Scrub Club Presents: Gain HP

Role playing games with fitness? How did this come about?

MadHatter powers up and fights back against five ruthless Grease Imps

Well, first and foremost, my family. I have to hand it to my wife! Since we’ve been together over the last few years, she’s really shown me healthier ways to be, and her recent desire to get back into shape really inspired me to do the right thing. Second up, we have a beautiful daughter who requires much, much more energy and activity than I could currently give in my big, fat condition - and that’s no good. It was time to live better for myself and my family. I figured that if I can do it (someone who is well known for being a big dude), maybe I can get more people to join in and we could all support eachother?

Then you have to take into effect that I am a musician as well as the head of an independent entertainment label (Scrub Club Records), and in being so, I’ve got to be able to move fast while hosting or helping out at events and have proper stamina and breathing control on stage while performing. And again, I figure that if I can do it, I can get some of the other bigger musicians out there to join in. Not only that, but if their fans saw them doing it, maybe it could spread to them, too!

The third piece of the puzzle dropped when an awesome guy by the name of Tim that was a fan of both Scrub Club music as well as a blog that went by the name of Nerd Fitness introduced me to said site, and I was intrigued. Steve Kamb, a huge nerd as well as an aspiring physical health guru, runs the blog. It really interested me and got me excited that someone out there was actually trying to bridge the gap between geekiness and fitness, and I took it as a sign that it was good to go ahead with my next harebrained scheme – A roleplaying fitness adventure. After all, nerds aren’t exactly known for being the healthiest types…

The fourth green light came from Nerdcore godfather MC Frontalot’s “quit smoking” dice rolling blog post that I read a ways back. I thought, “How awesome would it be to arrange that type of rolling system into a part of this quest?” and so, I did (after a few edits).

So with all of these people flipping a switch inside my doofy head, I was ready to research. I looked through countless articles and studies on eating, exercising, sleep, and supplements, and I believe I’ve come up with the most basic yet important methods on how to become a healthier human and lose excess body weight. I added some wonderful NES sprite rips from Final Fantasy III and Dragon Warrior, tossed in some of my special brand of twisted humor, sprinkled a few good ol’ fashioned cusswords into the mix, and there you have it: