I am reminded of something that happened at the Portland Comic Book Show several years ago. This was the last time I had a table there to sell, and I had a 20 gallon storage container full of various size boxes with common cards from various CCG's I've collected over the years. Instead of recycling them, my wife at the time suggested I try to sell them by the box. I put a sign that read "CCG commons. $1 per box."
I didn't receive that must interest in them until a young, Asian boy came over and began to look through a box that was clearly marked "Yu-Gi-Oh". I didn't pay much attention to him, but noticed his father standing next to him. The boy began pulling various cards out of the box and setting them aside. My wife, who was kind enough to stay at the table with me, looked at the boy's father and said "Does he know that he get's the whole box for $1?" At this point, the boy's face lit-up like a kid at Christmas. He was so overjoyed. He did indeed buy the box of Yu-Gi-Oh, thanked us, and he and his father continued to look around the rest of the show.
I remember that moment very fondly, even if I may have gotten some of the specifics wrong. Even though I don't think I made much money that day, the moment I just related made it all worth while.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Live Action Role Playing (LARP)
I'm sure that most who are reading this are either familiar with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) or are actually members of the organization. This is the first organization that I was aware of as being a LARP group. I know there more to the SCA than LARPing, but you can't deny the SCA LARPs. Even if they don't have storylines like what we might expect from a LARP, the SCA is live action and they do role play the characters that each person has painstakingly developed.
My first actual experience with a LARP organization was in the Summer of 1996 when a group of people decided to bring The Camarilla to town. I tried it out for a couple of games, but since I was out of work and couldn't afford the annual membership, I didn't return until the Fall of that same year when the proprietor of the local game shop convinced me to come back and that he would help me with the membership fee. I agreed and this is where my LARP "career" officially began.
For those who do not know, The Camarilla was the original and official vampire fan association for White Wolf's World of Darkness LARP setting. Imagine... in the days before massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)... your tabletop game expanded to include more people, more cities, more states and more nations. This was a global game where the actions taken by somebody in Salem, Oregon could have an effect on someone else in London, England. Above the game, The Camarilla was also about charity and community service. This aspect helped to bring your average roleplayer to the light of day and make them a useful, productive member of the community... or so that was the theory.
As with everything in life, there are those that will lead and those that will follow. There are also those that will help and those that won't. Getting some people interested in helping the community was difficult, even though there was a reward within the organization called "prestige". The more "prestige" you earn, the higher you Member Class (MC); a ranked system by which you receive benefits when making your characters. The higher your MC, the more benefits you received. This was to entice those who would normally not help their community to step out or expand their comfort zone. This system has been a topic for many debates since I first joined, and it continues to this very day.
I was convinced to play a Tremere for my return game. Tremere are a warlock clan of vampires who are very secretive about their magic. There's a more detailed backstory to them, and I highly recommend looking it up. And on my first night back, I took certain missteps that caused my character to lose favor within the clan. My character was put into torpor and a friend was able to get me away from those that would see my character dead rather than educated. That is when I was brought to Thomas Gunn; the pimus/head of the Brujah clan. The Brujah are stereotyped as gang members and anarchists. Thomas Gunn had lived longer than anyone at that evenings game, and he took pity on my character after hearing the plea's of my friend. From that moment on, my character was no longer Tremere... he was a Brujah. I kept that up for about 5 months before I met with an untimely accident. Not many people knew my character's secret and I had been accepted by the Brujah without question because of Mr. Gunn.
Back in those days, it was not uncommon for a group of us to travel to various other Domains to play game. In a single week, we would go to Oregon City, Salem, Vancouver, Portland, Corvallis and Eugene for games. I made a great deal of friends from all over. I wish those days would return. I feel that the current state of the economy make this wish very cost prohibitive. I will look on those days with fondness.
After becoming a member of the organization, I was thrust into the need to increase my MC. My Chapter Coordinator took me under her wing and made me her assistant. This started the process that has helped to mold me who I am today in the new organization; Mind's Eye Society. Not sure if that first step was a good idea or a bad one. In my time within the organization's known as The Camarilla and Mind's Eye Society, I have held many hat's:
I want to delve into the darker times that I encountered while in this organization, but I'll leave that for a future posting.
My first actual experience with a LARP organization was in the Summer of 1996 when a group of people decided to bring The Camarilla to town. I tried it out for a couple of games, but since I was out of work and couldn't afford the annual membership, I didn't return until the Fall of that same year when the proprietor of the local game shop convinced me to come back and that he would help me with the membership fee. I agreed and this is where my LARP "career" officially began.
