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<< RM Moments Homepage | 1 |
It's not often I get so emotionally attached to a roleplaying game but there was this one campaign that turned into an amazing emotional experience.
The campaign revolved around a huge war between an evil race of elves and the lands of men. The good side had little chance of winning. It all started out quite slowly. It took several months before the characters realised the growing chaos in the realms was the result of the elves preparing for war. Fearsome constructs, created by the elves, roamed the land and important people were being abducted or killed. Many government officials were also corrupted by the elves, leading to a growing unrest. The main characters included a princess and her body guard, a weapon master, soldier and a court magician. In many ways the character relationships in the game reflected real life. I played the body guard and he was in love with the princess. The princess knew this and played on it, treating the body guard like a slave, always putting him down and ordering him to do menial tasks. In real life I was in a similar situation, I was in love with the person that played the princess and she treated me terribly.
During that game it came to a point where the armies of elves had finally massed and were intent on genocide. Being unable to fight such power everyone was trying to escape to other lands. We were fleeing before the approaching armies, the princess rode in a carriage with her lady in waiting and the rest of the party rode horses ready to fend of attacks. At one point we were tearing across a bridge that spanning a large gorge, when out from the other side of the bridge came one of the elves nightmarish constructs. The horses were startled, the carriage skewed to the side of the bridge and ended up with half of it hung out over the edge. The princesses handmaiden was thrown out of the carriage screaming into the depths of the gorge with the princess falling out behind her. Fortunately as she was pitched out, the princess managed to hang on to the carriage door. But she was slipping fast, moments away from sharing her handmaidens fate. Without hesitation I dived into the carriage and grabbed hold of her hand just as she was about to fall.
There we were, me hanging out of the carriage holding onto her while the carriage itself was threatening to go over into the gorge. Not only did I have my wards life in my hands, someone that I was charged to protect, but she was also the women I loved. The princes then looked up and me cried "hurry up you thick head and pull me up!".....
I told the other party members that I could not hang on, but in reality I let her go.
Thinking back now I can see my fantasy and reality got a bit blurred. I am now very careful to keep fantasy and reality separate as I think it ends up being destructive, but in this case it was actually life changing. I think my princess realised at that moment just how much she had been hurting me in real life, and it turns out she loves me too.
Now and then I cringe thinking I had once dropped my wife down a gorge.
After a many grueling hours of dungeon crawling through a decrepit keep, our stalwart band decided to rest in a small 20x20 room. The room had a nice sturdy door and we felt we could easily post a sentry and mount a somewhat decent defense in the event of an attack. Our trusty fighter type courteously volunteered to guard the door while myself and a fellow spell user rested up for power points.
My fellow spell user and I awake during the night to the sound of the fighter drawing his sword and fiercely attacking a frost covered creature in the doorway. An orientation round passed and while getting our bearings we quickly ascertain that the frost creature is an ice demon of some sort. The largest clue being the creature's demonic appearance, coupled by a healthy 'C' cold immolation attack centered on the creature. Being rather susceptible to 'C' cold criticals and beating my fellow spell user's initiative I opt to cast a firewall between myself and my fellow spell user, and the ice demon. The idea is to erect a toasty defense that would hopefully shield us from the icy blast. We have a house rule that allows you to double the effect of elemental spells for every 2x spell level you have. I am able to erect a 'C' severity fire wall and I do so. I pitch the wall such that fellow spell user and I can peek around the end of the wall and still cast spells, while still maintaining "cover" from the firewall.
The GM nods agreeably and kindly reduces the 'C' cold criticals to 'B' cold criticals as a result of my seemingly clever shield. Unbeknownst to me, my clever shield was about to become the deadliest thing in the room!
The ice blast immediately follows my fire wall and fellow spell user and I pony up for our 'B' cold critical. This is where things got tricky. My 'B' crit delivers a few hits and a bit of stun. I laugh at the demon! My unfortunate fellow receives an 87 'B' crit - "Leg Strike. Foe is knocked down." Now normally this wouldn't be a problem but we happen to be standing next to a 'C' severity fire wall! The GM punts and gives my fellow spell user a 50/50 chance of falling into the firewall. Dice are rolled and...you guessed it...he fell into the wall. But wait!!! It gets better!
Gleefully wiping tears of laughter from his eyes the GM opted to let my comrade roll his own 'C' heat crit.
We're laughing hysterically at the turn of events until the first die is thrown and comes up a '0'...silence falls. The second die is dropped and to my comrades dismay he receives an 00 'C' heat critical!!! "Foe's head is but a charred stump! Sadly foe cannot handle the loss and he dies instantly!".
We still laugh to this day...but we're very careful not to play with fire!
Good afternoon! Been enjoying reading these moments and thought I'd share two from Run Out the Guns! games, both years apart but happening at the Origins convention in Ohio.
The first took place back in 1997 or 1998, and was a multi-session game culminating in a finale run by Jason Hawkins (the writer of the game). There were many GM's running many ships full of players, and most took the standard route of finding other ships and shooting them. Our little vessel, captained by John Ronald "Jack" O'Harrigan, took a different route. Flying under the flag of Serbia (a landlocked country), we spent several gamedays being merchants. We caused various small harms to the Spanish (thus making us a target) but generally operated honorably—and we were getting rich!
Our last regular gameday, we had just taken a contract to ship furniture from Santiago de Cuba to St. Augustine - when a traitorous sea-lawyer stole our (hidden) Serbian flag and took it to the Governor (who'd just given us the contract, as well as his son to be a midshipman). We were forced to signal our men ashore to meet us up the coast as our ship raised anchor and left Santiago Harbor under fire from 45 pound landcannons. General ships armament in the game is 3 and 6 pound cannon, sometimes as much as 12—you do the math!
Anyhow, we made it up the coast and prepared to retrieve our other mates, when a man came rushing out of the jungle carrying a piece of cloth. It was our Serbian topsman, who'd snuck into the Governor's Palace to retrieve the stolen flag! After dispatching the squad of Spanish soldiers shooting at him, we made for St. Augustine. Honor demanded we deliver the goods, even for a man who now hated our very existence. They paid us well there. The next gameday was the finale—and the plot demanded we be involved in the attack on Cartagena harbor. Problem was, we needed to look and act Spanish—wherever would we figure out how to get a Spanish Nobleman?
Mr. Hawkins, running the finale, had not been told by our earlier gamemaster about the son of the Spanish Governor of Santiago—the look on his face when he realized we had a friendly Spaniard aboard to assist in our ruse was priceless! Anyhow, the story of the sack of Cartagena is for another day, but there is a followup. Several years later, at Origins 2002, I was able to get in on a game at the table of Steve Hess, the GM back when O'Harrigan's Serbians were running roughshod over the Caribbean. During that game, I was able to deliver the money I owed the Governor of Santiago de Cuba. Honor demanded it! Actually, I think I ended up owning some prime uplands in Cuba—perfect to retire and grow tobacco. Mr. Hess had O'Harrigan knighted this year by King Charles II.
Thanks for reading this!
Lee Stewart
Captain John Ronald "Jack" O'Harrigan, RN (ret.), KB
God Save King Charles II
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