173: The Dice They Carried

Russ Pitts

The Boss of You
May 1, 2006
3,240
0
0
The Dice They Carried

Russ Pitts remembers the last time his d20s came out of the bag, and it involves a grown man acting like a kitten.

Read Full Article
 
Feb 13, 2008
19,430
0
0
Well, Russ, if you have some time off and want to play again, I do have some friends who run games in America...

And if you've never been to the REAL Camp David, or been in "An Ecumenical Matter", I'm sure they'd welcome you with open swords...I mean, arms.
 

Gxas

New member
Sep 4, 2008
3,187
0
0
I've only ever played D&D once. And then, didn't even finish a quarter of the campaign. Maybe it was the people I played with. Maybe it was because I didn't own my own equipment. All I know is; reading that made me want to try again.
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
6,732
0
0
Finishing a Campaign is rarely important, I've been gaming with the same group for 5 years and we have yet to actually finish a campaign. We've given up "long running" games in favor of "Episodic" games, where we play the same characters in loosely continuous adventures, where Experience, Equipment etc. don't matter and what's important is fun roleplaying and explosive action.
 

TomNook

New member
Feb 21, 2008
821
0
0
I never knew until this point that we New Englanders had a reputation for aggressive driving. I assumed everyone on the road was out to cut me off.
 

Russ Pitts

The Boss of You
May 1, 2006
3,240
0
0
TomNook said:
I never knew until this point that we New Englanders had a reputation for aggressive driving. I assumed everyone on the road was out to cut me off.
Yeah, it doesn't work like that everywhere else. When I was growing up in Texas, we pretty much assumed anyone who drove like an a-hole was from the Northeast, and that anyone with Northeast plates, would drive like an a-hole.

Now, when I go home to Texas, I drive like a Northeasterner. Such is life.
 

ZerOmega

New member
Sep 14, 2008
154
0
0
Heh, I too have my dice in a leather bag. It originally belinged to my portaPros, but they didn't quite fit in it, so I found some alternative use for it.
 

Alleged_Alec

New member
Sep 2, 2008
796
0
0
I absolutely loved it. I've always wanted to try tabletop rping, but I couldn't get my friends to play it. That made me want to try it once again.
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
6,732
0
0
My group eschews gamer superstition, we have a giant basket of dice that everyone plucks dice out of. There is an exception though, we have an epic saga of an evil die known as the Gem of Chaos. It defies all logic and probability.
 

mattaui

New member
Oct 16, 2008
689
0
0
Gamers in Texas don't own swords? You must have gamed with different people than I did, since I was about the only one I gamed with who didn't have a bedroom decorated lovingly with cheap Chinese steel.
 

Dom Camus

New member
Sep 8, 2006
199
0
0
Main differences between 25 years ago and now?

1) My dice used to be plastic. Now they're solid metal.
2) Way better snackfood at sessions.
 

geizr

New member
Oct 9, 2008
850
0
0
Just to show how much a geek I am, I bought a set of the metal dice(I chose the brass ones cause they looked closest to gold). In fact, I was at GenCon this year(my first time, and I had an absolute blast) and one of the primary things I bought were dice(I found a really cool set of dragon dice along with the metal dice I bought).

Anyway, I know about the RPGer in the closet feeling. Being an old-schooler myself, it's hard to see past the old attitudes and prejudices of days past. However, a funny thing happened while I was at GenCon. I realized how many different NEW people were into role-playing now. It used to be, as you say, role playing was a dark and closeted thing, something only the "weird" people did. The stereotype was always a bunch of fat, ugly, no-life geeks clustered in the basement acting out a bunch of childish fantasies over some dice and paper. However, when I was at GenCon, I was shocked and amazed at the number of "normal" people that were into role-playing. There were even people that I would consider to be more the trend-setter types that were into role-playing(they especially seemed to like the more story-teller heavy systems like Exalted, Vampire the Masquerade, etc. that are based more on socialization than dice rolling). Yes, there was the share of the stereotypical role-player; however, the population was much less than I expected. There was also a much large population of hotties than I would have ever expected.

Role-playing, from what I can tell, has definitely become more mainstream. More people are into it, and more different kinds of people are into it. The entire hobby has expanded beyond the closeted geek in the basement and has become a serious activity enjoyed by many different people from different walks of life.

