Re: Introduce yourself!

I am a 42 year old English man residing in Birmingham with a Perky Goth, the requisite two black cats, and more games than I can eat. By day I proofread adverts for telephone directories, by night I play and review games of the tabletop variety as well as doing more than a bit of editing of late of actual RPG titles.

At heart I am player and Keeper of Call of Cthulhu more than I am a player of Dungeons & Dragons, but I started out by playing Red Box Basic Dungeons & Dragons (back in 1980) before progressing onto Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, both First and Second Editions. If I have a favourite module, it would be U1, Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. My favourite RPGs include Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, SkyRealms of Jorune, Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, Call of Cthulhu, and anything written by Ken Hite.

For about ten years I have been seriously reviewing RPGs as a hobby and have of late been reviewing for the Yog-Radio podcast.

Re: Introduce yourself!

27 year old belgian living in Espoo, Finland, I discovered rpg at age 14 or so when we started having Internet at home (that was still in a normal country). After playing some time on forums, I purchased an ADD 2nd edition introduction box. Since I knew no players, I recruited friends and DMeda bit.

I personnally really don't care what game I play as long as I play something, so I enjoy playing old-school stuff as much as newer games.

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm 32 years old living in England with my wife and 2 kids.

I got the red box for Christmas when I was 6 and was hooked, the first AD&D book I bought a few years later was the MMII and I was fascinated with the art and mosters even though I didn't understand the rules.

Played a lot of 2nd Edition in my teens also CoC, Rolemaster, WFRP. I fall into the "not a grognard" category as I DM 2nd Edition and play in a 3E campaign but I've used quite a few LotFP modules for 2E with absolutely no problems. Loving your style Jim and can't wait for the next release!!

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm 30 years old and live in Washington state.  I started playing D&D with the black box and moved to 2nd edition circa 1991.  My group switched to 3rd edition when it came out and have played it ever since.

I was never happy with the over indulgence of rules that is the beast created by WotC.  I tried my hand at DMing a few times over the last decade and I was never able to enjoy it with the 3rd edition rules.  I was looking around for 3.x material to DM and discovered Necromancer games (3rd edition rules with a 1st edition feel). I have never played 1st edition, but I found myself drawn to the ethos of the older D&D game.

It was around this time while researching Pathfinder that I stumbled upon The Grognardia blog.  I thought to myself "what is this strange world called the OSR?"  So I have been reading tons of blogs over the last few months, trying to acquaint myself with the dark mystery of yesteryear.

I started with Castles & Crusades and within the last month, it has been Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord.  I just recently downloaded the Basic Fantasy RPG and think I may use that to try to lure my gaming group to the old school.

While I was looking for the game to use, I also decided to try out some of the adventures that had been published to see what the OSR had to offer.  After reading Grognardia, I decided to try some of Raggi's stuff.  I ordered Death Frost Doom and Grinding Gear.  I was pretty much sold!

So I look forward to seeing what James has in store for us in the future and I'm as excited as a little kid about to get all kinds of sugary sweets on Halloween night.

Re: Introduce yourself!

I am a 38 years old german living in Ireland. I started playing with the Mentzer set in 83'. Later moved to AD&D 1st. From 85' to the mid 90' I did not play D&D or AD&D at all but mostly a german RPG called "Midgard" (skill based, low magic), Rolemaster and Palladium.

In 00' I switched to 3rd edition and stayed with it since then. These I am using Pathfinder RPG as my sytem of choice. My group and me did a lot of playtesting for Green Ronin (Black Company Campaign Setting, Thieves' World, Song of Ice and Fire RPG and Dragon Age).

By chance I stumbled upon the Grognardia Blog. I found that all the years my group and me have been playing (some are still with me since 83') we are still using "some old school" elements in our games. For example, even though you can Search for Traps in 3e by simply rolling the dice, that was never the case with us. We always described how we look and where we look.

Curently I am soaking up all the ideas and OSR goodnes to be better able to reflect thsi in my games.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Alright. I purchased the LotFP 2009 Complete Bundle over at RPGNow based on a review I read about Death, Frost, Doom on Grognardia.  I wandered over here after reading another review on Ogre Cave.  I was enjoying myself but decided to register after seeing all the info about Weird Fantasy Roleplaying - I definitely want in on this!

