Re: Introduce yourself!

Kramer (that is to say, James D.) here, 46 of Everett, WA (formerly of Canoga Park, CA). I started playing D&D Blue Box circa 1978, moving to AD&D sometime during 1979/1980 while in high school. Played through high school, but once I got into college, everyone went to different colleges, and the gaming group was lost. Playing ceased by mid-1983.

Fast-forward 16 years to 1999; rediscovered AD&D while cleaning my home "office" (in reality, a spare room in the house that held everything my wife and I couldn't figure out what to do with after moving to Washington State). Found an old box with dried out packing tape buried under years of accumulated "marriage." Therein lay all my old lead miniatures. That was quickly followed by the discovery of all my gaming books.

Fast-forward again another 11 (almost 12) years, and I have been deeply involved in a  number of AD&D PBeM games, and started Usherwood Publishing to distribute my long forgotten manuscripts online. To-date, I've compiled 7 adventures (2 by Alphonso Warden, and 5 by myself....always on the lookout for other budding authors), with 3 more in various stages of development, and numerous others in outline form.

Professionally, I'm a freelance graphic designer, now working out of the house (I mean, I have a domestically-located center of business) after having spent 13 years at a certain Redmond, WA-based software company designing their retail and self-paced training books.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi my names Aaron and Im in sunny Melbourne Australia.

Im just a few days shy of 40 and started gaming with the old red box.  I can still remember reading it adn going ont holdiays witha  friend for 8 weeks and playing solo stuff.  Fell in with some gamers at high school and we played mainly AD&D, Traveller and Gamma World.  Two of those guys are still the core of my gaming group today.

I've been playing fairly consistently the whole time through various games and more characters than I can remember.  Shadowrun, AD&D and the old WHFRP were probably the most used.  We got 3rd edition and were excited about it but never really got anywhere playing it.  Tried some of the clones but again with only limited success.  Now days I buy and read alot mroe games than I ever get around to play.  I like alot of the independant stuff.

One of the guys has been pushing to try some old school again.  I read the review on Grognardia of LOTFP and it sounded interesting.  I missed the last sessin due to the dreaded lurgy and one fo the guys brought it along and they loved it.  So here I am.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hiya,

I'm Simon, the pusher of Old School onto Aaron C, above. I too am based in sunny Melbourne, just turned 39 and I started gaming in my last year of primary (elementary) school with the Moldvay Basic. Pretty soon the teacher had our entire grade running and playing D&D every Friday afternoon. I moved on to AD&D, etc and found my GMing groove with Shadowrun for quite a few years.

I grew disillusioned with the hobby for a while in the 90's and got back into D&D with 3e, which I enjoyed playing with my regular group but found an utter disaster and highly demoralising with some friends from work (a game shop).  I caught the dreaded gamer ADD for many years after that.

LotFP appeals to me for its simplicity, the nostalgia being only a part of that. I love the OSR as it brings me back to what I loved when I first entered the hobby and gives me room to evaluate and improve on my GMing and playing without being overwhelmed by rules.

Our first session of LotFP was awesome and so inspired one player that he went out and for the first time in many years, bought the game. Gotta love that inspiration!

Re: Introduce yourself!

My name is John, 42 year old gamer currently living in eastern Pennsylvania (after spending the past 16 years in Colorado).  I played Moldvay B/X throughout the 80's, some Traveller and a little AD&D; the 90's was the decade of Call of Cthulhu and White Wolf/Vampire while I was in Colorado (D&D was for kids, right?); about 5 years ago my group went back to Moldvay B/X and had a blast.  When I moved to Pennsylvania, I had to build a new gaming group, we started with a short AD&D campaign, experimented with 3.5, experimented with 4E when it came out, and after a year and a half of banging my head against the 4E system, went back to Moldvay B/X earlier this year.  The other guys (all in their 40's) were skeptical about basic D&D up front (isn't that the version for kids?) but have come around to embracing the rules light approach.

