Thread by @LarryDixonTGK

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens Deep History of Gaming prompt!

I was a founding member of The Hobbit Cavaliers, Fayetteville/Ft.Bragg/PopeAFB's first TTRPG group. Well-known in the early days of gaming. 1/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens A distinguishing trait of THCav was that you earned respect if you knew what your character knew. So, we shared knowledge about all KINDS of things. This is why I have so many fields of expertise. 2/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens Some of you may be familiar with a character I write named Tannim Drake.
Tannim began as an RPG character in a THCav campaign. Since he was a wheelman, I studied performance driving, stunts & the like. Think "Baby Driver," even the shades. 3/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens I played Tannim in 7 games under different GMs, & w/both parents being racers, I picked up a thing or two w/what real world vehicles could do. That led to me having the 1st competition minitruck in the SCCA. Hey, it was all I had. 4/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens A fateful night was when a drunk driver, asleep while doing 45+MPH, smashed into my vehicle on the outskirts of Atlanta.
My head smashed the rear glass out of the truck, much of my face was peeled off, & my codriver & I went plummeting down a hillside of trees. 5/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens It wasn't that time slowed down, it was that I sped up. Despite the vehicle being twisted almost 20 degrees, it still had power, & I used every technique short of a Rockford to bring it safely to a stop without rolling, 6/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens modulating the brakes and purposely deflecting off of trees to bleed off speed.
My clear thought, as if spoken into a microphone, was, "Come on, Larry. Roll a 20."

My codriver was unscratched. He was rattled by my appearance though.
I grabbed my crowbar & 1st Aid box 7/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens & ran up the debris field to see to the other driver.
The other driver awoke to find a crowbar in his door, wielded by a guy with half his face hanging off, asking if he's OK.
When cops & ambulance showed up they told me a few things.
A cop said, "If you hadn't been exactly 8/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens there, he (the drunk driver) would have gone straight off the verge sideways into interstate Thanksgiving traffic."
The medic said I was "Pretty hard to kill."

I had damaged or destroyed 20 trees while scrubbing off speed.

So I'm on my 2nd face & I don't regret it. 9/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens If I'd known ahead of time that much damage was gonna be the price to save an unknown number of people, I'd've taken it just the same.

The imprtant takeaway is, while learning to play an RPG character, I learned exactly the skills to save both my life & others'. 10/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens These aren't just games, they are frameworks for learning, invention, & capability.

I maintain that to write adventures, one must HAVE adventures. That's how @mercedeslackey & I work. When you find obscure details in our work, we may have actually DONE those things. 11/

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens @mercedeslackey We feel like it's our responsibility to share those details as part of our style, & we love & support #TTRPGs, in case they might intrigue someone into trying something new. Maybe try learning in depth.

Maybe gain the skills they'll use to save lives.

Be Mighty.

/end

@likesevenspoon @Owen_Stephens @mercedeslackey One last thing:

I think a guy who runs up his own debris field, with a crowbar, to help a total stranger, while having a bloody skull for a face, is provably #Metal As F*ck.

I take comfort in that.