General Retail + FLGS Horror Stories

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**nobody**

Ulf wrote:
I love the stories in this thread! LOL

I used to manage a local game store in northern NJ. It's not around anymore. Long story, but it boils down to a disagreement between the owners (I was the manager, and didn't own any of the business) that led to some questionable financial decisions that led to the store going belly-up.

Anyhow, there are SO many horror stories about awful owners & managers, but customers definitely generate their own healthy share.

Here's one of my favorites:

We had the GW Bitz Wagon (or whatever it was called) come to our store for this big event. They brought; multiple GW employees, the old Outrider program guys, a huge selection of bits for purchase, an 18x6 scenery setup that was the Gates of Terra, and all this cool stuff. It was amazing. We moved all of our gaming tables out of the way, set up the entire store to accommodate the big scenery table. We had something like 60 players come to the shop to play on it or watch. Imperials vs Chaos.

The scenery was unbelievable; the level of quality you'd see at a Games Day display; lights, water effects, movable doors, the whole nine yards. The Gates of Terra display had these huge towers flanking the gates themselves. Stood up maybe 18 inches off the tabletop. On the tops of them were these communication towers; kind of looked like old-timey radio towers, but all 40K-ified. Beautiful.

So, what makes this a horror story, you ask? Sounds like a fun event, you say? Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong..... Because we haven't talked about the folks who showed up to participate. Oh Lord, save us from the wrath & stupidity of the slack-jawed, chromosomally-challenged, super-fan troglodytes who showed up that day.

This little trio of dudes showed up. Guessing they were father and sons. One was like 55ish, the other two were maybe in their late teens. All three were dressed in matching military surplus fatigues. Urban camo, hats, jungle boots, the whole shebang. No idea where they were from, but we never saw them before or after. These guys were the worst. The oldest one kept shouting at the top of his lungs, just as excited as he could possibly be. I mean, if the guy had wet his pants in excitement, not a soul would have been surprised.

These three kept talking in "Imperial Guard speak".... they were like bad extras from a Gaunt's Ghost novel. Anytime one of the other guys, from the Chaos side, said anything jokey about how the Imperials were going to lose, these three nimrods would get in his face, shouting about the Emperor, about how Horus was this-or-that-expletive, and how they (the other players) were traitors and rebels and sons-a-goats for forsaking humanity in its time of need.

My hand to God, these dudes were basically using our event to do some sort of half-baked Crappy Guardsman LARP. LOL. Or maybe there was a 40K-themed Backyard Wrestling tag-team tryout happening nearby, and these guys left early to come attend my store's event.

So, the event starts, and our local GW rep gets the table set up to start deployment. Someone asks a perfectly reasonable question about where things can be deployed. The GW rep says simply "Anywhere within your deployment zone; if the model fits, it can be deployed there.". All seems good. 57 out of 60 attendees understand perfectly what that means.

Of course our intrepid band of reality-denying mental giants does not understand. How could they? Between chest-bumping each other while shouting "Cadia! F&*# Yeah!!" and screaming "You chaos scum want some of THIS?!?" while jabbing fingers into the chests of the other players, they just didn't have time to pay attention.

The deployment phase starts. Chaos goes first. Everything goes smoothly.

Imperial goes second. Everyone else places models on the board in a reasonable adult-human-being type manner. Now our three "heroes" go. They wait until last, to squeeze maximum advantage out of their placement. "Dad" starts shouting things like "Show them the full might of the IMPERIAL WAR MACHINE, BOYS!!" and unpacking these awfully painted Basilisks and Leman Russes.

But there's no room to deploy them. Because they waited too long, and now all the real estate outside the Gates of Terra is taken. They have to put their tanks inside the walls, where they won't be able to fire on anything.

So, without even hesitating, these champions start grabbing the terrain features on top of the walls surrounding the Gates, and begin snapping them off. To make room to balance their fifteen or so tanks on top of the walls.

Let me repeat that, in case it sounds too absurd: They start snapping off the cool sculpted radio towers, the 'Eavy Metal painted guardsmen minis, the flags with the imperial eagle on them, all of it.

This happens in about 10 seconds. Snap snap snap. Break break break. Crumple, twist, crunch. Just ruining this beautiful scenery table. Little twists of broken plastic popping off, bouncing across the table.

