Damn Rust Monsters!!!

You know, there has been a lot of hubbub lately on other RPG related blogs about “old school” vs “new school” gaming and which is best and why. Truth be told, I don’t really have a dog in the fight so I could care less. See, fact is that while I tried to get into playing D&D in about ’81, I was never really successful until about 84-85, and even then the amount of gaming I did was sporadic at best. My fellow gamers had parents who were very religious, so most gaming was done below boards and as there was no real consistency among our group or experience levels most games fell flat and died before they ever had a chance to start.

Fast forward to 1992 and I dabbled in a few hack n’ slash games with some friends, but as we were more interested in the ladies and our newfound freedom at this point, again, the games were scattered and half-assed at best. Then, between 1992 and 1999 I dropped out of gaming entirely.

Without rehashing a lot of old and boring history, that time was filled with various failed relationships and a failed marriage (which was doomed from the start, so shed no tears for me Argentina!) and included me moving out of town and away from any potential gaming buddies for about three years. So, in 1999 I moved back to my hometown, single and with a lot of free time and found that my friends were still gaming and tossing some dice. So it was in March 1999 I found myself learning and loving WEG’s D6 system, and for the next seven years was content to exclusively play the Star Wars RPG.

So, after that campaign ended, I found myself faced with a dilemma: Keep playing Star Wars or branch out into something new. My gamer wife and her sister played D&D back when they were kids, so there was already two players who were interested in branching out into a fantasy setting- throw in another player and all of a sudden I had a group willing to try something new. Needless to say, I was thrilled that D6 had thrown their hat into the fantasy ring with D6 Fantasy and before I knew it I was running my players through a good old sword and sorcery campaign.

Now, let’s clarify something right here. As much as I love roleplaying, I’ve never been an RPG fiend like some folks. I’ve had friends who had all of the RIFTs and D&D books, but, save for a handful of sourcebooks I got for my birthday that wound up being stolen a few days later by a so-called “friend” I never possessed much more than the core ruleset (and the “friend” got his karmic payback when he was busted a while back and sent to prison for bringing illegal reptiles through an airport- trust story).

So where does all of this lead us and how does it relate to Rust Monsters?

I guess it comes down to the fact that while I’ve been playing/Gm’ing games for the last decade, I’m not what you would call a gaming connoisseur. I don’t have the AD&D rules memorized, nor do I have every result on the potion miscibility table in the original DM’s guide memorized. I’d never mapped out a “Dungeon of Doom” before a year ago and you know what?

It’s great.

Really. Think about it, all of you old school (and new school) guys. Think about what it would feel like if you opened those books for the first time, un-jaded by all that you’ve seen and done already and lost yourself in the magic and wonderment that you first felt back when you were a kid.

Cause that’s what I’m experiencing right now baby!

So you can understand my surprise and amazement when my group came across a trio of Rust Monsters this past Saturday while making their way through a city’s underworld.

See, Rust Monsters (as most, if not all) of you know, are bad.

But what’s worse?

A Dwarven Monster Slayer who is easily goaded into rash actions by the GM.

Heh.

Yeah, just a few thinly veiled cracks about his honor and bravery and about how a real Dwarven badass would go in and “take care of bidness” and *poof*.

One regular Battle Axe: Gone.

One Magical Warhammer: Gone.

One suit of Magical Chainmail: Gone.

The end result of seeing what these little bastiches can do and those adventurers- the same who took down a Red Dragon and survivors of countless battles with Trolls, necromancers and all other manner of badass- ran.

Fast.

It was crazy, wild and completely unexpected and the players were as stunned as I was.

In just 2-3 combat rounds the dwarf was almost naked and weaponless and another PC had lost a nice suit of half-plate armor. But what was damaged more than their gear was their morale. And due to the terrible draws made from the “Deck O’ Many Things” last game session, this last encounter literally stripped the group down to a bare-bones magical inventory that is almost laughable compared to what they were toting around at the beginning of the year (so many items they actually lost track of what they had).

And as the group ran wildly to get away through the dark tunnels beneath the Imperial City, their valuable items reduced to a bedtime snack, a piece of advice regarding magical items and powerful PC’s passed on to me by Uncle Angus, an old-school GM just a week before rang through my mind:

“Sometimes, you just have to do some pruning.”

Indeed Uncle Angus. Indeed you do.