B is for Bananas, Bears, and Beginnings
moongirli asked: “Why/when/how did you start gaming, and at what point online? Sub-question: did you start online gaming in order to write more, or was that merely a happy accident?”
Heh. I was in the seventh grade and it was towards the end of my second period English class at the time. You know the time where the kids are given extra time to do homework but no one ever actually does anything but screw around? Well there was one kid over in the corner with two others, the first had the DnD Rules Cyclopedia open and they were talking about it. Funny thing was, the first kid who was GMing for the other two didn’t go on to regularly join us and drifted away in middle school. But during high school and the years following, he and I became close friends. For those of you playing the home game that kid was David Bauer. I know some of those on my friendslist had their issues with him, but he was a good friend to me at least. I wonder where he is now; I miss him.
Anyways I, in one of my very rare fits of social daring, asked what they were doing and if I could join them. But I knew exactly what they were playing- I had been reading fantasy books for 2 years already and the jump to role-playing really wasn’t that far. The biggest problem I faced was that I knew no one else that role-played, and that would be a recurring theme until a friend in the making ambushed me while I was reading the Aberrant corebook.
I played the hell out of DnD. Every lunch time and every other Saturday during the 7th grade we would play. Our longest running campaign was some Samurai that was a paladin in funny clothes (my character) and his sidekick, the Ninja (the only stereotype this guy wasn’t tripping over was the fact that his character was male, and not some huge-breasted anime inspired geisha girl). The campaign, as best as I can remember it, was the uber-geek version of the Odd Couple, with a bunch of slayings of innocent orcs in their homes tacked on. Also of note, my character and the other player’s character were oriental. In a world without an orient. That’s pure win baby.
But as with all days of a halcyon youth, it ends, and this time it was because of the 8th grade. The three of us each got separated into different “teams” and thus none of us shared any classes. We still hung out at lunch, but the magic was gone.
A lot of the next decade or so was spent trying to recapture that experience, with varying degrees of success. I’m still proud to this day of my Denver by Night campaign that took place during this time, but it took a long while to find a stable gaming group.
And part of that search was how I found myself in the White Wolf chatrooms of old. It also provided an easy escape from the real world changes that were happening during my senior year of high school and the years following.
I want to say it was ’97, but my memory is pretty crappy with names, dates, and automobiles. I'm much better with events, faces, connections, and meanings. Anyways, I came in fairly newbish as most of my experience with vampire up until this time was almost completely as a GM and not as a player. Nathaniel was originally supposed to be a straight from the book starting character, but that changed as people reacted to him and I think he became an Elder almost entirely based on my writing and people’s reactions to my writing. He was accepted as a towering pillar of power and I’ve had more than one player do a figurative double take when I oocly told them he was only 5’9.” My use of presence in how I described his actions or how he spoke his dialogue had a profound affect on how other players viewed him oocly. And as a writer this was one of the first real confidence boosters in my ability to write.
So, I suppose the answer to the subquestion, in specific to my writing, it was a happy accident, but the impetus itself was a desire to explore my creative urges and find a more regular experience in which to do that and that was intentional.
As a small coda, the person I most like to blame for really getting me into the White Wolf chats is Da. I had a bit of fun, but two memories really stand out in my first nights. The first her character had gotten frightened or something, and was hiding under a table. I remember freaking slightly that I had somehow done something wrong to offend the player, because it was one of the first times that I let it go with Nathaniel’s random banter that demanded attention. I can recall PMing her at least twice asking her oocly what I did wrong, and whatever it was that I was really, really sorry for it. And then she had the nerve to respond with a smiley with its tongue out! She then proceeded to explain to the newb that I did nothing wrong, and she was in fact enjoying the hell out of the scene. I should have realized then how evil of a player she was to her PC’s.
But the other… damn, I still remember wracking my brain every time she posted. Nathaniel was introduced to this young, drunk, ghoul, and by some coincidence I had rhymed his last bit of dialogue with hers and the game was on. That was the single most challenging scene I’ve ever played in. Everyone else got bored and left, but this scene was the progenitor for all of the epic Nath/Liz scenes that took hours to perform. Just two people trying to mentally out do each other and having a fun time in the process. None of the explosions or flashing blades could compare to it.