We all stare on in horror. The GW guys looked like they wanted to choke these guys to death. No one knows how to react at first. I mean, what do you do in a situation like that? It takes a minute or two to even process it.

Then our three noble paragons of imperial virtue start precariously balancing their tanks atop the walls. Just totally pleased with themselves, with how they've given their side the edge. They high-five each other and start gloating, explaining to the Chaos players how all traitors can now apply oral suction to the nether regions of tremendously endowed Imperial heroes.

Like ten minutes later, they were on the sidewalk outside the store, with all their models & cases lying in a heap at their feet, confused as to why they'd been ejected from the event, demanding a refund of their entry fee, and screaming about how we should reimburse them for the gas money they'd spent to drive to our shop.

True story.

Man I think we had a similar event at a store I went to, did it include a Warhound titan for the Imperials and some kind of massive crawler on the Chaos side?

**Ulf**

Yeah, it did. A big chaos super-tank that was made of like 6 Land Raiders all combined together, with a chaos guy standing on a stage on top, speaking into a microphone, something like that.....

@the Armyman; couldn't agree more. The guys were asked to tone it down, cool it, etc... but the GW staff and the LGS owner didn't want to kick them out. I suppose the thinking was that once the game started for real, they'd settle down.

**Mr_Piddlez**

@Ulf; I've played against somebody like that. He had the full imperial guard jacket. Had a guard pocket primer in the inside pocket. Very passionately gave his orders during the game to his troops. I play CSM, so I think playing against me gave him a bit of a nerd boner. Basically every turn proudly praising himself how he is cleansing the chaos filth and praising the Emperor. Except unlike the players you described. He was very pleasant, just a little weird. All in all, the game was a blast. Sounds like you got the all the RP crazy in 3 convenient packages.

**Ir0njack**

Oh sweet merciful emperor, I could feel my jibblies lurching into my chest cavity at the part about snapping off pieces. I don't think for a second I could have held myself back from tackling one of these clowns.

Do people like this REALLY EXIST?! I've been around the world and played 40k in multiple countries and I have NEVER seen this level of Cro-Magnon buffoonery.

I.. don't know if this makes me want to cry, or rage, or rage cry, ARGH! *pops blood vessel*

**Eilif**

Ulf wrote:
but the GW staff and the LGS owner didn't want to kick them out. I suppose the thinking was that once the game started for real, they'd settle down.

There's the problem.
If someone is being disruptive and "getting in the face", "this or that expetive" or "jabbing their fingers" in ANY customers chests, the store owner and the event runners should be racing to see who can be the first one to immediately eject these folks.
Not to say they deserved to have their terrain broken, but if you're going to run a large giant public event, then you've got to take responsibility for running a giant public event.

Relatedly, I can't help but notice that so many of these FLGS or TFG stories are about people who any store owner or event organizer should have quickly removed before the "horror story" in question occurred. I don't know if it's because many gamers/owners/organizers fit the socialy-awkward stereotype or are afraid to drive off customers/participants or maybe because we've simply got a higher tolerance for those who don't fit social norms. Whatever the reason, we as a community we sometimes seem to do a pretty poor job of self-policing.

**Kriswall**

These horror stories are all kind of funny. I ran a GW store for awhile and the worst I got was the dude I had to pull outside and talk to about deodorant.

Now, when I ran a Radioshack (small electronics chain store for my more international friends), I got to see some real horror stories. I've had two guns pointed at my head while working. I've had people take swings at me. I've had to have little old ladies arrested for stealing from me. I actually inadvertently had an undocumented immigrant deported when she was caught stealing a $5 item. I've had multiple kids drop trouser and poo on the floor. I had a guy ask to use my bathroom and then die in the stall. Actually, I've had to deal with two deaths in my store.

I no longer work in retail. I'm now very happy in my snug little cubicle being one of the more important cogs in an unstoppable real world Administratum.

**Grimtuff**

Kriswall wrote:
These horror stories are all kind of funny. I ran a GW store for awhile and the worst I got was the dude I had to pull outside and talk to about deodorant.

I remember when at the height of summer I sprayed a bit of deodorant under my arms in a GW. Got told not to do it as "People might be allergic".

True story.

