Death before dishonor, but only if the cleric can raise dead

[dr4b]

Gary Gygax died yesterday.

You know, it's not D&D itself that I can't imagine in my life, but when I tried to think what my life would be like now without the friends that I made through D&D groups -- all the way back to 1990 or so -- that's when my head explodes.

Heck, even mithramuse, who came up to Akabane yesterday to hang out while he's on a business trip to Japan... I met him in a D&D group in the summer after my freshman year of college. He was DMing the Deserts of Desolation trilogy. I think that's the first place I met angelbob too. And Dave White. And Cliff-the-disappearing-RA. (I already knew msde from volleyball.) IIRC I pretty much replaced cheerfulchaotic's gnome mage with an elven archer named Janthina who popped into the game via a Wand of Wonder, which those who have played D&D with any other incarnation of Janthina can tell you is pretty much a recipe for disaster.

I could probably tell a similar story for like half of my friends list, though this one hits me just because it was relevant to yesterday, that I was hanging out with a D&D friend, half a planet away from where we first met in a D&D game, around the same time the D&D co-creator died.

So, if you write a response to this... share a D&D-related memory, especially if it's about meeting friends.

Comments

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

I met my fiancee playing D&D.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

You're engaged? Congrats!

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)

[tg2k.livejournal.com]

I recently started playing D&D again and met some new friends here...hadn't played since about 2000 just after 3.0 came out, but had to stop in 2001 when our DM moved.

We're all excited here about 4th Edition...too bad Gary Gygax won't be around to see it, though I don't know if he was even close to D&D anymore (I imagine he wasn't working for WotC even for 3rd edition).

[mithramuse.livejournal.com]

That was a fun campaign, if rather frustrating for how Dave was trying to get out of the initial plot railroad. I mean, I don't really like it either, but everyone knew what they were getting into, so hey, play along, 'kay? ^_-

Regardless, that was fun, even when people know what's coming. ^_^ (And when your GM isn't that great... I'm okay, but nowhere near as good as angelbob or astralagos.

I still remember reading through various EGG modules saying basically, wtf? Amazing stuff... as well as his other writings on general GMing and playing. Definitely a guy who was in the 'play it to the hilt' category, and not for crunching numbers. He'll be missed... and well remembered.

[mithramuse.livejournal.com]

Hmm... about meeting friends via D&D... when I first started my current job, I kept seeing various D&D online supplements sitting on the color printer at work. One day during lunch, I staked out the print room and caught the purchasing manager picking up the printouts.

He later said that he was *really* nervous about when I 'found him out' that day... until I started talking like I knew D&D and was, in fact, interested in joining up. Good timing since the group just rolled up characters a few weeks before... and that's how I found my NJ game group. ^_^ Separate from 'em now that I'm in China, but when I'm back in town I'll usually sit in on a session or two, and maybe take an NPC for a spin... good times.

[ag5j.livejournal.com]

I have a memory about a game - although I can't remember who was playing and where we were playing. The party was surrounded by Orcs ( or Ogres, or something particularly nasty ) and bk3c stepped forward and asked "does anyone here know common?" - he was promptly killed.

Do you remember this story? Neither me nor bk3c can remember when/where the game was or who it was with

[dr4b]

I totally remember that but I also totally forget whose game it was. something with Josh maybe?

[tesposit.livejournal.com]

I remember several trips to Pittsburgh where D&D ended up being an event for a day. Such memorable lines emerged as:

1. Got a body bag of holding?
2. Can I question him, with my axe?

I think Tal came up with:
"He is Joe Namless, not Joe Namath. We don't retire his number"

Such sessions let me get to know you and Mike's other CMU friends better while helping to maintain my friendship with Mike.

My first D&D memory was when I went as a cub scout to a boy scout father-and-son camping trip. I played Basic D&D all Saturday afternoon. The Lost City I think the was the module. I was a thief named Shadow.

Currently I am rereading Dragons of Autumns Twilight since I just watched the film adaptation. I haven't read that since high school.

[dlatimer.livejournal.com]

I remember Joe Nameless, numbers 1 through 4, I believe, but I think only #3 survived long. I also remember us being surprised to discover that Joe #5 was actually Jane when someone asked me to roll to see what sex the people were. There was just something incredibly fun about the sheer randomness of rolling on a table to find out some trivial piece of information... which would later end up being a campaign element.

I think Jane ended up as one of the main guards of that adventuring group.

I remember Janthena getting quite upset about losing a bow and starting a "kill all Iuz followers" spree.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

I can remember a friend of mine devising the following parody of the Mr. Ed theme song:

"A corpse is a corpse, of course, of course,
And no-one can talk to a corpse, of course,
But I can talk to a corpse, of course,
'Cos I've got Speak with Dead".

...not the memory in best taste, in context, but it put a smile on my face at the time and the memory of it still does.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

Gygax was a big figure in my childhood; less so more recently. My friends and I bought a few books and read them voraciously and bullshitted about everything and went out back and swordfought with blown-down sticks.

Never actually played (except a couple totally abortive attempts).

[jvinocur.livejournal.com]

It's several steps removed, but I wonder how different PGSS would have been.

And in case you didn't see: