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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ricercar" data-source="post: 9266959" data-attributes="member: 7044813">[USER=7039043]@PolyhedralPapa[/USER], your post brings back fond memories. Thank you for the detail. I feel you have the same fondness for Bear and his game that I have.I played in multiple Standing Bear's Worlds from 1979-1990, Knock, Llabyrinth, and Tuff Turf. Observations subject to the limits of my memory. I met Standing Bear as the first edition of AD&D was released, between the publication of the PH and DMG. He was already running a 'west marches' game, with over 40 players vying for spots in the queue. Knock and Llabyrinth were AD&D 1e, with Tuff Turf being the first of Bear's custom gaming systems. At the time of Llabyrinth, he wore a green T shirt with the phrase "PSALM 146: Put not your trust in princes."KNOCK:My first exposure was sitting in on a game in which two very experienced PCs, Shadowjack (Steve H's character) and Bactor (Tim I's character), were on a quest for NPC Quetzalcoatl. They had found the treasure, and Q was demanding that they bring the MacGuffin out of the vault it was in. I noted that they should be careful, because obviously Q couldn't enter the vault, and therefore his threats were empty as long as they stayed in the vault. Bear looked me in the eye, gave me that subtle smile of his, and I swear there was a gleam in his eye brighter than the ambient lighting. Like wise men warned in a dream, Shadowjack and Bactor went home a different way, and Standing Bear invited me to roll up a character to play in Knock.He gave me party leadership at the top of the queue, and I had no idea the honor it was nor the enmity it earned me from many of the players. My cleric Roger Bacon became very successful, and when nine PCs ascended into the pantheon of deities, RB became the eponymous Knock (The White Marble Dragon), Bactor became Gorm (The Black Bunny), and Don H.'s PC became Guipago (¿Wind Wolf?).LLABYRINTHEveryone started this campaign with your character appearing in a small room with a shimmering curtain. It was a room in an underground dungeon. You had to solo your way to a place of safety, such as "The Djinn Inn," or racial strongholds. Death toll was very high until PCs were able to group together and collaborate. Sharing maps was both common and expensive, as we quickly discovered different parties were having very different experiences.Sessions in Bear's World became closed rooms, so others competing for similar resources couldn't get there first based on overhearing your session. (One player, Dave R, didn't play a PC, but sat in on all adventures mapping, allowed by all because he shared his maps with you. I still have Daver's comprehensive Llabyrinth maps, and it's a place PCs can explore in my ongoing D&D game.)I dropped out of ISU, but my friend Cal would drive two hours to pick me up Saturday noon in Omaha, and take me to Ames to play Bear's World, and drive me back to Omaha in time for my shift the next morning. He then slept in his car before returning to Ames. This is the kind of enthusiasm Bear fostered in his players. We were not alone. There were some five dozen players with the same dedication (obsession).Bear allowed Player vs. Player. In this competitive environment, strong smart charismatic leaders were dominant, and we formed factions. The aforementioned Steve H. was known to be clever, ruthless, and successful. I confronted his PC once in a faction war. He threw a fireball at my PC Silverhand; she caught it in her "Secondary Guardian Device" and threw it back at him (he was immune to fire), and we each then chose to change our focus to fight others in the battle. The campaign ended when someone eventually found the Patella of Al Bac and took it to the room of the shimmering curtain and released us all into Bear's next campaign.TUFF TURFThis is the campaign where I feel Standing Bear really found his stride. He invented his own gaming system. TSR's D&D was a skeleton, but only insofar as it gave you a familiar structure to build your characters. You knew what a Wizard or Ranger could do, but you did it in Bear's own fashion.It was a point based system, with each adventure earning 3 Billikins points, or 6 points if you stated a goal and achieved it. You could buy stat points, class abilities, languages, proficiencies, feats, or even "Billikins Items" which would return to you No Matter What at the start of the next adventure. No one felt that broke the fourth wall. No one batted an eye at a game mechanic that prevailed as unique in my experience to Bear's worlds. Items and abilities could be used "X times per adventure."In Tuff Turf we all were seeking the 1001 Dragonbones, and I believe my PC Yama found one of the first ones, "Cups" that allowed shapeshifting into a Rakshasa or tiger. As you collected more dragonbone artifacts, they synergized somehow, and your collection became more than the sum of the parts. I think the dragon of the 1001 was the NPC Al Bac, our common nemesis throughout all Bear's Worlds.Standing Bear was refining his game system as we played, adding rules as they became needed. When we realized this, we sought exploits that were not accounted for (yet). Don H and I became very successful in this. When I heard there was a magical pyramid ring that multiplied your Billikins Point award by your level, I tracked it down, bought it (for a fair price) from a PC who was terrified I would just kill him for it. My PC's progress skyrocketed, and Standing Bear targeted me for ring removal. Yet I played a cagey game, and never lost it. My PC acquired one of the first "Turfs" of Tuff Turf, a place where one was nearly omnipotent. Don H's character followed swiftly. Our two character were probably the "two players [who] broke Bear's mechanics" referred to in the original post of this thread.When I finally graduated from college in 1990, I lost touch with Bear and his game. I heard Bear died months after his funeral, and grieve, but he had a full life and left people better off than before they met him. Bill D. his son, is one of my Facebook Friends, and we reminisce often.Here are a few images to contribute to the conversation:A photo of Standing Bear from a GENCON 1993 flier.<h4>[ATTACH=full]347434[/ATTACH]</h4>Two photos of a list in Bear's own handwriting: the first 28 of the 1001 Dragonbones, the artifacts mentioned.[ATTACH=full]347435[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]347436[/ATTACH]My limited view of Llabyrinth[ATTACH=full]347449[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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