Stand and Deliver

[Caroline]

Well, lately I’ve been wondering why some of us continue to play the RPGs, online games, minatures games, card games and whatnots we play. We’ve heard it all before. Complaints about min-maxers, greifers, noobs, poor players, poor sportsmanship, lack of concern about cannon, game imbalance, all that sort of jazz. But, why do we keep playing. Well… here’s why I remember how awesome the power of the imagination can be.

It’s time to Stand and Deliver.

Let me take you back to a time when AEG had an awesome card game called Legend of the Five Rings. Heavily influenced by Oriental mythos, L5R was about the plight of the Emerald Empire. Its infighting and squabbling seven main clans. The nightmarish enemies of the Dark Lands. The horrifying legions of Fu Leng. It was about great, samurai heroes, charasmatic statesmen, powerful shugenga (wizard-priests) spellcastors, and diabolical deamons. The card game was awesome. Each clan had its strengths and weaknesses. Each card, had its own story. The game was just… amazing. And AEG held tournaments with gamers to see what would happen in the next expansion. Talk about actually using input from fans. It doesn’t get any more direct than to use tournaments to see what would happen in the next expansion.

Well, I liked playing the Phoenix. Enigmatic shugengas and priests, masters of the four elements, and powerful users of the mystic unifier of Void. Well, I had the opportunity to go to an AEG tournament, and decided to go. I pooled all the resources I had, friends who played, and money I could spare, to make the strongest Phoenix deck I could. Bean even agreed to sew me up a sweet orange-and-red yukata to wear as well. (The Phoenix clan’s colors were primarly red, orange, yellow, and gold.) AEG tournaments were nothing to take lightly, and I knew I’d be playing against some of the best gamers in the world. And, as I signed my name on the entrance table, the player behind me was asked what clan he was representing. And he proudly said, “I am here to represent the Yoritomo Alliance.”

Now… the Yoritomo’s Alliance, at best was a bunch of has beens, wannabees, and never-will-bes. Their shugenga were amateurs at best… their samurai, little better than common peasants. At an official Emerald Empire tournament like this, they weren’t going to stand a chance. We’re talking a high school football team taking on the Pros. It was going to be a massacre… and I kinda felt sorry for the gamer who decided to play the Yoritomo’s Alliance. I kinda felt he was doing it as a gimmick.

But… something struck me as I saw him at the registration table. There he was, in his mish-mash of samurai armor… a pair of tonfu strapped on his back… shoes so threadbare they barely qualified. Now, Bean spent some serious time on my yukatta, but there were gamers that must have spent months and hundreds of dollars on their costumes. Anyway, this guy looked like he barely spent 20 minutes. In a tournament of great clans here was a commoner. He looked… kinda lame. I felt sorry for him. But… the way he said the Yoritomo’s Alliance so enthusiastically… with such loyal pride stuck with me.

Anyhows, the tournament begins. In my second match, I faced off against the Yoritomo’s Alliance player. I looked him dead in the eyes and said, “You realize you’re going to lose. You don’t stand a chance.” And what he said stuck with me, to this day. “If that is what the Fates decree, Shugenja-hime, then I will bow to their divinity. But the Fates have brought me here for a reason, and that I cannot turn away from.”

And I realized something. He believed in the spirit of the game. He believed in his deck. He believed in the Alliance. He believed he could represent the Alliance, and nothing was going to shake his faith it that. I could see it in his eyes. It was powerful. So… I decided I’d have no mercy on him. Not because I was feeling cruel and malicious, but, if he was so proud of his mish-mash of an army, I was going to honor him with the best game I could. And, as I played him, it was awesome. He never complained about anything. Each card draw he did was exactly what he wanted (even if it wasn’t.) He never stopped fighting until I had finally won. He never gave up, he never surrendered. He was totally out classed, and never had a snowballs chance in hell. But, it was one of the best games I ever played. It was a blast. And then he played a card I’d never seen used. A ritual. And it struck me. He knew he was outclassed… he knew that, individually, his guys didn’t stand a chance. But, working together, they could accomplish anything. It doesn’t matter how weak your shugenja are… with a ritual, you get to use all of them for one purpose. It made me smile. He really did come to play and win. He didn’t come with a gimmick, or to make fun of the Alliance or the gaming culture. He wanted to win, and brought the best that he could to do so.

So… after I beat him, he bows to me, and asks me, “Shugenja-hime… what would you have done differently?” And I said, “Nothing. You did well.” And you know what? I kinda wanted him to win. He really did play the game. I knew he was going to go against some of the most brutal decks out there, but… *shrug* how can you not want the underdog to actually win.

