Chill Out

Well, if you're reading this, it stands to reason that you like gaming. You probably like it a lot. That's cool -- obviously, so do I. But there are degrees of liking gaming. I was just thinking about that recently as I recalled a story from a few years back.

When I was in college, I gamed a lot. (Now, don't get me wrong -- I studied a lot too. But, you know how it is.) The last two years of college I had some great friends. Three or four of them all lived together in an apartment, and I lived alone, so we often gamed over there until all hours of the night. They had a TV too (I didn't), so that meant I had someplace to watch Star Trek. It was a cool place and I enjoyed going over there a lot. My apartment was cool too, but it was small.

Anyway, one of the guys who lived in the apartment, Steve, was a great player and really liked playing roleplaying games. I mean really liked gaming. He'd play every day if he could.

One week, another friend, John, couldn't play. He had to study for a test. I didn't want to play without John because that night's session was really focused around him. (John's character was part of an ancient bloodline that could be traced back to an individual named Malhavoc, who was descended from some forgotten gods, and the group was about to explore a ruined city once dedicated to those gods.)

So no game that week. John sat at home and studied. And Steve sat at home and studied... John. To say that Steve was mad that we weren't playing is a huge understatement. Steve parked himself outside John's door, and if John took so much as a five-minute study break, Steve yelled "I'm not gaming tonight because you needed to study so bad -- so get back to your oh-so-important books!" (Actually, that's a censored version of what Steve said, I think).

Steve, quite clearly, needed to chill out. His "liking gaming-ometer" was in the red zone. Any DM would be flattered to have someone love their game so much, but sometimes it can go too far.