You Must Face the Gazebo Alone

Submission 30,215

About

You Must Face the Gazebo Alone is a memorable line from the role-playing card game Munchkin. The card is based on a story "The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo," which was told to Munchkin-creator Steve Jackson in the 90s.

Origin

In the mid-90s, game designer Richard Aronson told Munchkin-creator the annecdote "The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo."^[1]^[2] The story reads:

ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: [pause] It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: [pause] It's about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it's a gazebo!

Several years later, in 2001, Steve Jackson released Munchkin, which featured the card "Level 8 – Gazebo." The card also featured the description "Level 8. No one may help you. You must face the gazebo alone" (shown below).

Spread

In 2008, Arronson said of the story on DreadGazebo.com:^[3]

"Eric and the Gazebo" was written and copyrighted by me in 1986. It was based on an event at a role-playing game, but the addition of several jokes moves it out of journalism, or at least into Docuhumor. Some of the people at the game retold the event, each with their own spin, but I was the one who told it to Lee Gold, editor of the fanzine "Alarums and Excursions," who insisted I print it up for her. After reprinting in several amateur publications, it leapt to "The Mensa Bulletin." I then foolishly allowed a reader to reprint it on the internet (who knew from internet in 1989). For many years his was the only interent reprint which even mentioned that there was a copyright on it (thanks, James Chu). Eventually I became a professional game designer for Sierra On-Line and the late lamented "ImagiNation Network" and after having been accused of stealing my own story at a gaming convention I have spend several hours every year protecting my copyright, especially since I incorporated E&tG into a chapter of my as yet unpublished novel.

Since appearing in the game, the phrase became a popular caption for photographs of gazebos by players of the game. For example, on April 12th, 2009, Flickr ^[4]5 user brionv posted an image of the Gazebo in a boardgame version of the cardgame (shown below, left). On November 26th, 2014, Imgur ^[5] user purplestupidpeopleeater posted an image of a gazebo with the caption, as well (shown below, center). The following month, Jackson tweeted ^[6] a model of the gaezbo with the caption (shown below, right).