Turning Back the Dark

"OK, so, everyone ready?"

The four adolescents are fidgety. I know the body language. It's the "adult is watching" thing.

The setup is less than ideal. We're wedged into a corner of Tyler's living room. It's a small wooden kitchen-size table. It's cramped. There's nowhere for all my stuff.

My question goes unanswered. I lift the cloth off the table. A small set of ruins. A graveyard wall, dripping with old vines and grey dust. Tombstones. Four prone, poorly painted 28mm pewter figures.

I have their attention, at least for a moment. "Cool," gasps Cindy. Cindy's been utterly silent during the last half hour of shaking hands, kicking the moms out, setting stuff up. Now, she's almost giddy.

I try and wipe the smile off my face. Making eye contact with each of them in turn, I begin.

"It's dark. You're cold. Those are the first two things you realize. Your head hurts."

I pause for effect. They kids look at each other, a bit in shock. They're not smiling. They're confused.

"Uh, and ...?" starts Tyler. He's the proto-Rabbit. Bad hair, pale white skin, smart, geeky.

I remain silent.

"Uh, I stand up."

I keep my face as immobile as possible, fighting back a grin. "You can't. You go to push yourself up, and you find that your arms are numb. Your hands are tied behind your back, and your feet are tied together."

"Where are we?" asks Becca.

"You have no idea. It's dark. It's cold. You're wet. Your clothes are sticking to you."

Cindy scans through her character sheet. She's the Cleric, the only spell caster, but she has no idea what she can do. "Um, can I cast light or something?"

I tell her she'll have to make a will saving throw to overcome her fear. "Why?"

"Because suddenly you know where you are. You're in the Necropolis."

I can see her working through the word "Necropolis" in her head. She looks at the minis, the graveyard pieces.

"After dark."

And I know I have her. Somewhere in her eyes, I can tell I've kicked a fear reflex into gear. Not a big one. It's not a full-on Steven King moment.

My niece breaks the silence. "I want to listen. Is that a check?" She's very into the mechanics. She wants to roll dice for everything.

"Yeah Becca, you can roll to listen." 20. First dice roll of the game, and it's a natural 20. Plus she's maxed out her listen skill.

"You hear something from behind you -- above your head as your lying down. It's far away. It sounds like wet leaves and breathing."

Boom. I have her too. I can see it. Not much, and not something she'd ever admit to, but she sits up a little straighter.

Tyler, rules-lawyer in training, snaps into gamer mode and works the problem. "OK, escape artist check. I want to get out of the ropes." He does. He runs around and unties the strangers in the graveyard with him. They make casual introductions. Then the zombies come shuffling into view.

Victory is mine. The promise of three 8-hit-point, slow-moving zombies has them crapping their pants. Cindy looks me right in the eye -- actual eye contact from an adolescent -- and pleads. "What can I do?"

"Taina," I start. I refuse to address players by anything other than their character names during a game. "You are strong with Lothian. Simply brandishing the silver Ankh around your neck can strike fear into evil. And should that fail, you can channel his power into the weapons you carry, the words you speak, or the actions of your fellows."

At this point I know I've crossed a line. Ten minutes ago I was "Becca's weird 40-year-old bald uncle." Now I'm this freaky dude talking like a B-movie narrator. There's substantial risk that the table will burst out in laughter, and I will know the shame that only someone under the age of 18 can levy upon an adult. But I make my "DM's an idiot" saving throw and we slide into awesomeness.

Cindy's otherwise meek eyes fill with a spark of power. She brandishes her imaginary holy symbol and shouts, "Back!" Desperate to reward her efforts, I consider "rolling" for her behind the screen so she can be successful in turning these undead fiends back. But part of this exercise is teaching the kids, Tyler in particular, how to run the game -- not just the storytelling, but the rules too. I explain the process of turning undead. Either my real God or her imaginary one looks down kindly, and she succeeds.

More than Tiana the Cleric, it's Cindy who -- just for a moment -- shines bright in the darkness.

