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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 13, 2015 22:23:59 GMT -5
Bitd in the fall of 1975 a guy from Columbus brought OD&D with him to college. He had gotten the game in the spring of 1974 and played with a group of high school friends and he was the referee. That first week he told me about D&D (OD&D) and I was immediately all in. Our first game was a group of 12 players and the ref and when we started we had two elves, two dwarves, one hobbit and seven humans. That was pretty much the ratio even when the group go bigger. In the beginning both dwarves and the hobbit were fighters, but later on there would be two hobbits thieves, one dwarven and one elven thief. In the beginning both elves were magic users, we only had one guy who ever played an elven fighter/magic user. Of the seven humans we had two magic-users, one cleric and four fighters. So the initial 12 were one cleric, four magic users and seven fighters. When we had a party of 20 later on, we would have one cleric (we only had one guy who ever played a cleric, and he is one in real life for lo these many years), so one cleric, four thieves, six magic-users and nine fighters. So we were always light on healing magic, and magic items for the cleric were a priority and he always go first dibs on the magic armor. Later on in the games that I played in, instead of reffing, I had a paladin and I had a ranger(not at the same time) no one else ever played either of those. One guy alternated between magic-users and thieves and never once played a human, except for later on when he played druids. The guy who played the elven fighter/magic-user (the other ref) also played human fighters, an Illusionist and a Bard. I never used my own dice to roll up my characters, I used the other refs table d6s. I rolled at least 16-18 for Strength 3d6 in order no adjustments for my fighter or subclass for every character I had over the four years. My other numbers might be very good all the way down to very low (several 3's), but they always had a good Strength. The other players rarely ever rolled an 18 for a character or a 20 on a d20. The other ref and I rolled them frequently, often when it was my or his NPC versus my or his PC and in that situation we both rolled double 20's on the same combat round (we always ran combat as simultaneous) for a double auto kill often enough that the other players came to expect them. The other ref once rolled 7-20's in a row, and IIRC I rolled 4-20s in a row on at least three occasions. The same d20's that the two of us rolled 20's on the other players would roll 1's, 2's and 3's on. I haven’t rolled that well in a long time. I have vivid memories of the first game and going through six characters that first evening.  When death is not permanent because you can roll up another character and be back in the game in a few minutes, how cool is that! Out of that whole group I was the only one that got to read the rulebooks and the only one that my friend ever offered to let ref. A couple of months in I started reffing and he moved over to playing and I did most of the reffing after that. IIRC no one else had any interest in reffing so it worked out great because I loved it. |
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 14, 2015 11:55:24 GMT -5
Here is my placeholder, showing that the forum is working for this user. Thanks, Admin Pete. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 14, 2015 17:09:31 GMT -5
Here is my placeholder, showing that the forum is working for this user. Thanks, Admin Pete. Hey, thanks for letting me see that is is working! And I will complete that first post soon! |
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Post by Necromancer on Jan 15, 2015 4:03:01 GMT -5
Another placeholder post, just to see if things work out they way they should!
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 15, 2015 21:13:05 GMT -5
Another placeholder post, just to see if things work out they way they should! Thank you, glad to see it is working! |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 19, 2015 21:30:56 GMT -5
Straight from the About Me tab at my blog:
It all started in the early part of 1980. I was almost 8 years old and had just discovered fantasy books like The Hobbit, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Prydain Chronicles. My uncle had a ton of sci-fi and fantasy books so I was always bugging him to borrow more books or watch something else from his movie collection. I still fondly remember watching Excalibur, Dune, and other similar movies with him growing up. Simply put, Uncle David was the cool uncle that every boy should have when they are growing up.
I had some friends at school - Jamie and Dan - that were interested in the same type of stuff. Dan told s about a game called Dungeons & Dragons that his older brothers introduced to him. This game sounded like something that would be perfect to satisfy our quest for more fantasy - better yet, we could make up our own stories about our own heroes. After I went over and played a session of D&D I immediately had to get my own set of the rules and tell my Uncle David about this game.