I got exposed to LOTFP primarily by seeing online reviews of Death Frost Doom last year and grabbing the PDF off RPGNOW; I was so enamored of the style and atmosphere that I ended up getting much of the back catalog at the time (Grinding Gear, No Dignity in Death, People of Pembrook...).  "And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that!"  That was my epiphany reading Death Frost Doom - if you've read it or own it, you know what I mean.  Wow.  So that's when I became a fan.

These days we just launched a game using B/X that is being converted to WFRP; we started using pieces of WFRP as house rules, and just recently the guys voted to use the whole thing.  Really hoping we see a commercial rules book that is readily available and affordable - a black and white softcover, something.  As DM, I plan on getting the hardback book regardless of how deluxe, but I'm sure the players would love to have their own copies, if possible.

I also intend to feature quite a few LOTFP adventure modules (if possible - I offer a lot of possible places to adventure, but the players ultimately need to decide where to go or not...).  They explored Tower of the Stargazer, are investigating The Grinding Gear, and I have some ideas on guiding them towards Death Frost Doom and Hammer of the Gods in the near future - there is a journal on Dragonsfoot if anyone is interested (http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=45047 - read the entries on Sterich).

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi! My name is Nicolò and I'm from Milan, Italy. I'm 22 and started gaming when I was 7, mainly AD&D 2e and Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu. Around a year ago, after a long break, I decided to start gaming again and create a blog. I came into OSR some months ago, and discovered that BECMI was not actually the "first" edition of D&D.
Right now I'm a enthusiastic supporter of this Old School wave, running a Labyrinth Lord campaign named The Doomed Wasteland (link in signature), a blog named Game Snob (again, in signature) and the first (and only, as far as I know) OSR related forum in Italy - OSR Italia.
I was a proud lurker on LotFP blog, and I have bought a couple of Raggi's adventures (Death Frost Doom and Tower of the Stargazer), and I'm thinking about giving LotFPWFRPG a try as soon as I can.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Beedo wrote:

My name is John, 42 year old gamer currently living in eastern Pennsylvania (after spending the past 16 years in Colorado).

I'm moving from Colorado Springs to Stroudsburg, PA in three weeks.  Which part of Eastern PA are you in?

Dennis Higgins, The Higgipedia.
So mellow, he's probably not REALLY a grognard.

Check out Gaming All Over The Place: http://gamingallover.blogspot.com/

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hell- O!

I am remanns, . . . .and I AM a power gamer. ( A "power gamer" DM actually ) I have been a ( mumbles under breath - "power gamer" since about 1979 ), . . .it took 1/2 a year for SOME of my players to gain power.

. . . .and strangely enough,.....I really DON'T feel that I need "help" for that; help WITH that is something else entirely.
By 20th plus level "EPIC"  3.5 standards, my campaign is not that high powered.   ( Uhm,....well,....yes it is, it can hold its own. . . ) BUT,....in my defense, I managed this with OLD SCHOOL game mechanics and home brewed adjustments. So there.
The crucial factor in this to consider, is the quality of people at the table. I wouldn't trade these gentlemen for the world, and they are second to none.....( so I feel and honestly contend )

They still like to play after ALL THESE YEARS,....with NEW characters,.....and, from time to time,....with the full table of demi-gods,...immortals, paragons,... archetypes incarnate, "unique"embodyments,  forces personified. One or two "GODS" not-so-"demi".

Olympus was like this, I think.

Or the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen",.....hell,....split the difference.

Add Zelazny and Steven Brust,....and I think you begin to get the picture.

. . . . and Paladins,.....Oh GOD those high powered Paladins . . .
( yepper,...add abit of "Avengers" or "Justice League" to that,....cant dodge that bullet . . .)

" If You Cant Eventually Duke It Out With The Old Ones, . . . Why Bother " !?!

p.s -"Hackmaster" has now been fully integrated into the world, . . .it doesn't really change the functional nature of things much,...but it has become easier, and more codified,...to run things much as they always have been.

. . . .and ,   BUT FOR RARELY,          I really DO NOT run the world "tongue in cheek"

p.p.s. Everyone should read   "God's Demon"   and    "Prospero Lost"   that is all.


p.p.p.s.   no its not.   No one has ACTUALLY achieved a "Hackmaster" class level yet -I run a tighter ship in my dotage, than I once did,....and "Hackmasters" are "Paragons" in my campaign.   Those I have some "home brewed" versions of, to be sure.

