Gaming History: Ste

Amy’s blog post from last week ends about where this one begins: shortly after we met.

My first ever roleplaying experience was at 19, joining her weekly gaming group for a one-shot – a D20 Modern game in which we were all soldiers sent into a building full of eternally reanimating zombies (one got minced – it got back up a while later, as a humanoid shape composed entirely of blood and viscera). It was a very utilitarian example of roleplaying, because the characters were hardbitten soldiers the in character thing to do was simply fight the enemy and not worry about personality clashes.

My second game is the one I usually talk about when explaining my introduction to gaming, because it’s one that really seems to have set the tone for everything since. Once again it was a D20 modern game – well, D20 future, but it’s the same system – and this time I was playing a Tough character, I was the Obligatory Bodyguard Boyfriend 1)the male equivalent of the Obligatory Healer Girlfriend trope.

I started the character creation process as a normal human soldier, but during character building the GM suggested my character might have suffered injuries from an attack in his past, so he ended up becoming a Cyborg Soldier. All well and good.

In session 1 we were sent to investigate what was causing a small region of people to mutate into animal-esque forms – we were given gas masks, antibiotics and antivirals to ensure we weren’t affected. Unfortunately, in session 2 we discovered the we were changing anyway, and my character swiftly became a Cyborg Bear.

In session 3 we had abandoned our previous chain of command, having been ordered to eradicate all the mutants, and had instead decided to investigate the source of the effect on our own. We soon discovered that it was caused by nanotech, and headed for a nearby shut-down nano-lab in an old army base. My character, being somewhat clumsy, accidentally set off the base defenses near the entrance to this building, which we then had to destroy – damaging the wall and causing it to vent a thick cloud of mutagenic nanites. I was now a Cyborg Bear With Spiky Metal Fur.

In session 4 we were following up a new lead, sending us onwards to a city based nano-factory that was apparently spewing out the same animalising nanites. We made it a good way into the city, coming across a shockingly small number of people and a shockingly large number of military robots, and as the session ended I came across a vial of some strange chemical – and pocketed it for later study.

In session 5 we reached the factory. It was surprisingly small 2)nanites eh? and unguarded – but as we approached we were attacked by a giant mech, and found ourselves once again fighting for our lives. We defeated the mech, but it activated a self-destruct function. It was right next to the wall of the building… and out came a ploom of mutagenic nanites. Now savvy to the situation, I dived out of the way; but not fast enough – it turns out that my cybernetic limbs weren’t very agile, especially when they were inside a bear, and the spiky metal fur really wasn’t helping matters. So I became mutated once more, gaining glowing green eyes (and night vision). Then the GM remembered the vial in my pocket – that had shattered, and it contained mutagen too. I became a Giant Superstrong Cyborg Bear with Glowing Green Eyes and Spiky Metal Fur… I had a constitution of 30, at level 3.

That game didn’t last beyond that – I think the GM struggled with the level of silliness it had reached) but I played a few more games with that group, including one in which I was a werewolf with a leather whip fetish who specialised in tying people up (specifically his whip had been bound with the spirit of an anaconda and was extremely good at keeping people bound – it was inspired by Wonder Women’s Lasso of Truth).

Then I moved on to GMing for my housemates and some of their friends. We had a D&D 3.5 campaign for a while, with members dropping in and out as we found out who in our group actually liked playing tabletop RPGs (or at least, who liked playing it when I was running – I was very much a novice at the time so my plots were lackluster).

As the other players in that group became more experienced we started taking rounds running different games. And then the uni year ended, and many of us moved, after which the group started falling apart. I joined a university roleplaying society, and had fun there – especially once I got introduced to their sunday boardgaming nights and discovered the joy of a deep boardgame – and eventually ended up meeting Loz and Ali there, through a mutual friend named Iain, and joining up with their gaming group.

That’s the story coming next week – the first game we played together.

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References   [ + ]

1. the male equivalent of the Obligatory Healer Girlfriend trope
2. nanites eh?