For those who do not know, The Camarilla was the original and official vampire fan association for White Wolf's World of Darkness LARP setting. Imagine... in the days before massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)... your tabletop game expanded to include more people, more cities, more states and more nations. This was a global game where the actions taken by somebody in Salem, Oregon could have an effect on someone else in London, England. Above the game, The Camarilla was also about charity and community service. This aspect helped to bring your average roleplayer to the light of day and make them a useful, productive member of the community... or so that was the theory.
As with everything in life, there are those that will lead and those that will follow. There are also those that will help and those that won't. Getting some people interested in helping the community was difficult, even though there was a reward within the organization called "prestige". The more "prestige" you earn, the higher you Member Class (MC); a ranked system by which you receive benefits when making your characters. The higher your MC, the more benefits you received. This was to entice those who would normally not help their community to step out or expand their comfort zone. This system has been a topic for many debates since I first joined, and it continues to this very day.
I was convinced to play a Tremere for my return game. Tremere are a warlock clan of vampires who are very secretive about their magic. There's a more detailed backstory to them, and I highly recommend looking it up. And on my first night back, I took certain missteps that caused my character to lose favor within the clan. My character was put into torpor and a friend was able to get me away from those that would see my character dead rather than educated. That is when I was brought to Thomas Gunn; the pimus/head of the Brujah clan. The Brujah are stereotyped as gang members and anarchists. Thomas Gunn had lived longer than anyone at that evenings game, and he took pity on my character after hearing the plea's of my friend. From that moment on, my character was no longer Tremere... he was a Brujah. I kept that up for about 5 months before I met with an untimely accident. Not many people knew my character's secret and I had been accepted by the Brujah without question because of Mr. Gunn.
Back in those days, it was not uncommon for a group of us to travel to various other Domains to play game. In a single week, we would go to Oregon City, Salem, Vancouver, Portland, Corvallis and Eugene for games. I made a great deal of friends from all over. I wish those days would return. I feel that the current state of the economy make this wish very cost prohibitive. I will look on those days with fondness.
After becoming a member of the organization, I was thrust into the need to increase my MC. My Chapter Coordinator took me under her wing and made me her assistant. This started the process that has helped to mold me who I am today in the new organization; Mind's Eye Society. Not sure if that first step was a good idea or a bad one. In my time within the organization's known as The Camarilla and Mind's Eye Society, I have held many hat's:
- Assistant Chapter Coodinator
- Domain Storyteller
- Chapter Coordinator
- Assistant Domain Storyteller
- Assistant Chapter Storyteller
- Assistant to the Assistant Regional Storyteller
- Assistant Global Storyteller
- Domain Coordinator
- Assistant to the Assistant Regional Coordinator
- Venue Storyteller
I want to delve into the darker times that I encountered while in this organization, but I'll leave that for a future posting.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Transition
From my junior year in high school to several years later, I was inspired to become a writer. I felt that my time in role playing had given me the keys to open the creative juices for writing fiction. I took a creative writing course my junior year. Worst mistake ever! The instructor had a serious distaste for Stephen King, and since I had had him for sophomore English the year prior and wrote a report on King, I’m sure he had low expectations for me.
I put my heart and soul into my writing for this class. I wrote short stories, came up with concepts, kept a journal of potential stories to write about, and even devoted an entire spiral notebook to character names. My goal at the time was to become a writer like Stephen King. He was my idol, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and I felt that I had the talent. My instructor made sure that these feelings were quashed. I felt he gave my papers a very critical view because of my interest in the horror genre and Stephen King. He had expressed in the sophomore class that he found horror to be a “distasteful genre” and that he would prefer our writings to be of a more “literary” style. I ignored his requests. I received poor grades in his classes. I probably would’ve received even poorer grades had I not aced every single test in gave us. Even though I didn’t like doing the work he had asked of us, it didn’t mean that I didn’t understand what he was teaching. I feel that his influence may have led to the inevitable decline of my writing interest.
After high school, I kept the notebooks for a while. I even entertained the idea of creating a comic book with Ernie, since he was a very talented artist, based off of a couple of characters we had created for one of the Heroes Unlimited games we played. It was called Shadows of Justice and I had scripted the first issue, came up with a synopsis for a 5-issue mini-series to start, and Ernie had penciled/inked/lettered the first 6 or 7 pages. I sent our proposal to Dark Horse comics, who I had corresponded with to find out the guidelines for submitting the proposal, and after 3 or 4 stressful months, they sent us a form letter of rejection. Yet another crushing blow to my dream of becoming a published writer. I believe that it was shortly after this time that I finally threw-out my notebooks from high school. I can only remember one of the plots that I had in there. Perhaps I will finally write it when I find my inspiration for it again.
