Of Steam Tunnels and LARPing

[MonkeyDragon]

I went to MSU, and my tae kwon do teacher was on campus at the time. AND he had been in the tunnels. He confirmed that they were wet, cramped, and basically impossible to larp in. Not to mention the fact that you can't larp alone any more than you can play tabletop games alone.

I didn't read through the article in the OP, but Master Ron told me a story of a very young boy, who was intellectually gifted (a 14 year old freshman) and completely emotionally unprepared for a college environment. Add in depressed and gay, and you've got a perfect storm of being alone and misunderstood without getting anywhere near D&D as a source.

He said that he never went missing in the tunnels, but that he ran away to Texas to be with an older man and eventually committed suicide.

I don't know how accurate his information was, but either way it was a very sad story that had little to nothing to do with gaming.

 

[fanboy2000]

I went to MSU, and my tae kwon do teacher was on campus at the time. AND he had been in the tunnels. He confirmed that they were wet, cramped, and basically impossible to larp in. Not to mention the fact that you can't larp alone any more than you can play tabletop games alone.

Two things:

1. I think you're making the mistake of equating "Dangerous and Stupid" with "Impossible". It's a common mistake when assuming everyone is sane.

2. I never claimed Dallas played D&D alone. He played with other people. One of the students Dear interviewed said that Dallas had played D&D in the tunnels with them. Though, the DM had to kick Dallas out because he wasn't fitting in.

I didn't read through the article in the OP, but Master Ron told me a story of a very young boy, who was intellectually gifted (a 14 year old freshman) and completely emotionally unprepared for a college environment. Add in depressed and gay, and you've got a perfect storm of being alone and misunderstood without getting anywhere near D&D as a source.

That's good because, had you read the link (or my post) you'd know that I never said D&D was a problem.

He said that he never went missing in the tunnels, but that he ran away to Texas to be with an older man and eventually committed suicide.

Dallas went down into the tunnels to commit suicide. It didn't happen though and he went to friends house to recover. Unfortunately, he committed suicide a year later.

I don't know how accurate his information was, but either way it was a very sad story that had little to nothing to do with gaming.

See, this is the line I've been hearing for years. People are so quick to distance D&D from the event that no one ever talks about it. D&D and LARPing aren't ever mentioned in the same breath.

Yet, I think people did play D&D in steam tunnels.

I mean students really do seem to have gone down there. Dear, the private investigator who eventually found Dallas, searched those tunnels there were signs that students had been down there. It may be dangerous and stupid to play anything down there, but people do all kinds of dangerous and stupid things.

I mean, it's possible Dear was mistaken (or lying). But the book makes me wonder.

While I'm at it, I'm attaching a photo from the book.

 

[Umbran]

Hm. There are tunnels under the MIT east campus that are just fine for larping. And by "just fine" I mean, "clean, well lit, and advertised by the Institute as a way for the office staff to take a fitness walk at lunchtime in a Massachusetts winter."

 

[Nytmare]

And by "just fine" I mean, "clean, well lit, and advertised by the Institute as a way for the office staff to take a fitness walk at lunchtime in a Massachusetts winter."

Where's the fun in that?

 

[Janx]

so many things to comment on:

on SCA animosity, I've heard the SCA'ers tend to get snooty with the Rennies, seeing them as not doing it right/accurately.

It's too bad, because any Rennie or D&Der attending an SCA event probably has an interest in learning the more historically accurate details. A negative attitude from an SCA person would be a deterrent, and frankly boneheaded dickishness for showing the best side of the organization.

On playing D&D in the steam tunnels, methinks some folks are being too literal.
Mentally go back (or go to) college. You're young. You play D&D. You find out there's tunnels beneath the campus. You get visions of exploring an actual dungeon. You may get the gumption to sneak around and explore it with friends and in describing it, the phrase "D&D in the steam tunnels" might come up. But that does not mean you actually brought a character sheet and dice and actually rolled out combats or boffed each other with Nerf.

Your hands are going to be busy holding a flashlight, brushing cobwebs out of your face and ducking pipes. The first 10 feet into it will make that pretty obvious. I think some people call the hobby of exploring steam tunnels and such Vadding. Of which MIT was apparently famous for as well.


I never explored the steam tunnels at my school (they were locked). Instead, I invented NerfWars and we ran around the Fine Arts building and shot each other at night. Incidentally, Fine Arts buildings work best because they always have wierd floor plans and architecture.

 

[TerraDave]

For whatever reason I was recently in Bandung Indonesia.

There is a large park/forest by the city with fairly heavy, and to my eyes, exotic foilage. In it are two little tunnel complexes, one built by the Dutch and the other by the Japanese during WWII. Dark and spooky...but actually very easy to get around in. Complicated enough to be interesting, but not like you would get lost. Bandung's main appeal is its temperate weather, so inspite of the jungle setting, it was quite pleasant.

Perfect. If you can just get to Bandung.

 

[haakon1]

Also worth noting that the late 70's was probably an early high-water mark for the campus culture of roof and tunnel hacking- security wasn't as complex, and schools weren't cracking down on the practice yet.

Roof? Oh yeah, I forgot about "tunneling up".

Anyhow, we were do tunneling/tunneling up much later, in the late 80's/early 90's. By the time we graduated, they'd added keypad locks and motion sensors, but when we started, you could do things like walk in the open door of the steam plant, walk by the technician with his back to door, and walk in and go across campus.

They never caught us in the tunnels, but Security got used to encountering my friend Dan NEAR places where alarms had recently gone off. They didn't seem to care very much.

The entrance panel to the subbasement where we used to play was covered over after we graduated. I don't know if they did it because they'd figure out we had been there (lots of foot prints in the dirt), or if it was just part of normal renovation of that part of the basement (which was all changed).

 

[Nytmare]

Anyhow, we were do tunneling/tunneling up much later, in the late 80's/early 90's. By the time we graduated, they'd added keypad locks and motion sensors, but when we started, you could do things like walk in the open door of the steam plant, walk by the technician with his back to door, and walk in and go across campus.

Yeah, I was amazed that at Pitt, even after they added a lot of "security" in some places, there are other ways in that are just as easy to get into today as they were 20 years ago.

For anyone who is interested, google "urban exploration."