Continue.

It happened spontaneously. It was simply supposed to be a typical game, lasting until we had to go home to get ready for work and school. But the person running the game didn’t feel like things were going right. He wasn’t commanding the right enthusiasm, he wasn’t receiving the proper reactions. It was a weak night compared to his usual. So, with a still-at-the-time-simple goodbye, we ended the game early, and he and two other players left, leaving me and three others who still had a desire to play. We were all friends of friends, strangers outside the few game sessions we’ve played, and we broke the short silence by complaining about the night’s game.

We complained well and thoroughly, our DM having supplied a fair amount to criticize, and it came to a point in the conversation that I felt boasting that I could do a better job was simply following the natural flow. And, as all of us were desiring to play after that unsatisfying tease, I agreed to DM for what remained of the time.

Now, I DMed before. In fact, I DMed quite a bit, enough that I felt my boasting of being able to do a better job was not empty. And, if I may boast a little more and perhaps get away with it still, I do fairly well with improvising spur-of-the-moment games, so I had enough confidence that I could fill two or three hours with a short and exciting episode. However, I only DMed with my close friends, who had all grown up together, and this group was alien not only to me, but to each other.

So, before we started, perhaps in a short fit of nervousness, I told them that I liked them all. A bit of an embarrassing moment, but I continued, saying that I didn’t even know them too well, but that I liked them. I liked them to the point that I was going to try my hardest. I said that I was going to ignore everything else in the world, and make the next few hours the best I could possibly make them.

Now, if this was my close friends, I’d have received a few jests and jokes for saying that. They knew how good of a DM I was, how much effort I put into it, and no matter what promises I made or how else I tried to convince them, we already knew how much we were going to invest ourselves into the game before it even started. These people, however, had never seen me DM. They didn’t know how I would do and take things, and they were in the position to hope and want to believe that I was an amazing DM who would grant them the chance to fully immerse themselves. And, above all else, we were all too unfamiliar with each other to simply call me out on just building up their hope.

Should have typed this beforehand, eh?
*snore*

I asked them to ignore convention. To place more effort in the next few hours than they ordinarily did, to the point in which it would be embarrassing were it not for the other players who are just as active as you are. While goading them and setting the mood, I wracked my brain for ideas on what to do, and on a whim, decided to run them through a story I had been writing.

This story was nothing more than a school days daydream, something I threw thoughts and ideas into just to make myself feel like those ideas had some sense of value. It had reached 40 pages before I abandoned it, much like many of its predecessors, but something about it made me want to breathe new life into it. It was a simple story, a boy goes into a school where the major curriculum is fighting, where students chose a focus that they then used to develop special and mystical techniques. If luck held out, it had enough content and substance to entertain them for a few hours. As for the system, D20s rolling against each other would decided conflicts.

We started to play, and the players began separated from each other. I didn’t lie when I said I was going to work hard, and I spent far more time on having each player decide how they had spent their daily lives up until that point than I probably should have. But, they were starving to play, and seemed to have fun building their character in an almost primal way. When they eventually met, they introduced themselves. Not in the typical D&D manner of “I’m XXXX, the (class)”, but a very natural greeting, something that may have been paralleled from the unfamiliarity of each other from reality.

And, we got really into playing. Then, to break the mood, a player got a phone call from his mom who got scared, And said you’re moving with your aunte and uncle in bel-air. I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and had a dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought now forget it, yo home to bel-air. I pulled up to a house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cabby yo, home smell you later. Looked at my kingdom I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of bel-air.

The game moved with a decent pace, through a few encounters and some exploration of the world. We were having a fair amount of fun, and it wasn’t until we heard the sound of the morning birds that we realized that we had played all through the night. I was proud of the game we had played, and surprised by just how well everyone worked with each other to simply help bring the game beyond the basic level. It was almost as if we had returned to good ol’ days of childhood, where you could pretend to be power rangers and defeat invisible opponents. After being shunted back into reality by the morning sounds, we prepared to say our farewells. But, there was an uneasiness behind it. No one wanted to say it.

They asked me if I was okay to DM for some time longer. I wanted to.

A few phone calls later, and we’re back into playing, exploring the fighting school. Despite it not being completely sensical and having some elements purely for comedic reasons, it was still a place and setting I had put a lot of thought into, and even though we had been playing through the night and had moved at an incredible pace, they had only dipped their toes into the pool of this world. The pool itself was becoming deeper and deeper, as I improvised answers to questions and threw in things that were inspired by the players.

Our food supplies ran out that evening, our money along with it. Hunger and fatigue were starting to set in, becoming only worse as the characters had plenty of food and rest. But still, we continued. It was collective madness, a silent agreement to continue, to not let this miracle of gaming pass us. We played through the second night, one player occasionally nodding off while the rest of us continued with surprising tenacity. We continued to play, enslaved by some unknown force, with no foreseeable profit for all our trouble, no reward for our endurance, no other reason than that we wanted to keep playing.

The second morning came, and despite our best efforts, without food and sleep there was no way our bodies could continue. And, after over forty hours of continuous gaming, even if we were not satisfied, we were content that we had gone so far in attempt to obtain satisfaction. We, who had barely known each other before, were now friends on some level that I may never find the right words to describe. Perhaps, for the time being, I can simply call the comrades, who persevered in a battle with no greater purpose or high goal, simply a fight to satisfy hedonistic desires that was sustained by communal insanity. In fact, it’s all too easy to find people who would say that we should be ashamed of what we had done, a waste of time simply playing a game.

Go on...

Cool story, Bro.

But, goddamnit, I love people again. During that time, the innocence thought to have been weathered away by the winds of our lives resurfaced, a group of young men returning to a time where play was more important than work, school, or even food and sleep. We played without caring who judged us, we played without apology or guilt, we played with something even now I call an insanity, but an insanity that I could find no reason to not admire.

When we finally said our good byes and farewells, it was a bittersweet moment that I can only recall fondly, as it happened as all of us were reborn in our thinking, awakened once again to the joy of discovery, the lack of baseless societal shame, and the trust and admiration of humanity that we thought only belonged to the realm of children. When we said farewell, it was as if we had just discovered it, and were amazed by it. One player couldn’t help but point out that he really wished we would all fare well. And unlike the times before when someone would point out the meaning behind the words, we also found ourselves with genuine desire that we would all go and prosper. With almost a jest, they then decided to name their fighting team the Fair Wells, and we left on that note.

And with that, I bid you all a fond and genuine farewell.

...fucking sweet. Have a dozen internets, OP.

Damn it...stuff like this always makes me tear up a little.

tl;dr Some nerds play D&D three days straight, find Jesus.

That is one cool story, bro.
I really mean it.

>>5202784

You've brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for sharing this experience with us.

Ha! Thank you OP, for breaking the conventions of our wretched society and finding something of worth. And thank you for sharing it.

Good day to you also.

I have a similar experience but in work, not gaming. For a while I was working part-time/summer helping for a construction company. My friend worked there and his dad was our division manager. Anyway, I've never worked anywhere where people were more polite and respectful to one another. And this was a construction company. You have someone who's worked there for years asking you to run and get someing and I say, "Will do, sir." Run off and get or do whatever and come back one I hand him the thing or say whatever has been done, the first thing you usually hear is, "Thank you, sir" in return. It's awesome to work in a place like that, where most people are willing to look askance and the command/seniority structure in a way that promoted equality and a feeling of cooperation. I wish all places were like that.

That was fantastic.

Cool story , bro. Too bad it never happened.

This reminds me of the time I played WoW for three days straight.

Only all I got out of it was constipation.