Single Best Gaming Moment since last year

[Valamir]

Ok, so what was you single best moment (scene, part of a scene, line) RPGing since B-day 2005.  And I mean single best...if you wanna list more than one start your own damn thread.

Mine was our most recent game of PTA.  I won't go into details except to say it was basically Alice (you know, the Diner with Mel and Flo) set in space ("Last Food for 50,000,000 miles this exit") called "Eat at Joe's"  Every episode started with a space semi pulling into the orbiting truck stop and running over the gumby-esque gas station attendent while the theme from 2001 as played on a kazoo ran in the background.

Embedded in this zany absurd sitcom (destined to be canceled after 1/2 a season) was some poignant moments. 

My character was Deputy Harvey Piccolo...part Barney Fife and Part Enis from The Dukes of Hazzard.  My issue was gaining respect of those around me (being the perrenial bully target) and getting taken seriously as a cop.  The previous episode I had finally stood up to an old bully from school and won the affection of my old flame from said bully. 

THIS episode was my spot light episode.  I would finally face down my nemeses: Officer Johnson and Special Officer Johnson (no relation), a couple of space cycle riding State Troopers that had run rough shod over me for years.  The episode involved protecting one of my friends from their unjust attentions I was ready...I looked 'em in the eye and told them in no uncertain terms they'd better get out of my jurisdiction if they knew what was good for 'em.

...and I failed...sput...poor Harvey...he'd become something of the show's mascott...and his world had just come crashing down.  In the midst of what had been several sessions of some of the funniest roleplaying I'd done since Toon Paranoia (genuinely funny...as in "we'd have laughed if it had been on tv") was a moment of tragedy so pure it left me speechless.

[Brennan Taylor]

Keith Senkowski and Nathan Paoletta playing Mortal Coil at Dreamation. Keith is playing Mithra, God of Soldiers, and Nathan is playing Coyote, Trickster God. They got into a fistfight earlier in the session, but the final scene ended up with Mithra shooting Coyote in the shoulder, and as he goes down, Keith is holding up his "gun" gangsta-style, shouting "Who's the God of War now, bitch!" at Nathan.

[GreatWolf]

In the midst of what had been several sessions of some of the funniest roleplaying I'd done since Toon Paranoia (genuinely funny...as in "we'd have laughed if it had been on tv") was a moment of tragedy so pure it left me speechless.

I was there, and it was awful.  The entire table was stunned into silence, with the occasional whimpering.  We actually broke out a boardgame, just so that we didn't have to end the night on such a tragic ending.

Funny, though.  At the same time, I think that it was a bonding experience for all of us.

But, I think that my favorite RPG moment since Birthday 2005 was the finale for my Polaris character.  The AP report is here.  Here's the relevant bits:

When we returned, Na'ir was emerging from the Mistake, bloody and broken but still clutching the hilt of his father's sword.  Nonetheless, he knew what he had to do.  He staggered to the remnant and entered it.  The city was full of wailing and crying as the Wail exacted its vengeance.  He groped his way to the top of the Starsinger tower, which is the tallest tower in the remnant.  Grasping the hilt of his father's sword, he plunged it into the floor.  Then he lifted his face to the sky and called out a name.

And the stars began to fall.  And with them, they brought healing and life.

In response, the Mistake belched up a demon horde which poured from its maw, hurtling towards the remnant.  Na'ir drew forth his father's sword, which was reforged in ice, and personally led the defense of the remnant.  He rallied the defenders, including Heka, and forced the demon horde back from the remnant.  Then, in a scene reminiscent of Return of the King, cavalry from another remnant arrived and charged.  The demon horde was scattered.  A falling star obliterated the Wail.  The remnant was saved.

And then, as Na'ir turned from the battle, a stray arrow pierced his heart.  He fell, and he died.

No one remembered him and his noble leadership.  No songs were ever sung of his sacrifice.  Indeed, he was blamed by the people for raising the Mistake against the remnant.  He was accounted a traitor to the people, and his name was dust on the winds of time, forgotten by all.

Except for us.

I fought tooth and nail for that ending, and it is still one of my all-time favorite RPG moments.  Certainly my personal best from this last year.