This transition also came to a head when I walked into the local Waldenbooks to find new role playing game books on the shelf. Titles of Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse from a company called White Wolf Games. I had always been interested in the supernatural, so these games caught my attention. I bought the first editions of these books, even though the cover of the Werewolf book was badly torn. This book is infamous for having a claw mark on the front cover. The first edition was a paperback, and the claw mark was through the front cover instead of an illustrated claw mark; which they did in the revised edition of the book.
The games were a part of the system collectively known as the World of Darkness along with games like Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion and Changeling: The Dreaming, they would be the core of the system that would take over my life for the next 16+ years.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
ISBN: 9781936685165
Price: $19.99
Publisher/Year: Margaret Weis Productions, 2012
When I first started this site/blog, I didn't intend to write reviews for RPG's and I especially didn't feel that I was going to write reviews for specific books. And then I started to read the "Basic Game" book for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying from Margaret Weis. Though I don't intend to give a rating (usually X out of 5), but I felt compelled to express my thoughts, feelings and opinions on this as I read it.
As I've noted in the past, I spent most of my life playing role playing games and I feel that I have a good idea of what's a good system and what should be scrapped or may be too horribly complicated to be considered "basic". I've played games from the original basic "Red Box" edition of Dungeons & Dragons to the less basic classic World of Darkness. There have been many good games along the way, and fortunately I have not come across anything I would consider too complicated for a beginning player.
Than I began to read this book.
I usually don't mind a system that is dice intensive (such as the Hero system) or have need for multiple dice (such as Dungeons & Dragons or just about any other RPG). This system, however, is too dice intensive and not very player sensitive as you need to have multiple sets of dice D4 to D12. I think this decision may have been an intentional slight towards the D20 fad. The rules for what dice you use for rolls are easy to understand, but then you have different factors that allow you to add dice and increase dice. Depending on how you roll, the Watcher (the ST/DM/GM for this particular system) adds dice to their pool. If you want to spend Plot Points, you can increase the outcome, dice pool or push one of your dice to the next step (i.e. D4 to D6, D6 to D8, etc).
In this first chapter alone, I found myself getting a headache trying to process all the various rules for dice and dice pools. I can only imagine what a new role player who likes the idea of playing one of the favorite Marvel superheroes would go through coming into this system. This book would have left a bad taste in my mouth if it had been my first game system. It would have possibly kept me away from collecting comic books and playing RPG's. <shudder>
As you can imagine, I would not recommend this game for a new player, and I'm hard pressed to even suggest that veteran roleplayers even throw their money at it. I wish I had kept my old Marvel Super Hero RPG that TSR published back in the 80's. I'm sure there are ways to easily create the newer characters that have spawned from the 90's to today, and even adapt the older characters (such as the X-Men) to their modern versions.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Collectible Card Games
Collectible Card Games (or CCG's) are a part of my RPG repertoire. If I had been more focused on games and less focused on getting laid, I probably would have started my on-again/off-again obsession with Magic: The Gathering starting at either the Beta or Unlimited set;but because I was more inclined to find a girlfriend, my real introduction into the world of CCG's began around The Dark. More information about the various sets and expansions of Magic: The Gathering can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_sets
I say on-again/off-again because I have (at the time of this writing, at least) bought into and sold out of Magic 3 times each. I currently have a couple of per-constructed decks that I bought on a whim but I only actually play Magic on my XBox 360. Due to some of the players in my local area, I never really enjoyed playing Magic outside of my group of friends. I tried playing in a couple of tournaments, but washed-out really quickly in each attempt. The attitudes of the other people at the tournaments really left me unimpressed with maintaining a long lasting relationship.
Over the years, I have played many different CCG's such as:
Sometimes I wonder why I actually keep buying the cards if I don't actually play the games. There's probably a psychological condition that afflicts me, or perhaps it greed that lures me to continue to acquire these cards. I'm sure someone could have a heyday studying me.
When Star Trek first came out, I was luck (or unlucky as the case may be) to be working at a sports card shop that was looking to diversify by getting into CCG's. I remember that I bought a few boxes of Star Trek and several of Fallen Empires expansion of Magic. With an easily obsessive personality as my own (never gone stalker on a person, to keep your mind's at ease), having regular access to boxes of CCG's and an employee discount was a terrible mix.