So… I started paying attention to what his other games, and others did too. Each game he lost, but… it seemed with each loss, more and more players started hearing about the Alliance. And, during his games, he pulled some of the awesomest moves I’d ever seen. Cards that none of the professionals used, so… no one really knew what they could do. None of his moves won games, but… dayum, he played. Along the Coast at Midnight… Focus… Blacken the Sky… Koku… Refugees… The Winter’s Campaign… Confusion at Court… and others I can’t remember. It became more and more fun to watch him play. And, never once did he complain. He never complained about his deck… never complained about the draw… never complained about a ruling… never complained about his opponents. He was always positive. Each of his card-draws was exactly what he wanted. All his moves were “planned” out ahead of time. All of his competitors were the best player he had ever played against. He always was excited at the chance to play. It… it reminded me why I started playing some of these games to begin with. Even when some of the pro’s offered him cards to use that would be better, he politely refused with the same line each time. “The Fates have led me here with the treasures I have in my possession. I will not dishonor them by accepting more.”

So, now it’s day two of the tournament, and the Yoritomo’s Alliance player is 0-7, and in dead, last place. Yet… everyone wants to play the Yoritomo’s Alliance player. And that’s when it struck… he slipped on the stairs, and had to go to the hospital. So… we all kinda counted him out, and went on with the tournament.

So, round 9 rolls around, and he’s back. Eye and head, all bandaged up… costume back in place… deck back in his hand ready to go. The judges said since he missed round 8, he’d have to forfeit that bout, but he didn’t care. He was there to stand and deliver. It was freaking awesome!

Anyway, the tournament ends, and the judges ask for all the clan champions to stand. (The clan champion was whoever won the most and earned the most points for that clan. The Emerald Champion was whoever won the tournament in its entirety.) So they do… and the Yoritomo’s Alliance player stands as well. To which everyone gets quiet… even the judges. No one is sure what to do. The Alliance wasn’t a clan. Even he had to know that. And I’ll never forget what happened next. The Lion Champion (who was about the coolest looking samurai there) shouts while storming over to the Alliance player, “I’ve had enough! We’ve let you have your little daydream, Ronin, but now you insult the Divine Order by standing amongst Great Clans like you are our equal! Sit, and remember your place!”

The Yoritomo’s Alliance player bows in half to the Lion Champion (a move I still have trouble with, even after years of gymnastics). Then stands erect and says, “The Alliance shall stand.”

He Stood and Delivered.

So… um… anyone else having gaming stories like that?

[Chaosengine]

My best friend owns a gaming store in Delaware called, "GamerDoc." Every now and then they sponser tournaments, complete with trophies and prizes. In order to draw in business, they had a Halo 3 tournament to kick things off. You had to pay to play, but that didn't stop anybody. Their sister store, located about 10 miles away featured the same thing and the two stores would have their best team face each other on line on this huge digital screen. It was pretty cool.

My buddies top team, however, was not cool. We called them "The Douchebags" and the reason was obvious. They were loud, rude, abusive and everything in between. They would trash talk during matches, goof off during easy games and even teabag other players during play! They would have been disqualified if it hadn't been for the financial backer sponsering them. A new business needs revenue, ya know.

Well, the day of the big showdown came up and everybody was psyched. "The Douchebags" were disgustingly confident, of course. The team they were playing was completely unknown, being 10 miles away at the other store. This made no difference to them, however, as they were convinced that the area was nuthin' but noobs.

Once it started, however, everything changed. From begining to end, The Douchebags got their asses KICKED! It was so bad, one of 'em threw his controller down and flat-out quit. It was a shut-out, The Douchebags didn't score ONCE! So enraged at this, they jumped in their buddies minivan to drive over to the other store just to kick the crap outta whoever humiliated them.

Ya know what they found when they got there?

Kids. A team of kids no older than 11 or 12. They had been playing as a team after school since the game came out EVERY day. The kids didn't shout or swear or call anyone names. Their parents were even there.

The Douchebags stood there, looking stupid, turned around and went home. It was AWESOME!!
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"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster.
The bars are temples, but the pearls ain't free...
You'll find a god in every golden cloister,
And if you're lucky then the god's a she..."

[Xebulon]

I don't think I have any stories quite like that, Caroline. Mine are far too mundane since I avoided tournaments like the plague after my first one. I won't go into detail, as it was a thoroughly unpleasent experience.

