Happy Gamer Dad Moments

I'm gonna steal this from Eli at his I See Lead People blog as an ongoing feature. Go to Eli's blog to read the inspiration for starting it here.  http://leadpeople.blogspot.com/ He has been letting us readers know of his ongoing Gamer Dad moments. And great they are.

Here's one from this weekend that made me want to write about them.

I have written over the last few years about my sons (3 of them) adventures in gaming. Best gamer Dad moments so far:

Oldest (17): We went to the Recruits Convention this year(as we do evey time) and we got to sit down and paint a couple of figures at the paint and take, together, without our phones interupting us, looing at each others work, being critical and complementary.  "Look dad, I painted mine (The Reaper Sgt Stone figure we were both painting) to be like Robert Downey Jr. Character from Tropic Thunder". "I painted mine for my American guys for Weird World War II". It was great. He then went and painted at another table by himself and cranked out a super subtle gargoyle that was great. He was very proud. We also talked to a fellow BAsement General about an ongoing WHFRP that all three of us were in, but hadn't played in a while. It was so cool to talk like an adventuring party, and he was one of us.

Youngest (8): The Speed Painter, the Muscle - You know that you may have an indecisve RPG group when the most active player is the 8 yr old. When a door needs busting, or a cavern needs jumping, the boy is fearless. It must be one of those innocence of children thing cause this kid gots no fear. And while at 8 he still would rather be playing with LEGOs and Halo, slowly, he is playing more and having fun. The risjk/reward nature of roleplaying is really fun for him. And the hearing cheers from the other characters at the table for a job well done makes him beam.

The Middle Child (10): HE really is too much like me. And really, I had had Video Games like Halo and World of Warcraft, who knows if I would have ever RPG'd or Wargamed. He shows the most real interest in gaming. there are a million stories about him. One of my favorites is his 2nd level Barabarian getting chased through an orchard by a Bullete as a distration so everyone else could find safe ground. A real hero move. As the Bullette approached with his doom, the boy says "I'm going to leap up to the cloest branch on that tree so the Bullette will go past me." HE rolls to grab it and does. The Bullete erupts out of the ground to eat him like a fishing lure and misses and crashes into a stone wall. The boy then dops down on the Bullette's back and tries to drive a spear into his head. Dexterity check - very hard - Passed. Attack Roll- Natural 20, critical strike. Damage Roll - Full dmg x2 plus dmg bonus. Some days the dice gods sing your praises.

Some days they don't. Satruday we went to the BAron's house the roleplay for a couple of hours in his Beyond the Wall sandbox campaign. Fun as ususal. but the boy had the unfortunate luck of walking into the den of Guard Giant Ferrets. They critical striked him for 24 hp of dmg before he even got a swing. The poor dwarf Dimzad was bitten in half and swallowed. He was unsure of whether to be sad, cry or what, until everyone at the table began laughing and patting him on the back and telling him it was good death. A warriors death. Better than most had ever seen. It helped losing his first character easier. He later asked me "Have you ever gotten killed as good as I did?" I confessed "Never".

On sunday, I was out back doin yard work after the KC Cheifs lost to the Colts. I was pissed, tired and frustrated at the labor of the work and loss of my beloved Chiefs, when the Boy comes out and yells across the yard, "DAD, WHAT DICE AM I SUPPOSED TO USE TO ROLL FOR A FIGHTER'S HIT POINTS?" At first I was annoyed. I was working hard, and the Chiefs lost, then it dawned on me what was happening. "D8" I shouted. He said ok and walked away. The smile on my face must have been huge. "The Force is strong with this one."