Impromptu

What Is The Most Impromptu Game You Have Ever Played?

Way back in college, I don’t recall if it was over one of the breaks or over the summer. I was home at my parent’s, it was late in the evening. I was talking with my two younger brothers, when R showed up.

R was drunk, mad as Hell, and pissed at the world. He had been unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend, and got drunk before coming to our house. He had murder on his mind and in spite of his inebriation, had the idea that it was better to kill monsters in a game of D&D than actually kill someone. I think he was just looking to find someone to fight to help deal with the overwhelming feelings, and realized after he was drunk that wasn’t the way to deal with it. R’s exact words, when we opened the door were, “I need to kill something.” In a menacing tone as he swayed.

My brother, Robert was our DM, and is close enough to me in age that we were in the same grade through school. Robert is a big guy, about my height but broader. R was a year behind us in school. R is bigger than Robert. Once in high school, R said, “Hey, Robert, how’s it going?” Robert was having a bad day, and grabbed R and tossed him across the hall and R hit the lockers and slid down them landing upside down. Or so all the witnesses, include Robert and R later said. I was down the hall when this happened, so I missed the actual event. R is a pretty chill guy, and said something like, “So, having a bad day?” So it takes a lot to get R to the point of being ready for murder.

Robert acquiesced to R’s request and we set up in our usual spot in the basement/garage area. We had an old couch and some other things down there. I believe we were already there when R showed up, so my parents did not know anything about it. Our parents trusted us, new R and R would listen to them, if they had known he was there.

It was a good game as I recall, and got better as R sobered up. Robert was great at running stuff on the fly and he had a huge sandbox with lots of ideas and things planned out, and we sat down with three players, R, my youngest brother, Kent, and me. It was probably something we would have done anyway, so it fit in and worked well for the spirit of the campaign. The good guys, that’s us, were always killing orcs, and other baddies, so that’s what we did.

After it was over, Robert made clear to R not to do that again, i.e. show up drunk, pissed, and want to play. At the time, agreeing to the demand was the easiest way to keep him from getting back in his truck. (Our paternal grandfather was killed by a drunk driver when we were 6, 5, and 3, after he was almost home from driving out 3 or 400 miles to visit and meet our baby sister. So we have no tolerance for that. )

Other than the drunk part, if R had just shown up, we probably would have played anyway.

I guess there might be worse reasons to play RPG’s than as an excuse not to mangle someone. RPG’s can be therapeutic, in that sense, as you can mangle monsters and bad guys with the kind of payback you wanted to dish out to someone in real life.

That was the weirdest beginning to a session of D&D of my life. What about you?

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