Kriswall wrote:

Now, when I ran a Radioshack (small electronics chain store for my more international friends), I got to see some real horror stories. I've had two guns pointed at my head while working. I've had people take swings at me. I've had to have little old ladies arrested for stealing from me. I actually inadvertently had an undocumented immigrant deported when she was caught stealing a $5 item. I've had multiple kids drop trouser and poo on the floor. I had a guy ask to use my bathroom and then die in the stall. Actually, I've had to deal with two deaths in my store.

Is your name Dante Hicks by any chance?

**stanman**

The worst experience I had was going to a store for a magic event that had about 80 people attending and one toilet, which somebody destroyed right before the event began. The guy clogged it to the point it couldn't be unclogged and for an extra measure of nastiness he pooped all over the seat and smeared it on the handle.

It proceeded to stink up the entire basement and game area. Apparently a couple of people thought it'd somehow sort itself out if they just kept trying to flush the thing which caused a lot of extra water to keep dumping onto the floor and created a steady trickle from under the door into the game area. They called a plumber who made an emergency call but it took a couple hours and we had to play the first half of the event smelling raw sewage which made for a delightful time.

I'll never understand what the deal is with people taking great enjoyment in ruining public washrooms, it's just disgusting.

**KaptinBadrukk**

stanman wrote:
The worst experience I had was going to a store for a magic event that had about 80 people attending and one toilet, which somebody destroyed right before the event began. The guy clogged it to the point it couldn't be unclogged and for an extra measure of nastiness he pooped all over the seat and smeared it on the handle.

It proceeded to stink up the entire basement and game area. Apparently a couple of people thought it'd somehow sort itself out if they just kept trying to flush the thing which caused a lot of extra water to keep dumping onto the floor and created a steady trickle from under the door into the game area. They called a plumber who made an emergency call but it took a couple hours and we had to play the first half of the event smelling raw sewage which made for a delightful time.

I'll never understand what the deal is with people taking great enjoyment in ruining publish washrooms, it's just disgusting.

Oh my gawd, that musta been horrible.

**Gymnogyps**

Eilif wrote:
Ulf wrote:
but the GW staff and the LGS owner didn't want to kick them out. I suppose the thinking was that once the game started for real, they'd settle down.

There's the problem.
If someone is being disruptive and "getting in the face", "this or that expetive" or "jabbing their fingers" in ANY customers chests, the store owner and the event runners should be racing to see who can be the first one to immediately eject these folks.
Not to say they deserved to have their terrain broken, but if you're going to run a large giant public event, then you've got to take responsibility for running a giant public event.

Relatedly, I can't help but notice that so many of these FLGS or TFG stories are about people who any store owner or event organizer should have quickly removed before the "horror story" e question occurred. I don't know if it's because many gamers/owners/organizers fit the socialy-awkward stereotype or are afraid to drive off customers/participants or maybe because we've simply got a higher tolerance for those who don't fit social norms. Whatever the reason, we as a community we sometimes seem to do a pretty poor job of self-policing.

This has been my experience, too. I had found a page a while ago that discussed this exact phenomenon. Basically, the premise was that as nerds, we were picked on for being weird, so we refuse to "pick on" other nerds for being "weird." The problem is that this thought process allows all sorts of problems to occur that wouldn't be tolerated in other social circles... The geek fallacies include things like "no one can be criticized no matter how badly they behave," "everyone has to be friends with everyone (no one can be uninvited to any event)" and a couple others. I can't for the life of me remember the site. It was very well done. Edit: Found it! The Five Geek Social Fallacies: http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html

On a similar note, I don't go to local game stores any more for this exact reason. There's just too many people who trot right past weird to disturbing, and actually straight to dangerous. Including...

- the guy who was on probation for stabbing his father and lost his gak on another player in a D&D game for using the word "stab." The poor player wanted his rogue to stab an enemy in game... provoking a screaming tirade from Stabby McStabStab. This guy also grabbed an iPhone out of the hand of an opponent for making noises, and chucked it across the room, hitting a Guard tank on another table and breaking it (the tank belonged to the store manager). There's still a lot of people who refuse to game with him at all and he disrupts every game he's in... but never seems to have any real consequences. Complaints, requests to not game with him, and lost customers don't matter (see above "geek social fallacies").

-In another store, another disturbed individual harassed a female player about every move she made in any game, criticized her choice of husband, and hovered uncomfortably close at every opportunity... standing over her shoulder to watch her at the paint station. He drove her out of the store with this behavior, described by her as, "Dude is setting off my rape alarms." Complaints to the store manager had no effect because, as they were informed, she and her husband combined didn't spend as much as Creepster did.

