Per aspera ~ Failed his saving throw vs. mortality

Failed his saving throw vs. mortality

Published 6:37PM, Tuesday, 03/04/2008 in Nerdiana, Having a livejournal moment

I bought the D & D basic set when I was, like, eight, I think. I didn’t have anyone to play it with until I got a little older and a) thus, so did my younger brother, b) some kids around our age moved in up the street. So I contented myself with rolling up characters, reading the monster descriptions in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and drawing dungeon maps on graph paper. To this day I write in all caps, having developed the habit because it made my writing more legible on graph paper, which we also used for our homemade character sheets.

Anyway, D & D was hugely influential, on me and on our culture, so I lift a flagon of mead to Gygax’s memory.

14 Responses to “Failed his saving throw vs. mortality”

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1 pedro Mar 5th, 2008 at 10:17 am

A whole lot of who I am was rolled randomly on so many of Gygax’s tables. I spent days of my childhood just reading those tables and thinking of the possibilities and combinations. Man. What a wonderful childhood I had cause of Gygax.

So when do we play a game, Steve? I got the 3.5 books and with 4.0 on the verge of release…we should try to pay the man some sort of tribute!
2 Steve Mar 5th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

I guess when one of us actually gets his ass to the other’s city.

And only if you DM, or get someone to do it. I hate DMing.
3 Ananth Mar 5th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

I would think with the internets and skype you could set you online dd sessions….
4 eric Mar 5th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

d&d sleepovers up the street are some of my fondest memories. I still chuckle about the phase where every character (even mages) had to have 18-50/100 strength. this of course coincided with borrowing mjolnir and battling the fenris wolf and norse gods. good times.

I can’t even imagine life w/o d&d. not to mention everything it influenced in my life (including metal miniatures, good literature, and some of the greatest video games of all time - oh, baldurs gate II, I love you so).
5 Steve Mar 5th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Oh, totally. My paladin had 18/99 strength, but my ranger/magic-user only had 18/76. I forget the paladin’s name, now. C-something the Bold, I think. Cador? The ranger’s name was Decatur Truxtun, because that was during the period when we named all our characters after U.S. naval ships.
6 Steve Mar 5th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

I would think with the internets and skype you could set you online dd sessions….

Yeah, but that’s no fun. It’s much better when everyone’s all in a room, gorged unto insensibility on pizza and Dr. Pepper, and cross-examining the shit out of the DM. You gotta be able to look that wily bastard in the eye.
7 Steve Mar 5th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

Oh, and you can’t throw dice at people over Skype.
8 Ananth Mar 6th, 2008 at 11:19 am

Webcams loaded with dice throwers……
9 pedro Mar 10th, 2008 at 11:19 am

Bah. I hate DMing too! Damn players always want to do their own thing and here I am…having written an entire world for them!

“The adventure is Lizardman caves, you douches! Why are you so intent on going out and exploring the woods? Cocksuckers! While in the woods you find a cave full of lizardmen? Oh. you don’t want to go inside? A beholder appears and kills you 10 different ways. I’m taking my shit and going home. Fuckers. See you next week.”

Whew. Now I feel like I actually played some D&D! Woot!
10 Steve Mar 10th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

Man, now I feel like I played D&D. Except you didn’t start of with “Your party is in the local tavern…” Every adventure I ever went on started in a tavern.
11 pedro Mar 11th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

I once tried to start an adventure not in a tavern (it was on the deck of a recently docked ship) and the players immediately asked “Is there a tavern we could talk in? Let’s go there!”

Ha!
12 Barbarisi Jun 4th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

I just totally lost my shit at work while reading that “Lizardman Caves” diatribe. Whenever my fellow nerdlets and I would try to go outside, the stupid DM would rain down lightning on our heads, so that would always end that trip real quick. Steve, welcome to the rotation of blogs I waste time on daily. Congrats.
13 Steve Jun 4th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Shit, daily? I’m gonna have to post more often than once a week, then.
14 pedro Jun 12th, 2008 at 3:27 pm

I still haven’t run that damn Lizardman cave adventure. Now I have to convert it to 4.0! Goddamnit.

By the way, totally picked up 4.0, Steve. Looks pretty sexy. Dying to play it…might even run it!