So I used to play the West End Star Wars game. It was a bit different than normal games of Dungeons and Dragons that I've had (if you could call those normal). Because of the game mechanics, I had bought a plastic case of all small 6-sided red dice - there were probably about 45 dice in all - and we called it the brick. Now, I made a childhood promise to the guy that worked at Gamer's (the game store) about never losing my dice. Maybe it didn't seem very important for anyone else, but this stuck in my memory. Possessions are very dear to me, both in game on character and things I physically own such as the dice. Out of everyone in the group, I was the one who cared the most about these things. I worshipped them secretly. On my desk I would have all my dice lined up in their original plastic cases, in order. You may remember my previous story about how I obtained my first set of sky-blue dice. Hold that as a reference point now for what you are reading.
We never spelled it out, but the rules of our group concerning dice were that whenever dice were left behind, they became the property of the person who lived at that location. I'm not the kind of person who would forget to pack up my dice - I always kept an eye on where mine were on the table - but once in a while I would notice that a few were missing from my set, so I would take a look through my friend's dice pouch (That's right. A pouch. All the dice thrown together in one place without regard to keeping the ones of a set together. Ridiculous.) and find a few that I knew were mine. This was a very difficult decision whether to take them back though. I summoned all my ethical skills that I had as a child and in the end found myself unable to reclaim the dice which were mine, even though I fully believe they were stolen from me.
To get my dice back, I would be going against the rules of our group.
I could not do it. It would have been traumatic for my young mind. Behaving with such disregard for rules and laws out of the game just could not be done because of all the illegal activities going on in the game. As you know, there are only two things in the Star Wars universe: Storm Troopers and Crime Bosses. Nobody wants to actually be a Storm Trooper, only obtain their armor which outclasses bounty hunter blast vests. So the only thing you're going to be doing in Star Wars is working for Crime Bosses to get credits to pay off those absolutely ridiculous black market fees. It was tough, but the only way do go.
I never saw that guy at Gamer's again. It might have been related to me never again entering the store, but I failed to keep my promise. My dice are gone.
13 July 2008
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