RIP, Master DM
My first experience with D&D was in elementary school...I got involved with a few other kids that had just started playing the game. Can't remember whether we started with the original or AD&D...we began playing just around the time that AD&D came out.
Anyway, I remember that this was my introduction into fantasy...into the idea that not everything around me had to happen in the real world, and that I could go beyond the fantasy of cartoons which, at that time, consisted mostly of lameness (save for Bugs Bunny, which was never lame). I could do a little acting, a little creating, a little managing. I really enjoyed it.
Through the years I sporadically played, but I really flourished when I hit college and got involved with Elf and the friends he introduced me to. There was AD&D, Rolemaster, Cyberpunk, Aftermath, Stalking the Night Fantastic, Morrow Project (definitely one of my favorites), Toon, and many others.
Probably my most favorite memory of those years was one weekend night while we still lived in Melbourne, Florida. There was a bunch of us together at a friend's house. Melbourne is a small town, and outside of the town proper is mostly rural pretending to be suburb, so that was where we were. We were doing Aftermath, which is a post-nuclear holocaust game. This was a game that had been going on for almost a year now. It was, I think, 2 am. And we got a knock on the door.
Randy, the guy who's house it was (he rented) got up and answered it. It was a cop. Apparently one of the neighbors was bothered by the fact that we were still up and making noise (we weren't that loud, the neighbors were assholes). You'd think that this would be a routine thing to work out. But you just had to have been there to see things from the cop's POV.
So, door opens for cop. First thing he sees is a bunch of college age people, both genders, sitting on the floor, or in a couple of chairs, with pencils/pens, notebooks, books, and a bunch of other things, like food packages littering the floor. Notebooks seem to have a large amount of notes in them. There is a big map on the wall...of Seattle (game was set in Seattle). In the corner there is a computer that has been taken partly apart (Randy was swapping out harddrives). On a table nearby was a holstered gun (this was, in fact, a laser-game gun, but painted to look real). On the floor in several stacks are also tons of manuals about flying airplanes (Randy was studying for flight school). There wasn't much more in the room (Randy didn't have much in the way of furniture).
In this day and age, I wouldn't imagine the cop would have thought twice before calling for backup to arrest "them thar terrirists", but back then things weren't so paranoid. He just told us to keep it down, then left, shaking his head.
Anyway, thanks a whole lot, Gary Gygax, for all of the memories and everything you inspired. This Sunday I'll be going to a D&D game I just started into again...I'll roll a d20 in your honor.
Anyway, I remember that this was my introduction into fantasy...into the idea that not everything around me had to happen in the real world, and that I could go beyond the fantasy of cartoons which, at that time, consisted mostly of lameness (save for Bugs Bunny, which was never lame). I could do a little acting, a little creating, a little managing. I really enjoyed it.
Through the years I sporadically played, but I really flourished when I hit college and got involved with Elf and the friends he introduced me to. There was AD&D, Rolemaster, Cyberpunk, Aftermath, Stalking the Night Fantastic, Morrow Project (definitely one of my favorites), Toon, and many others.
Probably my most favorite memory of those years was one weekend night while we still lived in Melbourne, Florida. There was a bunch of us together at a friend's house. Melbourne is a small town, and outside of the town proper is mostly rural pretending to be suburb, so that was where we were. We were doing Aftermath, which is a post-nuclear holocaust game. This was a game that had been going on for almost a year now. It was, I think, 2 am. And we got a knock on the door.
Randy, the guy who's house it was (he rented) got up and answered it. It was a cop. Apparently one of the neighbors was bothered by the fact that we were still up and making noise (we weren't that loud, the neighbors were assholes). You'd think that this would be a routine thing to work out. But you just had to have been there to see things from the cop's POV.
So, door opens for cop. First thing he sees is a bunch of college age people, both genders, sitting on the floor, or in a couple of chairs, with pencils/pens, notebooks, books, and a bunch of other things, like food packages littering the floor. Notebooks seem to have a large amount of notes in them. There is a big map on the wall...of Seattle (game was set in Seattle). In the corner there is a computer that has been taken partly apart (Randy was swapping out harddrives). On a table nearby was a holstered gun (this was, in fact, a laser-game gun, but painted to look real). On the floor in several stacks are also tons of manuals about flying airplanes (Randy was studying for flight school). There wasn't much more in the room (Randy didn't have much in the way of furniture).
In this day and age, I wouldn't imagine the cop would have thought twice before calling for backup to arrest "them thar terrirists", but back then things weren't so paranoid. He just told us to keep it down, then left, shaking his head.
Anyway, thanks a whole lot, Gary Gygax, for all of the memories and everything you inspired. This Sunday I'll be going to a D&D game I just started into again...I'll roll a d20 in your honor.