I remember L5R though, I used to love playing that game with my friends. I loved to play the Mantis, and before them the Scorpion. I even picked up the role playing books, but I could never get anybody else interested.
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I like old jokes. With them I know when to laugh.

[kommy]

Hmmm... What can I recall from my long wargaming career..?

Well, as I've said elsewhere, I'm a big player of Warhammer 40k and Fantasy. Played one or the other for... scarily close to 12 years now. Damn, I feel odd saying that. But anyway... stories...

Ah, here's a relatively recent one. I was sitting in the game store, painting my miniatures (a never ending process), desperately waiting for someone to walk in and distract me from having to paint. This time, it actually worked. A guy came in, wanting to play a game of 40k. I eagerly accepted, tired of painting Clanrat #147.

So, I pull out my Imperial Guard army, which I've built up over a decade, which I've been painting or trying to paint for just as long. It's a huge investment of time and money, slowly cobbled together of painted pewter and carefully assembled plastic kits. He pulls out his Dark Eldar army and... it's made of cardboard. It's all scratch built of paper and corrugated cardboard, cut and pasted together in the shapes of the miniatures and given a simple purple and black paint job. The infantry were unpainted cheap plastic infantry or models from Fantasy, rather than the ones designed for that purpose.

I stared in shock, carefully scrutinizing this curious sight before me, the like I had never seen before in a decade of playing. Then I laughed. I couldn't stop laughing for a minute, then would keep bursting into it at times during the game as I looked at it more.

Sadly, I fear he came to think I was making fun of him and came off as a bitch, possibly exacerbated by me eventually winning the game handily. But I wasn't making fun of him. I thought his army looked shockingly great! And that I would honestly never forget his dirt cheap proxies and scratch builds, something I doubt my own painstakingly purchased, assembled, and painted models could achieve. I couldn't help but laugh and smile. I'd have bought him an army book to replace his technically illegal PDF printout if one had been hanging on the store shelf, so amused and humbled I was. He won in a way that didn't involve dice.

Haven't ever seen his army or played against him since...
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"Doktor! Are you sure this will work?!" "HAHA! I HAVE NO IDEA!"

[The Adept]

i have never heard of these games i dont know if its becouse i lived in hickville wyoming for half my life or what but i am so lost right now
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A fact of life: After monday and tuesday even the calender says WTF...
Kyle Stingray http://forums.pleasurebonbon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8106
Escape of The Blue Rose (Story)
http://forums.pleasurebonbon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9549&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
My FA
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/theadept/

[kommy]

Ah, well, I have a quick answer for my own hobbies, Adept.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/home.jsp
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"Doktor! Are you sure this will work?!" "HAHA! I HAVE NO IDEA!"

[The Adept]

oh i get it its a real life version of an RTS game like halo wars am i right
_________________
A fact of life: After monday and tuesday even the calender says WTF...
Kyle Stingray http://forums.pleasurebonbon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8106
Escape of The Blue Rose (Story)
http://forums.pleasurebonbon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9549&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
My FA
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/theadept/

[Xebulon]

Uhm, sort of, kinda. Tabletop miniatures gaming is more like a turn based, tactical/strategy game, I'd say. Something like the old X-Com or Fallout games, except you can't change the models equipment during the gameplay. Or, as another example, somewhat like chess but with different models. Each one has a specific way it can move and attack and it's own strengths and weaknesses. Victory is determined as much by how you use your army as by which player has more or stronger models.
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I like old jokes. With them I know when to laugh.

[Shadow_Twisted]

Sadly I know only too well the details of the Dark Eldar. From my current understanding their figures are currently discontinued for the time-being with a revamp in the works. I know a thing or two about a customization, as I am still working on the Archon for my own Dark Eldar army. My current color scheme is black, green, and silver.

First, we begin with an Eldar figure, Maugan-Ra. This guy just outright is a badass, all skeletal and shit. Next, we take a quick steal of wings from the Tyrannid Gargoyles. With a little modification and some green stuff, the Maugan-Ra back attachment now sports wings. Now for armaments. A litlle cutting, grinding and green stuff, the cables from his one hand are gone, so now come the weapons.

A dark lance in one hand, pretty simple. The other, I decided I'd make my own version of an Agonizer. Take the spear from Jain-Zar and cut off the tip, and cut the staff portion so it can be "held". Next was a little improvised, but ultimately a nice decision in my opinion. I took the ram from one of my raider/devastators and cut part of the front, so it had a nice, scythe-like appearance and attached it in place of the spear-tip.

