A Scrasamax is a pre-renaissance Swiss two-handed sword similar to a claymore, flamberge, or zweihander. That cleared up, I have been RPing since 1997, when a friend introduced me to a poorly hammered out game of Dungeons and Dragons. We only had the PHB, and a battered Dungeon Master's Screen and a handful of dice, some with teeth marks in them.
We would play for hours on end, staying up into the wee hours of the night, laughing, cutting up, and playing out our adventures. It was not long before my extensive reading background, and morbidly active imagination vaulted me to the seat behind the screen. We expanded from AD&D and added Vampire to our game list, along with Battletech. Ah, hands in the airs, voices exaspiratingly crying out 'Garrison duty again?' and despite protests, they threw themselves into the game, fighting each other as well as invaders, and angry locals.
I ran an afternoon game where all of the players, rich with gold all but looted a city of it's jewelry and fine dresses. I was lucky to have not just girls in my troop, but all girls in that particular troop. To be honest, females have been a larger percentage of my gamers than boys, but I think it has lead me to create more rounded characters and adventures, branching away from the hack'n'slash point and shoot.
Characters got married, children were born, friends and loved ones perished. During one such evening, the funeral of a henchman, a waifish cyborg, was interrupted because two of my players were crying. I was saddened by the fact that the NPC was gone, but the fact that she was though of as a friend by the players was one of the best accolades I have ever recieved. The other came after a pre-planned Halloween game.
We camped out, barbecued on the grill, and played. No dice, no rule books, just the taste of beer, and the sounds of the night. Mind you this is in east Texas, and there are alot of sounds. Frogs, cicadas, crickets, whipporwills, and other nighttime animals. We played, three of the five PC's were killed, their bodies lost deep within the earth. One of my players told me they had nightmares afterwards, nightmares of the game that they had completed.
Good times. Good times don't last. I followed my girlfriend to east Tennessee where I married her.
We both play, I am sooooooo lucky. It may be that I just have a biased opinion, but oh well, whatever.
Then the truth hit home. A game book in Texas brought questioning looks, and sometimes those people would ask a question, or thumb through a book curiously. Not such a bad place, actually. You can hear the bibles thumping here. I have had people tell me I am going to hell if I don't trash the game books and start reading the bible instead. I give them the finger, tell 'e, I've read, more than once too. Then I ask when they last read it and laugh when they realize that they havent read it, or havent read it in a decade or longer. Hypocrits.
This is the wasteland of RPG's. There are no game shops, no local groups. All of my game books come via the internet, and through sites like this, which I enjoy immensly. This is where imagination comes to die, where illiteracy, and ignorance are not only present, but sometimes proudly displayed. Rednecks are a world wide phenominon, I bet there are even French rednecks, but only in Tennessee are these people given an elevated status, proud of their ignorance and obtuseness. I don't mean to sound like a hater, but until you've lived here and seen the local news, and read the local paper...it's just scary.
Aaaaaaanyway, I am a bit of a medieval enthusiast. RenFests are alot of fun, and I have staffs that I have cut and cured myself. I learned to swordfight with training swords, as well as with the staff. I've had blackened fingers, elbows, knees, feet, and ears. Training is painfull! I also read regularly. Koontz is a weekend fling, King lasts a week, and six months later, Nietsche is still putting up a fight.
Well, I guess this intro is long enough now.
Peace
Scras