-Another creeper did all that, plus I don't think he'd ever used a toothbrush.... you could see the crap crusting his teeth and gums. That one would flirt with the moms that came in until they left ASAP. You could see their discomfort and disgust at this tiny little guy with nasty teeth being in their faces. He would also talk right over any females that would try to interact with the store clerk or talk about games. He was scared to death of males, though, so the store clerk, and many of the male regulars, didn't get why the females were uncomfortable. He drove another regular female gamer out of the store with his behavior.

Unfortunately, in this region, these highly disruptive and even dangerous individuals drop a LOT of money in the store and so are tolerated. At least that is the excuse I've heard as to why they're allowed to stay, but in reality I think it is more Geek Social Fallacy #1: Ostracizers are evil. People that are uncomfortable just aren't tolerant enough. Obviously Stabby McStabStab and Creepy Raperstone and his slimy-toothed clone are just harmless weirdos. I have limits though, and won't patronize stores that allow harassment and intimidation of customers. So now I buy my gak off the internet instead.

Grimtuff wrote:
Kriswall wrote:

Now, when I ran a Radioshack (small electronics chain store for my more international friends), I got to see some real horror stories. I've had two guns pointed at my head while working. I've had people take swings at me. I've had to have little old ladies arrested for stealing from me. I actually inadvertently had an undocumented immigrant deported when she was caught stealing a $5 item. I've had multiple kids drop trouser and poo on the floor. I had a guy ask to use my bathroom and then die in the stall. Actually, I've had to deal with two deaths in my store.

Is your name Dante Hicks by any chance?

He's not even supposed to be here today!

Edits - grammar

**ZergSmasher**

stanman wrote:
The worst experience I had was going to a store for a magic event that had about 80 people attending and one toilet, which somebody destroyed right before the event began. The guy clogged it to the point it couldn't be unclogged and for an extra measure of nastiness he pooped all over the seat and smeared it on the handle.

It proceeded to stink up the entire basement and game area. Apparently a couple of people thought it'd somehow sort itself out if they just kept trying to flush the thing which caused a lot of extra water to keep dumping onto the floor and created a steady trickle from under the door into the game area. They called a plumber who made an emergency call but it took a couple hours and we had to play the first half of the event smelling raw sewage which made for a delightful time.

I'll never understand what the deal is with people taking great enjoyment in ruining public washrooms, it's just disgusting.

I don't know why, but I burst out laughing when I read this. I know it wasn't funny at the time, though. As for ruining public restrooms, I've heard all kinds of ways people destroy them, including throwing a piece of lithium into the toilet. Kaboom!

**NorseSig**

Honestly I'd rather have another knife pulled on me than have my models broken. First snap and me and daddy dearest would'a rolled.

I would be tempted to shoot anyone who broke my models intentionally with my Judge in the nether regions, so they could no longer reproduce.

**master of ordinance**

That.... I thank the Gary Gygax that I have never encountered anything like that toilet incident and that my club members are clean and hygienic and respectable.

**NorseSig**

master of ordinance wrote:
That.... I thank the Gary Gygax that I have never encountered anything like that toilet incident and that my club members are clean and hygienic and respectable.

That particular story reminds me of the movie Dogma and an incident that happened at a local restaurant attached to another restaurant next door in the town I grew up in. The restaurant next door did something to screw up their toilets which caused the sewage to come spewing out of the toilets in the other restaurant. The foul smelling mess quickly flowed out of the bathroom onto the tile floor of the eating area. The Restaurant was closed for 3 months for cleaning and still smelled HORRIBLE when it reopened. They went under because they were unable to get rid of the smell. The next door restaurant however, was crowing with joy over how they put the restaurant out of business with their superiority. The locals were none too pleased. They did their best to help the other restaurant owner get back on his feet, and the community put the other guy out of business as well by just not going there. The police screwed up the investigation so bad any evidence of wrong doing by the toilet tamperers was not usable in court.

**Compel**

Customers relieving themselves in any and all pseudo private locations in retail stores is a common thing.

I've always been of the opinion that, sure, there's jerkish, crazy, even murderous people in geeky related hobbies.

But that there's also just as many, jerkish, crazy, murderous people in every hobby.

