I've been Roleplaying for 25 years now, and my parents kind of looked on. They never quite understood what I was doing, but liked that i was reading and writing with the game, and safely at home rather than out in the streets.
Tonight, my Dad played with me. And played Apocalypse world, of all things.
I took Hatchet city as a demo to my gaming group, which consisted of my brother Dan, my friends Dave and Wes, and my Dad. Dad happened to be over at my brother's during game night, and decided to join in.
As I handed out the playbooks for Hatchet City, Dad picked up the Skinner. As he flipped throught the playbooks, he started smiling, and began circling the various bits as I explained how creation went.
And so was born Icicle, the Skinner. Blue eyes, creamy skin, dressed in luxe wear. Interested in her own pleasure, looking for a leg up, and prepared to use her knockout body to get it. "She's a bit of a slut, but only to get her ahead. She's in love with Charming the Brainer, but for her, love's pretty temporary. She already has her sights on the leader of Hatchet City."
My Dad has never played an RPG before. Not once. And from flipping through the playbook, his character comes to life. It was really awesome to see him get right into the game.
When we talked about Addergrease, Dad talked about Icicle meeting him. Dad mentions his hairy biker body, his ugly scarred face, his ear half bitten off in some fight. And how Addergrease thought of himself as a sophisticate, drinking rotgut out of a fine china cup, pinky in the air.
My Dad was coming up with this. It was great, I was literally entranced while this was happening. My Dad!
Dave, who played Charming the Brainer, really got a lot out of the Deep Brain scan and the Reading a person. A couple of great rolls got him all kinds of information, each piece leading to more complication and trouble. The way he'd take his gloved hand to lightly touch people was subtle and great.
Wes knocked things out of the park with Di, the Angel. The gender was never established, and Wes skillfully played up a nasally accent that kept people guessing.
And my brother Dan played Marko, the Hardholder. We established that Marko, Di, Icicle and Addergrease were a group a long time ago, but things got ugly when Marko and Addergrease disagreed on who should be in charge of the Fledgling Hatchet City. The ensuing fight left Marko without a working left eye, but victorious.
The fact that Marko and Icicle were old flames came up as well, but any awkwardness that might have come from that (My Dad and brother Dan were plaing these characters, remember!) vanished from the skillfull way my Dad roleplayed it. It was logical from the discussion, and they both went for it. Plus it was hilarious how they both played it up.
Dan imagined Hatchet City in a Baseball stadium, his throne room in one of the opulent skyboxes. The people had a market on the green, and slept in makeshift huts made from the wooden bleachers. There was a suggestion that "Hatchet" came from something about the team's iconography, and it was possible that this was the Atlanta Braves home stadium. We kept it fairly vague, but from then on we had various locations riffing off of a stadium idea. The Visiting Team Locker room was turned into a prison, for example.
There's several great moments. I got Brimful to demand to see his injured Daughter, Rather, resting in the infirmary. He also wanted to have her patched up free of charge, due to his service of providing the city with "delicous" mud fish. (This was a move from the Brutes - Demand Consideration or Indulgence). Marko played this up great a demand for him to cut all trade with Addergrease, adding in a few threats like: "Your daughter is fine, and being treated well. If you continue to disrespect me, she will not be.")
There was another moment of pure hilarity, where Icicle tries to manipulate Di into agreeing to suspend the quarantine on the more questionable fish. (Used another move from Brimful - Ask for help) Marko helps out the roll by offering an evening in his private Skybox, a comfortable place to "continue the conversation".
Icicle rolls huge, and Di goes for it, relaxing the quarantine and letting the "B" grade fish into the market. But because Wes played Di as rather asexual, it led to a brief scene of the skybox, where Di snacked on an ancient pack of twizzlers (crunch crunch) and looking a little bored, while off screen Icicle and Marko were "entertaining" each other. (We all had a good laugh over this turn of events)
All in all, everyone had a great time, and we were all laughing and enjoying the strange world we had created. All the players were raring for another session, and though we were just sort of playing this between Dresden Files games, this one just might usurp Dresden Files for a few months.
In addition, this night has a warm place in my heart, because tonight, I role played with my Dad. And that's pretty damn cool.