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randalls
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« on: February 24, 2008, 10:47:29 am »

Feel free to introduce yourself in this thread. Just hit the reply button and tell us about yourself and the rpg systems you like, play, and/or are interested in.
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ComW
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« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2008, 05:34:37 pm »

Feel free to introduce yourself in this thread. Just hit the reply button and tell us about yourself and the rpg systems you like, play, and/or are interested in.
Steve

Play anything ive ot the rules for and a fair few I dont

Currently obsessing over BESM 3rd ed

also obsessing over werewolf and vampire (2bnd  ed) games
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randalls
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« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2008, 05:57:12 pm »

I'm Randall -- the Host of this place. I started playing D&D in 1975 when all there was rules-wise was a brown box with three little beige books, the Greyhawk supplement, and a few third-generation photocopies of new classes from some magazine I had yet to see called The Strategic Review. I ran roleplaying games almost every week from 1976 to 1992 or so -- mostly some form of Dungeons & Dragons carefully tailored with lots of house rules to fit my own campaign world in the early years. In later years when the real world of 40+ hour a week jobs intruded on my roleplaying time, I learned the joys of classic D&D (the Mentzer Basic, Expert, Companion, and Masters sets and later the wonderful Rules Cyclopedia) and its Known World setting.

With Classic D&D and the Known World setting (or my new Hidden Valley setting), I could run a campaign with relatively few house rules -- well, few compared to the large books of house rules I used for my own world in Original D&D and First Edition Advanced D&D. This let me spend my much more limited time creating interesting adventures for my players instead of spending time creating house rules and my own campaign world. The streamlined, fast play of Classic D&D also meant we could get a lot of adventuring in a single 4 or 5 hour game session -- probably as much as we used to get in those early 12 hour session.

After 1992, it started getting harder and harder to get the group together. We were all older and busier. Instead of weekly sessions, we were lucky to get two sessions in a month. By late 1994, it was over. No one had any time and we just quit playing.

When I heard that Wizards of the Coast had bought TSR and was bringing out a third edition of D&D, I was excited. I pre-ordered the three new core rulebooks from Amazon and read them as they came in. Sadly, I was very disappointed. D&D 3.0 was a rules heavy monster that made character building and tactical miniatures combat so detailed and important that I figured these aspects would overwhelm the game. Instead of feeling like a good fantasy novel, third edition reminded me most of a computer role-playing game -- only one where the players and gamemaster had to all the number-crunching that the computer would normally do behind the scenes.

That wasn't anything I was interested in playing. I put the books on the shelf and went on with my no roleplaying life. I picked up the 3.0 Forgotten Realms setting book because I had always like the setting and enjoyed many of the novels. A friend gave me a copy of the Epic Level Handbook hoping that would get me interested again. It didn't. (The only published version of D&D that seemed top get high level play right, IMHO, was Mentzer's Classic D&D.)

Before I knew it, WotC had published version 3.5 of D&D. From flipping through copies at the bookstore coffee shop, I saw that everything I did not like about third edition D&D had become even more important in 3.5. I never bought a copy of any 3.5 product as 3.5 was barely anything like the D&D I knew and loved.

Late last summer, someone on one of the religion/philosophy message boards I hang out on mentioned that WotC was bringing out D&D 4.0 in 2008. He was upset as he had a couple of thousand dollars in D&D 3.5 books and supposedly 4.0 was going to be so major a change that it would make them all useless. I read some of the material on fourth edition on the WotC site and on EN World. As far as I can tell, 4th edition will be a completely different game being sold under the D&D name because people know the D&D name. From what I've seen, it isn't anything I'd be interested in.

However, while investigating the upcoming version of D&D, I made a wonderful discovery. There were people out there like me who enjoyed the older versions of D&D. I discovered Labyrinth Lord, a modern day "remake" of Basic/Expert Set Classical D&D by Goblinoid Games -- made possible by the Open Gaming License WotC started using with D&D 3.0. I downloaded the free pdf of Labyrinth Lord, printed it and read it. Actually, devoured it might be a more accurate description. I was very impressed -- for all practical purposes, Labyrinth Lord was Basic/Expert D&D.

