With the dire overtones used by the media and various activist groups when talking about roleplay, as well as the zeal with which we gamers fervently support it, it¹s easy to forget one basic truth: gaming is fun. Poking fun at ourselves can restore a lighthearted perspective. Easier said than done, sometimes: a character two years in the playing finally reaches the presidency — and is assassinated the next day; a Machiavellian plot is ruined in three seconds by a player who did the impossible; the Anti-Roleplay League set up headquarters across the street and handed out brochures to your school explaining why "Gaming = Satan and Hellfire" . . . . Well, the game¹s the thing, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
So, here¹s a bit of humor from rec.games.frp.misc:
You might be a gamer if:
- losing your dice bag would be a critical financial loss
- you own your weight in gaming rules
- you have dice "inked" in crayon
- you own Introduction to Traveler
- you can do AD&D money conversions in your head
- you know what the following actually stood for:
TSR, FASA, FGU - you alternate between first and third person when talking about your characters
- . . . and none of your friends gets confused
- you could wallpaper your room in character sheets
- you can play more than three NPCs at once without confusing your players. Or yourself.
- you wrote a random NPC generator in BASIC for the C-64
- the phrase "Collect Call of Cthulhu" brings back fond memories
- . . . so does "Creative Camera Angles"
- your friends watched The Crow and assigned vampire clans to all the characters
- you¹ve had screaming matches during a gaming session (You are so dead. I am not!)
- you¹ve gotten weird looks at Denny¹s or IHOP because of your conversations
- you consider party mix, salt & vinegar chips and cola a balanced diet
- you¹ve mistaken a d12 or a double d10 for a d20 and still had a THAC0 low enough to hit the 8hd monster anyway
- . . . and you understood that.
- your kids learned to read from your gaming books (See Jane in the dungeon. See Jane levitate above the claymore . . .)
- you know what a claymore is and what it looks like
- your GM thinks you live in his house
- you tried gaming outside for that fresh air and woodland atmosphere
- . . . until the wind made you chase your char sheets all over the place while your friends yelled "Cel! Cel!"
- you use phrases like "Save vs. graduation or go insane for 1d4 days"
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