As an avid Star Wars fan, this drew my interest instantly. It was when Star Wars was first released that I started delving into the secondary market of CCG's. Each card has a specific rarity (common, uncommon and rare) due to the number of that specific card that was actually printed. Because of this, there was value in many of these cards. I recall selling my first binder of uncommons and rares for only $100. I immediately spent that money to purchase more Star Wars cards. It wasn't until later that I realized I had sold several hundred dollars worth of cards for just $100. I know better now.
In the mid 90's, I wondered about a new game called Overpower. It was a CCG based from Marvel comic book characters, and that seemed to call my name. I was at a comic book show in Portland, Oregon and I was trying to sell some of my comics. I came across a guy who had some Overpower cards and I asked if he would be willing to make a trade. He ended-up trading me a full box of booster packs for my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300. Those that know comic book probably felt your stomach drop upon reading that statement. To those readers who do not understand what this issue represents, it is the first appearance of Venom. When the 3rd Spider-Man movie was released, the value for this book was at an all-time high... much more than the value of that box of Overpower. The worst part about it was that none of my friends played and I never met anyone who did. I can't remember if I actually sold those cards or if they were recycled during one of my moves.
I still have some Legend of the 5 Rings, Jyhad/Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and Rage cards stashed away somewhere. I pulled characters from these games that I thought I could use as NPC's for future games. So far, I don't remember ever actually using them. We'll see.
I say on-again/off-again because I have (at the time of this writing, at least) bought into and sold out of Magic 3 times each. I currently have a couple of per-constructed decks that I bought on a whim but I only actually play Magic on my XBox 360. Due to some of the players in my local area, I never really enjoyed playing Magic outside of my group of friends. I tried playing in a couple of tournaments, but washed-out really quickly in each attempt. The attitudes of the other people at the tournaments really left me unimpressed with maintaining a long lasting relationship.
Over the years, I have played many different CCG's such as:
- Star Trek (Decipher)
- Star Wars (Decipher)
- Arcadia (White Wolf)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Score)
- Galactic Empires (Companion Games)
- Illuminati: New World Order (Steve Jackson Games)
- Jyhad/Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (White Wolf)
- Legend of the Five Rings (Five Rings Publishing Group/Wizards of the Coast/AEG)
- Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (Iron Crown Enterprises)
- Netrunner (Wizards of the Coast)
- OverPower (Fleer)
- Pokémon Trading Card Game (Wizards of the Coast/Nintendo)
- Rage (White Wolf)
- The Lord of the Rings (Decipher)
- The X-Files (Voyager Promotions)
- XXXenophile (Slag-Blah Entertainment/Studio Foglio)
Sometimes I wonder why I actually keep buying the cards if I don't actually play the games. There's probably a psychological condition that afflicts me, or perhaps it greed that lures me to continue to acquire these cards. I'm sure someone could have a heyday studying me.
When Star Trek first came out, I was luck (or unlucky as the case may be) to be working at a sports card shop that was looking to diversify by getting into CCG's. I remember that I bought a few boxes of Star Trek and several of Fallen Empires expansion of Magic. With an easily obsessive personality as my own (never gone stalker on a person, to keep your mind's at ease), having regular access to boxes of CCG's and an employee discount was a terrible mix.
As an avid Star Wars fan, this drew my interest instantly. It was when Star Wars was first released that I started delving into the secondary market of CCG's. Each card has a specific rarity (common, uncommon and rare) due to the number of that specific card that was actually printed. Because of this, there was value in many of these cards. I recall selling my first binder of uncommons and rares for only $100. I immediately spent that money to purchase more Star Wars cards. It wasn't until later that I realized I had sold several hundred dollars worth of cards for just $100. I know better now.
In the mid 90's, I wondered about a new game called Overpower. It was a CCG based from Marvel comic book characters, and that seemed to call my name. I was at a comic book show in Portland, Oregon and I was trying to sell some of my comics. I came across a guy who had some Overpower cards and I asked if he would be willing to make a trade. He ended-up trading me a full box of booster packs for my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300. Those that know comic book probably felt your stomach drop upon reading that statement. To those readers who do not understand what this issue represents, it is the first appearance of Venom. When the 3rd Spider-Man movie was released, the value for this book was at an all-time high... much more than the value of that box of Overpower. The worst part about it was that none of my friends played and I never met anyone who did. I can't remember if I actually sold those cards or if they were recycled during one of my moves.
I still have some Legend of the 5 Rings, Jyhad/Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and Rage cards stashed away somewhere. I pulled characters from these games that I thought I could use as NPC's for future games. So far, I don't remember ever actually using them. We'll see.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Some time in my life I'm not so proud of...
