics were well known, so I acted appropriately pissed off when he donned the suit of magical plate mail he found therein. Yeah, they all thought they had literally found the pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow, when they feel small pinpricks, and fall into a deep sleep. They wake in the same grove where the battle w/ the dragon occurred. The ranger is now in his underwear. All signs of the battle (torn up trees and ground, etc) have been erased. And of course, there's no treasure. There was no dragon. It was pixies, playing a joke w/ their powers of illusion; the pinpricks were their dart-like sleep inducing arrows. I gave them a hint in one of my descriptions of the illusion, which the best role player ALMOST figured out, but ultimately they fell for it hook, line & sinker. Power Gamer & Idiot were pissed that I "wasted" a couple hours of gaming time on this, but the Role Players were delighted.

A couple years ago, Role Player cotacted me and he & I and 2 other guys not in the original group started playing again. We did Ravenloft, and started one of the Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics, w/ plans to do 3 more, and each of us taking a turn at being DM for a change (I passed the mantle after Ravenloft, and when we got into the 1st battle, and I scored my 1st hit, as I rolled for damage, Role Player said: "That's probably the 1st time you've rolled damage as a player in 25 years." He was right). It was thought modules would be a much easier way to get us all into this again, w/o anyone having to take the time to DM from scratch. We've suspended this indefinitely due to work commitments on several of our parts. But like I said. . . I still have the old idea notebook. And some days, I leaf through it. . . and plot, and plan, and dream.

Does anyone else have a fond RPG memory they'd like to share? This stuff was built for creating memorable experiences. Even if they only happen in your imagination.

[Abraham Smashington]

Shit, if Ceej reads this he has a ton of them. We've talked about them on the podcast. Most notably his turn as William Riker and the shenanigans that entailed.

[Matt]

I played DnD (particularly ADnD) HARD during my jr. and sr. years of high school. I got into Shadowrun and Cyberpunk in college, and then dropped out of the scene for a few years. I got back into DnD in the late 90s, and we're currently playing 3.5 edition rules and having a good time.

I STILL have all of my old gaming stuff from the early 80s...I have the pink box and the blue box (you know what I'm talking about) as well as about 20 of the original modules (The Desert of Desolation trilogy was probably my favorite...I have great stories of DMing a group through 'Pharaoh').

Fun stuff.

[Abraham Smashington]

When I get a chance I'll try and write up some stories about Izzim Sehguh and his adventures in Seattle circa 2070.

[IggytheBorg]

I STILL have all of my old gaming stuff from the early 80s...I have the pink box and the blue box (you know what I'm talking about) as well as about 20 of the original modules (The Desert of Desolation trilogy was probably my favorite...I have great stories of DMing a group through 'Pharaoh').

Fun stuff.

Indeed I do know what you speak of, box-wise. Keep on the Borderlands and the Isle of Dread 4evah!

And don't tease me by telling me you "have stories". I started the damn thread to hear them. Share!

As I mentioned in the opening post, I had allowed the Power Gamer to get a +5 Defender (which allowed the wielder to take +'s from the sword's to hit & damage bonus & subtract them from the AC instead), ridicuously early in the campaign. I had never played w/him, & didn't know what I was in for. I had a house rule in effect, that allowed rangers to hide in foliage and move silently in the woods with the same ability as a thief of equal level, w/ penalties applied for use of metal armor. I figured he'd use the sword to allow him to wear leather or some other "lesser" form of armor, knowing he could make up for its deficiencies w/ the sword, and still have a magic weapon at his disposal, and play like an actual fucking ranger. What we wound up with was a walking tank; heavily armored and doing tremendous amounts of damage to everything.

I allowed the players to create 2 characters each, becasue 4 was just too small a party we all felt (after an abortive early session with a 4 character party in which everyone died but the war dog they bought, who had more HP than anyone in the party). Power gamer created a cleric as his 2d character, and we all knew it was just so his ranger would have somebody around to heal the ranger. But I fixed him good for awhile. His chosen deity was the Norse god of the seas (his name escapes me & I'm too lazy to pull out the book & look it up). They traveled to the arctic to find the lost City of Leng in the cold waste, and passed thru a village in Norway dedicated to said god. On their return trip, as they reach the village, they get attacked by a powerful party of Cthulhu worshipers, who slaughtered the town's populace. The party, inclusing the cleric, leaves w/o doing anything for the unburied dead after they defeat the enemies.

Next time cleric tried to cast a spell, it fizzled. He communes w/ his god & is told by a minion that the god is displeased w/ him, b/c he left a whole village full of his worshipers out for the crows to peck at, and his powers wouldn't work again until he made things right. He set out alone to do this (encountering undead on arrival, of course), and the rest of the party proceeded cleric-less on the next leg of the campaign. He eventually got his powers back, but jokes at my expense were made about the party having to bury everythng they killed from then on.

[Timothy225]

Loving the thread, Iggy! Which reminds me, I've got a bunch of Star Frontiers stuff for ya!

My brother and I, as well as a few friends were hardcore into AD&D (oh, sure, we dabbled in FASA's Dr. Who and Star Trek games, as well as TSR's Star Frontiers and Marvel Super Heroes games, but AD&D was our first true love). Just like you, we would rotate the GM role, and due to the size of our group, running two characters each was common. My favorite characters were my Paladin and Wizard - we'd run so many adventures and campaigns both hit high levels, so the adventures were harder and harder as a result.

