OT: My boys...

[natehale1971]

hello everyone, you've all been so great, and supportive of my situation i thought i would share these with you. i laughed and smiled for the first time in almost a year today.. Jack called Daddy when Emma wasn't around. And he kept wiping my tears away.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0488.jpg
Me and Jack

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0486.jpg
Zachary opening his gifts.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0481.jpg
Jack right after he called me "Daddy" again.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0504.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0508.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0502.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/100_0503.jpg

Has anyone else incorporated the quest to find out about their family into their T2k campaign?

My character CW3 Nathaniel Hale Spaight was driven about getting back to his family.. learning anything he could about them. his last letter from 'home' was telling about how his family was dealing with the post-TDM nuclear exchanges. How his father had become a local community leader that had ran afoul of CivGov who had taken the family property (a 40 acre farm, and the kind of severe missmangagement that the FEMA people had been doing... and alot of other things as well).

[Targan]

Family is likely to play a very important role in my campaign. The PC CO in my campaign Major Anthony Po is the heir to a massive fortune since his parents died and he has no siblings. The only relative he has left in the CONUS is his granny and he has reason to believe that MilGov has her in "protective custody" somewhere around San Francisco.

A major NPC in campaign met the PCs during a quest to find his son, a US Marine, in the Poland part of the campaign. The sad part was that his son had been one of the PCs earlier in the campaign but was killed.

[natehale1971]

Family is likely to play a very important role in my campaign. The PC CO in my campaign Major Anthony Po is the heir to a massive fortune since his parents died and he has no siblings. The only relative he has left in the CONUS is his granny and he has reason to believe that MilGov has her in "protective custody" somewhere around San Francisco.

A major NPC in campaign met the PCs during a quest to find his son, a US Marine, in the Poland part of the campaign. The sad part was that his son had been one of the PCs earlier in the campaign but was killed.

We had a set of adventures in our campaign where the Joint Cheifs-of-Staff had come across some information that GOA Jonathan Cummings older brother was in a Med Alliance P.O.W. Camp located outside Saarland and hadn't actually been killed when their airborne command post had been shot down as originally was believed.

But in fact it was an elaborate trap that was meant to draw MilGov into making a disasterous move by elements of CivGov to discredit MilGov by restarting combat operations during the erstaz peacetalks that was being sponsored by the Swiss Confederation and Vatican between the NATO Alliance, the Med Alliance and the Warsaw Pact.

[JimmyRay73]

I find that family can be a great motivator and character hook in campaigns, mostly because family is a great motivator in real life. Good to see you and the kids having some fun.

[natehale1971]

I find that family can be a great motivator and character hook in campaigns, mostly because family is a great motivator in real life. Good to see you and the kids having some fun.

Thank you so much.. i've missed them so damn much. and they said they've missed me. that they love me. and jack called me daddy. emma had said i was nothing to jack, that he didn't even remember me. he sat there in my lap and watched TV and played with the toy chinook helicopter i had bought him.

if anyone knows where i can find him more chinook helicopter toys please let me know. that's his favorite helicopter, and he's been wanting one so damn bad, and when i handed him the toy in it's package he was so excited that he couldn't open it. i had bought him that helicopter because something in my heart said to get it for him. he's my boy no matter what that bitch says. he picked me to be his daddy, and he's in my heart for eternity and beyond. and he's proven that i'm in his just as much.

i dont care how muh they cost... if you guys can find chinook helicopter toys, please tell me. so i can get them for my boys.

[Targan]

I think as adults we all understand that relationships sometimes end badly and we expect our ex-partners to sometimes say hurtful things but using kids as emotional weapons - I'm sorry but I consider that to be skirting the edge of evil. No matter what one parent might think of the other parent it is just plain wrong for one parent to bad-mouth the other to their kids. Just. Plain. Wrong.

I feel bad for you Nate, I really do. I rarely get to see my daughter because of how my ex and her family feel about me so I understand some of how bad you must be hurting.

[natehale1971]

I think as adults we all understand that relationships sometimes end badly and we expect our ex-partners to sometimes say hurtful things but using kids as emotional weapons - I'm sorry but I consider that to be skirting the edge of evil. No matter what one parent might think of the other parent it is just plain wrong for one parent to bad-mouth the other to their kids. Just. Plain. Wrong.

I feel bad for you Nate, I really do. I rarely get to see my daughter because of how my ex and her family feel about me so I understand some of how bad you must be hurting.

I so sorry Targan.... this pain, i would never, ever wish this kind of hurt on anyone. i'm not going to be able to be the father I always wanted to be. i'm not going to be able to see my boys more than once a year because of this. my heart goes out to you. why do the courts that are suppose to ensure that we are all equal under the law... but women always get the upper hand. and we men get the short end of the deal. (there was a song titled "she got the gold mine and i got the shaft" that fits it... and its worse in the UK... fathers aren't given any rights. they're telling me that if anything happens to her, i won't be allowed to get my sons)

[General Pain]

I think as adults we all understand that relationships sometimes end badly and we expect our ex-partners to sometimes say hurtful things but using kids as emotional weapons - I'm sorry but I consider that to be skirting the edge of evil. No matter what one parent might think of the other parent it is just plain wrong for one parent to bad-mouth the other to their kids. Just. Plain. Wrong.

I feel bad for you Nate, I really do. I rarely get to see my daughter because of how my ex and her family feel about me so I understand some of how bad you must be hurting.

