Ready to win some Beta Keys?

Me and my droogs were playing a little of the old D&D, and they are a rowdy bunch, myself probably the rowdiest of the bunch. We are playing at the house of one of the players; let's call him T. So T's parents were out for the weekend, and we had the house to ourselves. It's about one in the morning, and we are all in the living room, downing bottle after bottle of Jolt Cola, spread out on the floor of T's living room with most of the lights out for the "mood" effect. Our party is high tailing it out of one of the most dangerous dungeons we hade ever ventured through with one of the best hauls of loot that we had ever plundered out of any of them. We come to the entrance of this room where we have spotted a few lizard men, and as luck would have it, they didn't spot us coming up, so we were going to get the drop on them. Keep in mind we are all hopped up on caffeine and sugar, and my character is a big brawny barbarian with a huge sword and an even bigger mouth. So, fueled by a near overdose of cola and the pure adrenaline of identifying a bit too much with my character, I jump up as we are about to attack them and yell at the top of my lungs, "Gotcha, sons of *****es! Get ready to feel this blade pierce your guts!" I'm about to roll my character's first attack, when we hear from outside the house, "Alright, you got us! Go ahead and call the cops, just don't stab us!" Evidently, there were some stupid kids outside casing houses, and they thought the one we were in was empty, because there were no cars in the driveway and most of the lights were out. We all ran outside as T called the cops, who came right over. Imagine the looks on the cops' faces as we told them how we caught the kids sneaking around our house. To this day, my friends and I (well, the ones I still keep in touch with, anyway) still joke about the "D&D Alarm System."

 

Missed my first session of a long running D&D campaign only to come back and find that my Bard who often puffed himself up because of a noble bloodline, had claimed a magic purple sash from one of our encounters. The character being keen on purple I figured that was fine and normal... then they let me know that it was cursed sash of femininity and I'm now running a female bard. :O

So I annoyed the DM with said female bard for the rest of the campaign.

 

In 2008 I played with my group a game of "Vampire - Requiem".

The players had a haven which they all cared for. In this they had a "pantry" with 2 humans in chains for a regular source of blood.

Now there was an evening when one player was really late and we started without him. We left off before a huge confrontation with a much elder vampire and so a battle raged. The characters won with a hairs breath but were badly hurt in the process. So both the humans gave their lives when the vampires returned for healing that night.

Later the last player finally arrived and went to the pantry for a sip of blood. He realized the humans were gone and wondered what had happened. He took a roll of intelligence but failed critically and before I had even the chance to answer him, he said out loud:

"They must have taken a vacation!"

After that stern and grim battle it took us about ten minutes to stop laughing and tell him what had happened.

I hope I translated everything correctly.

 

DAMN MY Closet Nerdhood.

 

My story is about a time when I was playing D&D with childhood friends. We were playing the original Castle Ravenloft adventure. I was the DM, and the players had been searching the castle for more than one session, trying to find a hidden door that led into the bowels of the vampire's lair. I had been trying to point them in the right direction with subtle hints, to no avail. It happened that during this session, one of our cousins was visiting, and had never played D&D before, and so the players gave him a pre-made half-orc character (he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, so I guess they thought it fit him). Well, it was he who discovered that one of the sconces on the wall was missing a torch, and that that was the key to the secret door. Everyone was amazed he had figured it out, and he was quite proud of himself, and then he said, "Well, it isn't like it's rocket surgery." Everyone just howled with laughter at that, and to this day his nickname is "rocket."

 

The initial prompt was "your first character death in a pen-and-paper role-playing game." I know the prompt is more general for the current competition, but it got me thinking...

I started in the RPG world with a red box Dungeons & Dragons "Basic Set." At the time, I was a whiny little kid who didn't want to lose. Anyone who played the sample adventures (yes, the ones with "Bargle") should recall how the pre-made castle opened with a surprise: a Carrion Crawler in a pit, complete with paralysis abilities, set to give players a rude wake-up and teach them that they are not invulnerable.

I could understand the point. And, as I was playing with my brother, the risk didn't concern me: if we died right at the start then we'd just start over. No real loss! But the thing is... I don't remember dying. And I was a whiny little kid who didn't want to lose (I didn't even want to see my BROTHER lose), so I don't think I had a character die anywhere in the adventures beyond.

Then, as years progressed, I really got into the creative aspect of RPG's: making character after character for clever systems even if we never played a single game in them (hello, Ars Magica and Deadlands); making my own gaming systems from the ground up and playing the DM. Sure, as DM, I've seen characters die: but they weren't MINE.

So I've come to a conclusion that I didn't think possible.

I could not respond to the initial prompt.

I may never have had a character death in a pen-and-paper role-playing game.

. . .

(P.S.: I already have a beta key. In the unlikely event that I win one, I ask Blue Manchu to give it to the first person who calls "Dibs on Sir Knight's key" after the winner announcements.)

 

Dibs on Sir Kn....oh wait. Not yet.

 

I think they probably just won't pick any of the current known beta key holders as winners. Not that hard to weed them out of the 20 keys they are giving out for this contest.

 

Oh, talking about VtM: Another fun moment (espacially the look on the GMs face) was when I decided to take the Hummer we drove to the Mansion of the evil Lasombra Overboss and just crash the car fullspeed through the mansion. What could possibly go wrong? (Spoiler: Shadowtentacles. Thousands of them.) Lucky our Garou (dont ask, long story) slashed open the radiator and set the gas on fire. Dat awkward moment when the DM rips a big chunk of story out of his notebook, crumbles it and throws it away to declare "Okay, hes definitely dead. Wanna return to the prince now?"

 

One of my most memorable rp gaming moments was the night when I was first introduced to table top role playing, had no idea what it was and what to expect, invited by a friend to join a new group that was starting up a wednesday night session, it was back in the early 80's, I entered the house, Pink Floyd's Wish you were here was playing in the background, the house was dimly lit and cigarette smoke filled the air, a large round table covered with a dark red felt cloth was setup in the lounge room, 3 other guy's were sitting at the table and there seemed to be some kind of hex map on it, one of the guy's was sitting behind a small screen and he was rolling a hand full of dice, jotting something on a pad and then rolling again, introductions were made, I was given a beer, asked what type of pizza I wanted, handed a small bag full of odd shaped dice, a cast iron figurine and a quick run down on the game system, it was DragonQuest, character generation was next all done via a 10 sided die, think I started off as a Thief, then off on the first adventure, mind spinning, dice rolling, nearly dying, saved by the healer, etc ,etc we finished at 3 in the morning, I didnt sleep much that night but the next day I went out and got my own dice, figurine and the DQ rules book, I was hooked.
Cheers.

 

That was beautiful.... I wish my first session would've been a little more like this

 

The amount of awesome stories here make me look forward to playing with all of you even more.

Superbly done, everyone, even if it ruins my chances at a key....

 

My most memorable rp moment was in Torg. For those of you not familiar with Torg, it's a modern-day RPG set on an Earth where other, similar realities are 'pressing in' on our dimension .. so some regions of our world have transformed to resemble those other dimensions.
One of these invader realms is Aysle, a medieval fantasy realm, which overlays much of England. Our group, consisting of a diverse set of folks from many realities, was in Aysle, doing one of the system's pre-fabbed adventure modules. MY character? Winston Smythe, a British secret agent from the Core Earth reality, based on James Bond.
We were after a nasty wizard fellow who had something we wanted. He'd gotten to a dock ahead of us, conjured a favorable wind, and taken off in a boat. We proceeded to borrow a boat from the dock and pursue, but we were having difficulty gaining on him. Just then a seal flops up on our deck and transforms into a woman.. apparently the local waters were home to selkies .. were-seals .. and she offered to help us, if she could, as they didn't like the wizard much.
That's when the gears in my head starting clicking.
First, I prepared my weapon. We had a spear-gun from an earlier adventure. To the spear I affixed a stick of dynamite. I intended to light it and fire the spear into the wizard's boat's mast, to stop him, you see. Quickly lashing my feet to some suitable boards, I tossed a loop of rope to some Selkies waiting in seal form below, and began improvisationally water-skiiing towards the wizard's boat.. humming the James Bond theme all the way, of course.
The GM was amused by this, and since the selkies speed was greater than the boat's, I was making progress.
The wizard, on the other boat, saw my approach, and conjured an ally.. a large Loch-Ness-like water dragon. My thought process faltered for just a second, then inspiration hit. "Where is the dragon in relation to me, and the wizard's boat?" said I. GM : "It's between you and the boat." Inwardly, I chuckled evilly.
I had the selkies drag me on towards the dragon .. lighting my make**** dynamite-spear with the hand holding onto the ski rope and letting it fly into the dragon's neck.. doing minimal damage. The dragon retaliated with a tail-slap, which I evaded with an 'Opponent Fails' card. (Torg gameplay is enhanced by cards played by the players.) It was then my turn, and I uttered the following to the GM:
"I use the dragon as a ramp to leap up toward the boat's sails, draw my sword on the way, and cut down the ship's sails."
The Bond theme practically pounding in my head at this point, and the other players were getting a kick out of it too. It was a diffuclt maneuver, but I made my rolls, sailing through the air.. the wizard had a last chance to stop me, letting fly a fireball.. which exploded, engulfing me.. for almost no damage.
So now I have this image of the tuxedoed British Agent skiiing up a dragon's back, whipping out the light-saber like sword he carries, bursting through a ball of flame only slightly singed, and slicing the sails in one fluid motion.. then adjusting his tie. And that's just what I got to do.