We were not your archetypical "gamers". We did play basketball, football, climb trees, ride bikes, go fishing and other outdoor activities. As we grew-up, those activities took a back shelf to our role playing. In middle school, I tried joining the football and wrestling teams, but neither worked out.
The day after the first practice for the football team, I had gotten into an argument with a fellow classmate in gym glass. This argument abruptly ended when the kicked me right in the kneecap. I went to the doctor and he told me that I had torn my meniscus. (Meniscus, plural: menisci, from the Greek for "crescent", is a curve in the surface of a liquid and is produced in response to the surface of the container or another object. It can be either concave or convex. A convex meniscus occurs when the molecules have a stronger attraction to each other than to the container. This may be seen between mercury and glass in barometers. Conversely, a concave meniscus occurs when the molecules of the liquid attract those of the container. This can be seen between water and glass. Capillary action acts on concave menisci to pull the liquid up, and on convex menisci to pull the liquid down. This phenomenon is important in transpirational pull in plants. [Definition courtesy of Wikipedia.]) This ended my football career before it even started.
Later that same year, with my knee injury a faded memory, I tried to join the wrestling team. I lasted only a single day because I was teamed with the most effeminate guy in our class. Being in my pre-teen years and not yet fully developing my sexual persona, this made me uncomfortable and I decided that I would not return to the team. Thinking back, I also think that I was disappointed that the wrestling in school was not like the wrestling I would watch on television. I really just wanted to body slam someone.
Once in high school, the rules began to change. Our little group of gamers grew, and so did our interests with other games. This was the period of time where I experimented with any type of role playing game that I could find. It was also during these 4 years that my group became more aware of the local game store; Creative Pastimes.
Creative Pastimes was the only store in our city where you could purchase various RPG books. Sure, we had a B. Dalton and a Waldenbooks, but their selection was very poor. (More about these bookstores later.) This store not only had the books and boxed sets, but also had an incredible selection of dice! This is when we were introduced to superfluous dice such as the 30-sided and 100-sided dice. You really didn't need these dice, but they were like a status symbol because of their oddity and price. I recall that I spent $5 on my first 100-sided die. This was a time before the creative dice that we have now, such as steel dice, gem dice and other odd-sided dice.
This store also carried various other hobby and collectible items, such as dolls, trains, models and other toys. This made for divided attention on the part of the store clerk on duty. Please let me note this for the record: I do not condone the actions that I am about to describe that I and my group performed, and I do not feel good about what I have done. Do not take this as a suggestion that it is alright. The actions that I am about to describe here are illegal and immoral, and I have been living with these action on my conscious for years. I do not feel good for what I have done, but to tell my story properly, I must tell it right without omission.
Because Creative Pastimes was a fairly busy store, they generally only had a single clerk on duty, and the role playing section was in the back of the store, it was a prime target for shoplifting. We took advantage of this obvious flaw. We gained much of our Palladium system book collection from this method. I remember the first book I ever stole from them; Rifts. I loved that game for years, and the book became well worn. In an interesting twist of fate, after my high school years were behind me, this book would be stolen from me. I guess some might consider this a bit of Karma.
In 1993, Creative Pastimes closed its doors for ever. I felt horrible, and still do. Several years later, I would make friends with a man named Star. It turns out that he was the son of the couple who originally owned Creative Pastimes. The knife in my stomach that was the guilt began to slowly turn. I found out another several years later that Star died. The information I was given is that he took his own life, but I have never been able to confirm that. Nevertheless, I continue to feel the guilt of what I had done to Creative Pastimes and the family that owned it.
While in high school, I became friends with more people who would end up becoming my core gaming group. One of these friends, Ernie, had even developed his own role playing game that everyone enjoyed playing. I became so addicted to playing the game that I would call Ernie nearly every day after he returned home from working at a gas station so we could do some role playing over the phone. His shift ended at 9pm, he would get home around 10p, and my call would usually come at around 10:30p and we would end up gaming until 2a or later.
Needless to say, my parents weren't all that happy that I was on the phone for so long during the hours that I should be asleep. It got so bad that my father actually disconnected my phone jack from the main phone line. Some days later, while my parents were gone to work and I had time to myself, I opened the phone jack and figured out how to reconnect my phone.
In high school, when we weren't playing Ernie's game, we would play various games from the Palladium megaverse. Ernie was primarily interested in Robotech, my interested varied throughout the entire megaverse, and others in our circle were more interested in Rifts and Heroes Unlimited. The solution was simple... we play a game that included elements from all the various games.
