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Mar. 5th, 2008 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressA/N: These thoughts are not all connected to Gygax. It's really more of my memories on gaming in general and the like. Yep.
In other news, really need to start gaming again. If I can't find a group (MIT is *how* far away?) I need to just frigging make one.
***
Anyways, yeah. My first real role playing game was the one dad ran for me and Nik and Aly, in the basement once a month or so. I still have my character sheet for that, and as many of the maps as I could scavenge --it was a homebrewed system, somewhat based off DnD, and pretty much entirely win.
One year for Christmas --probably when I was in sixth or seventh grade, I think it was when I was out of elementary school-- the three of us got the three core system books for 2E. I wound up with the Dungeon Masters guide, and I thought it was just about the coolest thing I owned. The idea of being able to have all this creativity, and come up with all these ideas for maps and worlds, and share it with other people...I'm an older sister and a writer. It was dizzying.
Hell, look in my middle school era notebooks, and you'll find loads of maps that never made it anywhere, and tons and tons of characters that I rolled up. I got my first set of dice in 2001, at Chort and Paula's wedding (Greatest. Favour. Ever.) and I looooved having them. I dreamed of getting more, of getting to the point where my dice were old enough to drink of getting to the point where I could fill bags and bags and bags with them. (Diceaholic? Me?! Neeeeever.)
While poking around in the basement one day, I found either mom or dad's original D&D and AD&D books. I spirited those away to my room pretty much immediately, because damn, it was cool. These were something that *no one* my age, and not very many of the people my parents age had.
Through the beginning of high school, I got into Runequest, because Paul was nice enough to run it for me, and Veronica, and his nieces, Lily and Zoe. It was the first 'real' game I had ever played in, and I pretty much had a blast. (Innumerable thanks needs to go to Paul, for putting up with running a game for four preteen/young teenaged girls. I can't count the number of times we asked what an NPC's appearence rating was. *headdesk, headdesk, headdesk*)
I somehow managed to never play in a game of DnD proper until the summer before...junior? year. *checks journal* 2005, summer before junior year. Bernie ran a game for a bunch of us newbies, that went on for several weeks during the summer. No one took it excessively seriously, and it was glorious fun.
I've somehow managed to play in very few tabletop RPG's, even though I love the genre. I babysat for two years while the parents went off to play GURPS every week. I did a handful of one shots my first Origins, a feat I've never managed to repeat. Bernie ran a bunch of little Spycraft games for me and Nik and Aly and such, which were all fun.
Even without having the expirience to back it up, though, I've always been a gamer-geek. I still want to learn how to run a good game, and two of my mission 101 goals focus on the building of my gameworld, Pisha. One of the things I swiped from The Empty City when I went to college was the 'Hollow Earth' sourcebook mom won at Origins. There was a point in my life where it was unthinkable that it would be more than a year before the next time I was a part of a serious LARP.
What really stands out, though, is a twelve year old version of myself, drawing a maze in a composition book, randomly (and *badly*, it is such a good thing I never coerced anyone into playing my dungeons) marking down monsters and treasure. Rolling up characters, just for the fun of it, and naming them and giving them backgrounds. Bringing the books with me *everywhere*, and actually sitting down and reading the DM's guide.
Middle school indubitably sucked. DnD made it suck less. There's no way of telling exactly how much I was influenced by Gygax, and how much by other people. Regardless, he was one of the pioneers of the genre I love so much, and for that, I thank him.
May your rolls be twenties.
~Sor, Katarina (Clever Witch), Tara, Kaida, etc.
MOOP!
In other news, really need to start gaming again. If I can't find a group (MIT is *how* far away?) I need to just frigging make one.
***
Anyways, yeah. My first real role playing game was the one dad ran for me and Nik and Aly, in the basement once a month or so. I still have my character sheet for that, and as many of the maps as I could scavenge --it was a homebrewed system, somewhat based off DnD, and pretty much entirely win.
One year for Christmas --probably when I was in sixth or seventh grade, I think it was when I was out of elementary school-- the three of us got the three core system books for 2E. I wound up with the Dungeon Masters guide, and I thought it was just about the coolest thing I owned. The idea of being able to have all this creativity, and come up with all these ideas for maps and worlds, and share it with other people...I'm an older sister and a writer. It was dizzying.
Hell, look in my middle school era notebooks, and you'll find loads of maps that never made it anywhere, and tons and tons of characters that I rolled up. I got my first set of dice in 2001, at Chort and Paula's wedding (Greatest. Favour. Ever.) and I looooved having them. I dreamed of getting more, of getting to the point where my dice were old enough to drink of getting to the point where I could fill bags and bags and bags with them. (Diceaholic? Me?! Neeeeever.)
While poking around in the basement one day, I found either mom or dad's original D&D and AD&D books. I spirited those away to my room pretty much immediately, because damn, it was cool. These were something that *no one* my age, and not very many of the people my parents age had.
Through the beginning of high school, I got into Runequest, because Paul was nice enough to run it for me, and Veronica, and his nieces, Lily and Zoe. It was the first 'real' game I had ever played in, and I pretty much had a blast. (Innumerable thanks needs to go to Paul, for putting up with running a game for four preteen/young teenaged girls. I can't count the number of times we asked what an NPC's appearence rating was. *headdesk, headdesk, headdesk*)
I somehow managed to never play in a game of DnD proper until the summer before...junior? year. *checks journal* 2005, summer before junior year. Bernie ran a game for a bunch of us newbies, that went on for several weeks during the summer. No one took it excessively seriously, and it was glorious fun.
I've somehow managed to play in very few tabletop RPG's, even though I love the genre. I babysat for two years while the parents went off to play GURPS every week. I did a handful of one shots my first Origins, a feat I've never managed to repeat. Bernie ran a bunch of little Spycraft games for me and Nik and Aly and such, which were all fun.
Even without having the expirience to back it up, though, I've always been a gamer-geek. I still want to learn how to run a good game, and two of my mission 101 goals focus on the building of my gameworld, Pisha. One of the things I swiped from The Empty City when I went to college was the 'Hollow Earth' sourcebook mom won at Origins. There was a point in my life where it was unthinkable that it would be more than a year before the next time I was a part of a serious LARP.
What really stands out, though, is a twelve year old version of myself, drawing a maze in a composition book, randomly (and *badly*, it is such a good thing I never coerced anyone into playing my dungeons) marking down monsters and treasure. Rolling up characters, just for the fun of it, and naming them and giving them backgrounds. Bringing the books with me *everywhere*, and actually sitting down and reading the DM's guide.
Middle school indubitably sucked. DnD made it suck less. There's no way of telling exactly how much I was influenced by Gygax, and how much by other people. Regardless, he was one of the pioneers of the genre I love so much, and for that, I thank him.
May your rolls be twenties.
~Sor, Katarina (Clever Witch), Tara, Kaida, etc.
MOOP!
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no subject
on 2008-03-05 02:45 pm (UTC)I can babble at you about the wonders of the AM system, but the general highlights are:
1) Everyone has multiple characters (though the general hope is that you'll only have to be in charge of one at a given time): one mage, one beefy sort, and some number of redshirts.
2) It's claim to fame is that it has a nifty magic system (it's basically verb + noun, so "create fire" or "destroy minds" or "control animals").
3) It was held by White Wolf for many years, so it has a decent amount of that "storytelling is the important part" feel, plus it encourages players share game running duties, rather than having a single GM forever and ever.