A new beginning and the end of a era ---- PART 1

Not sure where to start....what is a good beginning to start with??? so many stories....so many adventures....and life.

Lets see hmmm ya 35+ years ago.... my step brother and our best friend and i were in the basement of our kamloops home. we had played panzer leader, panzer blitz and squad leader and man the rules and tiles was a pain......but after immersed in a scenario.....ya didn't want to quit or bump the boards.

I remember also i just finish reading the sword of Shannara

I had read The Hobbit and the Hobbit was read to me....and since we had just moved from the mountains of Alberta.......my new english teacher was having class doing it as a reading assignment.
wow.......i was starting to like school a little more

I just love this fantasy stuff.....and the sword of shannara was just getting me started.
I had enough Avalon hill tiles/hex games.....it was the rave.....and there was many a wargamer in school playing at lunch or after school in the library. I had had my fill.....i want something different.....something new....some grand.......and if my step sister asked to play clue, monopoly or sorry....i would make her eat the pieces. there is only so much one can play monopoly in a lifetime.....and i have earn my seat in Valhalla or heaven in my teens

Hmmm was it july or august....it was fruit season and 33C on average days.....my friend came from the alberta mountains on a fateful day......i thank all the gods.....my friend the Duaner was a sanctified as saint in our hearts.

We were chilling out as it was a scorcher out side......and we three amigos were not playing any board games......it was like a unspoken truce...word or pact. plus we had turned down the sis several time that day.....even for a risk game......which seemed to be the last best hope.

the Duaner said hey guys i have something to show ya......(he was a maniacal comicbook collector.....so we figured some new graphic novels or a new stack of comics. Back in the mountains we use to bring home a large box each weekend of comics from the Duaner's......but it was like 100 comics in series of hulk comics....100 xmen. Then go back the next weekend and grab another couple series hoards. The deal was we would cherish the comics on our souls and any comics we bought we gave to him....plus replace any that got damaged. it was a awesome deal......it got me collecting conan comics and mags).

Anyways...

He pulled out these amazing hardcover books with mind blowing covers.....

Then he pulled out a small white box and a larger dark box with a dragon on it...

I don't think the step bro and me look in side the boxes or books for hours.....ok it was probably several minutes.........we were both blow away....what was this??? a graphic novel....new magazine....comic book......maybe some board game.........but we hadn't put it together yet that this was all part of a greater whole.
Then Duaner pulled out some pastel.....monochrome colored thin booklets......and it just made us more confused....what the frak was this stuff...

Wow.....this was better than Xmas and all other holidays combined.........then he pulled out more booklets.

and said he thought these were called modules and they were part of some adventure. We both said what??? What is a adventure??? He hap-heartily explained that heroes would travel through them and kill monsters....like in a story. That was enough...for both me and the bro....we were opening books and modules and boxes....we wanted to know how this worked......and what was this jumbo of literature in front of us.
Duaner then scooped up the modules and said no boys these are for the dungeon master to read only.
Both bro and i said what the frak is a Dungeon master??? Then he grabbed the Dungeon Master book and showed us.....it was the story teller of the adventure....our guide....and us boys would be the players......the heroes.

Holy cow it was a great day.......and we spent next several hours reading quietly like monks.
Then after trying to make sense of it....Duaner said ok guys your going to roll up characters and we are going to play adventure. I asked what adventure are we going to play???

he then pulled out 2 more booklets.

Wow a keep was the theme.....and some dungeon full of monsters

so figuring out the characters was a monumental task......rolling the cool multi faceted dice felt good.....and figuring out what a character sheet. But what to be ..... halfling.....elf....gnome....human......was one thing....but the choice of a class....fighter....thief...assassin....monk...wizard.....ranger....yeesh....i wanted to be all of them.

So another monk study period as we figured the pros and cons of each class....then figuring that our ability scores limited us to certain races and classes. Well Saturday was done....but we still had the late evening to get this adventure going.

looking back at this situation.....panzer blitz and co. was probably easier and we would have had several skirmishes played out.........but this was feeling more Tolkien.....more Conan......this was fantasy and we would be heroes.....the heroes someone only dreamed about.

then the Duaner pulled out another odd booklet...rogues gallery.

it was a wonderful book of stats of player characters....actually correct me..... Non player characters (NPC)....it made things click.....my bro choose to grab a elf fighter out of the booklet....nah me i rolled up a dwarven fighter.....and i got pretty fair stats across the board. and in honor of a character from the last novel i read..who intrigue me with what a warrior dwarf should be like.....I called him Hendal.