[Alex F]

So. Our PTA game Kin had its third session this week. It's about  protagonists discovering they shared an upbringing in some kind of sinister 'alternative community' and trying to deal with what this does them as people. The troika who began it all are Anna and Rosie, sisters adopted together, and Toren, an average nebbish who would rather be left alone (issue: Living a normal life). I as the producer had been worried that characters weren't joined up enough, that the past was currently too shadowy, and that the episodes weren't playing to their issues. Meaning I wasn't doing my job right!

This episode was Anna's spotlight (Issue: Control/success). It began  around her hospital bed, with Toren looking pensive. Cutting back, the co-survivor they make clumsy contact with angrily calls Toren an 'Altar Boy', making Anna suspicious. Meanwhile, Rosie (Issue: identity) visits the old disused orphanage they all went to post-'liberation', and finds tiny graves in the back courtyard: someone narrates in a tiny grave marked with the sister's surname - an unknown, infant sister.

The highlight was the spotlight scene that followed. It was a dream memory of the cult with the children being punished for frivolity by the Altar Boys, the   privileged few who served as the arms of the leader. Anna stood up for herself and  little Rosie, frustrating Toren, assigned to catch her, but being helpless in the face of adult power. The finisher was when Torens player coolly offered: 'they don't just punish the kids. They punish the whole family. That's why the little baby never made it.' Bang. Shivers. Collective punishment - The Fasting - for all, including an unweaned child.

Before this, I had some worries about driving the game. Now  Toren's wish for normalcy acquires a desperate edge as he denies his youthful part in the darkness. Where's it going to take him? For Anna, dealing with the cult is the only way to regain the control she's struggling for. And Rosie, the little one, faced with the knowledge that she shouldn't be that, really, and has her ally in their mission to 'thank' for that. Now everything is wrong. Just like it should be!

[Jason Morningstar]

For me it'd have to be game III of the Roach at MACE, with an all-star lineup of indie luminaries desperate to out-narrativize each other.  In the first Scene of the first Event, Remi (playing some kind of crazed 1919 rabbi) elects to be Roach-bound, chooses me (A burly Italian chemist) as his target, and draws "MURUB:  Copulate with this person, so let it be"  And it is so on.

I plead with my fellow players to cast their lot with me in the conflict, but I get no love - no love, that is, from anybody but Remi's character, who storms into my guy's office and takes him by force on a lab bench as everybody fucking cheers.  If I recall correctly they all sided against me, eager to get in on a sure thing. 

First scene of the game, and it kinda set the tone. 

[Andy Kitkowski]

There were a few, and most involved Remi, Jason, and a few others. Crap, trying to pick one.

I'll slip this in: Mark Causey is the only white man I've ever seen who can roleplay (speak) Gangsta For Real (Jason L Blair ain't got shit on Mark). And on top of that, he can also do "White Boy Imitating Wannabe Gangsta", too, which is a real feat to do consciously.

[Graham W]

It was standing on a chair in front of 30 or so people, who had just been drafted in to play werewolves, and explaining the combat rules to them before they attacked the LARPers. And then watching them attack (roaring and clawing the whole time) and all die. Wonderful.

Graham

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Ok, so what was you single best moment (scene, part of a scene, line) RPGing since B-day 2005.

-Winning back-to-back Ronny awards.  It liberated me from my previous, imprisoning line of thought.  I wouldn't be half the Forge Participant/Game Designer I am today without them.  I owe Ron a big one for running those contests.

Peace,

-Troy

[Nathan P.]

Hare and Hound at Dreamation 05. One long favorite moment.

Oh, and beating Thor on an all-grab at Jungle Speed. A feat that will go down in history, methinks.

[Eric Bennett]

Tail end of last year, at a Cthulhu LARP

Its a twisted vision of the 1940s, a scenario from the pulp book, I believe. Now, this is originally supposed to have roughly even sides of PC "heroes" and PC "villains". That angle kicked ass. The thing that made it so was the fact that only myself and one other player on the hero side, both cops, showed up. The villains had a full regiment...outmanned, to say the least.