I recall my favorite character that began in Beyond the Supernatural as a Parapsychologist (I believe), came over to Rifts and learned how to create and item that would allow him to use a power called Mechanolink. (At least, I think that is what it was called and how it was spelled.) This allowed him to learn everything about a devices, including how to repair it, how to make it work, and how to use it. This became very interesting when he came into contact with the various "mecha" in the world of Rifts, but became more useful once we ended up in the Heroes Unlimited world with other characters from Robotech. The character I had started out as a scientist now became someone who would pilot any vehicle or mecha he came in contact with. I wish I still had his character sheet so I could relate his actual evolution, but it has been lost to me for years. I believe that I may have thrown it away during one of the various moves I've made over the years.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Continuing my humble beginnings...
(This text actually taken from my original attempt at the RPG4EVR blog, unedited.)
In the cold month of October in 1984, my journey into the realm of role playing games began after several months of anticipation. In those days, games like Dungeons & Dragons had a label stating "Ages 10 to adult". For some reason my friends and I adhered to that. Once I turned 10 years old, I was officially inducted into role playing.
I started like many role players, with TSR's Dungeons & Dragons. I remember the first book I received from my parent's one Christmas after becoming a role player: Fiend Folio - which was a monster book for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I had a book no one else in my friend group could claim or find, and I was very proud.
It took a while, but I became so accustomed to the rules that I started Dungeon Mastering. I allowed my imagination to take me to lands I had never seen or even dreamt of before. My biggest problem was that my imagination only went so far. I admit that in those early times… and even sometimes today… I take plots and storylines from movies, TV and books and warp them to my design. I forget how many different versions of Conan or Merlin I had created as characters or how many times I've used the plotline from movies like The Professional or the Indiana Jones films. I never took the entirety of the story, though; just key elements of the story to get the feel of the adventure.
When the George Lucas movie Willow came out, my attentions were focused. I had stories revolving around it, designed characters based off of it, and began my interest in drawing melee weapons. Swords were my favorite, since they were the easiest to draw. I had a spiral notebooks devoted to these ideas and drawings. I had double-bladed, triple-bladed, double-ended, wavy, bent, long, short and various other types of swords. It was never about the functionality of the sword, only the way it looked to me.
During my phase of sword drawing, I came-up with an idea for a set of 5 swords that corresponded to the 5 major evil dragons in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Each sword had powers reflecting the dragon it was based from. The red sword would give protection from fire and have other fire-based powers. White would have cold protection and powers. And so on. I initially designed these because of my interest in dragons... much like any young boy. But then my interest came around to Her. She took my breath away every time I looked at Her. I was smitten. This wasn't my first love, but it had a deeper impact than the childhood crushes before. The She/Her I refer to is none other than the Queen of Dragonkind - Tiamat!
She first came to me in the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon. She was the perfect combination of all the dragons I had already grown to admire. I didn't really think about that fact that She was evil. It never really entered my mind. I understand the difference between Good and Evil, but it didn't really mean that much to me at the time.
I started like many role players, with TSR's Dungeons & Dragons. I remember the first book I received from my parent's one Christmas after becoming a role player: Fiend Folio - which was a monster book for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I had a book no one else in my friend group could claim or find, and I was very proud.
It took a while, but I became so accustomed to the rules that I started Dungeon Mastering. I allowed my imagination to take me to lands I had never seen or even dreamt of before. My biggest problem was that my imagination only went so far. I admit that in those early times… and even sometimes today… I take plots and storylines from movies, TV and books and warp them to my design. I forget how many different versions of Conan or Merlin I had created as characters or how many times I've used the plotline from movies like The Professional or the Indiana Jones films. I never took the entirety of the story, though; just key elements of the story to get the feel of the adventure.
When the George Lucas movie Willow came out, my attentions were focused. I had stories revolving around it, designed characters based off of it, and began my interest in drawing melee weapons. Swords were my favorite, since they were the easiest to draw. I had a spiral notebooks devoted to these ideas and drawings. I had double-bladed, triple-bladed, double-ended, wavy, bent, long, short and various other types of swords. It was never about the functionality of the sword, only the way it looked to me.
During my phase of sword drawing, I came-up with an idea for a set of 5 swords that corresponded to the 5 major evil dragons in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Each sword had powers reflecting the dragon it was based from. The red sword would give protection from fire and have other fire-based powers. White would have cold protection and powers. And so on. I initially designed these because of my interest in dragons... much like any young boy. But then my interest came around to Her. She took my breath away every time I looked at Her. I was smitten. This wasn't my first love, but it had a deeper impact than the childhood crushes before. The She/Her I refer to is none other than the Queen of Dragonkind - Tiamat!