From reading the Goblinoid Games forum, I discovered web sites like Dragonsfoot and the Knights-n-Knaves Alehouse where a number of gamers from my era hung out and discussed old role-playing games. Best of all, I discovered that while the old versions of D&D were out of print, WotC had made them available in PDF format for extremely reasonable prices. As the games were still available, they did not have to die off. I started RetroRoleplaying.com to be a portal to older pre-D20 RPGs. A place where people can see what they were like and find out how people have played them and are still playing them. This is a huge job that may take years to complete, but it's a way I can contribute something to a hobby that has given me a great deal of pleasure over the years.

I've also been running online message areas since the mid-80s. First on BBSes in the 1980s, then in the 1990s a number of years as an assistant sysop on GEnie's Third Science Fiction Roundtable, and more recently as host of a number of incarnations of a web message board, so it seemed natural to create a message board for RetroRoleplaying.
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SylverWolfe
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« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2008, 09:45:38 pm »

Feel free to introduce yourself in this thread. Just hit the reply button and tell us about yourself and the rpg systems you like, play, and/or are interested in.

I'm Sylver and, while I haven't played any traditional RPGs, I've sat in on a few and have been involved in a bit of an email RPG with a cousin and a mutual friend. Oh yes, and my favourite computer game is my copy IceWind Dale 2. I tend to play that whenever I've the urge to "kill" somebody or something. Wink Cheesy

I'm interested in learning about RPGs and, perhaps, joining/starting a group in my area. Unfortunately, I don't go in much for PvP and running around and killing everybody and everything that crosses one's path, that sort of thing, so I don't know if I could ever become truly interested in playing.
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randalls
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« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2008, 07:29:43 am »

I'm interested in learning about RPGs and, perhaps, joining/starting a group in my area. Unfortunately, I don't go in much for PvP and running around and killing everybody and everything that crosses one's path, that sort of thing, so I don't know if I could ever become truly interested in playing.

That's the nice thing about tabletop RPGs as opposed to MMORPGs, PvP is frowned on in most groups (after all, the same people are playing as a team session after session and they are all the players) and the games need not revolve around combat after combat. Older RPGs also tend to make combat quick and abstract so that one can have enough combat to please those players who enjoy it while still leaving plenty of time in a 4 or 5 hour session for non-combat stuff.
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« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2008, 07:40:17 am »

Feel free to introduce yourself in this thread. Just hit the reply button and tell us about yourself and the rpg systems you like, play, and/or are interested in.

I'm Vieva.  I've been playing since I was in elementary school, though I had a few of the rules SERIOUSLY wrong. Cheesy  Made a difference.  It makes a lot more sense now.

And I've always HATED major combat systems - I figure that combat should be something you handle easily and quickly, not the main focus of the game.  After all, when I want to hack'n'slash, I HAVE computer games for that!

I really like gaming systems, but so many of them are rules-bound to the point that the possible stories are limited.  So I like looking around, and I'm making one of my own.  (if it ever gets anywhere, of course).
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Greyharp
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« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2008, 03:08:16 am »

David, 40 years old from Tasmania, Australia. Got the Holmes rules and B2 on my 13th birthday back in 1980, soon moved on to Basic D&D and 1st Edition, and fell in love. Played up into my early 20s before having a break for 10 years. Got back into roleplaying in my early 30s, firstly with 2nd Edition and soon afterwards 3rd Edition, both of which were ok, but my heart is back with those halcyon days of my youth.

Moved to an isolated rural area about five years ago and became good friends with the farmer up the road. He and his wife have seven children and my hopes of an instant rpg playing group were revived. Now we play 1st Edition every saturday and it gives me a buzz that a new generation has discovered the joy of roleplaying.

Recently been following the whole retro-clone movement and have found it extremely exciting and encouraging. Looking forward to trying these variants out with the group later on down the track (heavily in the middle of a new DM cutting his teeth on ToEE at the moment). Saw Randall's post on the DF forum about his new site and loved what he is doing, so here I am.  Grin
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randalls
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« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2008, 06:57:28 am »

Saw Randall's post on the DF forum about his new site and loved what he is doing, so here I am.  Grin

I'm glad to see you here, David.  You are just in time for my first post on the Caves of Chaos project you were interested in when I mentioned it on the blog.
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Greyharp
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« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2008, 04:01:55 pm »

I'm glad to see you here, David.  You are just in time for my first post on the Caves of Chaos project you were interested in when I mentioned it on the blog.