. . . . .and dont get me STARTED on psionics ....

GODs, but I DO love the game.

Last edited by remanns (2010-11-02 18:13:46)

Re: Introduce yourself!

hey. 48 and living just south of atlantic city, nj.
began gaming in '80 w/ d n' d, runequest & tunnels & trolls. while i haven't played since maybe '84, i've still obsessed off & on over rpg's ever since.
getting back into it through my son and warhammer fantasy battle. i'm trying to find a good system to introduce my 7 & 12 year old to role playing.
while LotFP is just flipping me out and leaving me drooling wanting to play, because of the kids ages it looks like i might settle on either 7 leagues, swords & wizardry or dungeonslayer. any thoughts?
i'm trying to find people in the area to play LotFP and maybe freemarket. i'd also like to check out the tekumel world in more depth.
enjoy camping, hiking, canoeing, writing, drawing and am exploring chaos magick.
favorite authors: tom brown jr, michael moorcock, tolkien, gav thorpe - warhammer novels
favorite music (at the moment): fall of efrafa, oroku, flight of sleipnir, FEARTHAINNE, ECHTRA, fauna, alethes, beneath the lake, pentangle, high tide, buried inside, zuriaake, alcest, dinosaur jr......
Flame Princess is pure awesomeness, thanx for creating this and distributing the rules pdf. i plan to purchase the boxed set for myself after the holidays (i'm outta work right now).

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi! Started gaming, god, back in the early 90's with MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing). From there I naturally graduated to D&D, and that's been my mainstay ever since. I've played a lot of White Wolf games, enjoying the adult, gothic punk feel of the systems, especially Vampire and Werewolf, and have only now discovered Flaming Princess!

Love love FP, and can't wait to play more!

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi, I am 45 years old.  Started playing Moldvay/Cook way back when (early 80's).  I went on to add much of 1E and 2E stuff to the mix.  Played Call of Cthulhu, Gamma World, Elric! and Cyberpunk.  And then for nearly 10 years played little to no RPGs at all.  Around 2003 got back in to playing.  I am a fan of Labyrinth Lord.  And a fan of Lamentations.  I am looking forward to what Carcosa will bring.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi, I'm Brock. I'm 32, live in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA. My first D&D experience was Basic D&D, I think, but I never saw the rule books. I played an M-U and loved it. No one else did though and so it was several years before I found another group.

Most of my game experience is with AD&D 2E (90% as DM) and Iron Heroes d20 (90% as PC). I've also run some old school games intermittently. Having just moved to Florida I am now starting up an old school game for my wife, solo. I may look for additional players eventually.

I absolutely love WF. I had been adapting LL to my tastes, but when I started reading what James was doing I knew most of my work could be set aside. The Specialist is so similar to my Dungeoneer I suspect James saw my posts at the LL boards and just cribbed them. (No worries though, mate - it's cool wink) I also love the flavor text written into the spell descriptions and cleric/magic-user classes. Good stuff.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi everyone.  I'm Ben, playing rpgs for a long time, and looking to start up a pen and paper LotFP game in north west CT.

Can't wait to look around the forum and see whats up.

Ben

Re: Introduce yourself!

My name is Evan and I'm originally from Mississippi but I currently live in Knoxville TN.  I started playing RPGs when 3e came out (I'm a youngin') but I eventually converted over to OSD&D because I preferred the simple nature of the rules and the emphasis on exploration.  LotFP products appeal to me because of James's ability to achieve a genuine air of dread and horror.

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm Ben, an Australian aged about 32. I grew up in a small tourist town on the far north coast of New South Wales; great beaches, if you like that sort of thing, but not much in the way of roleplaying. I tried to run Advanced Fighting Fantasy in high school for my brother but he wasn't into it; my first actual session was a Paranoia game in 1996.

