Dreams given form

I started this post a few months ago, just now getting around to posting it.


I've always considered myself an idea man. I come up with a lot of great ideas, just never have the resources (time, energy, money, materials, etc.) to properly execute them. It's always cool to see other people get their ideas off the ground it just never had happened to me. Until Sept. 14th.

A little back story. About three years ago I was riding my motorcycle around and happened to wonder, "Hey, what would happen if you put together a poker run and gaming". So I talked to my friend Deane and he seemed to think it was a pretty good idea as well. Thus started the D20 run. The base idea back then was to ride to local game stores, roll up some stats for a D&D character at each one, then ride back to the Armored Gopher and play out a short adventure using the character you just made. Sadly, that was about as much as we got before the idea sort of stagnated. We'd bring it up when we got together a few times during the year, pass the idea around again, then let it fall back into silence. It seemed less and less likely to happen the longer time went on. Then, fate intervened.

As it happened, the Gopher was having a grand re-opening party and I was called by the Loquacious one to see if I had any events that I'd like to run and then she brought up the run. It made perfect sense. I contacted Deane and let him know what I was thinking and it clicked with him as well and the race was on. See, we had only 3 short weeks to take this from a half assed idea into a full fledged motorcycle run.

We had a lot of work to do and little time to do it. Luckily Deane brought in another member to the team (who shall remain nameless at his own discretion) who was able to bring some fresh vision to the run. The first major change was the game system. We switched from D&D to Deadlands Noir. The ghost member also took the time to write up a very nice story for us to follow. We were a group of detectives on the trail of a mobster we needed info from. Each of our stops represented a chance to gain info and get closer to the truth and the mob leader we were after. He also suggested a different way to do our stats. At each stop we had different activities for each stat. Pushups for strength, trivia for intelligence, and so on. How we did on those determined what die we got for that stat. For example, if you did 5-10 pushups, you got a d6 for your strength modifier. In no time at all we had a full fledged ride going.

The day came and we had 5 riders and a support vehicle show up. Not a lot, but for a first attempt it wasn't bad. Something else that knocked down the attendance was that we had it during the grand re-opening. That was something I hadn't considered. There were many people that wanted to ride in it, but had to choose between riding in the run or playing in the events the Gopher was having that day. Many chose the events at the store, and after thinking about it, I understood totally why they did.

The ride took us from Armored Gopher Games in champaign, north to The Game room in Washington IL. This was by far the longest part of the trip. It was a 2.5 hr drive on highway roads, and looking back, it probably won't make it into the ride next year. Our second stop was Just for Fun Games in Peoria. I have to say, it was one of the cleanest, most presentable game stores I've ever seen. It was like walking into a Hallmark store that sold games. Our third stop took us west to Bloomington and gryfalia's aerie. This was the scene of the funniest stop as we got to watch Deane take 10 minutes to try and figure out the song "God Bless America" as a trivial pursuit answer. Fourth stop was the Dragons Table in Champaign. After our test there, we headed back to the Gopher to play out our game.

Like most of the rest of the day, the game was epic. My character was a boxer and ended up in hand to hand combat with the big boss of the night. It took me three or four turns, but I finally brought him down. Like just about any RPG run, there were lots of "I can't believe that just happened" and "my dice hate me" and "holy shit! That wasn't suppose to happen" cause no rpg I've ever been in is the same without those moments.

All in all it was a great day. We learned a ton. We did something that as far as I can tell, no one has done before. We more than likely will be doing it again next summer, with some tweaks. I do ask though, for anyone that may be reading this and are inspired to do your own version of this, that you point back to this blog. I don't mind sharing info, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due.