Before you read this, you should check out parts one and two.
Junior year also became what Brunhilda and I lovingly - and secretly - referred to as the "Year of the Slut." While she was engaged to Burt, and I was in a very serious relationship with George, both of us were finding ourselves unmistakably attracted to other people. We both, for a while, believed that somehow this wasn't an indicator of a serious relationship flaw, which would lead to our eventual breakups, but eventually the truth would become clear. For her, this clarity came in the form of The Paladin. Oh, at first, they were just messing around as "friends with benefits," since Burt had graduated and wasn't really around much at all. Leaving a very lonely Brunhilda behind at Olivet. What started as "innocent friendship," however, became a very serious romantic tryst. By second semester, Brunhilda had started finalizing wedding plans with Burt, and realized, not a moment too soon, she was not in love with him. Brunhilda and The Paladin finally dated, officially, for about 6 months.
My moment of clarity would come much later, but we'll get to that. Trust me, we'll get to that.
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Brunhilda and I became closer and closer as freshman year wore on. That doesn't mean, however, that we didn't make other friends. Quite to the contrary, in fact. We had a very close-knit group of friends that consisted primarily of people we met in our honors class. There was Doris*, Boris*, Freddy*, and Cape Guy**.
By the end of the year, Cape Guy would become my very first GM.
"What's a GM?" you say? So glad you asked.
GM stands for GameMaster. It's the person who tells the story and directs the action in a tabletop roleplaying game (RPG), such as Dungeons and Dragons. If there's one thing that makes a conservative, fundamentalist Christian mother clutch her metaphorical pearls, it's Dungeons and Dragons. So, naturally, I did not tell my parents I was becoming involved in this, the most heathenly of social activities short of an orgy.
In secret, I excitedly created my very first character, Navi, a Pixie Seeker/Healer. I rolled up her stats, carefully crafted her backstory, and even bribed Cape Guy into letting her have an extra ability in which she could poke people with a sneak attack for 1d4 of non-lethal damage, which I called the Pixie Poke of Contempt.
Our game consisted of myself, Brunhilda, Cape Guy, and his roommate, Burt*. Since Cape Guy was the only veteran of the group, he was the GM, of course, and he took things fairly slow for the rest of us, the playing characters. I don't remember much about that game, since it only lasted a few sessions, but it remains an important part of this story - this was the game that got me hooked on gaming.
Sophomore year was a dry year for gaming. It was an eventful year for other things, as Brunhilda and Cape Guy ended up in a cataclysmic fight, which dissolved their friendship entirely for about 2 years, and split our friend group in two - Brunhilda and myself, and what we referred to as "the cult of Cape Guy." Meanwhile, Brunhilda and Burt ended up dating second semester, and got engaged over the summer. ("Ring by Spring," anyone?)
Junior year, Brunhilda and I joined another RPG, this time run by my "big brother," Merlin***, who is a year younger than me, and in no way, shape, or form related to me or anyone in my extended family. I revived Navi, now with a last name - Alistair - and some minor adjustments to accommodate a different version of the game. Our fellow players, who to this day we refer to as "the party," included Doma, The Paladin, The Cleric, Batman, and briefly, Squirrel. These were my best friends for the next year and a half (and even now, although it's more difficult to stay in touch these days).
There's something about slaying an army of Kobolds that really brings people together.
There's something about slaying an army of Kobolds that really brings people together.
Junior year also became what Brunhilda and I lovingly - and secretly - referred to as the "Year of the Slut." While she was engaged to Burt, and I was in a very serious relationship with George, both of us were finding ourselves unmistakably attracted to other people. We both, for a while, believed that somehow this wasn't an indicator of a serious relationship flaw, which would lead to our eventual breakups, but eventually the truth would become clear. For her, this clarity came in the form of The Paladin. Oh, at first, they were just messing around as "friends with benefits," since Burt had graduated and wasn't really around much at all. Leaving a very lonely Brunhilda behind at Olivet. What started as "innocent friendship," however, became a very serious romantic tryst. By second semester, Brunhilda had started finalizing wedding plans with Burt, and realized, not a moment too soon, she was not in love with him. Brunhilda and The Paladin finally dated, officially, for about 6 months.
My moment of clarity would come much later, but we'll get to that. Trust me, we'll get to that.
Meanwhile, second semester of Junior year, Olivet finally sanctioned a tabletop gaming club. Many of The Party were among the founding members, along with several friends with whom Brunhilda and I had begun playing the popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. The Tabletop Gaming Club was not just for heathen games like Magic and D&D, of course. Any game which could be played on a tabletop was heartily welcomed. Card games, board games, RPG's, party games, anything you could think of, except video games (so long as it was "Olivet Appropriate," of course). This was the beginning of my mad descent into the world of tabletop gaming.
While I was happy to join in any game I could, my favorite had become Magic: The Gathering. It's a card game wherein you build a deck out of collectible cards, in order to play as a Planeswalker and cast spells and play creatures against your opponent(s) in order to attack them and bring their life totals down to zero. Naturally, my mother hated it.
I did make the mistake of trying to introduce my family to it. I thought, perhaps, since it's just a card game, not an RPG in which you pretend you are the character, perhaps my mother wouldn't see it as quite so satanistic. I was wrong. I was forbidden from teaching the game to my sisters, and when I brought my cards home over the summer, I wasn't allowed to take them out of my room. I should have known better, obviously, since I was one of those kids who wasn't allowed to read Harry Potter because there's magic in it, and magic is of the devil.
This is when I truly started to become my own person, with ideas and beliefs different from my family's. My inner heathen was growing rapidly. And then, it all came crashing down.
[Continued in Part Four]
While I was happy to join in any game I could, my favorite had become Magic: The Gathering. It's a card game wherein you build a deck out of collectible cards, in order to play as a Planeswalker and cast spells and play creatures against your opponent(s) in order to attack them and bring their life totals down to zero. Naturally, my mother hated it.
I did make the mistake of trying to introduce my family to it. I thought, perhaps, since it's just a card game, not an RPG in which you pretend you are the character, perhaps my mother wouldn't see it as quite so satanistic. I was wrong. I was forbidden from teaching the game to my sisters, and when I brought my cards home over the summer, I wasn't allowed to take them out of my room. I should have known better, obviously, since I was one of those kids who wasn't allowed to read Harry Potter because there's magic in it, and magic is of the devil.
This is when I truly started to become my own person, with ideas and beliefs different from my family's. My inner heathen was growing rapidly. And then, it all came crashing down.
[Continued in Part Four]
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*Names have been changed for privacy.
**Name has not, in fact, been changed. People legitimately called him "Cape Guy."
***Again, he actually goes by Merlin. Which, incidentally, is a name I gave him when we first met.
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