Invite Your Friend, Then Kill Him

Right now I feel pretty bad. I just killed Aaron.
The Alligator made it here on Monday, arriving into Wellington for the beginning of his one-year stay. Well, he didn’t really arrive into Wellington – fog closed the airport so he ended up in Palmerston North and on a bus down. It rained a lot that day. And the whole week. That sucked. I’m trying to show off the city and it keeps spraying icewater in his face.
Aaron thought he might try out this roleplaying thing that I value so highly, and knowing both Leon and I were going into an old-school D&D game I invited him to join. He was keen, and sunk a bunch of energy into setting up his character, Lynard Skynard the Barbarian. We assembled a group tonight and kicked off. I was running it as a classic old-school adventure. Aaron jumped into the fray, setting up the situation and bringing characters together like he’d been at this all his life. It was all going well.
Then, after waiting while other players used their special skills to bypass an obstacle, finally he got an opportunity to do what his character did best: fight. Bad guys roamed into view, everyone rolled initiative. My bad guy won. I told Aaron to roll a die. He did.
“You’re dead,” I said.
I had seriously, seriously screwed up.
I was so determined to stick by my self-imposed rules of ‘by the book’ for this game that I didn’t deliver the fun around the table too well. And then, to make matters worse, I delivered a lethal jolt of pure anti-fun right to the vulnerable part of the guy I most wanted to enthuse.
Aaron took it all with good grace, and then some. Lynard Skynard will be back soon enough, raring to go and kick some monster ass. But this was not my finest moment.
Damn. I feel bad.
Anyway, you can read his side over at the Alligator Love, Aaron’s new blog. Also contains thoughts on rugby and other perspectives on the country from a newcomer. Go check it out.
(And while I’m at it, I discovered a few weeks ago that Ruth has a blog. How had I not noticed this? It’s lovely.)

8 thoughts on “Invite Your Friend, Then Kill Him”

  1. “Invite Your Friend, Then Kill Him
    Well, he didn’t really arrive into Wellington – fog closed the airport ”
    Y’know, that’s a really nasty way to start a post. I thought that there’d been a plane crash I hadn’t heard about.

  2. people thought I was a “some kind of gay redneck Texan?”
    …….
    Man. I don’t know what to say…..I thought everyone loved the bourbon.

  3. After reading these words, “Gay rednecked Texan,” I realized that the combination of words is impossible. You can be 2 of the 3, but not all 3….ponder that. Although the gay redneck is still in the closet (mostly).

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