AD&D (Ants, Dungeons & Dad)

James over at Dreams of Mythic Fantasy posted about the passing of his father.  It's a great homage to his father.  If you haven't read it yet, please take the time to do so.  It got me to thinking of my father and a post I wrote a few years back.  It still makes me chuckle because I remember it well.

This one goes out to James.

Original Post
 There has been a lot of talk about fathers on the blogosphere and that got me to thinking of my dad (he passed away in November of '97) and my gaming times with him. He was there when I first started gaming and didn't know what to think of it, but never discouraged me. I got him to sit down and play a few times. I was still figuring out the rules and he pointed out some of the inconsistencies and helped me rethink parts of the game. He was a funny guy so we had a lot of fun.

The memory that keeps me laughing is the collision of his purchase of a new home and my desire to build my own dungeon. During a weekend I measured every room and hallway, counter, cabinet and piece of furniture. It was the first map that the squares equal 1' so could get the measurements exact and the first time I took the outside of the dungeon into consideration. I showed him the map and he asked what I was going to do with it and I told him I was going to make a dungeon.

That night I cracked open the monster manual and DMs Guide and started filling his small home with lots of creatures. Did it make sense? Ha. No. Not even a little. His whole house I believe measured 40' long and 20' wide and I had a dozen different monster types living there. The next day we sat down and I ran him through my freshly made dungeon. He encountered giant snakes outside and there was one encounter with giant ants inside. He killed them quickly because he said he didn't want ants in his house.

The next weekend I visited he jokingly said I wasn't allowed to use his house as a dungeon any more. He said after that weekend he had a bunch of snakes in his basement and ants in the kitchen. So he blamed me and my dungeon. He told me to make a dungeon of the lady's house next door. He didn't like her anyhow.

It's a good thing I didn't tell my dad about the basilisk in his bathroom.