I moved to Melbourne in 1997 and finally got into RPGs at uni, where I played Vampire and through new friends got into the con and live roleplaying scene. Lots of systemless freeforms, some Amber, and a horde of beloved B-list games from the 90s like In Nomine, 7th Sea, Fading Suns and so on.

I eventually came to D&D with a 2nd Edition AD&D campaign started just before the release of 3E. It was meant to transition but never did; I later had my first DMing experience running a sporadic 3E game for around 18 months.

I didn't play for years after that until 4E and a new batch of keen new players brought me back; I've been running a campaign for them for over two years now, plus some less frequent games for a couple of other groups.

Around the time 4E started up I was writing a comedy show about D&D, and while researching the history of the game managed to get my hands on the first two boxes of BECMI. I kind of liked it, though it didn't quite sit right; I started reading old-school blogs, including LoFP. It appeals to me more than the other retro-clones, thanks to the weirder tone and the more sword and sorcery feel; I've been reading some Moorcock and Leiber and I think it really captures some of the same feeling. I'm keen to play LoFP, though so far I've not had the chance.

Last edited by guybrush (2011-01-02 14:44:52)

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi,

My name is Rich, I am 32 and live in South Jersey. I am a mechanical engineer and I am currently finishing up law school. I started gaming by adapting the rules from gamebooks and making up adventures with my friends. I remember using Tolkein Quest, Car Wars, Lone Wolf, and something about Excalibur Jr. We moved on to the Mentzer Red Box from there. I have been playing various RPGs for the last 22 years. When I play D&D I prefer the older versions.

I am currently running an 1st Ed./OSRIC game set in Stonehell. Last week the party's ranger took a teleport to "a random room in a dungeon of the Labyrinth Lord's choosing." I chose a small room with a map pointing to Hammers of the God.

I have to admit, I started my game not long before the LL AEC came out, and I really wish I had gone that route instead.

I became aware of LotFP through the Grognardia blog, and got the box set and several of the modules. I love the way the modules are written and have been looking for an excuse to work them into my game.

I am also a huge fan of RPG podcasts like The Podgecast and Fear the Boot.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi, I'm Chris. I come from New Jersey, but I moved to Seattle about 15 years ago. I'm 40 years old and I got into RPGs via the Basic D&D box set back in 1978, then moved up to AD&D thereafter. I've been picking up old-school stuff for several years, and when I saw the LotFP deluxe box at first I thought it was a bit pricey, but when I saw that it came with a pencil, I had to have one.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi I'm very new here, just bought the box set today of Lamentations. I saw it a week ago at my local store and didn't have the money for it, but it kept haunting me for some reason. I like all games, new ones and the old ones, and I know people may not like me for that. I will play 4th edition and I'll play the Saga System for Dragonlance and then play original DnD and then the new Gamma World because it's fun.
I believe that this should always be about fun and the fun we had as kids passed on to new kids and new kids at heart, My name is Marcelino I'm 35 and live in New Mexico. I love to write and world build, I love new settings and I love magic that lives in all these boxes and books of rules and spell lists and introductions to "What is roleplaying?" no matter what it never gets old and I always read it. Sorry about the rambling and the run ons. I love the idea of writing a game and helping out the independent creators by buying their games and introducing them to new people is something I like to do. I didn't know if I wanted to wait for the Grindhouse version of the game, but in the end I couldn't wait I had to have those cute dice and all that great art. And yeah I'll buy the Grindhouse too. I just can't let my partner know how much I spend. Thanks for letting me into your world. I can't wait to play.

Re: Introduce yourself!

My name is Simon, I am 37 years old and have played D&D since I was eight. Early memories are 1st Edition AD&D, but most are of 2nd Edition AD&D, which featured my favourite games and long running campaign. I have played various games throughout the years, such as Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars (WEG d6), Rune Quest and others. Currently play a 3.5 Edition D&D game and a Star Wars Saga game, which I enjoy.

Discovered the LotFP blog more or less by random, then delved deeper and read people's reviews and play experience with such adventures as Death Frost Doom and The Grinding Gear, notably Beedo's blog. Got the adventures, looked through the free rules for the game and am waiting for the Grindhouse Edition to become available so I can start planning my next campaign using it.