This single moment is why I played role-playing games as a kid, and why my sister, and the moms of these other kids, approached me to walk them through a "real" game of D&D. Tyler and Cindy's mom was clear -- RPG's were important to her growing up. Her unspoken subtext was that as a parent, it was likely impossible to break down the barriers between her and her children that are required to actually be a parent. I know this feeling. I feel it every day.

For this one brief, and likely fleeting moment, Cindy has realized that she doesn't have to live in anyone's shadow. That she can hold aloft her own holy symbol and drive back what demons may come. In this tiny sliver of time, she is more important than her well-meaning, smart, but forever older, older brother. More important than the zombies, and more important than this 40-year-old stranger.

The next three hours are awesome, in the way that only the reliving of youth for an old man can be. Tyler has his moments where his knowledge of the game is vindicated. Becca has her moments where her desperate need to roll dice pays off. James, the shy one who meekly desired to play a dwarf fighter, stands up and gives a barbaric "Yawp!" as he cleaves a dastardly assassin in twain with a single critical hit.

But me? I'll remember Cindy. And you can be damned sure I'll be seeing these kids again.

Comments

1Dgaf wrote:

Anime,

Not sure about that. There's knowing-cheesiness. That's understandable and somewhat fun. But I think that gaming, especially RPGs, attract people that aren't knowingly being cheesy. I doubt rabbit is deluded, but there are plenty that are.

Anyway, he made a brave choice picking the cheesy angle with those kids. THey enjoyed it, so it worked. But when his article started with him building a sense of tension. Playing with people's emotions.

*snip*

Maybe I'm just to old to appreciate what they did -- but I'd be interested to see what happens if he takes a consistently sinister and slightly dour next time.

I don't think it's a matter of age, so much as a matter of jade. I'm 26, and I could still appreciate something like this. I always thought of the GM as 'that voice in the sky', and Rabbit's commentary to his young cleric fit perfectly with that. It stressed the importance of using OOC as little as possible, and truly learning how to RP.

Folklore wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Duoae wrote:
rabbit wrote:

lol. You can have my job!

LOL, flattery will get you everywhere...

I once had the idea of playing out a campaign in Heroquest or another game similar to that and just writing a story/short novel surrounding the dice throws...

That's where all of Raymond Feist's stuff came from originally. Delicious.

It can go the other way, though... Gary Gygax his own self wrote the "Gord the Rogue" series based on a campaign he was in, and while it's entertaining, the game mechanics kept poking through for me. Also, it seemed like the ultimate Monty Haul campaign.

Who's the better writer, then?

wordsmythe wrote:

Who's the better writer, then?

Trick question!

Answer: You are! The power of writing lies within yourself...

(Sorry for the obsscure reference... anyone get it?)

Just as a followup, I got an email from Cindy thanking me for the game, and talking about how great it felt to be standing on her own in the game, not under her brothers shadow. I think the actual "Role Playing" part of RPG is going to be good for her.

rabbit wrote:
Folklore wrote:

it seemed like the ultimate Monty Haul campaign.

What's wrong with that!?

Sorry, I have to echo Rabbit here (and that email is cool!). What else are you going to do with a bunch of complete newbs? They're going to be fighting the system as well as the monsters. Giving them a goal they can count and quantify gives them one less thing they have to work hard to understand. They're not real good on being themselves yet; give them time to learn how to be their characters. Ramp up the difficulty over the course of several campaigns, and save the deep ethical quandries for when they're 16 and want to dye their hair black so it will cut itself. They'll revel in it then.

True story - my daughter came home with that one this evening. I said no, unless she's going to pay for it and it's maintenance.

Great news Rabbit!

momgamer wrote:

want to dye their hair black so it will cut itself.

How does that work? Being a guy and having two haircuts my entire life (both of them short) i do not understand the world of hair dress-up...

It's a bad joke about emo/pseudo-goth kids. You know, the ones who write bad poetry about longing for darkness, wear too much black and self-injure. Her hair is almost down to her backside and some guy grabbed her by her Lara Croft braid in gym class during a game of touch-football and had the bad taste to crow that he'd done it on purpose away from the teacher. He dresses like a goth (but he's way too preppy under the hood; I don't think he's so into it he hurts himself).