So yeah, I hope that fulfills your curiosity. Well, actually I kinda don’t =p as it would give me another reason to write. Also, again, anything anyone would like to ask, or throw out for inspiration, I would appreciate it.
Heh. I was in the seventh grade and it was towards the end of my second period English class at the time. You know the time where the kids are given extra time to do homework but no one ever actually does anything but screw around? Well there was one kid over in the corner with two others, the first had the DnD Rules Cyclopedia open and they were talking about it. Funny thing was, the first kid who was GMing for the other two didn’t go on to regularly join us and drifted away in middle school. But during high school and the years following, he and I became close friends. For those of you playing the home game that kid was David Bauer. I know some of those on my friendslist had their issues with him, but he was a good friend to me at least. I wonder where he is now; I miss him.
Anyways I, in one of my very rare fits of social daring, asked what they were doing and if I could join them. But I knew exactly what they were playing- I had been reading fantasy books for 2 years already and the jump to role-playing really wasn’t that far. The biggest problem I faced was that I knew no one else that role-played, and that would be a recurring theme until a friend in the making ambushed me while I was reading the Aberrant corebook.
I played the hell out of DnD. Every lunch time and every other Saturday during the 7th grade we would play. Our longest running campaign was some Samurai that was a paladin in funny clothes (my character) and his sidekick, the Ninja (the only stereotype this guy wasn’t tripping over was the fact that his character was male, and not some huge-breasted anime inspired geisha girl). The campaign, as best as I can remember it, was the uber-geek version of the Odd Couple, with a bunch of slayings of innocent orcs in their homes tacked on. Also of note, my character and the other player’s character were oriental. In a world without an orient. That’s pure win baby.
But as with all days of a halcyon youth, it ends, and this time it was because of the 8th grade. The three of us each got separated into different “teams” and thus none of us shared any classes. We still hung out at lunch, but the magic was gone.
A lot of the next decade or so was spent trying to recapture that experience, with varying degrees of success. I’m still proud to this day of my Denver by Night campaign that took place during this time, but it took a long while to find a stable gaming group.
And part of that search was how I found myself in the White Wolf chatrooms of old. It also provided an easy escape from the real world changes that were happening during my senior year of high school and the years following.
I want to say it was ’97, but my memory is pretty crappy with names, dates, and automobiles. I'm much better with events, faces, connections, and meanings. Anyways, I came in fairly newbish as most of my experience with vampire up until this time was almost completely as a GM and not as a player. Nathaniel was originally supposed to be a straight from the book starting character, but that changed as people reacted to him and I think he became an Elder almost entirely based on my writing and people’s reactions to my writing. He was accepted as a towering pillar of power and I’ve had more than one player do a figurative double take when I oocly told them he was only 5’9.” My use of presence in how I described his actions or how he spoke his dialogue had a profound affect on how other players viewed him oocly. And as a writer this was one of the first real confidence boosters in my ability to write.
So, I suppose the answer to the subquestion, in specific to my writing, it was a happy accident, but the impetus itself was a desire to explore my creative urges and find a more regular experience in which to do that and that was intentional.
As a small coda, the person I most like to blame for really getting me into the White Wolf chats is Da. I had a bit of fun, but two memories really stand out in my first nights. The first her character had gotten frightened or something, and was hiding under a table. I remember freaking slightly that I had somehow done something wrong to offend the player, because it was one of the first times that I let it go with Nathaniel’s random banter that demanded attention. I can recall PMing her at least twice asking her oocly what I did wrong, and whatever it was that I was really, really sorry for it. And then she had the nerve to respond with a smiley with its tongue out! She then proceeded to explain to the newb that I did nothing wrong, and she was in fact enjoying the hell out of the scene. I should have realized then how evil of a player she was to her PC’s.
But the other… damn, I still remember wracking my brain every time she posted. Nathaniel was introduced to this young, drunk, ghoul, and by some coincidence I had rhymed his last bit of dialogue with hers and the game was on. That was the single most challenging scene I’ve ever played in. Everyone else got bored and left, but this scene was the progenitor for all of the epic Nath/Liz scenes that took hours to perform. Just two people trying to mentally out do each other and having a fun time in the process. None of the explosions or flashing blades could compare to it.
So yeah, I hope that fulfills your curiosity. Well, actually I kinda don’t =p as it would give me another reason to write. Also, again, anything anyone would like to ask, or throw out for inspiration, I would appreciate it.