Friday, September 23, 2011

Fifteenth is the Dice Anniversary

I met my wife through being bad at Magic the Gathering. Well, that and Games Workshop's Man O' War. See at that point I was managing a game store and running the evening game room. On Wednesdays we got people together for Magic- this would have been around the time of Legends, The Dark and Fallen Empires. I was not great at MtG- frankly I'm not great at board or CCG games, but I enjoy playing. But I could win sometimes- the trick was that I often wouldn't, even if I could. When people won, they were happy- and often that meant they'd buy more snacks and cards. I didn't have to throw a game often- I was a fairly average player- but every once in a while my opponents would have their deck go against them.

So one night while playing- with a Shivan Dragon up for ante- I let an attack go through even though I could have stopped it with the "Fog" card in my hand. I had a couple of people behind me see the terrible play- which earned me a reputation as an even worse player than I was. So the first thing my future wife, Sherri, heard about me was that I was that guy who didn't know how to play Magic but ran a game room. Sherri had fallen in with a group at college who'd gotten pretty heavily into MtG. It appealed to her sense of organization and combinations- she liked getting things in order. A couple of people in that group came over when I started pushing Man O' War hard- one of those games I loved and wanted to get more people into. I ended up playing on the same side as Sherri. We crushed a Dark Elf Black Ark of Nagarroth through the power of outclassed sexy demons- one of my favorite turnarounds at the table. After that Sherri came by regularly on Wednesdays to paint figures- ships and others- with some of her friends. We started talking and eventually I managed to lure her into a fantasy GURPS game I was about to start.

That pretty much sealed the deal. See- I'm not handsome, I'm not suave, I'm not outgoing, but I can tell a pretty compelling story. And Sherri loves stories.

We got married fifteen years ago today, on a Monday evening. We'd chosen that date to make it more difficult for the parents to set up anything fancy. Despite our efforts, they managed to put on a pretty impressive wedding. We had a lovely civil ceremony, overseen by an old friend of the family and local judge. We had a table of gamers, many with mullets. We had a superb reception- with excellent service because no one else was getting married on a Monday night, so we had their full attention.

I'm writing this a little while after having finished up a session of Changeling the Lost where her character had to clamber across grease-coated rafters to rescue a potential enemy from falling into a vat of boiling grue. Somehow, she's still willing to be married to me. She's agreed to a one-on-one campaign as her anniversary present. Sherri enjoys the various role-playing campaigns, and I've enjoyed every one of her characters. Sometimes she suffers more than the other players because she's my wife. I know some people think she gets all the behind the scenes details but she doesn't. She's still my favorite audience, my favorite player and someone I never get tired of spending time with.

I look forward to all the stories to come.

To the left, a terrible picture of me from the wedding, and a lovely picture of her.

6 comments:

  1. Congrats and many more wonderful years ahead. You have been granted a rare gift there pal.

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  2. Congratulations and best wishes to you both!

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  3. This is possibly one of the geekiest "how I met my wife" stories I've ever read and also one of the sweetest. Congrats on 15 years!

    (And kudos for having the good taste to fall in love over Man O' War. Man, that was a great game.)

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  4. Congratulations to both of you on the fifteen years! I remember those times well--the Magic, the fantasy game, and the realization that the hours you two spent painting were their own wonderful courtship.

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