**Chute82**

I work in a state prison for 12 years so I have just about seen it all. If you want to hear funny stories become friends with a police officer or a corrections guard

**Buttery Commissar**

That story about the vampire LARPers made me remember...
A good few years ago, I was at a gaming convention that's now defunct, working for a company that is also defunct... (The staff were absorbed into other companies, and organisers doubtless moved on similarly, is why I'll stay on the vaguer side of things) I used to travel wherever I was asked to, so I often ended up in places I was geographically and mentally clueless to.

So the convention moves into the darker hours, there's a party for the company staff and ticketed entry to any customers or con attendees who ended up with one. This is relevant because: I was in a casual costume that had blood coloured contact lenses. Back when this was very unusual to find outside of stage and effects work.
This was my mistake. To say the first Vampire LARP guy trying to recruit me was "predatory" would be an understatement. Then drinking started and it all went to gak. Across the evening I was repeatedly pressed to join this "midnight Vampire LARP", which I'm absolutely sure was 3/4 normal gamers who would have been very upset to know how stressed I was getting.

I was 19 and sober. I got cornered by two guys when I went outside.
"I don't know the rules..."
"You won't need to."
"I don't know anybody..."
"You won't need to!"
"I don't know my way back from [the venue]."
"I'll look after that." says a man roughly two feet taller than me, and leaning on my shoulder in what was not a reassuring way.
I just get this weird feeling that it's not going to be fun at the very least, and keep declining.

Someone later got all too drunk and tried to drag me out of the building's back exit by my arms, despite my protests. I was all of 98lb and couldn't do much about this. An older guy from my hotel sees I'm not having fun and intervened. At which point, I ran and hid in a toilet cubicle.

So I can entirely understand when people say that particular LARP attracted some odd types.

**Ustrello**

Buttery Commissar wrote:
That story about the vampire LARPers made me remember...
A good few years ago, I was at a gaming convention that's now defunct, working for a company that is also defunct... (The staff were absorbed into other companies, and organisers doubtless moved on similarly, is why I'll stay on the vaguer side of things) I used to travel wherever I was asked to, so I often ended up in places I was geographically and mentally clueless to.

So the convention moves into the darker hours, there's a party for the company staff and ticketed entry to any customers or con attendees who ended up with one. This is relevant because: I was in a casual costume that had blood coloured contact lenses. Back when this was very unusual to find outside of stage and effects work.
This was my mistake. To say the first Vampire LARP guy trying to recruit me was "predatory" would be an understatement. Then drinking started and it all went to gak. Across the evening I was repeatedly pressed to join this "midnight Vampire LARP", which I'm absolutely sure was 3/4 normal gamers who would have been very upset to know how stressed I was getting.

I was 19 and sober. I got cornered by two guys when I went outside.
"I don't know the rules..."
"You won't need to."
"I don't know anybody..."
"You won't need to!"
"I don't know my way back from [the venue]."
"I'll look after that." says a man roughly two feet taller than me, and leaning on my shoulder in what was not a reassuring way.
I just get this weird feeling that it's not going to be fun at the very least, and keep declining.

Someone later got all too drunk and tried to drag me out of the building's back exit by my arms, despite my protests. I was all of 98lb and couldn't do much about this. An older guy from my hotel sees I'm not having fun and intervened. At which point, I ran and hid in a toilet cubicle.

So I can entirely understand when people say that particular LARP attracted some odd types.

Well that is creepy as hell. Though 19 and only 98 pounds?

**Tactical_Spam**

Ustrello wrote:
Buttery Commissar wrote:
That story about the vampire LARPers made me remember...
A good few years ago, I was at a gaming convention that's now defunct, working for a company that is also defunct... (The staff were absorbed into other companies, and organisers doubtless moved on similarly, is why I'll stay on the vaguer side of things) I used to travel wherever I was asked to, so I often ended up in places I was geographically and mentally clueless to.

So the convention moves into the darker hours, there's a party for the company staff and ticketed entry to any customers or con attendees who ended up with one. This is relevant because: I was in a casual costume that had blood coloured contact lenses. Back when this was very unusual to find outside of stage and effects work.
This was my mistake. To say the first Vampire LARP guy trying to recruit me was "predatory" would be an understatement. Then drinking started and it all went to gak. Across the evening I was repeatedly pressed to join this "midnight Vampire LARP", which I'm absolutely sure was 3/4 normal gamers who would have been very upset to know how stressed I was getting.