So after another several hours....shit it must have been midnight......good  thing the parent were out for the night...maybe till sunday night if we were lucky.

So we were rolled up...character sheet and pencils sharp.......
the Keep on the Borderlands adventure began

It didnt matter Duaner was not much of a story teller.......as he read small entries from the module and we charted our progress in and around the keep.......it seemed like a enternity....then it all clicked together.........and Duaner the Dungeon Master got his sea legs. It was amazing how this game tapped the creative mind and out flowed a story and a plot and and and adventure.

So from what i can remember.... we were hired by the castellen of the keep to clear out these caves of choas.......and he sent his lackey a mage called Duaner....LMAO.....and he was not a level one like us.....ah perks of the DM to have his own PC?NPC.

All the gods be blessed.....my first goblin encounter scared us to death....and back to the keep we ran to heal up. cool

second expedition and some more thought into gear and what weapons we had....since half of them didnt make sense and the merchant didnt have anything on the list we wanted. Ah the creativity of realism in that grappel hooks should exist......and other pretty common items to a medeval fantasy setting. Duaner was a good DM in being plausable. anyways we plumbed the deep of the caves and darn orcs nearly got us. so we ran back to the keep to heal up again......but we had gotten a level each. wow. this game just gets better and and......i want to play forever.

Ok 3rd attempt is what a charm??? and no morning stars are not like throwing stars....darn....i had bought 30 and was carrying all of them. Then as we all learned.....because we adventurers were stealing everything we could carry. Duaner got a enlighten moment about encumbrance.

We shouldnt have been able to leave the keep in the first place never mine what we hauled back. So we lightened the load.......and that was so painful.

Go thing we had a encyclopedias.....to look up weird shit....just in weapon.....alone
and it would be a few years to be able to fully understand the subtle differences in swords.
It seems unless we we at the university library.......this game literature understanding to just jr high school bush rats....was going to kick us around for many years to come. but what a lovely journey of learning it would be......and more.

So....back to plumbing the scary depths of the caves.....and they seemed like some ant hill of doom......we couldnt imagine them ending or what was around the next corner.

It must of been close to dawn.....and we we now coming down on adrenaline and wonderment.......mortal players do have limits and this game had consumed just about 24 hours.
no regrets.

So my bro and i had now better strategies and tactics to clearing areas and learning to be sneakier......and understanding what dice rolls ment and the basic mechanics of the dice gods.

Maybe we were getting caulky and maybe because Duaner is a straight shooter. But the cliff edge was appraoching......the demise of a hero......

The bro and i split up......him and the mage went down some tunnel and i stayed to cover our rear.....duaner loved wandering monster.....and i was not going to be stabbed in the back again.

But Duaner paused and read .....then rolled dice and puased and read....then looked my bro and said your dead. My bro blew a gasket......how where why who what??????
It was a cave in....and both the mage and elf were dead......snicker snicker

to be honest I've never really liked elves.....and my bro being a elf and being crushed like a bug......
warmed my heathen soul........he was my older sibling.......thus the warmer i felt.

In Dungeon & Dragons all players are equal in the dice gods eyes.
but i was craftier and wiser dwarf from then on.

Funny part of the story.....that darn elf has been brought back from the dead......hmmm must be going on thrice for sure that i know of. My dwarf in the real time reckoning has been adventuring 35+ years....couple hundred in D&D. and my love for the game has never wavered......but only deepen

and i can notch my belt with some darn nasty adventures like tomb of horrors, vault of the drow and many many others. i dont know my formula for lucky and goods rolls but i trust my instincts......and if in doubt send the elf in first ...LMAO

grammar and punctuation may suck.....sorry its been awhile sice ive done anything like this.....a blog.......but once the memory started forming i had to keep one finger typing as fast i could

so until next time....cheers


Peat