Yes, We Did Have People Misunderstand...

While I didn't have parents freaking out--they had their faith but were educated and not at all prone to panic--I did have more than one person assume I was into something dire. On a few occasions I showed someone my books and showed them how a game might work, and in almost every case the response was "Oh. That actually sounds like fun."

Which it was...

The article is by the Always Freaking Brilliant Annalee Newitz.

How We Won the War on Dungeons & Dragons

The Long Campaign

In the summer of 1981 I decided to run another game. I got all my books, notes, and maps out, dusted off my introductory scenario—the Missing Cow again—and asked myself who might be willing to play. I knew a young lady named Kelli, who was my friend Kevin’s younger sister. She knew a couple of people from school: David and LeeAnn. One GM andthree players, an introductory scenario and notes for creating more, and a bag full of various dice. We were once again using the AD&D rules, with the exception of a few things we didn’t like, or care about, and with a few things we came up with that we thought would work better. This, in D&D terms, is considered orthodox and very traditional.

The previous Halloween (1980) I had gone out with some friends, smoked a joint, and proceeded to have a nightmarish and panicky experience. Using marijuana had become less and less pleasant, even while I realized I had a nightly habit. That Halloween cinched it. I was so freaked that I swore never again. And I didn’t. Which after a bad experience was easy, except when hanging out with friends who were still using it. So I had to stop hanging out with my one group of friends and find an alternative social life.
So I came back to D&D as a way of having fun but staying sober on Saturday nights. And it worked.

Kelli, David, and LeeAnn were soon joined by many others: Vincent (one of my earlier players, Kathy, Kathy, Sarah, Megan, Michael, Brian, Wendy, Raymond, Sherine, Russell (I have a story about Russell getting into gaming that will be posted soon), Lyn, Barbara, and several others who came and went. The world of Erom got bigger and more detailed, and the cool thing was that the players contributed a lot of it–often the very best stuff. That type of gaming was less common then than it is now; FATE and a lot of other systems incorporate a lot of player input, but for me it began in 1981, even though it had nothing to do with the game mechanics.

As we all grew up, graduated college (or high school and then college), got jobs, got married, got divorced (in my case) and took on life, the Saturday gaming group kept on. There were occasionally misunderstandings, a tiff here and there, and so on, but most of the time we were all gathered around someone’s dining table or rec room or whatever, and the game would go on. Michael had a Traveller game that verged on inter-dimensional fantasy, so he and I alternated weeks. David started up an excellent GURPS Horror campaign that was one of the best I ever played in; he later did a Vampire game briefly and then a game involving immortals. Dave was and is a creative person who Now has a number of novels out that are well worth reading.

Russell ran a Traveller game for a while. It was fun. I tried out a semi-historical swashbuckling adventure campaign using GURPS which I enjoyed running.

I finally got a little tired of GMing and took a hiatus of a year or two. Our group gamed on and I enjoyed just being a player. When I got back to GMing, I had decided to retire AD&D and restart my campaign using the GURPS rules, which in fact worked very well in the Erom Campaign. [Why that was might be worth a future post.] After running the Erom Campaign for a few more years, I took another hiatus. I was out of ideas, especially out of ideas for new stuff for the old characters. But then I thought of it: All New Characters! But how?I moved the story forward 20 years and let the players develop new characters. Some were completely new characters, but most were the children of the old characters. My players found fun and creative ways to work that: Dave’s Norse Priest of Thor had a son who was a courtier interested in stylish clothing and fine wine, just for example.

We played that campaign for a few more years. Saturday nights we would often make dinner. We had specialties like “Way Too Much Garlic Bread” and “Evil Hot Pepper Rolls.” Whenever someone in the group moved houses the others would come help pack and haul.We finally wrapped it up when two key players who had gotten married decided to move to the mainland. That was in early 1997. Starting in 1981, that made 16 years, dozens of players, over a half-dozen campaigns, occasional breaks, but mostly lots of creative fun. I wonder if I’ll ever have such a good group again. I can only hope so.

Playing What With Whom?