There is a special place in hell for that behavior...


....If you belive in hell....

[Adm.Lee]

Man, I'm praying for the lot of you, for a better outcome than this.

Re: game and family, in one of my campaigns, I inserted an NPC to slip the players tactical advice ("Uh, sir, are ya SURE you wanna do that?") Otto was a German cavalry scout, and had left his wife and daughter in Bremen, I think. He had seen them just before the 2000 Poland campaign kicked off. The players and their characters felt for him, and I think it added a lot to the atmosphere.

Once v2 came out with the lifepath style chargen, my players started to make up details about family & friends left behind. That's probably one of the biggest reasons that was my preferred method of chargen. {Traveller was more fun, though.}

[Jason Weiser]

http://www.diecastdirect.com/asp_modules/add_item.asp?ProductCode=NR25797

This might be of some help Nate! Done business with them before! Good guys!

In any event, I used family once or twice and it was effective...never forgot the campaign where the one PC had been working and slaving to get home and found out his family had been forcibly evacuated by local officials who were now Civgov cronies. Let's just say things didn't end well for the cronies. As for the PC..he got some of his family back..he was still looking for the rest when the campaign ended due to RL issues.

[natehale1971]

http://www.diecastdirect.com/asp_modules/add_item.asp?ProductCode=NR25797

This might be of some help Nate! Done business with them before! Good guys!

In any event, I used family once or twice and it was effective...never forgot the campaign where the one PC had been working and slaving to get home and found out his family had been forcibly evacuated by local officials who were now Civgov cronies. Let's just say things didn't end well for the cronies. As for the PC..he got some of his family back..he was still looking for the rest when the campaign ended due to RL issues.

i like this! it's perfect. thank you so much. thank you thank you thank you.

i just wish i knew what to do to stop hurting, stop missing her too. wishing she sould just hold me. when does that pain stop? when do they stop lying about you so malisciously... and when will i stop begging God to let me die? she called the hospital when i was in there. demanding to know how HER HUSBAND was doing, when she called and i was awake the nurses handed me te phone, and Emma said she loved me, and just wanted me to get well enough to get on the first airplane that i could so i could be able to get on the first airplane to the UK so she could take care of me. but over time, she's changed telling it to others.. saying she was only calling to approve medicl proceedures that the docotors needed to do. but that's not ture. my mom and dad was at the hospital every day, and the doctors and nurses said they dreaded answering the pheone when they knew it was her, and even after they had told her they didn't need her to approve of any ofthe peoceedures they needed to do.. they wrote down all of the conversations, and even traped them. they told me how much emma said she and the boys missed me, and demanded that they tell me that Emma, Jack and Zachary loved me and they just wanted me to get well enough to be able to get to them. So much so when alal the meds drove me crazy, i though i was in the UK insted of the US.. they had me strapped to the bed because i kept trying to escape so i could go be with emma and the boys. why now does she tell everyone she was only calling to approvae medical proceedures? telling so damn many lies about me, about us.

here are some more pictures form today"s short visit during Zachary's party.


http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0513.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0515.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0517.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0525.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0530.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0536.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0544.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0553.jpg
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http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0556.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0559.jpg

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http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0560.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr81/rspake2064_1999/My%20family/May2009/Zacharys_B-Day/100_0571.jpg

[JimmyRay73]

Unfortunately Nate the hurting only stops when you die or become a total bastard, and I don't recommend either course. Just tell the kids that you love them every chance you get, and don't stoop to her level when she tries to pick a fight. Remember that no matter how crazy she drives you, the chance to tell those kids that Daddy loves them is way more important. Be the perfect gentleman to her and her family at all times, and be the best father you can under the circumstances. I know it isn't an easy answer, but there aren't any easy answers in these situations, and all you can do sometimes is try to be the best man you can be.

Best of luck to you sir.

[natehale1971]

Unfortunately Nate the hurting only stops when you die or become a total bastard, and I don't recommend either course. Just tell the kids that you love them every chance you get, and don't stoop to her level when she tries to pick a fight. Remember that no matter how crazy she drives you, the chance to tell those kids that Daddy loves them is way more important. Be the perfect gentleman to her and her family at all times, and be the best father you can under the circumstances. I know it isn't an easy answer, but there aren't any easy answers in these situations, and all you can do sometimes is try to be the best man you can be.

Best of luck to you sir.

thank you so much Jimmy Ray. my boys are the only reason i hanve't killed myself. and that's the truth. i couldn't risk them blaming themselves, or worse... blaming her for it. it just wouldn't be right i keep trying to be a gentelmean, but its so damn hard. i've always tried to just be the best person i can be no matter what. the men and women on the plane that brought me here kept calling me a hero. and that really hurts. i'm no hero. heroes don't end up like me. thrown away failures, who looks at their broken bodies every day and doesn't blame the woman who they love for having thrown them away. emma deserves better than me. i just hope this new guy is that. and not her repeating her mistakes again. because she is saying all the same things about him that she did about me. if they would have just let me go in my sleep, this wouldn't be so horrible. .

[Targan]

Just tell the kids that you love them every chance you get, and don't stoop to her level when she tries to pick a fight. Remember that no matter how crazy she drives you, the chance to tell those kids that Daddy loves them is way more important. Be the perfect gentleman to her and her family at all times, and be the best father you can under the circumstances.
That is some very succinct and wise advice right there.