RPGaDay2021 in August - August 23rd: Memory
We continue on today with #RPGaDay2021 in August.
Day 23 - Memory.
Today's prompt word is "Memory," a word that stirs up...well, gaming memories. :)
One of the true wonders or really joyous moments in rpgs is the shared memories of game events that stick out for a variety of reasons. As a Gamesmaster, I've always taken notes about the game sessions that I've played in or run (mostly the latter, as I seem to be the GM pretty much all the time, with several exceptions). A lot of the game notes I've taken over the years, 40+ years of gaming mind you!, have been lost; the paper notes don't survive moves, fires, floods, and other stuff, but since I got a computer and then started my LiveJournal blog in 1996, pretty much every game session note that I have survives in electronic form. That said, in a lot of ways, so many of my game memories from the early 1980s into the early 1990s have...faded. I'm 66 years old, and I've been gaming for a long, long time...so, what fond memories do I have about gaming?
Well, let's see... In the first roleplaying game that I ever played in of 1st Edition D&D, I played a hobbity thief named Arn Barrelwine. After three months of playing the character, I encountered a dart trap on a small, jewelled box that ended in his horrible death from a nerve toxin. I was sad to have the character die, since I rather liked him, but it was how the game went, so...
When running the DragonQuest RPG in 1980 or so, one of my gamers was playing a halfling thief named Albus Grapeseed. During an adventure in the fabulous Palace of Ontoncle, the party encountered a massive set of stairs that was warded with nasty Bolt of Energy spells every third step or so. Albus died on the 6th stair from the massive spell attack, but the other players weren't content to leave him there. After taking a few of the halfling's possessions, they used poor Albus's body to activate the wards on the stairs further up by tossing the halfling's lifeless form up the stairs. By the end of it, Albus's body was just a... crispy husk. The player playing the healer, Kassie Vereniah, was, to put it bluntly, horrified at the whole sequence. Highly memorable, but somewhat gruesome. All those players still talk about that sequence of events quite fondly, however.
In another DragonQuest RPG game, the player characters were attempting to buy some items with what they didn't realize was faerie's or fool's gold. However, the Elvish merchant recognized it for what it was, and called the town guard down on the player characters for trying to make a fool of him. The chase through the small town was a fun affair, with all sorts of madcap antics including trying to delay the guards by throwing orange gourds at them!, upending a pile of barrels to slow the guards down, and so forth. To this day, it's one of my favourite "chase" sequences that I've rarely been able to duplicate since.
Again in the DragonQuest RPG, the group of players were in the ruins of an old temple and ended up having to fight some gargoyles for the first time, that they had seen adorning the temple's roof. The battle was a lovely skirmish with the player characters winning out relatively handily due to some good use of magics and solid weapons play on the part of of the former town guard and the would-be soldier. At the end of the fight, while checking themselves for wounds and the like, the player playing Willem Anders, the former city guard, summed it up best: "The only good gargoyle is one decorating the top of a temple." The players have fond memories of that fight, as it was their first dealing with truly aerial foes. I still love it as well, for a variety of reasons.
I've already mentioned this one before, but I'll mention it here again... In a game session of the DragonQuest RPG (what else?) back in the mid-1990s, Tammy Powers was playing a female Lithmern (one of the cultures of the nation of Lyra that I was using as a campaign background) silversmith who was pretty strong. The player characters fell into a trap when they spotted a wagon that had been attacked by bandits (I think they were goblins, orcs, or perhaps dark elves, but can't remember), and when the characters stopped to see if there were any survivors, the bad guys attacked the characters from ambush. Attacked by multiple foes, Tammy's character grabbed the nearest largest object, the once front axle of the trashed wagon, and attacked her foes with it! She swung it around herself to give herself a bit of space, and then used it to attack her foes, taking three of them out with it. When their enemies realized they were outmatched by the party, they started to flee - and Tammy's character *threw* the axle like a spear, taking down another of their foes as they fled! Just great stuff. And one of my favourite gaming memories.
I have some very fond memories of running the SkyRealms of Jorune RPG game in the mid-1980s and into the early 1990s. Some of these include the sheer wonder of the players as they encountered some of the alien-ness of Jorune; the first time the player characters encountered a thriddle, and got taken on a "seeking an answer" quest scenario; the first time the players encountered one of the Shantha, the supposedly mythical race native to Jorune; the first time the player characters encountered one of the deadliest creatures on Jorune - the dhar corondon! A few more... and no, I'm not going to explain the Jorune references at all! :)
And then there's the original Torg: The Possibility Wars RPG. I met Tammy Powers at the local CanGames convention here in Ottawa during the mid-1980s, when she played in a game I was running. She was playing the realm runner (whose name I don't remember) and she and the other player characters were in a large jeep in the Living Land. One of the enemy edeinos was a gotak, and he used one of his abilities to literally spear the jeep on massive, sharp and pointy tree limbs, several of which came close to harming the player characters severely. Tammy's character was one of the few who managed to leap to safety in the second round of combat, and while none of the player characters died during their encounter, Tammy's character lamented the loss of the jeep (and most of their equipment, when the jeep crashed down into a gorge). She's been one of my Sunday gamers since that time, all those decades ago.
And... 'Nuff said. My hands, arms, and shoulders are both hurting, so time to stop typing for the day.
Those are some of my fondest memories of gaming events and sessions. So what fond memories of your gaming sessions and play do you have? Share a couple with me, please... :)
And there you have it, my thoughts on this twenty-third day of #RPGaDay for August, 2021.
