The Rise and Fall of Fan Boy
	The Rise		Before

My birthday was a week ago. I ate what was left of the cake that night. I was just so mad and couldn't find any other way to get rid of that. It was a good cake all moist and good with loads of frosting, I mean A LOT of frosting. So much that you had to scrape some off if you wanted to get it into your mouth.
It was a good cake. Unlike my "friends"
I started looking for a new group today. I wasn't about to go back to the same group. I started by going by the local comic shop. I saw a couple of people looking at the gaming section and I went over. They were looking at a horrible game but they don't know any better. If they did they wouldn't have been looking at it. I asked them if they played and they told me they did. I asked if they played that horrible game. They told me it wasn't a bad game it was really good. I told them it was one of the worst games written and they asked me why. I told them because. They didn't seem satisfied with that. They asked me why and I said because it was. It was made by people who didn't know what they were doing which created a horrible unplayable system. They set down the books and left. Obviously they couldn't stand to see how wrong they were and how I right I was.

I saw a couple more people and tried to get them to join my games by telling them the faults in the various systems they were playing in.
It didn't work.
I don't know why either. I was right. I knew what was wrong with those games and was offering these people a new kind of game. I was offering them a better game. A game none of them would soon forget. Even faced with that they couldn't accept the how good I was as a GM and how bad they were. I knew all of the systems. I was the best gamer in this town. All the people should be begging to play with me instead of me begging to play with me and not the other way around. I had been gaming before they were born and I knew the games.
Still there were other stores and other groups of people that I could talk to about starting up a game to end all games. The ultimate in all games that would be talked about for years to come and then all the people in my former group would be dying to get in on that action. I'd let them in of course. I would show who was the bigger man. I would show them the kindness that only a great GM can have and I am a great GM.

I kept searching all over the town looking in places and trying to find people because I knew when it came down to it I was making a new kind of game here and it was going to be good. So I felt like sharing it until someone pointed out a grave error in my thinking. One of the books I was using had one of the worst kind of errors that I had ever seen. It made most things useless and I can't believe I over looked it. It was pointed out to me.
If the character was an elf they got +10 to all attacks and damage and received a +15 to any save roll.
It made the person almost unstoppable. I had overlooked a little bit of text that would shatter my perfect game. That single line would unbalance my game but I couldn't remove it. It was there and there was nothing I could do.
I could not use that book but then I lose a lot of the stuff I wanted to use. I could ignore it but that would end up being worse. I could deny this person a character but that wouldn't work either.

So I went with it. I figured I was such a good GM that I could make something like that work. I knew I was good and would make it work. So I let him play that character. I knew it would be tough but I could do it. I would still have one of the best games ever even if something went a little bit wrong. It would work, I'd just have to give some harder enemies to balance out the game. They made those new monster books so I could just pick out some harder things so they don't get bored. It'll work, couple stronger things to keep the game interesting and everything will work for the best. That'll work fine.

© Sal Ponce 2001