At this point, I need to reattach the dark lance and paint the damn thing, but it's by far my most favored piece of my army.

[Xebulon]

That actually sounds like an interesting figure, Shadow. Unfortunately, this topic is starting to get derailed so let's try and keep it on track.
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I like old jokes. With them I know when to laugh.

[Shadow_Twisted]

Wasn't trying to derail things, I don't have any tournament moments, so I thought I could at least post something memorable from my gaming experiences.

Then again, there is something else I can remember. One of my older cousins had a MASSIVE amount of Magic the Gathering cards, he had even gotten us all decks as presents one Christmas. Anyways, one summer vacation, I went with him out to his friend's place. I spent hours doing some serious labor for a 12-year-old. I was piling firewood and stuff, just to get paid in Magic cards. I was soaked in sweat with no A/C after just hours of hard work in the summer sun and I was so happy to get my cards.

The bad part, is that it ended in tragedy. A couple months later, I was on the bus home, and as usual, since everyone hated me because they didn't like my brothers or my last name (great reasons to be bullied, ya know) some asshole decided to run up to me and toss my cards out the window while everyone else laughed, and when I started yelling at the kid, I got in trouble for being too loud on the bus.

[xivk]

Miss Magic the Gathering. T_T

Only fun card game in school that was quiet yet fun to play beside others yelling while playing yugioh.
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Fursona Info.

I am the ghost of games... What i am, all i will be
-Xivk

[Jerin Nekros]

[relentless]

[relentless]

i was about to decide that i had nothing to offer this thread as i have never done any tournaments or anything like that with card games or anything, but i realized i have some great stories from my baseball team and such

was the grand final for my under 16's team we were the clear underdogs and we were losing of course (hehe no magic near victory or sudden comeback for us) but the parents of some of the kids on the other team had put together and were cheering their kids on, fair enough until they started slagging my teammates off eventually we got so sick of them yelling shit about us that we called a team huddle on the mound and we told our pitcher "we've pretty much lost the game lets win something". last innings of the game we were well down and the parents were still slagging us off so the pitcher takes his stance winds up veers off to the third base fence and just as the batters dad is yelling "they got nothing, they suck" the ball smacks him right in the teeth he rolls around yells in pain, and the pitcher stops and yell out "yeah screw you too" so the batter seeing his dad get hit decides to go the pitcher so he charges the mound and starts laying into the pitcher so being the first baseman i got to the mound first and spear tackled the batter clear off the pitcher and just wailed into him on the ground, then suddenly i feel the hand grab me on the collar, its the kids dad and he was pissed, he was missing a tooth, and i had just finished remodelling his son so he decided he would do me, luckily my dad was there at the game and pulled the guy off me and downed him with three punches to the face all on the way down to the ground he was out cold by the time he landed, then the benches cleared and both teams were in an all out brawl, and being near the mound i wound up in the middle of it.

that was the most awesome baseball game of my life *wipes tear from eye* we still play that same team in the senior grades now, though the batter and his dad never came back
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wondering where the jackal came from: http://forums.pleasurebonbon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7940 updates here or there

[Caroline]

((Camarilla,

You might get a kick out of this. Being as that I'm human in real life, I'm kinda fond of us... so I play Imperial Guard in 40k, as "Space Marines" are technically mutants. I have a boatload of the old Valhalan figs, augmented by a smattering of old style Stormtroopers (the one's with berets), a handful of cadians, a platoon of the Steel Legion boys, and some oddball figs that I have no idea how I ever actually got ahold off... other than Katarina Friez. I've got way more guys than I ever really should. Yeah, I know... lame.

But, anyway, my little group decides to super-group-game up a huge table, and bring all that we can. Now, mind you, this is back in 2nd ed, when everything and it's dog had a tome special rules... tank shock, viral grenades, sustained fire weapons, nigh-unstoppable character models, choppas, mega armor, assault armies of death, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam.

So... I'm deployed on the far, right, flank. With our Ultra Marine player next to me. And... I'm getting anihilated. Utterly. (As an aside, to be "decimated" means you've lost 10% of your army. So... don't use the term "decimated" when you're trying to express that your army has sustained heavy casualties. GAH! I hate it when people confuse "decimated" with "anihilated".) The pre-official-rules traitor guard and nurgle player is just about to completely overwhelm my position. I realize that, if I fall, the entire line is going to get rolled up like old carpet.

