I started gaming in 1977, shortly after TSR released the first D&D box set (which I still own!). Not long after, with the release of the first edition of AD&D, I hooked up with a regular gaming group that met every Friday night (outside of football season) and began a long tradition of steady games.
Ironically, that would be the largest group I ever played with. At times, there were as many as fifteen or sixteen regular players and often as many (if not more) girls than guys (a rarity in the early days of gaming).
During high school, the only game our own plate was AD&D, and for the most part we were in one long campaign for three years. At the end, we had eighth, ninth, and tenth level characters that felt like they had a life of their own.
Once I moved to college (and grad school) the games opened up and my newly formed group began sampling from all over the RPG market – Traveller, Twilight 2000, Star Frontiers, Champions, Earthdawn, Call of Cthulhu, Rifts, Cyberpunk, GURPS (of every variety), Shadowrun, TORG, Deadlands, Castle Falkenstein, Gamma World, Top Secret, Star Wars, and any number of others that I’m sure I’ve forgotten. But no doubt still own.
I stopped playing with any regularity after I left grad school. I was moving around a good bit and the RPG market was going through a number of changes. The 3rd edition (d20) of D&D had been released, and even though it had been the backbone of a lot of our gaming, I wasn’t as interested in it as I had been the 2nd edition.
I also have to say that I was rather tired of the gaming market in general. Having co-owned a game store/mail order shop for a short period of time, I could not only see the internal mechanics of the industry, but also the disconnect happening between the players and the companies.
It was only in the last eight months that I started to slowly wade back into the hobby. Originally, I had an interest in the Serenity game as I’m a huge fan of Firefly, and once I began following its progress I grew interested in Green Ronin’s Thieves World (also a fan of that old series) and their True20 system.
There you go. That’s a quick snapshot of where I’m coming from. I’ll no doubt be talking a good bit more about my past and recent experiences, but until then, I hope that gives you an idea of what brought me here.
