I posted this in a thread on a MySpace group.
***********************************************************************
Hmmm...let me tell you all a story of the days when there was only PnP...
One day at a PnP con in central IL, a freind of mine was invited to a high-level event. He was told to bring the original character sheet that his high-level character was on. He complied and sat down at the table with the others playing. The game went on from there. One character died. When the character died, the DM ripped up the player's character sheet.
"Your character is dead. Forever." The DM said icily.
"Wha--what do you mean, forever?" the player, a bit shaken
"That means if I ever see you playing that character anywhere, I will come by where you are playing and rip up your character! He is NEVER TO BE PLAYED AGAIN! EVER!", the DM yelled.
The player, broke out in tears and the DM grinned widely and started to laugh.
If this happened today or in the 90's, my friend probably would have walked off. Instead, he was a bit more wanting to put this DM in his place, so he waited. Sure enough, one by one characters died. Arguments and crying ensued. Of course by the time they got to my friend the entire con was watching. No cease and desist orders from the con organizers. Just my friend and a few others.
Then my friend's character died. It got ripped up.
"That's all right. I have a spare character sheet.", my friend calmly and peacefully said.
The DM tied to argue the "forever concept" to my friend. My friend stood firm and communicated to this DM that he could care less. (The details of putting the DM in his place were never shared with me.) The DM stormed out of the building.
It was known that from then on, the DM never was able to even play in his area.
My gamer brothers and sisters: The god complex that can invade your mind when creating your own detailed world is as old a RP itself. It was something that was cautioned against the first time an incident involving D&D made TV news. There was an agreement among the gaming community that while things like this can happen, they do not always happen.
If the shoe fits my friends...
***********************************************************************
My friend, of course, is Verne Wetherholt
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=33021566&groupID=100019700&adTopicID=14&Mytoken=375C8ECB-356A-44A8-92BAFA00C57C0D3F8048109