I need to acknowledge another inspirational RPG source to my long-running campaign. I was a real fan of Fritz Leiber’s stories about Faffhrd and the Grey Mouser. When I looked at the Judge's Guild's City State of the Invincible Overlord, there it was! Looking at the maps and the accompanying materials, it is obvious that the creators were very familiar with Leiber’s city of Lankhmar, and the City State goes for the same feel, doing creditable homage to Leiber’s setting. 

I wanted that so bad for my campaign. A large sprawling city by the sea, from which adventurers can go anywhere by land, sea, or assuming an obliging dragon or pegasus, by air.

But what to call it? I wanted it to be the capital of an empire that has declined. Something like Rome but  with a two-syllable name.

I moved the last “e” from the end to the front and the City of Erom was born. Adjective: Eromic. People: Eromi. Yeah—it sounded just right.

Armed with the AD&D books, the City State, and plenty of graph paper, I designed my first scenario, tried a few trial runs with various friends who were patient considering I had no idea how to run a game in a lively manner.

So finally I was ready to roll (literally). But who would be my players?

This part is a bit vague in my memory. I was about 18 or 19 and I don’t remember how I met them; but it was probably my girlfriend’s brother’s friend’s sister and her friend. Lisa and Lisa (though she spelled it Lhesa and has since changed it to Madeleine.

Lisa and Madeleine were 14 but lots of fun, quite sharp, and willing to give the game all they could. And we had fun. We would play for a few hours, then when we quit for the night, we might smoke one and then watch SNL. Lisa usually conked out early, but Madeleine and I would stay up. When I was good to drive, I would drive Madeleine home, and then go home myself. Fun, but I was forming a habit that would later cause a bit of trouble.

Given this, of course Madeleine and I became friends. She was a good person, with a bright spirit. I last saw her about 15 years ago, but have since lost touch. I miss her. She was fun.

After a while we discussed getting more players, so I invited a guy named Vincent, who added much to the game. Then there was his sister, Marianne. Then a high school classmate of theirs and a college friend of mine, Esha (who was sometimes forced to be the adult supervision), then Karl and mostly people that I knew from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, or their classmates from University High (I didn’t go there, but I knew a number of people who did). And then whoever they knew that they thought might enjoy it. And eventually we had quite a crowd.

It’s interesting to note that my absolute best friend, Kevin, did not play. I got the feeling he wasn’t enamored of the idea. We never discussed it. I always assumed he would not want to, and that he thought it would be silly. He certainly would have been welcome.

It was big, and sometimes unwieldy, but it was a great bunch and we had fun. And it went on a year or two until it wasn’t going on anymore. And I am not sure what led to that; I don’t remember all that well. The post game toking might have had something to do with it—I need to point out that he overwhelming majority of the players did not indulge.

It might have had something to do with being really busy with school; it definitely had something to do with having my first serious girlfriend, and it was probably not helped by my increasing dependence on marijuana. I had grown up into a nervous wreck, and the weed really helped with that. But eventually took more than it gave. My girlfriend dumped me, I started to get lousy grades in college, and I was having trouble making sense. I decided I was going to have to quit the weed, which made it difficult to hang out with people who still did that. My campaign had ended and now I was trying to get my act together. I still saw my players around, but we never really had any more of the big Saturday game gatherings.

To Be Continued...

Let Me Now Thank Imaginative Friends

Before I get too far along in discussing my Role-playing Games, I want to acknowledge to people right now. I’ll be remembering other friends and accomplices and whatever, but at this point two people whose friendship meant a lot:

Peter Matthew, who turned me on to Tolkien, war-games in general and Blitzkrieg in particular. Also Mister Miracle, Tommy James, and so many things. Thanks.

John Goss, whose maps and drawings and the stories that went with them fired my sense of imagination, and whose friendship meant a lot to the geeky new kid at Kalaheo. Thanks from your “Ka.”

Imaginary Wars Part Two

As you recall from my last account, Ludophilis, I was exposed by a magical encounter with my first Friendly Local Game Store, The Legionnaire. The owner, Paul Capadona, was indeed into all sorts of games, both Wargames and RolePlaying games. It was 1975 and all there was the the latter category was Dungeons and Dragons. My interest lay fallow for a year or so.

Then I heard about some friends of mine playing some kind of game with a guy named Richard. I never caught Richard’s last name, but he was about 3 or four years younger than me, and we went to the same school. Two of my friends, Joe and Sean, were very imaginative and interesting people (and still are). So when they described the game, they were enthusiastic. And the light went on when they said it was “Dungeons and Dragons.”