After my experience at GenCon, I became proud to say that I'm a role-player. I no longer felt I needed to hide it and would gladly admit it to anyone met. I felt refreshed and invigorated by the new life and the new generation of role-players that I saw at GenCon. It was quite an eye-opening experience, and I look forward to going again next year(I just need to save up because it is quite an expense).

Oh, in our RP sessions now, I always use my metal dice?haha!
 

Russ Pitts

The Boss of You
May 1, 2006
3,240
0
0
@geizr: It sounds like you've had some similar late-in-life experiences to mine. I should add, extraneous to the events mentioned in this article, I've had some really good, uplifting RP experiences with people I'd consider "relatively" normal. And the folks in the game group in the article also had moments of clarity. They weren't complete freaks, they just allowed their eccentricities to take center stage a bit more than I'd consider appropriate. I'm completely willing to accept, however, that I'm the odd man out on that score. I mean, if you can't put on costumes and meow like a cat at your D&D session, where can you?
 

schiz0phren1c

New member
Jan 17, 2008
151
0
0
I'm a huge fan of the Escapist AND Russ,
but I've got to disagree with you on the bladed weapons point,I shoot Pistol and Shotgun(for fun,I'm a lousy shot,I'm not from Texas mores the pity I'm Irish and guns aren't as common at home,but I've lived in Thailand for the past two years and rarely pass a couple of days without getting some shooting in),and am also a Martial Artist and fan of swords,knives,axes,throwing knives,throwing axes,shurikens etc,and I'd have to disagree with the "When you grow up holding a firearm, bladed weapons seem silly" line,but that's mainly because I have some throwing knives that weigh as much as my Para Ordinance .45 does(loaded) and I can draw and throw one faster than I can ready and fire a pistol and hit a target just as consistently...Thats 4-5 pounds of razor sharp,foot long steel travelling at speed,not something I personally find silly :)...
Bear in mind I'm not a great shot or as familiar with firearms as a lot of people from the Lonestar state would be,indeed I have Thai friends(Ipsc shooters)who can draw,load and shoot at astounding speed,but to balance that out I have Martial Arts buddies who could slice your arms off with a Katana before you could blink...let alone draw a firearm,so that kind of negates the "Knife to a Gunfight" type idea.
I realise you were talking about people who own swords more as costume than part of a Martial Art,
but consider how you'd feel if I confidently threw real firearms into the same pot as 6mm plastic bb guns-as I've had done to me on Youtube in the past(I had someone compare his plastic Spas 12 with the real mc coy that I'd fired numerous times on an Army base in Bangkok...he said he would be able to hit targets faster with his toys than I could...ignoring the massive differences between REAL weapons and toys),
anyway I don't want to come across as a mouth breathing Ninja wannabee dickhead...
just wanted to point out that not all bladed weapons are silly.
 

GyroCaptain

New member
Jan 7, 2008
1,181
0
0
My current campaign is a hilarious stereotype stew.
It's 4e, and features a human paladin, an elf (Eladrin, actually) wizard, a tiefling warlock, a shifter longtooth fighter/cleric, and a halfling rogue. I'm playing the (female) rogue as something along the lines of Mel Gibson from Conspiracy Theory with added kleptomania, gold fixation and alcoholism. Half the people involved in the campaign appear normal.

I don't actually own any swords or engage in LARP, but I have cousins with a good number and a brother with one.
 

FunkyJ

New member
Jul 26, 2006
85
0
0
My biggest problem with rolling again is that I know it won't be the same.

Me and my friends who played were of different ages, went to different schools, or had different classes to one another, and our D&D sessions were a way to come together as friends, like blokes meeting at the pub. Half the time we'd just get stoned and mess around.

Playing with a different bunch of people never seemed right, even back then.
 

johnman

New member
Oct 14, 2008
2,915
0
0
Over here in England i didn't even find out what DaD was till i played neverwinter nights.
It sounds like i missed out.
 

Vortigar

New member
Nov 8, 2007
862
0
0
I've recently restarted DnD with a different group than the guys I played it with (on and off) for some ten years going and finding it to be a weird experience. Same rules, completely different game.

Like FunkyJ we were a disparate group of friends who made it a habit to play DnD at some undefined point.

No swords and costumes or anything though, in either group.
 

Normeo

New member
Sep 11, 2008
93
0
0
Ah good old AD+D, back in the good old days. The rules were never important and only caused arguments in our group. Once we realised that we enjoyed ourselves much more. In the 21 years I've been playing I've only finished one campaign and still love it!

May your dice roll high!