So tonight I went and played some Dungeons & Dragons! Its been almost 30 years since I last played this game. At least 9+ years since I played any sit down roleplaying games (last was Cyberpunk 2020).
So I get to Mos Eilsey in New West. Jason, Neil and Bill are all ready to go. Slowly I build my Elf Ranger. Its been like forever since I played D&D and things have and haven’t changed much. A bit more complex and yet not. Gods I loved rolling the dice again. 
So here we go and it is so unlike the times I played 30 years ago. I didn’t hobble my way to my friends house w/ bags filled with junk food and a zillion D & D books. No flip flopping through a dozen books, tons of papers everywhere, graph paper EVERWHERE. Nope – this was cheez geek! Laptops all around except for William S. didnt take my Mac laptop even though I brought it along. Ah well.
So an excel spreadsheet later w/ almost all calculations done and we are set. I plug in a few numbers here and there, the spreadsheet does much of the rest. I pick some abilities, grab a dagger, long bow, arrows, sleeping roll, bag of misc nothing stuff and away I my character – Davroar the Level One Elf Ranger goes.
Yes folks. This is Davroar the 1st level
Elf Ranger of the West Borderlands.
Thank you internet for the graphic and
whoever made it!
So I live in this strange land which has these terrible storms and adventures and monsters often seek out shelter and most of the time will huddle together under “storm peace” and share a shelter and not attempt to kill each other. Most of the time (you see where this is going!). Well it doesnt take long for all our characters to meet, greet and share space and then perhaps try adventuring deeper into the Tor (tower) that we are in under “storm peace” for shelter.
So after a few rats gnaw away at our bones and almost kill both Willian S. and my character, we continue on. I pound back a cure light wounds potion and ready for battle while the head of a statue flies off and goes to attack us. Before Neil or my character can do anything, William S. ’s Elf wizard shoots a fireball and blows it up. Oh and yeah, William S has an Elf Wizard and Neil has a cat-person Rouge.
So we continue further and win a great battle over two hobgoblins Yay Us! We think we are hot shit so we venture on and run into the Shambling Monster of DOOM! With one hit it takes my character to almost death to which I was out for that remainder of that scene.
Now understand that here we are all with our laptops sans William. I was having a conversation with a co-worker, Gord Withers, about many things on IM (instant messenger) and I was giving a short play-by-play of what was going on for fun. So here is what he saw, we both laughed at this – I know I did. I even showed everyone at the game. Very funny!!
I think this is pretty funny considering things and the timing of it all.
Maybe you just needed a few pints and had to be there?!
To continue on… William’s Elf just pisses the Zombie thing off and then William’s Elf gets knocked out of the picture but not to death. Neil’s cat person saves the day and we all hobble outta there barely clinging to life like 99% of all First Level characters should do.
We wrapped the game when we saw a room w/ spider webs and thought, “F**K that! Lets get some rest!” so we bunked down in another part of the Tor where we could bolt the door. I am SURE that when we open the door we are going to be eaten alive by the f**kin spiders but oh well. Least we got time rest.
So YAY! Good fun tonight – Thanks Jason, Neil and William!
People often think LARP means playing Dungeons and Dragons live action and throwing ping pong balls while screaming “Lightening bolt” but that is not true. Although the other side is not true either – 99% of LARP is not well decor, well costumed and well acted (which was my addiction – the bad acting) and this can be hard for some people to understand and enjoy.