I happened to be selling GRIT newspaper subscriptions at the time and had enough reward points to redeem for a basic set; I did so and received the Moldvay Basic set a short time later. I also "informed" my Uncle David about this game only to find out that he had been playing for years already. In fact, he gave his Holmes Basic set to me at this time and would eventually give me all of his AD&D hardbacks a short time later. I *believe* that I started with the Holmes set first but it might have been the Moldvay set; either way, both are great introductions to D&D.
Once Jamie and I started playing D&D we found ourselves playing all of the time. I would spend the night at his house some weekends and then he would spend the night at mine on others. It did not take long for us to look for more options and crack open the AD&D hardbacks. At our young naive ages we assumed that more rules must mean more fun and more game so we "upgraded" to AD&D and stayed for years. (note: yes, I know that both games are great in their own right and no one needs MORE rules to have MORE fun - we were not yet 10 years old at the time.) It seemed like we were always coming up with house rules and new adventures to go on. AD&D would be our main game for quite some time. Of course, when the Mentzer version came out and then expanded the Basic rules up even higher we also started playing D&D again.
We would continue to play role-playing games all the way until we graduated high school in 1991. We would add players to the group and wound up with a total of six players. We played many other games over the years. I always seemed to want to play in the fantasy genre and would try just about anything in the genre. Some of them did not make a lasting impression but several caught the attention of the group. Two of my all time favorite games include Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game (1st edition) and Talislanta. (note: I pretty much skipped AD&D Second Edition all together because I felt they were trying to "de-Gygax" the game and be politically correct with some of the changes.)
After graduation many of our playing group left the area for various reasons. I was around for close to a year and then left for the Army and would stay in for 8 years. I did not play that much during those 8 years and it can pretty well be considered a gaming drought. I did try out Vampire: the Masquerade and discover Magic: the Gathering while I was at Fort Campbell, KY.
The first new products I bought in several years would be the 3E hardbacks and the Castles & Crusades systems. I was intrigued by the new rules, new company (Wizards of the Coast), the open gaming license, and the games it would spawn. I introduced my cousin Alex - son of the previously mentioned Uncle David - to the game and we started work on our campaign world, Toldara. The game world would move from 3E to 3.5E and eventually settle in the Pathfinder system. During this time I also discovered the OSR systems and became really interested in the OSR movement. I am a big fan and supporter of the movement; I even contributed a little bit by working on the Back to the Dungeon RPG system and I am currently writing an expansion to it.
I enjoy both old school and new school rpg systems so I was interested in 4E when it was released. I really feel they went out of their way to force an upgrade by drastically changing many aspects of 3E. There seemed to be a lot of shared terminology but the definition or application of many of them were altered to the point that the games were quite different from each other. Plus, the OGL was replaced with the GSL and WOTC lost more ground with me. (note: I have since amassed quite a collection of 4E material due to one of my co-workers being so dissatisfied with the system that he is selling it on the cheap; the price is "right" for sure!)
I am waiting on the release of 5E with great interest. I like what I have seen from the play test documents so far. The current fantasy games that have caught my attention include the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, Swords & Wizardry: Complete, and the Perilous Journeys game. DCC feels like opening up the old books back in 1980, Swords & Wizardry: Complete feels like the mish-mash of AD&D and Basic that we used to play, and Perilous Journeys captures the feel and quick play of early D&D in a simple to use percentile-based system.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 19, 2015 22:30:04 GMT -5
Would you believe another placeholder post?!   |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 20, 2015 6:28:59 GMT -5
Would you believe another placeholder post?! Placeholder no more!  |
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 20, 2015 17:46:29 GMT -5
The Semi-Retired Gamer, I totally remember reading that write up, either on your blog or over at ODD74. So great! Happy to share this hobby with you.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 20, 2015 19:57:05 GMT -5
Cool! I'm glad we're both here, tetramorph, and got in on the ground floor to boot. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 20, 2015 20:14:10 GMT -5
The Semi-Retired Gamer I just took a look at your blogs and see the Adventures in Fantasy and Perilous Journeys posts. I can't read them this moment but I will and three blogs! Looks like good stuff!