I asked if they thought Richard would let me play. They said I could ask him.

So I went over to Sean’s house on evening when they were playing.  Unfortunately, they were finished but I was able to hear them discussing what treasures they had obtained and what leveled they had gained.

Richard did not know when he would be running another game, and I volunteered to run a game if nobody else was willing. I had no idea just how much I would have to learn, nor how difficult that would be, but I meant it.

I finally had a chance to examine the core books in the white box. Ohmigawd! They were not going to make it easy on a beginner, were they? I remember getting a flood of creative ideas while at the same time not really knowing how to play the game. Which leads me to my basic summary of the Little Brown Books (LBBs).

Someone, I forget who, said of the Velvet Underground “They didn’t sell many albums, but everyone who bought one started a band.” The LBBs were like that: they triggered idea after idea and were really exciting. They were also quite useful when you were playing. But who does one actually start playing? I tried to hack it out with a few friends, but It was rather difficult. The links to the Chainmail miniature war-game rules were also confusing. But bit by bit I was figuring it out and fudging what I could not understand.

I let it be known that D&D stuff would be welcome gifts at Christmas, and sure enough! My Grandma gave the Basic Set Box (the Blue Book) as a gift—to my younger brother! She had a tendency to do that. My brother usually got pretty cool gifts and I got nice clothes and athletic stuff.(1) Nevertheless my brother let me use the blue book, and that made it a bit more clear. 

About that time the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books came out. I duly purchased them and started to put together my first adventure. And sure enough< I was ready to go. The scenario started when some adventurers heading toward the big city ran into an old couple who had lost their cow. Lizardlike tracks were found near the cowshed. Boy did they need help…

And it was very interesting whom I starting playing with. And what happened then.

To Be Continued

(1) I liked the basketball I got when I was nine. Gram taught me to shoot baskets. She was pretty good too! It turns out she was on her college team. The rest of the gifts made me wonder if she did not think I was too scrawny and not well-dressed enough. I still have and treasure a hardback Silmarillion she gave me, though. 

In Which My Fate Is Determined...

My Dad actually started it...

We were working at our little Mexican take-out on Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu. I think I was 16 or so. We had a restaurant in Kailua, and we were trying to make a little Drive-in style Mexican place work. I had just finished doing whatever—I worked the window and cleaned stuff—when my Dad asked me, “Did you see the game store over in the next building?”
“What kind of game store?” I asked.
“War games. Miniature soldiers. That kind of stuff. Your kind of thing. Why don’t you go check it out? It’s slow right now. Take a break for a few minutes.” So I did.

It was called The Legionnaire, and it had board war-games, and miniatures war-games, and individual miniatures of wizards, and orcs, and warriors out of fantasy…and then I same a row of racks with a bunch of games by FGU: Wizard’s Tower, Flash Gordon and the Warriors of Mongo, and Chivalry and Sorcery. The Tolkien-reading geek-boy in me started to awaken,

And then I saw them…

They were little brown books, with titles like “Greyhawk” and “Blackmoor” and “Eldritch Wizardry.” and when I looked in them, they had rules about adding thieves and assassins to the Dungeons and Dragons game. Plus new spells. Plus new creatures. And the basic rules were in a box, so I couldn’t see them, but I got the idea…create characters, and run them through adventures. And that just seemed…right! 

After a while, I decided that I’d better get back. When I did, my dad asked me “What happened to you? I thought you’d be back after 15 minutes.”

“How long was I gone?

“About an hour. I was afraid I was going to have to send a search party to go get you.”

“Sorry.”

“I figured you might get interested. No problem.”

The rest of that day, that night, and for some time, I could not stop thinking about the idea…I could be Conan or someone like that. Wow!

The Legionnaire is long gone, and I am not sure Honolulu has a game store of the same type any more. Jelly’s, Gecko, and Other Realms are still around, but games are just part of their trade. I left the islands before The Armchair Adventurer opened, but I hear great things about it. But that first store is always something special. It was there that I had my Great Geek Awakening, when I, in the words of John Keats:

     Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
       When a new planet swims into his ken;
     Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
       He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
     Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
       Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

To be continued...