It makes sense to her, I'm sure. Mostly she was pissed and trying to be a smartalec while she was venting at me instead of doing her chore. And I was mostly proud of her for the turn of phrase and for not "accidentally" teaching him how to S.I.N.G. right there on the spo t. I borrowed it to try to wittily point out that 16-year-olds are much more complicated animals than 12-14 year olds. You wouldn't think it would make that much difference, but it does.

*Read momgamer's post*

I understand the words but the sense illudes me. Remind me never to write about teenagers... It's like you've written in some sort of parent's code.

I went through a really dark phase when i was 16-18 but i was never a goth... i suppose i had already spent some of that emotion when i was 7-10.

rabbit wrote:

Thanks DreadAle. That means a lot to me, especially coming from a grinder. Really.

Rabbit, raise those kids right and you'll have some wonderful players on your hands.

I still remember rule #1 from our table was, "The DM is always right. The rules are a guideline for what transpires in the game," which followed rule #2: "Don't unecessarily leave the party and 'do your own thing' without good reason,' as said action will result in a lot of savings throw/KV (for Phoenix Command)/Self-Control (V:TM) rolls.

Man, I died a few times from being stupid and trying to push a gamemaster's buttons in the process by obliquely quoting rules that he told me that *gasp* weren't important to the overall game other than providing the foundation for interaction that was both enjoyable and created some story-like cameraderie from the players (and the GM) at the table.

It is all about the love, man, all about the love. Good GMs are gold and those players don't know what they've got in ya, Rabbit.

Duoae wrote:

I went through a really dark phase when i was 16-18 but i was never a goth... i suppose i had already spent some of that emotion when i was 7-10.

See, back when I was a teen (in 1980 for god's sake) we had this cool new band called BLACK FLAG and all that Emo stuff was till a long way away. We didn't worry so much about the self pity. We focussed more on punching walls, and occasionally, each other.

rabbit wrote:
Duoae wrote:

I went through a really dark phase when i was 16-18 but i was never a goth... i suppose i had already spent some of that emotion when i was 7-10.

See, back when I was a teen (in 1980 for god's sake) we had this cool new band called BLACK FLAG and all that Emo stuff was till a long way away. We didn't worry so much about the self pity. We focussed more on punching walls, and occasionally, each other.

Huh, in the '90s when I was growing up, we still had this pretty cool retro band called BLACK FLAG. Depeche Mode and The Cure were our, erm.., 'emo' bands, but I certainly don't have any problem admitting that I like their bodies of work quite a bit.

Not to threadjack, but has anyone seen that commercial where there is some dude named Sean and his emo band (aptly named EmoShan) singing, "I get sad when the puppies cry" to two old people in loungers and one homely black woman with a lighter in the background as his audience. This was brilliant and I can't find it anywhere unfortunately. I can't even remember what the hell they were selling.

You sure have a blessing with your niece, Rabbit.

BlackSheep wrote:

I still remember rule #1 from our table was, "The DM is always right. The rules are a guideline for what transpires in the game," which followed rule #2: "Don't unecessarily leave the party and 'do your own thing' without good reason,' as said action will result in a lot of savings throw/KV (for Phoenix Command)/Self-Control (V:TM) rolls.

The first time I started to get annoyed at my players, I used DM magic to drop big ol' cow on the character from out of the sky. Nearly killed him. From then on when they started to get out of line, I told them to make a listen roll. They heard a faint "moo" in the distance, and it was getting closer.

rabbit wrote:
Duoae wrote:

I went through a really dark phase when i was 16-18 but i was never a goth... i suppose i had already spent some of that emotion when i was 7-10.

See, back when I was a teen (in 1980 for god's sake) we had this cool new band called BLACK FLAG and all that Emo stuff was till a long way away. We didn't worry so much about the self pity. We focussed more on punching walls, and occasionally, each other.