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 20, 2015 21:06:04 GMT -5
The Semi-Retired Gamer I just took a look at your blogs and see the Adventures in Fantasy and Perilous Journeys posts. I can't read them this moment but I will and three blogs! Looks like good stuff! Sounds good to me! |
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 21, 2015 18:43:53 GMT -5
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 21, 2015 21:33:00 GMT -5
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 23, 2015 22:12:55 GMT -5
I said something like this over at ODD74:
At the beach house with my wife's family summer of 2013 I watched the kids play "Kirby" for hours and thought: I hate this. Then I remembered how much I loved "Gauntlet" at the arcade when I was a little boy. "The wizard needs food, badly." "Players cannot fight each other -- yet." I started thinking about the four different characters. Then I remembered where it all came from: D&D.
I had played some 1e with a buddy of mine. He was the DM with all the books. I was a pretty religious little guy and feared for my soul a little bit. I would never play a cleric (I did not know it originally engaged the classical legendaria of vampire hunters) and I was always "good," if not "lawful."
I saved up and bought "Dragonraid." I could never really get a group of kids my age to play it. It was like herding cats. And even at that young age I had this sense that its allegory was too forced. Why couldn't they have just made a "Christian" D&D set in Narnia? Oh well.
On that vacation at the beach house a summer ago I started doing some internet research on D&D. Learned some history. Found out about the link with wargaming. As soon as I got back home I went out and bought some dice, a chessex battlemat, etc. I started to cobble some stuff together for my kids. I found a local 0e group and started playing with them as regularly as I could in the Planet Eris campaign. Last Christmas my wife got me the premium 0e edition from WotC. I visited ½ priced books until I had a complete 1e collection. As a result of my internet researching I found all you good folks.
I am glad to be here. I am glad to have found a hobby I do not have to be an expert at, and never will be an expert at, that still affords hours of fun at low monetary cost. I am glad to have rediscovered this hobby. I am glad you guys are here. I am happy to be a part.
Fight on!
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 23, 2015 22:59:37 GMT -5
tetramorph that is a really cool story, I think I missed your other post. That is just awesome!
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 24, 2015 13:45:03 GMT -5
I saved up and bought "Dragonraid." I could never really get a group of kids my age to play it. It was like herding cats. And even at that young age I had this sense that its allegory was too forced. Why couldn't they have just made a "Christian" D&D set in Narnia? Oh well. I can relate to these feelings. I remember the ads for Dragonraid from the pages of Dragon Magazine. I always wanted a copy but I never did pick one up. Do you still have your copy? Have you read it recently to see if your initial impressions have changed? I still want a copy of Dragonraid for historical purposes and I just might track down a copy myself. I am still amazed that a "Christian" D&D set in Narnia or something really close to it has never been done. I still remember reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe in grade school. That would have been a great time for them to tie the two together. |
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 24, 2015 14:40:53 GMT -5
The Semi-Retired Gamer, I do still have my copy and all my materials and all the dice it came with and the extra dice I special ordered! (I don't have my Revolt on Antares mini-game anymore, sadly!) Yes, it is still forced. I am even more able to see that now. I won't go into much detail here, as I do not want to offend. I may put a post or two up on my blog about it in future. Another thing is that it is clearly trying to be a Christian 1e rather than a Christian B/X or 0e. It is FAR TOO rules heavy for what it was trying to do (IMHO). I believe that Narnia is hard to campaign in because it is so fantastical that it is simply unpredictable on the one hand, and plot-driven (obviously) on the other. I don't think D&D needs "Dragonraid" or a Narnia campaign setting. (Except, perhaps, at a war-game level, which might be truly rad!) I think D&D is already "Christian" in the broad, cultural inheritance sense. If you want a "Christian" D&D, you just decide to play it that way. Well, at least, that is what I am doing with my campaign, set in a "fantastical Christendom." That deserves some blogging as well!
