RE: (TFT) I knew this guy

["Matt Picone" <matman@mysticworks.com>]

OK, I definitely have you ALL topped. Yeah, you've got your guy with a
gaming dice, and a little wooden box, but check THIS out.

When I was about 16 I used to RPG with a guy who had it all. He had a
gaming pencil. Gaming paper. Gaming screen. Gaming box. The entire set
of books and magazines in a certain order in a special milk crate named
"quintie". Every item had to be present and perfect or no dice
(literally). He used to make me wash my hands before I could touch
anything, and food besides a certain type of dry pretzels was out of the
question. I guess I got used to it-- would patiently trudge through the
rituals, because he was a really imaginative DM behind the strange focus
on accessories, and my best friend to boot. Besides, neat recordkeeping
and tidy tabletops never hurt a game. Well, there WAS this one time...

We had made arrangements to get over to my friend's grandmother's farm
for a long weekend of gaming. That was a big enough deal in itself;
making plans, getting approval, and even transportation was always a
challenge for us kids, but we'd managed to sequester a whole long
weekend to continue the compelling story of so-and-so and
what's-his-face. I was psyched. Nobody to keep us quiet. No parents send
us to bed. No mockery from siblings, friends, or visitors. ("what the
heck are you two doing in there"). At "Gram's farm" we had a private
basement, or even our own sort of side apartment for total RPG
immersion. It was awesome. 

Everything was set up, when all of a sudden I heard, "Uhhh, I got a
little bad news there Matty...we can't game".

"What?!?" I startled.

"I forgot 'D&D eraser'" he said.

"You forgot WHAT?!?" I said.

"I forgot 'D&D eraser'"

"But you have a perfectly new eraser on 'D&D pencil'!!!"

"I can't game without D&D eraser."

I wanted to scream. I knew we were sunk. 'D&D Eraser' was a little white
rectangle with one corner rubbed off and a dot where a lead pencil had
been poked in. I looked at the maps, characters, and books on the table.
Rage boiled in me. I couldn't control it. I unleashed a half-hearted
karate chop at 'D&D Screen', that cardboard that was normally folded and
stored in a little sheet protector between sessions.

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!" he shouted. Adding obscenities. "WHAT IS YOUR
PROBLEM!"

"What is MY problem? We can't game because you forget your stupid eraser
and you're asking me what MY problem is?."  He was furious as he tried
to caress the crumpled cardboard back to some semblemce of its lost
perfection. 

We probably sat and glared. Then sat and moped. I think he took a
syringe from the farm supplies and inhjected some milk ("serum" into his
Grandmother's Raggedy Ann doll. Then, whatever happened, eventually I
apologized and he admitted how ridiculous it all was. He even eventually
got over 'D&D eraser' and all that external focus we managed to get 2
more years of good gaming in before going to separate colleges. We laugh
about the whole story in retrospect.

He used to describe our friendship as "Lawful meets Chaotic". In
retrospect I'd describe it as hillarious.

-- 
</M@>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tft-owner@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-owner@brainiac.com]
> On Behalf Of Joe Hartley
> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 5:15 PM
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Subject: Re: (TFT) I knew this guy
> 
> 
> David Michael Grouchy II wrote:
> >      I knew this guy...
> 
> Thanks for posting this; I *love* these stories!
> 
> --
> ======================================================================
>                     Joe Hartley - jh@brainiac.com
>   "Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. 
>    I consider the capacity for it terrifying." --Kurt 
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