Nah, i was never into much music growing up except 50's and 60's stuff. I think the first album i ever bought was Catatonia - International Velvet when i was 17. The previous ablums i owned prior to that were: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers (or something like that), Bryan Adams - The Best of and The pet shop boys - Greatest hits.... all bought before and around the age of 10.... I wonder why i was depressed so young and didn't buy any music for so long? Ah well, these things aren't meant to be understood...

I just finally read this, rabbit, and I loved it - especially the line about the two gods (even though I'm agnostic).

wordsmythe wrote:

You sure have a blessing with your niece, Rabbit.

BlackSheep wrote:

I still remember rule #1 from our table was, "The DM is always right. The rules are a guideline for what transpires in the game," which followed rule #2: "Don't unecessarily leave the party and 'do your own thing' without good reason,' as said action will result in a lot of savings throw/KV (for Phoenix Command)/Self-Control (V:TM) rolls.

The first time I started to get annoyed at my players, I used DM magic to drop big ol' cow on the character from out of the sky. Nearly killed him. From then on when they started to get out of line, I told them to make a listen roll. They heard a faint "moo" in the distance, and it was getting closer.

Our GM was much meaner than you. He would find ways to take our *gasp* stuff. In fact, there is a 'famous' (within our roleplaying group anyway) story of the fifty+ goblins coming down the road chasing the party and one of the members who is encumbered from the treasure recently pilfered from said goblins gives the statement of, "over my dead body." And so it came to pass.

Awesome.

I have the cow lined up already.

That's a great post rabbit! It's good to see that you are teaching them some good skills through a great hobby! If I were that age, I'd think it was great to have you teaching me the game. Unfortunately, I had to learn from a friend's older brother. Not that we didn't have fun, but there was a whole lot more hack n slash that we did rather than role-playing. Course, you can always learn to role-play, something that I did later in my gaming life.

It also sounds like you had a great time. Hopefully you'll have many more rewarding games with them!

Podunk wrote:

Stephen Erikson's fantasy novels are based on the tabletop RPG game he used to run.

As were the original Dragonlance Chronicles books.

Draco wrote:
Podunk wrote:

Stephen Erikson's fantasy novels are based on the tabletop RPG game he used to run.

As were the original Dragonlance Chronicles books.

Which I start reading again sometime this week, having just finished the two "recent" Raistlin Chronicles. First time I read them, I loved them. The second time I only made it about 100 pages into the first one and couldn't take anymore - they seemed so juvenile. But since I enjoyed the Raistlin Chronicles, I'm going to give them one more go, with the understanding that they aren't replacing Shakespeare.

I thought the follow-up series, Dragonlance Legends (which focuses much more on Raistlin and Caramon) was much better. There's also an awesome battle in the third bookw here Lord Soth sacks Palanthas. Some of my favorite reading there.

Check out the new trilogy by Weis and Hickman as well: The Lost Chronicles. The books detail adventures by the Companions that are alluded to in the Chronicles, but never gone into. The first was how the Heroes recovered the Hammer of Kharas, the second details how the Dragon Orb posssed by Feal-Thas was captured (by Kitiera and Lord Soth). I don't think the third book has been titled yet.

Here's Amazon links:
Dragons of the Dwarven Depths

Dragons of the Highlord Skies (Kiteria and Lord Soth are prominent characters)

Geez Draco, after reading your post I don't need to read any of the actual books now.

Just a personal opinion but I feel that the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends series were some of the best fantasy series I've read. I read them when I was in junior high and reread them when I was in H.S. and I enjoyed them each time. So much so that I ended up buying the collectors editions of both series which came in two huge books each containing all three books of each series. I guess I will always have a fondness for them. I hold the same fondness for the Ender series by Orson Scott Card (at least the first three books) and also the Riftwar series by Raymond E. Feist. And though the Stormbringer/Elric series by Michael Moorcock was a bit laborious to read I also liked them, though not as much.

I think the problem could be that the most recent read-through was high school (for me, as well). I'm tying up the second Raistlin book right now, so I should be on Chronicles 1 any day now and seeing how they hold up.