So, I turn to the Ultra Marine player, and plead with him to send me some help, before all is lost. And he sends over one, tactical squad. One. I think they might have had a flamer and a Heavy Bolter or something. Now, again, I'm about to be completely and utterly overrun. I mean, my guard army is outnumbered at least 8 to 1, and the Ultra Marine player sends over 10, Tactical Marines. I look at him, and say, "Are you crazy?"

To which he answers, "One problem, one squad."

And... I couldn't argue with Space Marine logic like that. Worse, when the dust settled, he still had three of his tactical marines left. I had zilch.))

[xivk]

Imperial gaurd ftw all the time. (When tyranids arent there)

Winter crusade had the best commander for em.
_________________
Fursona Info.

I am the ghost of games... What i am, all i will be
-Xivk

[TheBashfulFeline]

Wow, Caroline I had no idea. I recently just painted my first ever squad. And it was Umarines as well. Though one of my favorite chapters, are the Grey Knights.
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I'm not dead, just.... Hibernating. ON the MOON. :3 Luna's bum.

[Caroline]

((Okay another Stand and Deliver moment from me,

This time, I'm going to come at this from a different angle... that's "angle", not "angel". This time, I'm going to talk about another one of my favorite animes... Video Girl Ai.

And in particular, Yota and The Glass Staircase.

We've all been there. Those moments in time when the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune have bruised, bloodied, and battered us. When all we can hear are our own doubts and fears. When all we can see is the blurry, cloudy image of a future that forever seems out of reach. When our allies and friends have long since abandoned us along a darkened, haunted road. When all we can feel is the throbbing, excruciating pain of existance. When we wonder why we keep going on, and how the flames of our spirit seem to have all but been extinguished.

To me, one of the best visual interpretations of this has been Video Girl Ai. (And to a close 2nd, the Twilight Zone Episode "Time Enough At Last")Yota, the hero, has finally decided that his dream girl, Ai, is worth fighting/questing for. She's been kidnapped, and all Yota knows is that she's somewhere.

So, Yota, unprepared for this daunting task, journies to "somewhere" to save Ai. Now... Yota constantly fails at this. Each step on this road he walks is lined with traps, tricks, taunts, half-truths, twisted mockeries of hope, deceptions, and loss. The omniscient Otherworlder who has taken Ai constantly drones in Yota's ear to give up... to go back... to quit this hopeless quest, and save himself. But... Yota keeps trudging on. Never getting closer to finding Ai, but... never quite being brought to bent knee.

Finally, the Otherworlder has had enough of the game, of this charade, and changes the path Yota is taking into a glass staircase... the glass being a symbol of his own faith and hope. Glass being a solid... but one easily broken and shattered. Yota... not even certain if Ai is at the end of the staircase starts to climb it. Glass crackling under his feet... cutting at him. Wind all around him howlingly cold, and bringing with it the mocking voice of the Otherworlder. Yota has lost... and he knows it. He has no special powers... nothing to help him find Ai... to let him see through the haze of his own pain, and determine what is real and what is fake anymore.

And the steps shatter underneath him.

Yet... instead of falling, his fingers grab onto the shattered step. And... part of you just wants him to let go. He's tired. He tried. He has gone farther than anyone before him has ever made it. He shouldn't have to go through such pain and suffering for anything. He's gone 19 rounds with The Champ, and should be able to hold his head high. He should just let go and accept that he was destined to not achieve his dream.

Yet... part of you doesn't want him too... part of you keeps saying, "Just hold on Yota... please, just hold on. You've gone so far... please don't give up now." Every time I see the scene I start to cry... shoot, I'm crying now just typing about it. Yeah, I know... lame goth girl crys at movies.

But... he doesn't let go. He lacks the strength to pull himself up, but... he doesn't let go. The glass keeps digging into his fingers, and the Otherworlder's assault on his psyche continue, but... Yota doesn't let go.

It's... awesome. He really doesn't have any reason to keep going. Shoot, he doesn't even know if the "Ai" at the top of this staircase is really Ai, or just another illusion of the Otherworlder. But... he doesn't let go. It's... empowering. He so believes in her, and in their future, that... he just keeps hanging on. He can no longer bring himself back onto the stair to keep climing, but... he doesn't let go either.

I'm not going to tell you what happens next... it... is actually suprizing, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

So... to those of you who can hold onto your dreams like that... who quest for Unknown Kadath, I salute you. You have Stood and Delivered.))

[Mr Writer]