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 25, 2015 1:21:31 GMT -5
tetramorph Cool. Thanks for the info. Those sound like interesting blog posts. I agree with you. I wasn't as clear as I intended. I am surprised they never tried for an official Christian, Narnia, or other type of similar D&D setting to counter the big satanic panic during the '80s. Kinda like when Stryper, Saint, Crucifixion, and a whole slew of Christian metal bands came along to show a different approach.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 26, 2015 12:46:07 GMT -5
tetramorph Cool. Thanks for the info. Those sound like interesting blog posts. I agree with you. I wasn't as clear as I intended. I am surprised they never tried for an official Christian, Narnia, or other type of similar D&D setting to counter the big satanic panic during the '80s. Kinda like when Stryper, Saint, Crucifixion, and a whole slew of Christian metal bands came along to show a different approach. I am also surprised that there was no Narnia setting or similar settings, but I am sure there was a reason. Licensing is often a problem on a lot of things/ |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 26, 2015 15:09:37 GMT -5
Yeah, licensing is a whole other form of obstacles to overcome. Who knows - maybe there were other reasons also?
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 26, 2015 22:52:53 GMT -5
Yeah, licensing is a whole other form of obstacles to overcome. Who knows - maybe there were other reasons also? Most likely, not something we are likely to find out though!  |
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Post by Mr Darke on Feb 2, 2015 20:06:36 GMT -5
Here's a bit about me:
I came into D&D at about 89 or so with 2e and Mentzer. Over the years I have DMed more than played and did try 3e, C&C and other games. Over the past few years I have shifted towards OD&D having burnt out on AD&D type games. I'm not a big one for edition wars or X is real D&D while Y is not. My current rules are BFRPG but have been working on my own personal update of OD&D which is based off unifying the whitebox and supplements with a few of my own ideas.
My current campaign is based in England 20 years after the death of Arthur and the Dark Age that would ensue. I am running this at a store called The Raven's Loft in Lebanon Mo.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Feb 3, 2015 5:20:51 GMT -5
Welcome to the boards, Mr Darke. Sounds like an interesting campaign. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Feb 3, 2015 6:48:16 GMT -5
Welcome Mr Darke, I would love to see that update when you complete it. Everyone has a different take! |
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Post by Mr Darke on Feb 4, 2015 16:35:09 GMT -5
After doing some reading the game would look similar enough to S&W Complete to make the project nothing more than a list of house rules for that system. However, once I get everything going I will be posting those rules on my blog and here.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Feb 5, 2015 6:00:31 GMT -5
After doing some reading the game would look similar enough to S&W Complete to make the project nothing more than a list of house rules for that system. However, once I get everything going I will be posting those rules on my blog and here. Sounds good to me! |
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bat
Wanderer
Mostly Chaotic
Posts: 2
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Post by bat on Feb 8, 2015 11:55:12 GMT -5
Hello all! I've been gaming since the early 80's, born and raised on D&D, like many I have wandered around the gamut of rpgs and even computer games over the years. I write the Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets blog of old school stuff (I should be writing today's post as a matter of fact!) and I illustrate for other companies and am working on yet another set of rules with a good friend and making two settings for the Warrior, Rogue & Mage game currently and illustrating them. Other than that, I travel constantly between Idaho and New Jersey for my family (my elderly grandma in Idaho and my wife and our kids in NJ) and I still manage to get a lot of gaming in when I can. Good to see this forum flourishing! |
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Post by tetramorph on Feb 8, 2015 14:08:06 GMT -5
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Post by Admin Pete on Feb 8, 2015 20:29:44 GMT -5
Welcome, bat and welcome to all he newcomers. Please come forward and introduce yourselves!  |
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When death is not permanent because you can roll up another character and be back in the game in a few minutes, how cool is that!