I was 19 and sober. I got cornered by two guys when I went outside.
"I don't know the rules..."
"You won't need to."
"I don't know anybody..."
"You won't need to!"
"I don't know my way back from [the venue]."
"I'll look after that." says a man roughly two feet taller than me, and leaning on my shoulder in what was not a reassuring way.
I just get this weird feeling that it's not going to be fun at the very least, and keep declining.

Someone later got all too drunk and tried to drag me out of the building's back exit by my arms, despite my protests. I was all of 98lb and couldn't do much about this. An older guy from my hotel sees I'm not having fun and intervened. At which point, I ran and hid in a toilet cubicle.

So I can entirely understand when people say that particular LARP attracted some odd types.

Well that is creepy as hell. Though 19 and only 98 pounds?

Buttery is a wee lad.

**nullBolt**

Buttery Commissar wrote:
<snip>

I think they wanted your booty.

**Easy E**

nullBolt wrote:
Buttery Commissar wrote:
<snip>

I think they wanted your booty.

and then your kidneys and corneas.

**Grimtuff**

Tactical_Spam wrote:
Ustrello wrote:
Buttery Commissar wrote:
That story about the vampire LARPers made me remember...
A good few years ago, I was at a gaming convention that's now defunct, working for a company that is also defunct... (The staff were absorbed into other companies, and organisers doubtless moved on similarly, is why I'll stay on the vaguer side of things) I used to travel wherever I was asked to, so I often ended up in places I was geographically and mentally clueless to.

So the convention moves into the darker hours, there's a party for the company staff and ticketed entry to any customers or con attendees who ended up with one. This is relevant because: I was in a casual costume that had blood coloured contact lenses. Back when this was very unusual to find outside of stage and effects work.
This was my mistake. To say the first Vampire LARP guy trying to recruit me was "predatory" would be an understatement. Then drinking started and it all went to gak. Across the evening I was repeatedly pressed to join this "midnight Vampire LARP", which I'm absolutely sure was 3/4 normal gamers who would have been very upset to know how stressed I was getting.

I was 19 and sober. I got cornered by two guys when I went outside.
"I don't know the rules..."
"You won't need to."
"I don't know anybody..."
"You won't need to!"
"I don't know my way back from [the venue]."
"I'll look after that." says a man roughly two feet taller than me, and leaning on my shoulder in what was not a reassuring way.
I just get this weird feeling that it's not going to be fun at the very least, and keep declining.

Someone later got all too drunk and tried to drag me out of the building's back exit by my arms, despite my protests. I was all of 98lb and couldn't do much about this. An older guy from my hotel sees I'm not having fun and intervened. At which point, I ran and hid in a toilet cubicle.

So I can entirely understand when people say that particular LARP attracted some odd types.

Well that is creepy as hell. Though 19 and only 98 pounds?

Buttery is a wee lad.

I don't think Buttery is a lad at all.

**Buttery Commissar**

Whichever makes it worse. A good friend of mine said, "There'd be an awful lot of the 'Dominate' hand signal." which makes me feel better about giving the whole thing a pass.

Yeah, I was tiny. 5'7" and permanently cold. There was an undiagnosed medical reason. I'm fine.

Relevant to weight: That party was also the night a guy literally picked me up off the floor by one arm, and tried to get me to go somewhere private with him. You've never seen a group of middle aged tabletop players move so quickly. He was banned from the events for the next day until he apologised (sober) the next morning and I accepted.

When usually reserved, calm people get away from home and responsibility with alcohol, some aren't good at reigning in.
Corralling comic con artists is easily the worst job I've ever had, as they're usually in the bar, away from the OH who's back home. I've taken Starbucks cups of whisky off artists about to give talks, told convention goers they can't pay in bottles of bourbon, not because it's against policy, but because it renders the artist unable to function for day 3...

Easy E wrote:
nullBolt wrote:
Buttery Commissar wrote:
<snip>

I think they wanted your booty.

and then your kidneys and corneas.

I think they just wanted a confused submissive thrall/ghoul(?) for the night, but looking back I suspect I may not have made it to the game. I'm certain the moment I turned up at that game and made it clear I was uncomfortable/unwilling as feth, any sober participants would have intervened.

