CandidGamera vs. Table Talk

Finally, I have an idea for a semi-regular feature on this blog apart from a weekly list of what comic books I've bought.

(I say 'finally', as if I had been writing this thing since time immemorial.)

Table Talk! Funny, sometimes out of context snippets from RPG sessions.

Our first example is brought to you courtesy of Kurt's Rippers campaign. For those unfamiliar, Rippers is a game of Victorian-Era Monster Hunters. My friends and I are sporadically indulging in a game set in India, battling evil serpent people. We have an alarmingly high tendency towards collateral damage, thus far, and may actually be doing more harm than good.

The players are myself, Eric, and Veronica, with Kurt as the Game Master. This was our second session, and we were all ready to play - except Eric. In a rare display of disorganization, Eric discovered he had forgotten to bring his character. The Rippers game is based on Savage Worlds, which is an exceedingly simple system, so it is decided that Eric will whip up a new substitute character for this session.

So he concocts an adventuring archaeologist, called Paul Hitchens, from Australia. Who wears a fedora. This means that the jokes that inevitably follow fall into one or more of these three categories :

1. Crocodile Dundee
2. Steve Irwin
3. Indiana Jones

So there was a round of "That's not an Ark - this is an ark!" and "Crikey! Look at that bouldah trap. Let's go over and pick up this idol and see what happens!", et cetera. But that wasn't even the best part - no, riffing on Indy, I inquired as to the character's manly adventure name.

Me : "So, what do we call him? Queensland Hitchens? New South Wales Hitchens? Tasmania Hitchens?"

Eric : "Actually, he's from Victoria.."

Me : "Victoria Hitchens, it is! Not the most masculine alias.."

So, that became the evening's running gag.