Monday night is the night that my friends and I game -- not cards, not video-gaming, not LARPing, but the standard old tabletop roleplaying that's been going on ever since the 1970s, when Gary Gygax had his greatest idea and created D&D. We don't play D&D [though we have before]; instead, we play a game called Rifts, set in the Palladium universe. Rifts takes place in a darkish sort of future, on an Earth that is post-apocalyptic and open to magic -- it combines elements of cyberpunk, fantasy, the western/cowboy genre, science-fiction and a lot of horror. It has everything in it from mecha [think Gundam Wing and Evangelion] to fairies, from post-apocalyptic, crumbling New York City to the treacherous swamps of the dinosaur-infested Everglades. It's not for newbie roleplayers, but it's one of my favorite systems just because it's open to so much. Your game and your storyline is limited only by the imaginations of your GM and the players. In short, I love it.

I should add here we've been playing for damn near 8-9 years now. My earliest drawings of my characters [then from a game called Exalted, which you've invariably heard about] date from 2003. And I know we were playing before that.

Anyway, tonight was one of the best roleplaying sessions I've had in a long time. We began around 7:30pm, and we gamed until 1:30am. I think we would have continued had it not gotten so late. Germaine [our GM] set up two different story arcs for Rifts, and we've been playing with our second set of characters -- the non-magical ones. This especially effects me, since my main character is a seven-inch-tall fairy warrior basically made out of magic; I switch to playing a cyberknight, which is basically a paladin with psychic powers and some bitchin' cybernetic implants.

I really, really enjoy roleplaying with this group. I enjoy Germaine's dark future GMing, and the way he gets into character [complete with accents and posture for his NPCs]; I enjoy Jackie's cool social abilities and her philosophy of "He who hesitates is boned," I enjoy Dave's smarmy charm, and I enjoy Rachael's completely off-the-wall, out-of-the-box methods of thinking. I can only hope that I provide my fellow party members the same sort of experience. It always takes me awhile to be able to fully feel my character -- it takes at least a few sessions before I can say I truly like them, and I think this session kind of catapulted my cyberknight into the realm of like. I realized that I was running with the wrong concept; Rallin's much younger than I pictured him being, and playing what's essentially a lawful good paladin in a city run by a militant, pro-human, corrupt world power isn't exactly easy. But I've adapted while somehow managing to hang onto my lawful good nature. There's been a lotta bloodshed.

I'm always a little paranoid that I'm not a good roleplayer; I get flustered and I think my real talent lies in the realm of text roleplay -- because I'm an English major and I can paint with words, tell stories and fantastic things with words -- but then nights like these make me feel as though I've, well, gained a level. (:

I'm going to stop here since I think I'm rambling -- it is, after all, almost 3am. But I honestly wish that more people would give roleplaying a try. It's very, very dear to my heart. At Dragon*Con a few years back, in one of the gaming rooms, I met a group of guys well into their 50s who had been playing D&D for 17 years. As nerdy as that may sound, I can say with some confidence that I'll be one of those people in the future -- I'd consider myself blessed to have done something creative and fun with my friends for that long.

In other news, this week is finals week. Then NYC. I'm also calling Borders [and Borders Corporate] later today, if I have to.

crossposted to dragonslayer.dreamwidth.org