Most Interesting Location for a Gaming Session
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:27 pm 
 

Back in high school, I once played AD&D in the alley behind the Grosse Ile Community Center. (Although calling it an "alley" might be a stretch, since there was nothing but trees behind the Center.)  I showed up for a weekly game that was run there, but the Community Center forgot to send an employee to open the building, so we gamers wandered around the grounds trying the side and back doors.  The doors were all locked, but we found a legless pool table behind the building, and played our game there.

The Community Center (which was never popular or well-run) burned down about 10 years later, so today it's just a vacant lot full of weeds and busted-up concrete.  A couple of years back, I was driving by, and stopped to try to figure out where the "alley" was, but there wasn't enough wreckage left to get my bearings.

I still have my character sheet from that campaign, though.

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Post Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:38 pm 
 

That has got to be some valuable real estate. Have they done anything with it?

I have not been to the island in years.


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

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Post Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:28 pm 
 

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Red would have called them all idiots for wasting their time and threated to stick his foot in their asses.



My own dad was a lot like Red.  He wasn't quite that harsh, but whenever I'd talk to him about D&D he'd just look at me  :? and sigh.  Always told me that we were getting "obsessed" with that "damned game".

He was one hell of a poker player, though, so I think he kind of appreciated what we were doing from that point of view.

Keith


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Post Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:22 am 
 

My 5 buddies and I were stationed on a US Navy Destroyer from 1979-1983. We played a campaign that ran for the entire four years we all served on the same ship. We began with B2 and then moved on to some others. We also played the Giant Series and then moved on to the Underdark to battle the rising threat of the Drow. We also played in some of our own tabletop adventures. Hobby Shops and Comic Shops were not all that common on the open seas. Most of our pre created game modules were either mail ordered or bought while in our home port of San Diego.

We played in various different spots on the ship. Seldom did we play in the Dorm area, too many people running to and fro and too many disturbances. Our favorite place was in a seldom used storage room near the bow. No one ever disturbed us there. We found other places as well. Even on middling sized Navy ships there are plenty of seldom used spaces the best ones being near the periphery of the ship; at the ends of long corridors where storage areas were the norm. Working areas were seldom used for obvious reasons; although we did some minor single character adventuring during the all too frequent long nights at sea when only a couple of us were on the current watch.

The 6 of us were constant buddies, even on shore leave, sometimes another person would come in for short periods, but they never seemed to last long, we 6 original friends kept the adventures going for the long term. We played games while camping in the wilds near San Diego too. Not many wooded areas there, but wilderness just the same. Near the end of my enlistment a couple of them re-enlisted, a couple of others were transferred, and the others (Including me) simply allowed our enlistments to end, going home.

A few weeks prior to the end of my term, I was asked by the Re-Up officer to stay in until the ship reached our home port in San Diego. I did not want to; since I knew we would be in Australia when my enlistment ended. I had planned this for many months, and even had a passport sent to me before we had left home port six months before the trip began. Turns out I did not need it, but I didn't know that at the time.

Anyway, I finished the last couple of weeks of my enlistment at a US Naval Base just North of Perth Australia and towards the end I packed almost all of my belongings into a crate and sent it to my folks in Texas. I held back only enough Navy clothing to satisfy my requirements for the few days remaining of my enlistment and for keeping me in civvies for a while afterwards too. When my exit date finally came I walked out of the bases front gate with a small backpack and hiked across the southern portion of Australia all the way to Sydney, where I eventually caught a civilian flight to Dallas, Texas.

That walk-about took about two months and it was some of the most fun I had while overseas. I never walked more than 10 miles at any one stretch as people would pick up anyone walking on the roads back then and once they knew I was a Yank (My Texas twang was all they needed) they were pleased to run me to the next town down the road.

My biggest regret is that about a month before I left the ship my camera was stolen while I drunkenly slept on a park bench at a pier in another country waiting for a ferry boat take me back to the ship, so I have no pictures to help my weak mind recall the faces and names of the kind folks I met in Australia.

Those were some good times....... 8)  8)


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Post Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:11 am 
 

Aneoth wrote:... with a small backpack and hiked across the southern portion of Australia all the way to Sydney, where I eventually caught a civilian flight to Dallas, Texas.


You hiked across the Nullarbor?  8O  8O  

I assume you found a lift across the desert?

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Post Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:46 pm 
 

improvstone wrote:You hiked across the Nullarbor?  8O  8O  
I assume you found a lift across the desert?

I might have walked 25 miles total. And none of that was through the Nullarbor desert.
Most of my rides were from long haul truckers.


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Post Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:56 pm 
 

bbarsh wrote:That has got to be some valuable real estate. Have they done anything with it?


Not so far as I know, but it's been over a year since I was on the Island, either.  There were new subdivisions being built just down the road, but the community center lot is probably too small for anything more than a couple of houses

Did you live on Grosse Ile?