After the first scene where we pick up some clues, we find ourselves travelling to the coroner's office to examine a body. The cult leader has shown up to try and claim, giving us his name and face. Ten minutes later, the Keeper steps into the room and utters the fateful line, "So where, exactly, are you guys?" Cue a beautiful 20 minute fight as a wave of cultist suicide bombers bust in the door. Bullets fly, allies go down, and in the end we escaped being killed horribly in the explosion by but a few steps. At this point, we decided that it was officially "on."

Meanwhile, the villains had been playing an entirely different game than us. Theirs was a bit like Vampire: The Tentacle-ing, with various powerplays had, and favors parlayed back and forth. The cultist attack had been one such piece of fallout. So what do we do? We go McCarthy on them...we get the cult leader hauled in on spurious charges, and I -the dirty cop- get ready to end his life with a needle full of heroin. Moments before we do the deed, the cult's lawyer shows up, springing the bloke. I jab him stealthily, and dose him with the full needle. He just gets up and walks away.

Several scenes later, the Keepers are preparing for the last sequence, and one of them takes me and the other cop PC aside and informs us that he is worried that we don't have enough, or any, information. We then spill everything we had figured out so far. After I got to see the scenario later, I discovered that we really had discovered everything except for one element, and that was attached to a character we had never even met. The look on the Keeper's face was wonderful.

How did it end? Well, our vendetta against the leader ended with him taking a .357 round to the chest and a boot to the head, while my fellow PC perished at my hands when I was driven mad by the appearance of a byakhee. I ate him. I recovered my senses but moments before Hastur the Unspeakable descended on Earth.

TPK. Total Planet Kill.

It was a great night...

Looking forward to Cthulhu LARP once more,
Eric

[MikeSands]

Running the second and third games (ever) of Badass Space Marines at a convention, and everyone having a great time.

[Ben Lehman]

The best gaming moment of this last year is really hard to pick out.  The one that stands out in my mind right now is during the Bliss Stage playtest in Oakland.

It's an interlude scene for my friend Ion's sulky, introverted kid pilot.  Chris's older, kinder anchor shows up to talk with him.

"It doesn't matter," he says, "we're all going to die."

Chris makes this amazing speech that I really can't replicate here, about how it does matter, because we matter to each other, and if you'll help us we can pull through.

I look across the table to see my friend Kate, who's burnt out on gaming for like 5 years, holding her hands over her heart and *grinning*

yrs--
--Ben

[Judd]

Hare and Hound at Dreamation 05. One long favorite moment.

Me too.

[matthijs]

H A R D  to pick just one. But if I have to, it'd be this one:

We're at my house, it's HolmCon. I plop down in a chair at the same table with my good friends Ole Peder and Magnus, and a girl I've just got to know called Barb. Ole Peder goes: "Does anyone want to try my impressionistic game inspired by this Bob Dylan album?" And I'm thinking, oh God, someone's heard an album, fucking Dylan and stuff. But okay.

And it's just this great thing where we try out a lot of tiny techniques in a flowing, non-narrative way. There's some plot along the way, but that's beside the point; it's an experience of being there. At one point, I - an old man - am lying in a hammock. Different scents are drifting in from the beach. With each scent there's an association. Strangely, now I can't remember who said what: who came up with the scents, who defined the association, what I said - or whether I said anything.

It's also great to play with people you don't really know - just testing out the waters, where are the other person's limits? what does he/she seem to like, what's going to come out of their heads?

As a role-player, one of several experiences that have re-opened my eyes to role-playing as a "being there" experience, not only a "telling cool stories" experience.

[GB Steve]

For me it was the Cthulhu final at Origins which started tabletop and turned into a LARP. It was so chock full of good moments it hard to pick out one so I'll go for three:
- another inmate trying to prove that a door existed and running full tilt into a solid wall;
- three GMs standing on a single chair waving their arms about and being a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath;
- at the end of the game I read an invocation backwards to unsummon Yog-sothoth. Someone had to die to save the world and given I was suicidal at that point, I decided it should be me. At the culmination of the ritual I passed the knife to the woman on my left and asked her to hold it firmly in front of her. I then threw myself on it. The look on her face was priceless.