I'm glad to be here, although I feel a bit lonely being the only non-staffer to post an intro.  Smiley
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randalls
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« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2008, 05:30:41 pm »

I'm glad to be here, although I feel a bit lonely being the only non-staffer to post an intro.  Smiley

I haven't actually mentioned that the Forum on Dragonsfoot or any other RPG board yet. I'd like to get a few more starter threads and such in place before I do. Unfortunately, this is all being done around my real life -- which currently includes daily radiation treatments for my wife (week one of seven) -- so it is moving much slower than I would like.  Feel free to invite folks to help. Smiley
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oltekos
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« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2008, 08:49:54 pm »

Hi everyone.  My name is Lance, & I've enjoyed D&D since 1991.  I'm 29, happily involved, & reside in the Bradenton/Sarasota, FL. area. 

I've been enjoying this hobby of ours since I recieved "The New, Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game" (Black-Box Edition) & the D&D Rules Cyclopedia for my 13th birthday.

While I cut my teeth on Mentzer, I quickly moved to AD&D2e; this is the system I stuck with for most of my junior high/high school years. 

Several years back, I became pretty burnt out with the hobby in general, so I took a good (3) year break.  Early last year, I broke out my old Rules Cyclopedia, & ran a game for my fiancee & a couple of our friends--It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I think I'd had with D&D in a really long time. 

Within the past year or so, I've discovered OD&D (1974 edition), & have been having a blast with it.  Our very small group plays only around once a month, but we sure have a great time with it! 

Anyhow, glad to be here & look forward to reading & contributing to this forum. Smiley
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randalls
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« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2008, 04:00:42 pm »

My name is Lance, & I've enjoyed D&D since 1991.  I'm 29, happily involved, & reside in the Bradenton/Sarasota, FL. area.

Welcome Lance!  There's not a lot here at the moment, but things will pick up after April. My wife has three more weeks of radiation treatment to go through and that is draining me by focusing my life so narrowly on the treatments and their side effects. 

Quote
While I cut my teeth on Mentzer, I quickly moved to AD&D2e; this is the system I stuck with for most of my junior high/high school years.

I think the RC is my favorite single version of D&D.  AD&D1e with some house rules is a lot of fun too.

Quote
Within the past year or so, I've discovered OD&D (1974 edition), & have been having a blast with it.  Our very small group plays only around once a month, but we sure have a great time with it! 

I started with OD&D and it probably shows as I think nothing of changing the rules of whatever RPG I'm running to better fit my campaign. All OD&D campaigns did that. There wasn't any choice. LOL.
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oltekos
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« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2008, 06:25:40 pm »

Thanks for the warm welcome, Randall.  I hope the treatment goes well for your wife, & I'll keep you both in my thoughts. Smiley   
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randalls
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« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2008, 07:37:11 am »

I hope the treatment goes well for your wife, & I'll keep you both in my thoughts. Smiley   

Thank you very much! Only two and a half weeks left to go. (Of course, this is when the side-effects are at their worst -- but so far so good.)
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« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2008, 01:04:15 pm »

Hello to all! I'm Keith, 51 year old from Alberta, Canada. I've been playing since 1975 when a friend of mine noticed me reading "Fellowship of the Ring" for the first time. He then told me there was a game that he ran where I could be the adventurer like in the book. He showed me the three booklets and helped me roll up my first character, a human thief! I've been hooked every since. I moved on to AD&D when it came out and got my own group of players from the church I attended. We had great fun, many happy memories. Unfortunately as you all probably know along came the religious anti-D&D movement and I lost both my books and group in one unhappy, traumatic book-burning. I didn't pick up anything until 3rd edition came out. I'd since moved and had a larger circle of friends some of whom had played 2nd edition. They encouraged me to run them as a group. We had some fun, but 3e had changed things so much it was hard to get the spirit going again. For the last little while I've thrown good money after bad trying to "fix" 3e for me and the players but it's been no good. Recently I found a used copy of 1e and the rules cyclopedia. Some of my players have expressed a retro interest in trying them and I'm currently trying to decide which to run. Decisions, decisions. I'm looking forward to posting here and maybe getting some help deciding.

May you always make your saving roll,
KE
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