The last year I've really gotten into some serious gaming.  I don't think I want to calculate the hours I've spent doing it.  And not just video games.  Almost every Thursday I meet up at Ryan's house for some fun pen & paper RPG time.  Currently we are playing the new 3rd edition D&D.  In the past we have played Call of Cuthulu, Dark Heresy, and Dead Lands. 

I was going through my character sheets and remembering all the fun that was had with a couple of friends, a handful of dice, and little bit of imagination. I've tried to play a number of different roles.  I've been a whore, a thief, an assassin, a paladin, and most currently a cleric.  Next time I'll to try some kind of mage-like character.

It's been a while since we've played Dead Lands (before Rohan was born) but it was a lot of fun and my first steps back into the world of D&D.  My charcter was a whore turned gunslinger looking for vengance.  Her real name was never revealed but she was known by the group as Ruby.  She could kick your ass and yet you'd be begging for more.  She had the ability to stop grown men in their tracks with just a glance.  Her looks also got her into trouble sometimes as well.  Every day she had to fend of advances from Clazy Cleatus but that was a battle she rarely lost.  Most remembered moment was the adventure when we fought Velociraptors and Cleatus blew us all up.  Never leave the man alone with dynamite.

Next was Call of Cthulu.  This was the first one I picked back up with after I separated from Lee.  This one is one of my favorites and I hope we get to play it again sometime.  I really had a lot of fun creating this character.  She was a thief and I can't remember her name for some reason (I will have to look it up when I get home tonight and update this post).   Very, very successful theif.  That is until she got caught in a mystical trap and learned there was a whole other world out there with monsters and magic in it.  She was "recruited" by Delta Green to help solve crimes and deafeat monsters.  I've actually got two moments I constantly remember in this one.  The first one being Ranger Rick fighting zombies with a can a bear spray.  Second one being catching the big gem before it could fall into the ground and open up a really nasty portal to a demon realm.  After saving the gem I spent the entire combat running around evading the big bad until Notival's character set up a plan the culminated in blowing the gem and the port-a-potties to smithereens.  Great times. 

After that was the 40K game, Dark Heresy.  This time I chose to do a strong, fighter type character.  She was a deadly assasin from a back world's planet.  Everyone called her Kat but no one really her real name since she was taken from her parents and sold into slavery at a young age.  Her motto is "violence solves everything" and she believes that not bathing provides her with a "dirt ward" that protects her.  She was forced to join and serve by the PTBs.  This game is a little more difficult to play but still fun.  The one thing about this one I will remember is Notival and his grappling hook.

We did a short round of D&D with premade characters.  This time I chose a Dragonborne Paladin and named her Rriss.  We really just used these characters to lurn the new dynamics of the 3rd generation D&D.  The paladin was a really fun class to play but since I was playing a tank like character in 40K I decided to leave my poor Pally by the wayside and choose something different for our current D&D campaign. Dre graciously stepped aside and let me try out the Cleric/Healer style player.  My first time playing a healing class, ever.  Even counting WoW.  It requires more strategy but I'm really liking it so far. 

My new D&D character is a male Minotaur named Apostle.  At a very early age his parents were killed in the dungeons underneath Ptolius and he was found and taken in by a pair of Lothian missionaries named Paul and Sophia.  They raised him as human deep within the folds of the great Lothian church.   Being a minotaur he is constantly at war with himself to keep control of his dark rage.  He is very uncomfortable around other Minotaurs and usally tries to avoid them when ever possible.  Being percieved as a wolf in sheeps clothing keeps him fairly friendless but that doesn't really bother him.  He has one close friend name Phon who he has known since they were both kids.  He is viciously protective of his adoptive parents and Phon.  Anyone who tries to mess with them is in for a world of hurt.  Until recently his ambitions were to be accepted into the Order of the Dawn, an elite group of  individuals who are defenders of the Lothian faith.  In the last few months he has fallen in with a group of Adventurers.  He's really pleased by the work he's done since joining Adventuring Guild Number 18 and hopes to continue and deepen his bonds with his new comrads.

I've really gotten into all the back story of my character and the world during this campaign.  It's been a lot of fun even when we almost all got killed by the big dragon.  Most memorable moment would actually have to be one I missed.  The one game I had to miss Yark went storming into trouble, as usual, and came really close to being a small footnote in the Guild log books.  My goal in this game is to always be within 5 squares of Yark so that no matter what happens hopefully I can save him from himself.

Didn't really mean for this to turn into a novel but once I started remembering things I couldn't stop.  Told you I was in a writing mood today.  Next post, Gaming part 2.  Wonder what Rohan will think when he reads these someday?