Oh, and I'm 39, played 1E back in the day.  Skipped 2E and 3E but got back on board for 3.5 with Paizo's Age of Worms.  I'm now a Pathfinder fanatic...but I long for the magic of the game from my youth.  OSRIC is ok, but I love Labyrinth Lord and Brave Halfling's material.  I'm anxiously awaiting my S&S: White Box.  Let me preorder LotFP: WFRP (I like the abbreviation) and I'll anxiously await it too!

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello! My name is Shawn and I’m 41 yrs old and live in Des Moines, Iowa. I’ve been gaming since 1981. I purchased Holmes Basic in ’80, but my eleven year old mind couldn’t quite figure it out. All the references to dice and only having chits was extremely confusing! Later that same year, my cousin DM’d me through the Keep On the Borderlands with the Moldvay basic set. I was hooked. That Xmas, I got the Basic and Expert boxes and all of the AD&D books. I became an RPG (and wargame) junky and bought every game that caught my eye.

In the late ‘80s I had lost interest completely in AD&D and started using Rolemaster as my main fantasy rpg. Throughout most of the ‘90s I gamed only sporadically and was relegated to collecting and reading. By 2001 I hooked up with a steady group that’s been playing once a week pretty much ever since. We switch games and DM duties every year or so. Most recently, I've been playing in two 4th ed D&D games (BLECH!) and I've been running a Savage Worlds Star Wars game.

I’m definitely NOT a fan of 4th, and really didn’t care for D20 in all of its iterations either. I stumbled across the retro rpg movement about a year ago and was quite intrigued. Fortunately, I already had pdfs of the 0D&D books, so I printed them off and have been absorbed by them ever since.  I was intrigued by Swords and Wizardry White Box, but Labyrinth Lord with the Advanced Edtition Companion has REALLY grabbed my attention.  This is truly the way I played D&D back in the day!

I love James' blog and publications (I own them all!) and look forward to seeing the final version of the LOFTP RPG.  Now, I just need to convince my hard headed players that old school does not equal dated.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi, I'm a 24-year-old guy from Helsinki, Finland. I'm now to the entire old school thing but I've been intrigued by it ever since I burned out on both 3rd and 4th editions. Read about Lamentations of the Flame Princess, liked what I saw and decided to get it. Really looking forward to running it.

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm Marv and I began playing OD&D within a day or so of Christmas, 1975. I'm locky enouth to have a wonderful gamer wife and three gamer children (although one has moved away and no longer joins our group.) I teach physics near Chicago.

I've been involved in gaming for as long as I can remember. I was a Judges Guild subscriber from "Installment J." I've been part of many playtest groups, including C&C, Metamorphosis Alpha 4E, and the Dresden Files RPG. I wrote the WhiteBox version of S&W and run the "OD&D Discussion" and "Vin's Trollbridge" message boards.

I've actually participated in games with Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, and Erick Wujcik (although not all at the same time). big_smile

My gaming style is one of few rules and few rules arguments.

Last edited by finarvyn (2010-08-15 17:10:04)

Marv / Finarvyn
I'm mostly to blame for the S&W WhiteBox
T&T since 2003, Amber Diceless since 1993
OD&D since 1975

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello, my name is Frank, and I'm a roleplayer.

(Hi, Frank.)

In grade school I entered the hobby through a side door: Metagaming's Melee and Wizard, which expanded into a full RPG called The Fantasy Trip.  Oh, I found AD&D and Traveller at about the same time, but TFT set my expectations: lightweight rules, human-level heroes, and deadly fights.  Discovering RuneQuest in college raised the bar yet again, and when I've played D&D I've done so more for the people than the game.

However, of all the flavors of D&D, I've liked Basic/BECM D&D the best; the rules were clearly written and straightforward, unlike OD&D or AD&D, and tactics took a back seat to exploration and storytelling.  Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future got me thinking and reading about "Old School" gaming, and the culture and practice of those times that wasn't included in box sets.  My copy of LotFP is somewhere in the US Mail, but from playtest rules and Mr. Raggi's previous modules, I suspect it will be my sort of game.

My current favorite systems, while I wait for USPS, are FATE, PDQ (Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies and Jaws of the Six Serpents especially), Basic Roleplaying, Mongoose's RuneQuest II (almost the same thing), and Barbarians of Lemuria, with soft spots for Call of Cthulhu, as an homage to one of my favorite authors, Mongoose's Traveller, as a revival of an old favorite, and GURPS, as the overambitious child of TFT.