 

Soooo.....Entering DM voice mode:

Our heroes enter a dark and dangerous dungeon.As they enter they have a bad feeling.The air gets colder and from the darkness hordes of evil creatures start charging at them.As they get closer the heroes get ready for the fight to come.With the legendary power of the D20 they start slashing,burning and shooting every thing in their path.The smell of dead bodies fills the room and blood is all over the walls of the room.There are still more monsters but the heroes don't give up.With powerful attacks from the warrior ,fiery bolts from the wizard and longbow shots from the archer they manage to survive(for now[insert evil laugh here]).They are tired or as a DM would say:They are easy to hit.They look at the room.On the floor there are many heads of goblins and orcs.The walls are "painted" with blood and just one torch keeps the room lit.A gust of wind almost makes the torch to go out.The heroes wonder where did the wind come from.They look at the dark corridor and notice two red eyes.They were red as a ruby but most importantly they were moving.A figure starts appearing from the shadows and they quickly realize it was a small orc warrior.His skin was a pale green and his hair was a green like color(don't really know how to describe it).He also had a small,pine club with iron spikes.Even if he was not that tough the heroes are weak after the fight and one more hit will mean death.The only one left with the energy to continue is our powerful wizard.He takes no chances and powers up.Now he has the power to destroy the poor orc.Charging his magic he feels the fiery energy flowing through his body.With the mystic dice of magic (and other various actions) ready he takes the shot. He throws the fireball(and the dice).Now he is the only one to know the fate of his party....
He says to them:
Wizard:Well guy's...We are going to heaven.
The other heroes:We knew you could do it!
DM:It was obvious that he could do it...
Wizard:Ahh sorry..Only one is going to heaven because he only has one attack.
Everybody:Wait...what?
Wizard:Yeah..I got only 1 and 2.
Everybody:*laugh*

Leaving DM voice mode:
We laughed a lot at this but i hope this doesn't happen to someone(especially to me).
Just to spice this comment here is a picture:
It's Card Hunter approved!
NOTE:sorry for any mistakes
and i'm not the best drawer and after all IT'S paint plus it's my way of showing how much i love the game(and i was in a hurry when i did it)

 

One question about this contest - by midnight, Thursday, do you mean the midnight when Thursday begins or ends? In my mind it can be both..

 

compromise for the middle so noon ?

 

Another question if one of the guys who recieved a key today when you gave out the 100 keys today has submitted a entry into this comp will they have to withdraw them?

 

1) Thursday midnight-ish is when we'll close the thread. I've been reading them but it might take a bit because holy moley lots of entries!
2) If someone we picked already has a key then we'll pick someone else.
3) No remorse, no repent. We don't care what it meant. Another day, another death. Another sorrow, another breath.

 

Our brains are on fire with the feeling to kill desire to play. And it will not go away until our dreams are fulfilled [aka getting a beta key]. There is only one thing on our minds [Card Hunter!] don't try running away cause you're the one we will find. Searching... the beta key

 

NOOOO REEEEEMOOOOOOORSE!!!!