| The Ongoing Obsession |
 |
| This is our Sunday night gaming group from Dad's point of view. We've been playing this game for about 2 years now. It started with me, Corey, Nate and his buddy Santosh. Then we added Travis, then Richie, then we lost Travis, then we lost Nate and Santosh to grad school, but picked up Aaron and Jason. Then we lost Richie, whom we replaced with Jim. Now this is the current group, from the bottom, Nate, Aaron, Jason, Jim, me, Corey. |
 |
| There is a rule at the game, that if we can get another person to spit take - especially through the nose, we gain a "fate point," which is used to make re-roles, and help save our bacon when we're really in hot water. I tend to be everyone's victim. Now we also get fate points for making Dad laugh whole-heartedly, so we have a great deal of fun at the table. We crack wise, and generally enjoy ourselves immensely. I am the straight man. I am the one who sets up other people's lines, and I am the one who seldom gets fate points. But we all benefit in the end (they don't know it - but we're practising fate point communism.) Corey likes to set traps to get me to spew out my nose. I don't think he cares as much about the fate points as getting me to spew. |
 |
| Nate is our resident rules lawyer. He has a pretty good memory, he enjoys utilizing the rules and systems to our benefit. He also trys to be very honest if he is pushing the limits of rules, and if the DM is ignoring certain rules. Sometimes, the DM is ignoring rules so we can survive. Nate is often hollered at in these occaisions. Aaron - well, we're not sure about Aaron yet. He's a pretty funny fellow. It seems that our group has a pretty constant dynamic, each person represented has filled the position of other people represented. Aaron shares the same position that Travis did originally - the guy who lives with his folks and misses game because his parents are hassling him. (nate still is nate. He just went away to college for awhile.) |
 |
| Speaking of the ongoing dynamic - Jason replaced Santosh, Nate's old roomate - not in that he's a virgin like Santosh - but that he's kinda the group bumbler. He doesn't make big mistakes, just little ones. He's well meaning and funny - he gets a lot of the big laughs. He's also our Monk. Santosh was a Monk. They both like to play monks - because monks quite effectively kick ass. Jim replaced Richie. Talk about dynamics continuing. Richie was our Shugenja who only healed or did helpful spells - Jim is a Shugenja who until very recently only healed or did helpful spells. Richie was Mike's Amtgard Regent - Jim is currently Mike's Amtgard Regent. Richie was kinda auditioning for Ra's guy Friday/boyfriend position - Jim's kinda got the position - just not the guy friday part. |
 |
| We often have a physical representation of the DM other than Mike. This was a week where we had two, Santa Cthulu and Buddha. We got a pretty sound thrashing that week. Notice the monster book in the background. |
| We've enjoyed this game so much we've written stories about it. I dream about it sometimes. You could ask about the "extra" role-play that Mike and I have gotten to do, cause I like this game so much. So, yeah, I'm a gaming junkie and I married my dealer. But Dad is still one of the best Dm's if not the best I've ever played under. He's got a real flair, and generally keeps things going well enough that we keep wanting to come back. Corey has been DMing a Cthulu-Doo game lately that's been a hoot. We'll still do another Beddescon in January, and we'll continue to game. We've got Larps coming up at the local gaming con, and who knows, there's always other opportunities. I still wanna play some more deadlands, and there's always new stuff coming out. Just the other day I had a pretty good idea for an on-going campaign... |