(EDIT: I'm also beginning to warm to West End's D6 system, because of a Star Wars D6 game I'm in.)

If I have an overriding philosophy, it's that rules should be a stepping stone, not a stumbling block.

Last edited by fmitchell (2010-08-16 21:23:13)

"There was a goblin, or a trickster... Or a warrior... A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world." -- The Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Pandorica Opens"

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm Clinton, and I'm a 33-year-old gamer living in Durham, NC, USA, which is some kind of weird gaming mecca. I started playing with a mish-mash of Mentzer and AD&D 1st edition, and played D&D for a few years. My first game I GMed was Twilight: 2000, and I was a big Rolemaster fan, too. (I have been cured.)

My regular game group plays a lot of different games, with a particular game's run being 3-5 sessions. We're going to start playing Weird Fantasy any week where not everyone can make it, which I'm looking forward to.

My favorite games or systems right now are classic D&D (although Weird Fantasy is in danger of stealing this spot), D&D 4e (I know, I know - but on a tactical level, it's fascinating), Mouse Guard, Arkenstone's version of the Solar System, Archipelago II, and a game I just got finished playing called "How We Came to Live Here."

Re: Introduce yourself!

39 years old, living in Charleston, West Virginia.  Started with Moldvay box in 1981, quickly progressed to the usual mash-up of B/X and AD&D 1e.  Also played a lot of other systems off and on.

These days, my favorite systems are OD&D, Moldvay/Cook B/X, and Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition.  I've had several setting-specific blogs, including "Wilderlands OD&D" and "World of Thool", but finally settled on a non-setting-specific blog, "Huge Ruined Pile", so I don't have to make wholesale changes or switch blogs whenever I take up a new setting project.

I'm currently working on a heavily homebrewed version of the Judges Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy, centered on the City State of the Invincible Overlord.  I'm using the version of the OD&D rules I've been messing with for the last couple years.

However, I recently took a look at Jim's game and believe it may be a good fit for the setting.  I either wholeheartedly agree with or can amiably tolerate his design decisions I've had a chance to consider.  This ruleset may save me some kitbashing (although I'm sure I'll still have to do a bit), freeing me up for the setting design work and other stuff I actually enjoy.

Time to give it another look-through.  I don't spend much time on forums these days, but I'm looking forward to talking with everyone and learning a bit more about the system.

Re: Introduce yourself!

30 years old living in Oakland, CA. First played Mentzer in...I don't know...89? Played 2e for a long time, then a little 4e, and am now playing a heavily houseruled B/X.

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'll be thirty-one in a couple of weeks, I'm British (English really, but I grew up in Wales), married, and I live in Brighton, on England's sunny south coast, although it's tipping it down out there right now, the windows leaked today, and the carpet's sopping wet.

Ahem.

I started gaming with the Fighting Fantasy books, moved on to Heroquest, then Games Workshop stuff, then Shadowrun when I was about fifteen or sixteen, then Call of Cthulhu, then a whole load of stuff, but always Cthulhu in there.

Then I went to university, dropped out of gaming, moved to Minnesota, moved back, discovered gaming again, and am now in a weekly game which, aside from about six months of Rogue Trader last year, has mainly been various recent versions of D&D. We started with the fourth edition, which is okay, but slow and quite boring, particularly in character generation. After considerable moaning about having to use a laptop for a process which previously only required three six-sided dice, we moved to Pathfinder, which is quite good, but still has too many moving parts for my liking.

Aside from a couple sessions each of AD&D2 and the basic "black box" during those "mostly Cthulhu years, the only experience of D&D I have, as a player, are these most recent editions. So I have vicariously got involved in this wonderful OSR by contributing artwork to Fight On! and the very-recently-released B/X Companion. It will do for now.

I loved Death Frost Doom (enough to run it under Rogue Trader), and I thought No Dignity in Death and Hammers of the God were both really good. I wasn't fond of Grinding Gear, but I've never been into puzzles, so that's okay. I like what I've seen of the LotfP rpg, and I'm more eager than a professor of eagerness at Eager University to see Death Ferox Doom.

Last edited by kelvingreen (2010-08-26 00:29:35)

Re: Introduce yourself!

45 years old, living in Yokosuka, Japan...and I have been playing since white box. The Monster Manual came out a few months after I started. Looking forward to this game for a while...even longer since I got the address wrong and it went to home instead of one of our ports.