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Post Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:16 pm 
 

When an old gaming buddy was getting married he asked for a 1st Ed session to be run.

The old crew, including red_bus and espie duly weighed in... The venue ... Killyleagh Castle, the oldest inhabited castle in ireland. We had the gatehouse and one outer tower entirely to ourselves, the other tower was empty.

http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/ ... uctID=6623


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Post Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:38 pm 
 

Yeah, I remember you guys mentioning that before.  Simply awesome.  Invite me next time!   :D


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Post Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:27 am 
 

We once played D & D live on the air in the studio of WFIT radio station (the college radio station of Florida Institute of Technology) back in about 1979.  It was about 2 in the morning, and the calls to the station were either incredulous, or a few stoned guys saying it was pretty cool.

  

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Post Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:40 am 
 

I love this thread...it has brought back a lot of really great memories...those days when no one had any responsibilites, or at least any that interfered with D&D.  The entrie summers we spent every spare minute playing the classic letter series modules.  Unfortunately, we never gamed on anything more exciting than a kitchen table.  The funny thing was we actually had that kitchen table from the first D&D game we ever played in the late 70s to just about ten years ago when I finally got rid of it at a Goodwill store.  It saw hundreds of games and thousands of dice throws...I hope it is still around somewhere!
  So, no castles, ships, foreign countries or back of limos.  We just threw a lot of dice on a lot of kitchen tables the last 30 years or so.  I always dreamed of a special D&D room or table someday. Now we live in a four bedroom house with a garage and tv room and I still don't have that special place....instead we have workout rooms and offices and guest bedrooms and such....damn!    So keep up the stories, guys, it's nice to read them and slip into nostalgia.  

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Post Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 5:47 am 
 

awww, i've never done table top rp anywhere interesting. My friend and I used to play Magic (omg) in the pub and at the park and we've had some rather random larp locations, but actual rp tends to take place either in our living room or the meeting room the society use at the uni. Best game ever, was during the 24hour when we had a large cthulhu game running in an empty room with very little lighting. When the sun came up we realised we should probably get some sleep... hahah. talk about atmosphere though, who knew an empty meeting room could be so damned creepy.

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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:37 pm 
 

My old house had a sandstone sideyard set in concrete.  We used to play D&D there (late 1970's).  The sandstone provided rooms, and the concrete was the hallways.

We also ran outdoor adventures using the landscaping of the hill behind our house.

In the attic (eves) of our house as well (behind the closet), mum could never find us there.  Or so we believed.

Oh, and the WEIRDEST PLACE OF ALL?  PolyCon, of course.

Also, we have played over the phone more than once.


My friend and I used to go to Big Basin park (CA) and play Squad Leader.  We ended up getting magnets and a metal board because of the wind.


(Oiy, I fixed it )


Last edited by patweb on Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
  


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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:39 pm 
 

patweb wrote:Also, we have played over the phone more than once.

Wait, is that Squad Leader over the phone? If so, my God, the mind just reels ... :)

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Post Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:28 am 
 

Badmike wrote:I love this thread...it has brought back a lot of really great memories...those days when no one had any responsibilites, or at least any that interfered with D&D.


I want to second this and thank you guys for sharing  8)

Unfortunately my experiences are fairly mundane ... but hopefully before I move on to the next existence I can undertake some roleplaying in some exciting locations.  It goes without saying that it would be fun to do so with some of my friends here.   :D

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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:06 am 
 

On one occasion (with my navy friends) we drove a couple of hours to the wilderness of east California for a weekend of camping and roleplaying in a forest wilderness. We did some exploring, fishing, hiking, and played D&D the rest of the time. Camping out and playing D&D, enjoying two of my favorite pastimes at the same time………… The forest is a very cool place to play D&D, day or night.


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Post Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:50 pm 
 

I only wish I could add to all of these interesting places here; mine was a little more mundane--my high school.  We played mostly in classrooms, but for a six-month period we actually played in the science lab (the then-sponsor took us on when the second sponsor, an exchange teacher from Australia, didn't want to do it anymore; our first sponsor was the "real" sponsor.).  We tried to see if we could play one session "under the stars" in the school's planetarium, but was turned down. :(

We only had a few ideas for a good playing space:
>>  Lots of blackboard space;
>>  A place where the club could bring in food and drink;
>>  A place where no-one would be disturbed by "noise";
>>  The sponsor was always welcome to join in.

His rules were even fewer:
>>  Don't break anything (remember this was normally a chemistry lab!);
>>  Keep the noise down;
>>  Clean up after yourselves at the end (including erasing all of the blackboards--they were large!).

It worked out very well--I only wish we could've thanked him for putting up with us; I often wondered what HE thought of US. :?:

  

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:17 am 
 

sleepyCO wrote:It worked out very well--I only wish we could've thanked him for putting up with us; I often wondered what HE thought of US. :?:


Sounds like a cool teacher  8)

I wish they were all like that.

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