I have alluded to a love story that played out in a game a long time ago. When I was pretty new to gaming actually I played a game of MegaTraveller that in essence turned out to be an epic love story between my character and a non-player character (NPC) called Star.
Love
I was around fifteen when this game started. MegaTraveller was one of the great games going on in school and the Referee was pretty good. Sure, he played up all the tropes – NPC’s that were unkillable, wide-brimmed hats and dark and shadowy characters in all the space bars. My character, Treva Donnelly, started out as a bit of a rogue type. He was a grifter looking for the next quick buck who cared only for himself. He had a run-in with an enigmatic woman in a bar who was not immediately repulsed by his grifting. In fact, she was interested in trying to find out why he acted the way he did.
Trying to big-note himself Treva decided to “better” himself and chased up the psionic institute. He found out that he was actually way more adept than he originally even thought. It turned out he was a powerful psion, unlike any that the institute had seen. His talent? He could make fire do his bidding. The woman had begun following and having Treva followed. He met with her and her brothers many times to find out that they were, in fact, an immortal alien race. She was breaking her culture to fall in love with a mortal and her family were beginning to make trouble for the couple.
Treva sought to prove to them that he was powerful and in control. He did this via his psionics. He found that he was powerful alone, but with an edge of drugs, he would burn brighter than any star. It was this obsession that drove him to his lowest point. He was running, dealing and using the drugs in a downward spiral. In his elation he wiped out a platoon of heavily armoured police in front of all the planets cameras. He was reviled by all, and worst of all he had broken his Star’s heart.
The remainder of the campaign was a war of contrition and breaking his ties to the dark underworld that revolved around him. He had many deals with many people that he had to break free from. He did so with great loss. Beyond that, he then had to track down his Star. He traced her path through her siblings who hated him for what he had done. He doggedly pursued her and showed his love by never calling forth the destructive flame that he had once commanded. At the end of his journey, where he had proven his contrition he found Star waiting for him.
She did not take him back immediately. In fact, it took her siblings to arrive and speak of Treva’s contrition before she accepted that he had truly changed. With their wedding among the stars, I retired the character, realising that to take the story any further would only demean what had passed. So that is the story of love that I played out in a game and it will be a game I remember fondly. Keep rolling!
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What an epic story! Love it =D