Blog #2 - RPGs Are the Glue of Friendship
The most bizarre place I’ve ran a game was during Desert Shield. Our unit had finally stopped jumping (moving everything from site to site for you non-military folks) and were in one location for a few months. Prior to this a few buds and some other brothers in arms had struck up various conversations about hobbies, gaming, stuff we missed while living in the middle of the desert for several months at this point. During these chats it was suggested that I run a game or make up one or something. I agreed it would be great to have something to do between guard shifts and recon missions, so I wrote home to have something from my collection sent overseas to me.
Knowing space was premium, I had one book and a bag of dice sent to me. That one book was Runequest. The old school original softcover version. In-between shifts we made characters and I taught the basics of the game and even converted some folks who’d never played RPGs before to jump in. Our schedules were insane, but I made it work. I can’t even try to remember how often we played, I just recall our sessions were usually about an hour or two at a time, and the players fluctuated based on duties.
Somehow, we made it work. Under ragged tarps and camo netting with wind whipping all around, sand all over everything, using flashlights and chem-lights sometimes, we gamed. I recall more than once cracking open a chem-light and dowsing the dice in it to make them glow. I’d love to say it worked great, but that’d be a lie. But it was fun anyway. A bud even took my book back to Rear-HQ when he made a mail-run and photocopied the combat tables to make a GM screen out of manilla folders and combat acetate. It was awesome. It was full of sand by the time we left!
Over a span of about two months (give or take), we adventured across Glorantha. Usually I’d make up an adventure on the spot, sometimes we’d continue with the previous session, but all of it one way or another cobbled together into an epic quest. I had put more than a few Random Encounter Tables together and these usually started our quests, and then I BS’d the rest. Above all else, we had fun. Which was a rare thing to find in the middle of nowhere.
You’ll have to understand, we were mostly Grunts (Infantry) and Wrenches (Mechanics), with a few Spoons (Cooks), and Eggheads (Intel) mixed in. We all came from different walks of life in the “world” and some of the players were even AD HOC (temporarily attached) to our unit. Our ranks were just as mixed, mostly EMs (Enlisted Men) and a few NCOs (Non Commissioned Officer), and one or two Lieutenants – I was a Corporal and a Team Leader back then, FYI. None of that mattered. When the dice rolled, we were all our characters and having a great time exploring.
Outside of the ragged hooches (temporary shelters, sometimes tents, usually just tarps and poles) we had wartime ops. We had no idea when the order to jump to the next site was coming down or when the order for the push across the zone was coming. Gaming took away a lot of the emptiness we collectively felt, relieved some of the constant stress, and took our minds off of the loved ones we’d left behind. It gave us all something to look forward to beyond cleaning our weapons, perimeter patrols, and chem-recons. We could focus on the adventure instead of mulling over our own mortality.
When Desert Storm launched, our heads were in a better place. We had sharper focus. And we had a greater level of camaraderie. The game ended, but many of us continued to get together as a group after Desert Storm ended and we redeployed.
These are the memories I cherish about gaming. The bonding of new friends. The coming together as a group with the game as the excuse that brought us all together. It grieves me when I see this new age of gamers attacking each other over which version is better or injecting politics and other nonsense into the games – they either forgot or never knew that the games were made to bring us outcasts together. We need to find our way back.
If a group of soldiers can find commonality through RPGs in a combat zone, so can you.