The night was saved by actual LARPers allowing me and a couple of friends to sit at their campfire, which is a resounding good memory.

**Ustrello**

Buttery Commissar wrote:
Whichever makes it worse. A good friend of mine said, "There'd be an awful lot of the 'Dominate' hand signal." which makes me feel better about giving the whole thing a pass.

Yeah, I was tiny. 5'7" and permanently cold. There was an undiagnosed medical reason. I'm fine.

Relevant to weight: That party was also the night a guy literally picked me up off the floor by one arm, and tried to get me to go somewhere private with him. You've never seen a group of middle aged tabletop players move so quickly. He was banned from the events for the next day until he apologised (sober) the next morning and I accepted.

When usually reserved, calm people get away from home and responsibility with alcohol, some aren't good at reigning in.
Corralling comic con artists is easily the worst job I've ever had, as they're usually in the bar, away from the OH who's back home. I've taken Starbucks cups of whisky off artists about to give talks, told convention goers they can't pay in bottles of bourbon, not because it's against policy, but because it renders the artist unable to function for day 3...

Easy E wrote:
nullBolt wrote:
Buttery Commissar wrote:
<snip>

I think they wanted your booty.

and then your kidneys and corneas.
I think they just wanted a confused submissive thrall/ghoul(?) for the night, but looking back I suspect I may not have made it to the game. I'm certain the moment I turned up at that game and made it clear I was uncomfortable/unwilling as feth, any sober participants would have intervened.

The night was saved by actual LARPers allowing me and a couple of friends to sit at their campfire, which is a resounding good memory.

Sounds a lot like my buddy who is 5'4 and weighs 105 pounds

.

**Buttery Commissar**

Tie a weight to him in high winds.

And holy gak, my con story gets a whole lot darker if you don't assume I'm a guy. Or maybe it's just as bad if you do. Those guys had no idea what orientation I was/am, other than disinterested.

That whole year was an eye opener. I had a lot of things explained to me about being overly trusting of people in the community. Got myself a genuine stalker at one point from not knowing how to get out of the situation. Guy mailed me his worn clothing.

**Ustrello**

Buttery Commissar wrote:
Tie a weight to him in high winds.

And holy gak, my con story gets a whole lot darker if you don't assume I'm a guy. Or maybe it's just as bad if you do. Those guys had no idea what orientation I was/am, other than disinterested.

That whole year was an eye opener. I had a lot of things explained to me about being overly trusting of people in the community. Got myself a genuine stalker at one point from not knowing how to get out of the situation. Guy mailed me his worn clothing.

We try not to take him outside as large predatory birds might try and take him

.

But seriously I think BC wins this horrible contest with that last story.

**Buttery Commissar**

The short of it was that I was naive enough to believe someone could be okay with just being my friend / bro after amorous advances were rejected, and the (far older) older person in question didn't have the self control to leave well alone.
Started turning up uninvited to gaming events and RPG sessions, to my dorm, writing me massive emails, 30-40 texts a day... Beyond that point I don't really want to talk/think about it, but yes it culminated in him mailing me his unwashed pyjamas after a breakdown.

I washed, ironed and returned them, because if there's anything weirder than mailing someone your dirty laundry, it's mailing someone else's back.

Some people are just very very lost. I can't bear grudges.

**Chute82**

Buttery Commissar wrote:
The short of it was that I was naive enough to believe someone could be okay with just being my friend / bro after amorous advances were rejected, and the (far older) older person in question didn't have the self control to leave well alone.
Started turning up uninvited to gaming events and RPG sessions, to my dorm, writing me massive emails, 30-40 texts a day... Beyond that point I don't really want to talk/think about it, but yes it culminated in him mailing me his unwashed pyjamas after a breakdown.

I washed, ironed and returned them, because if there's anything weirder than mailing someone your dirty laundry, it's mailing someone else's back.

Some people are just very very lost. I can't bear grudges.

To funny you mailed them back after you washed and ironed them....

**Dryaktylus**

Buttery Commissar wrote:

I washed, ironed and returned them.

With a healthy dose of itching powder, I hope...

Hmm... no such stories from my FLGS, but I wasn't there for a while. Reading this thread makes me unsure if I want to visit it again.

**SlaveToDorkness**

Give me your address, I have tons of clothes here that need washing (no need for ironing)!!!

LOL