For my DM'ing, I based all my players' adventures as part of an epic war - took place over a year and a half, leading to a hard-won victory for my crew (one dude actually took out a demon lord through some pretty clever roleplaying. I was so proud!). My brother got into the act as well - he sent my Paladin on an epic quest to acquire the Crown, Orb, and Scepter of Lordly Might, which I had to return to my deity. Took quite awhile, I completed the quest, but damn, did my brother make me work for it. Still, the awesome magic full plate armor I received as a reward made it all worthwhile. Made me a tank, too! Throw in my Holy Avenger and Vorpal Blade and even the nastiest jack-off from the Nine Hells would scamper.

[IggytheBorg]

I rolled up a fighter called Miles the Myriad (so called because he had weapons & armor from all over Europe & elsewhere; loved the exotic stuff)when I was 17. I played with him for one session in college, and never again until we did the Goodman DCC 3 years ago. Which we never finished. Rolled up a new MU, too. I always loved the idea of the spell Evard's Black Tentacles (black, ropy tentacles sprout from the ground &/or walls, snagging/immobilizing & doing constriction damage to all enemies w/in range), and have been waiting to use it, as either a player or DM, since Unearthed Arcana was published. We were being surrounded by a group of wights (who, you'll recall, drained levels w/ a touch). I said, in my best Andrew Dice Clay voice: "Watch what I do now!" and cast that mutha. The friend DM'ing ruled that the spell was ineffective. I couldn't understand why, because there's no savinig throw. He replies that undead cannot be held. I did a facepalm, because he had ruined a moment a quarter century in the making. You see, in that context "held" means as by a spell, such as "Hold Person" or "Hold Monster". Not held by tentacles. Or ropes. Or Fabfunk. An experienced DM is the key to true RPG enjoyment.

[IggytheBorg]

What was everyone's favorite superhero RPG? Personally, I hated the Marvel Heroes game by TSR; it was just way too simplistic. Roll well as wolverine & kill somebody w/o meaning to. I really liked the DC Heroes game by Mayfair games. It seemed fairer somehow, as you compared abilities on tables to determine the chance (or amount of) success, and there were ways to enhance the results by increasing the difficulty (the # you had to roll got higher) or by spending Hero Points (kind of like expendable xp's) to temporarily increase your ability scores. We created some characters and started a brief game of that, but Power Gamer didn't really like being a GM, so we went back to D&D after far too short a time. I can't find my game rules, now, and I think this game's out of print, unfortunately. Never played Champions, HERO, V&V, Heroes Unlimited or any of the others, though. What are your thoughts on this? Which one did you like, and why?

[Timothy225]

Ah, poop. I rather liked the Marvel Super Heros game myself. I even used it in my college Psych honors class, where I did an extra credit assignment on role-playing bringing out someone's personality traits and using them constructively in a group setting. I set up an adventure using Monmouth College (now Monmouth University) as the setting of a recently discovered Skrull invasion plan. I think because of the simplicity of the game, and as most of the folks playing were rookies, it worked fairly seamlessly.

My AD&D group liked the change of pace, and again we all took turns GMing and role-playing (I always, ALWAYS played Spider-Man, and sometimes used Captain America as my second. My brother snagged Iron Man, and would rotate between Hulk and Thor occasionally as his second).

I dabbled in playing Champions a bit, mostly within a Japanese setting (I created a character who was a high-tech samurai, but I'm fucked if I can remember his name) that our GM created. Obviously, we fought lots and lots of ninjas. And mecha.

[Matt]

Had a fantastic D&D game on Saturday night. My drow assassin got killed in the prior session (I was wanting to change characters anyways, no great loss), so I got to introduce my new character: A half-ogre reaping mauler. Technically, a half-ogre would be prohibited from taking this class (refer to 'Races of the Wild' and 'Complete Warrior', 3.5 ed), but our GM allowed it because it sounded too damned fun.

A Reaping Mauler is essentially an unarmed fighter/boxer/wrestler. He goes in, attacks you, grapples you, pins and kills you. Picture a 10 foot tall half ogre, unenhanced strength of 24, enhanced (via magical items and training) to 27. He's also got attack bonuses up the ass...His starting grapple check roll is 28. He's 10 foot tall and 400 lbs. He's a giant MUSCLE.

I inadvertantly made one of the most overpowered characters ever. I was literally beating the shit out of ANYTHING that our GM could throw at us. ANYTHING. After laughing hysterically for a good hour and a half, we all spent about a half hour TRYING to find something in all of the Monster Manuals that could defeat me.

Seriously, it looks like my guy could single-handedly take out a Storm Giant. As long as I was successful with my initial attack, I could (with high probability) grapple and pin him to the ground...never mind the fact that he's be a 25 foot tall giant, I'd be able to pin him...and subdue him...and render him unconscious.

Laughter. Continuous, hard laughter. My right side still hurts from laughing. ALL of us (GM included) were in virtual hysterics over the situation. Hell, he's only a level 6 character (actually level 7, but he has a level adjustment of 1), and I can literally kill ANYTHING.

Probably gonna have to adjust him down a bit, but damn...I'm gonna like this guy.

[Abraham Smashington]

That's awesome. I really wish Ceej would post, as his stories with his character 'Will Riker' are fucking hilarious.

[Ed Hocken]

I'm gonna need a nap, this is too much for me.

Still would RPG with all you bitches.

And yes, my character would also be called Ed.