She first came to me in the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon. She was the perfect combination of all the dragons I had already grown to admire. I didn't really think about that fact that She was evil. It never really entered my mind. I understand the difference between Good and Evil, but it didn't really mean that much to me at the time.
In the early months of my role playing "career", it was just my friend Scott and I. We would get together several times a week to play Dungeons & Dragons. At this time, we only had a few books. Thankfully, our local library carried several of the books we didn't have and we checked the out on a regular basis. As time went by, these books would be the target of theft from the library and they would discontinue carrying them or similar books. The last time I was able to check-out a copy of Wilderness Survival Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was back in 1988, I believe. That was the last role playing book I had ever checked-out from the library.
We soon discovered that Scott and I were not the only boys in our neighborhood that enjoyed the occasional game of Dungeons & Dragons. We soon made friends with another role-player on the next street over. His name was James and he was a year older than I, just like Scott. James brought our interest into games other than Dungeons & Dragons, such as Champions.
We soon discovered that Scott and I were not the only boys in our neighborhood that enjoyed the occasional game of Dungeons & Dragons. We soon made friends with another role-player on the next street over. His name was James and he was a year older than I, just like Scott. James brought our interest into games other than Dungeons & Dragons, such as Champions.
Dungeons & Dragons involved having an entire set of dice; d4, d6, d8, 2d10, d12 & d20. Champions only needed the tradition six-sided die. When I first started playing Champions, I raided every board game we had in the house for extra dice. Yahtzee, Monopoly, Aggravation, Kizmet and so on. At one point, I had a collection of about 32 six-sided dice. At one point during a session of Champions, I think I only ever used 20 at the most.
While we focused ourselves on Champions, we made friends with another role playing soul; Shawn. He had recently moved up from California, and had been playing about as long as any one of us. He became the friend we always wanted to game with because he was innovative and exciting. He also introduced us to new games such as Marvel Super Heroes, Top Secret and the Palladium role playing system which includes games like Robotech and Heroes Unlimited. We were gradually increasing our realm of interest of games we would play. This would later turn into trouble for many of us… myself included.
The next-door neighbor to James had purchased a mobile home trailer that he had parked near James' house. One summer, we asked if we could use it for a Memorial Day weekend, and he agreed to our request. We didn't take it anywhere, as none of us were old enough to have a driver's license at that time. We lived in it for the next 3 days just role playing. I remember that we started with a session of Champions, but we spent the bulk of the weekend playing TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). It was James, Shawn and I and it was one of the best weekends I had spent in a long time. (This was also well before puberty, so none of us had those interests, yet.)
Monday, November 5, 2012
Shorthand and other definitions
There will be many shorthand and terms used throughout this blog. I will explain them here as best I can:
DM: Dungeon Master – Common term associated with the individual actually in charge of the game in progress: also called GM (Game Master) or ST (Storyteller). The term Dungeon Master was originally derived from TSR's Dungeons & Dragons.
IC: In Character – Actual things that happened in the chronicle's events or interaction taking place within the game format. Not to be confused with Out Of Character. This is when we are role playing and using our imaginations. A time where we are merely impromptu actors portraying character's that we alone have conceived in our very own minds.
OOC: Out Of Character – What could very well be called "the real world". This is where we are our real selves rather than our characters. We are not Vampires, Werewolves or anything supernatural. We are simply human beings. This is to represent thing that happen in our real lives and don't happen in the fictional world. Not to be confused with In Character.
TT: Tabletop – Term for what can also be called "Pencil & Paper" type role playing games. These include titles such as Vampire: The Masquerade™, Werewolf: The Apocalypse™, Dungeons & Dragons™, GURPS™ and Palladium™. These are what can also be called "traditional" role playing games.
LARP: Live Action Role-Playing – Term for games that happen as a performance and acted out rather than discussed and described to a group gathered around a table. This is what organizations like the Camarilla, Mind’s Eye Society and One World By Night are created for.
WW: White Wolf – This is the name of the company that created games such as Vampire: The Masquerade™ and who currently own the Camarilla organization.
WotC: Wizards of the Coast – This is the name of the company best know for bringing the collectable card game (CCG) to life with games like Magic: The Gathering™ and Pokémon™. WotC also currently holds the rights to role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons™ and Star Wars™.
CCG: Collectable Card Game – Games whose card have rarity and value. Titles include Magic: The Gathering™, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle™, Yu-Gi-Oh™ and Pokémon™.
CC: Chapter Coordinator – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the organizational side of things working at a Chapter level within the Camarilla/Mind’s Eye Society. These coordinators also have assistants who are entitled as ACC, or Assistant Chapter Coordinator.
CST: Chapter Storyteller – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the gaming side of things working at a Chapter level within the Camarilla/Mind’s Eye Society. These storytellers also have assistants who are entitled as ACST, or Assistant Chapter Storyteller.
DM: Dungeon Master – Common term associated with the individual actually in charge of the game in progress: also called GM (Game Master) or ST (Storyteller). The term Dungeon Master was originally derived from TSR's Dungeons & Dragons.
IC: In Character – Actual things that happened in the chronicle's events or interaction taking place within the game format. Not to be confused with Out Of Character. This is when we are role playing and using our imaginations. A time where we are merely impromptu actors portraying character's that we alone have conceived in our very own minds.
OOC: Out Of Character – What could very well be called "the real world". This is where we are our real selves rather than our characters. We are not Vampires, Werewolves or anything supernatural. We are simply human beings. This is to represent thing that happen in our real lives and don't happen in the fictional world. Not to be confused with In Character.
TT: Tabletop – Term for what can also be called "Pencil & Paper" type role playing games. These include titles such as Vampire: The Masquerade™, Werewolf: The Apocalypse™, Dungeons & Dragons™, GURPS™ and Palladium™. These are what can also be called "traditional" role playing games.
LARP: Live Action Role-Playing – Term for games that happen as a performance and acted out rather than discussed and described to a group gathered around a table. This is what organizations like the Camarilla, Mind’s Eye Society and One World By Night are created for.
WW: White Wolf – This is the name of the company that created games such as Vampire: The Masquerade™ and who currently own the Camarilla organization.
WotC: Wizards of the Coast – This is the name of the company best know for bringing the collectable card game (CCG) to life with games like Magic: The Gathering™ and Pokémon™. WotC also currently holds the rights to role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons™ and Star Wars™.
CCG: Collectable Card Game – Games whose card have rarity and value. Titles include Magic: The Gathering™, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle™, Yu-Gi-Oh™ and Pokémon™.
CC: Chapter Coordinator – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the organizational side of things working at a Chapter level within the Camarilla/Mind’s Eye Society. These coordinators also have assistants who are entitled as ACC, or Assistant Chapter Coordinator.
CST: Chapter Storyteller – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the gaming side of things working at a Chapter level within the Camarilla/Mind’s Eye Society. These storytellers also have assistants who are entitled as ACST, or Assistant Chapter Storyteller.
VST: Venue Storyteller – The storyteller for a specific venue within a Domain for the Mind’s Eye Society.
Venue: Meaning the genre of the game. i.e. Cam/Anarch, Sabbat, Requiem, etc.
DC: Domain Coordinator – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the organizational side of things working at a Domain level within the Camarilla/Mind’s Eye Society. These coordinators also have assistants who are entitled as ADC, or Assistant Domain Coordinator.
DST: Domain Storyteller – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the gaming side of things working at a Domain level within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. These storytellers also have assistants who are entitled as ADST, or Assistant Domain Storyteller.
RC: Regional Coordinator – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the organizational side of things working at a Regional level within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. These coordinators also have assistants who are entitled as ARC, or Assistant Regional Coordinator.
RST: Regional Storyteller – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the gaming side of things working at a Regional level within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. These storytellers also have assistants who are entitled as ARST, or Assistant Regional Storyteller.
DC: Domain Coordinator – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the organizational side of things working at a Domain level within the Camarilla/Mind’s Eye Society. These coordinators also have assistants who are entitled as ADC, or Assistant Domain Coordinator.
DST: Domain Storyteller – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the gaming side of things working at a Domain level within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. These storytellers also have assistants who are entitled as ADST, or Assistant Domain Storyteller.
RC: Regional Coordinator – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the organizational side of things working at a Regional level within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. These coordinators also have assistants who are entitled as ARC, or Assistant Regional Coordinator.
RST: Regional Storyteller – This is the title given to the person elected to keep the gaming side of things working at a Regional level within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. These storytellers also have assistants who are entitled as ARST, or Assistant Regional Storyteller.
Chapter – Local group of members within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. Several Chapters create a Domain.
Domain – Generally several Chapters within the Camarilla/ Mind’s Eye Society. Several Domains create a Region.
More to be added as necessary.
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