READERS DIGEST VERSION:
Late forty-something here. Grew up playing all sorts of pen and paper RPG’s. From old school D&D to new school D&D and pretty much everything in between. RPG’s are important to me, and I’m grateful they are still going strong.
I’m fairly system agnostic, I just like participating in telling a unique interactive story. I enjoy dungeon crawling as much as the next gamer as well though. (I know, I know the system agnostic term gets used to much these days, but someone can mark it off their BINGO card.)
Interested in D&D 2E – 5E, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Traveller, CoC, Savage Worlds, WoD or whatever really.
WALL OF TEXT VERSION:
Long history of running and playing games. From one shot’s to mini-series and campaigns that have lasted multiple years.
First rock song that spoke to me: RUSH, Fly by Night (I was only four or five I think)
First polyhedral dice set: A set of KOPLOW Opaque Whites, in the tube.
First game I pulled an all-nighter and still had to go to work/school: Werewolf the Apocalypse
First RPG Purchased: James Bond 007, “Role Playing in Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, from Victory Games. I bought this when I was eleven years old by saving my lunch money. I was really enamored with the whole super spy concept.
Early dabbling: BattleTech from FASA. Both the tabletop miniatures game, as well as the corresponding RPG, Mechwarrior. Star Trek Role Playing game from FASA as well.
About the time I was really getting into RPG’s the whole “Satanic Panic” with D&D went into full swing, and really put a damper on my role playing. My parents we’re very religious and at the time they bought into the hype hook, line and sinker. Needless to say, the bulk of my RPG’s had to be ‘vetted’ at that point and it’s no shocker only the Sci-Fi and contemporary titles remained “officially” on my bookshelves.
The late eighties we’re chalk full of weekends playing either Mechwarrior and or Palladium Books adaptation of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. I’d never really paid much attention to Palladium until that title came out. I was a fan of the Eastman and Laird book, so it got a lot of play sophomore year of high school.
On the down low during all of it, I was an avid fan of Iron Crown Enterprise titles like Role Master, and MERPS (Middle Earth Role Playing). Even in the midst of the nonsense of the Satanic Panic, even the most stringent religious organizations would still allow talk of J.R.R. Tolkien and CS Lewis. If pre-teen me we’re caught playing a fantasy game, the typical conversation took place:
“That’s not Dungeons and Dragons is it?!?”
“Of course not Mom, it’s Lord of the Rings…don’t worry.”
“Oh, well okay then…”
Between 1989 and 1990, it was a pretty cool time for pen & paper games. TSR had just started releasing products for 2nd Edition D&D. It was the first time I’d had to navigate “salt” from my older gaming buddies. FASA also released Shadowrun in that time period, and that was on heavy rotation as well for game nights. 1990 – 1991 was dominated by Palladium Books RIFTS. Love Pally or hate them, you can’t deny that the intellectual property for RIFTS is pretty cool.
Early nineties brought on the Storytelling era of White Wolf. Coming from the dungeon crawl “academy” of Saturday pickup games at the local game store, this was exactly what was needed to broaden the player base of pen and paper games and storytelling took center stage in the bulk of the games from then on. Even old long running D&D campaigns took a turn towards narrative, rather than traditional play styles.
Table-Top Pen & Paper games have been a stable and foundational part of my life for, well most of it. The fellowship of telling stories with my friends have gotten me through some of the most difficult times, and now closer to 50 than I’d care to admit; I’m grateful they’ve played such a positive role.