Comments, thoughts, questions, etc. are all welcome, of course. :)
Day 23 - Memory.
Today's prompt word is "Memory," a word that stirs up...well, gaming memories. :)
One of the true wonders or really joyous moments in rpgs is the shared memories of game events that stick out for a variety of reasons. As a Gamesmaster, I've always taken notes about the game sessions that I've played in or run (mostly the latter, as I seem to be the GM pretty much all the time, with several exceptions). A lot of the game notes I've taken over the years, 40+ years of gaming mind you!, have been lost; the paper notes don't survive moves, fires, floods, and other stuff, but since I got a computer and then started my LiveJournal blog in 1996, pretty much every game session note that I have survives in electronic form. That said, in a lot of ways, so many of my game memories from the early 1980s into the early 1990s have...faded. I'm 66 years old, and I've been gaming for a long, long time...so, what fond memories do I have about gaming?
Well, let's see... In the first roleplaying game that I ever played in of 1st Edition D&D, I played a hobbity thief named Arn Barrelwine. After three months of playing the character, I encountered a dart trap on a small, jewelled box that ended in his horrible death from a nerve toxin. I was sad to have the character die, since I rather liked him, but it was how the game went, so...
When running the DragonQuest RPG in 1980 or so, one of my gamers was playing a halfling thief named Albus Grapeseed. During an adventure in the fabulous Palace of Ontoncle, the party encountered a massive set of stairs that was warded with nasty Bolt of Energy spells every third step or so. Albus died on the 6th stair from the massive spell attack, but the other players weren't content to leave him there. After taking a few of the halfling's possessions, they used poor Albus's body to activate the wards on the stairs further up by tossing the halfling's lifeless form up the stairs. By the end of it, Albus's body was just a... crispy husk. The player playing the healer, Kassie Vereniah, was, to put it bluntly, horrified at the whole sequence. Highly memorable, but somewhat gruesome. All those players still talk about that sequence of events quite fondly, however.
In another DragonQuest RPG game, the player characters were attempting to buy some items with what they didn't realize was faerie's or fool's gold. However, the Elvish merchant recognized it for what it was, and called the town guard down on the player characters for trying to make a fool of him. The chase through the small town was a fun affair, with all sorts of madcap antics including trying to delay the guards by throwing orange gourds at them!, upending a pile of barrels to slow the guards down, and so forth. To this day, it's one of my favourite "chase" sequences that I've rarely been able to duplicate since.
Again in the DragonQuest RPG, the group of players were in the ruins of an old temple and ended up having to fight some gargoyles for the first time, that they had seen adorning the temple's roof. The battle was a lovely skirmish with the player characters winning out relatively handily due to some good use of magics and solid weapons play on the part of of the former town guard and the would-be soldier. At the end of the fight, while checking themselves for wounds and the like, the player playing Willem Anders, the former city guard, summed it up best: "The only good gargoyle is one decorating the top of a temple." The players have fond memories of that fight, as it was their first dealing with truly aerial foes. I still love it as well, for a variety of reasons.
I've already mentioned this one before, but I'll mention it here again... In a game session of the DragonQuest RPG (what else?) back in the mid-1990s, Tammy Powers was playing a female Lithmern (one of the cultures of the nation of Lyra that I was using as a campaign background) silversmith who was pretty strong. The player characters fell into a trap when they spotted a wagon that had been attacked by bandits (I think they were goblins, orcs, or perhaps dark elves, but can't remember), and when the characters stopped to see if there were any survivors, the bad guys attacked the characters from ambush. Attacked by multiple foes, Tammy's character grabbed the nearest largest object, the once front axle of the trashed wagon, and attacked her foes with it! She swung it around herself to give herself a bit of space, and then used it to attack her foes, taking three of them out with it. When their enemies realized they were outmatched by the party, they started to flee - and Tammy's character *threw* the axle like a spear, taking down another of their foes as they fled! Just great stuff. And one of my favourite gaming memories.
I have some very fond memories of running the SkyRealms of Jorune RPG game in the mid-1980s and into the early 1990s. Some of these include the sheer wonder of the players as they encountered some of the alien-ness of Jorune; the first time the player characters encountered a thriddle, and got taken on a "seeking an answer" quest scenario; the first time the players encountered one of the Shantha, the supposedly mythical race native to Jorune; the first time the player characters encountered one of the deadliest creatures on Jorune - the dhar corondon! A few more... and no, I'm not going to explain the Jorune references at all! :)
And then there's the original Torg: The Possibility Wars RPG. I met Tammy Powers at the local CanGames convention here in Ottawa during the mid-1980s, when she played in a game I was running. She was playing the realm runner (whose name I don't remember) and she and the other player characters were in a large jeep in the Living Land. One of the enemy edeinos was a gotak, and he used one of his abilities to literally spear the jeep on massive, sharp and pointy tree limbs, several of which came close to harming the player characters severely. Tammy's character was one of the few who managed to leap to safety in the second round of combat, and while none of the player characters died during their encounter, Tammy's character lamented the loss of the jeep (and most of their equipment, when the jeep crashed down into a gorge). She's been one of my Sunday gamers since that time, all those decades ago.
And... 'Nuff said. My hands, arms, and shoulders are both hurting, so time to stop typing for the day.
Those are some of my fondest memories of gaming events and sessions. So what fond memories of your gaming sessions and play do you have? Share a couple with me, please... :)
And there you have it, my thoughts on this twenty-third day of #RPGaDay for August, 2021.
Comments, thoughts, questions, etc. are all welcome, of course. :)