Recently started my own D&D-type blog, at www.theskyfullofdist.co.uk, which was partially inspired by all the other blogs out there.

69

Re: Introduce yourself!

Greetings from about as close to Lake Geneva as you can get  while still being in Illinois!
My name's Eoin (most easily pronounced "Keith" by most Americans) and I've been roleplaying for quite some time. I'm a second generation geek - dad was a wargamer. He was intrigued by this new game he saw at GenCon that looked remarkably interesting, not that he'd read any of MAR Barker's books... and promptly got frustrated with it. Being an imaginative and impressionable kid, I loved it.e
My school gaming group (oddly looking like the intersection of the school chess club and the latin club) was all about the Red Box with occasional forays into the AD&D material for doing power-fantasy games like the stupid preteen guys we were. I dug out brown-book Blackmoor for our group and was soundly rebuffed for being too weird and not letting them hack & slash their way through it. Part of the beauty of that anecdote is that all of us have gigs in the gaming industry as adults.
When WW came out, I tried to write my own fantasy hack of the system, then rebuilt it in Fudge. Then I found that LARPing wasn't always boffer, and then found jeepen LARPs... and worked with trying to do gritty, horrific low-fantasy as a basis for "you can do what you can do" style gaming. When I was done with school and started being a journeyman chef and moving every few months to work under someone, I started working with virtual tables and play-by-Wiki style games.
Throughout all of this, I was disappointed in not finding anything in a game that felt like it worked my imagination as much as those books in Appendix N right out of the box. So far, LotFP is coming closest... but I believe Grindhouse might come closer.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Howdy, everyone!  I'm Vernon, and I'm in the deep south of the USA.  I'm 58 and have been gaming since 1980, starting with the Moldvey Basic/Expert books.  LOTFP has been intriguing me for some time but I've only recently taken the plunge and bought the box set.  Once the current S&W campaign I'm running comes to an end, I'll be switching to LOTFP.  I like the gritty feel and the later time-period of the game, and it should provide my players with some challenging swashbucklery fun.

Regards,

V

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi! I'm Errant and I live in Cambridge, MA. I'm 37 and looking at running my first game ever. As a kid I played AD&D (1e), Marvel, TMNT, Top Secret, and Star Frontiers, and then didn't play anything from about the ages of 14-30. Then a friend and I started an AD&D campaign that gradually morphed into 3.5 (with Call of Cthulhu as our "backup" game). That lasted for three years and then a bunch of us left town and I came back to Boston and spent a few months playing 3.5 with some seriously new-school kids, but lost interest. A couple years ago I stumbled upon Grognardia and started reading a lot of Howard and getting back to my metal roots... my interest in the OSR grew and it looks like I might finally do something with that half-baked world I used to fool around with years ago.

That's it, basically.

Campaign blog: http://deadlake.wordpress.com
Other, rarely updated blog: http://tigerchamber.wordpress.com

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm a 37 years old Frenchman with wife and kids. I currently live in Alsace (not far from Strasbourg).

I did not start playing again "these traditional fantasy RPGs" but I wish I could. What I will try is introduce my current gaming group to a "sandbox" style game with the free LotFP rules I downloaded (and with Weird New World I just bought !).

I'm looking forward to the new LotFP edition and Carcosa (whose pdf I bought some time ago), because I like the grim ambiance present in both games. Although I did start playing rpgs with d&d basic and ad&d, I seek less to emulate those old feelings I had then than to play fast, easy and, so to say, hard (grim and simple rules for a grim world).

I really appreciate the LotFP rules : more so since I saw, in a French forum named Casus no,  what a fellow forumist did with it when applying its rules to Dark Heresy. By the way,  a thread from this forum - about retroclones - made me discover LotFP.

Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm 29 years old and I live in Rehovot, Israel with my beloved spouse Hani (who is also a gamer). Currently I'm near the end (hopefully) of my Master's Degree in Geography (specializing in Urban Planning) at the Tel-Aviv University.

I was introduced to D&D in 1997, at the age of 15, to AD&D 2E. Th rules were clunky, but we had a hell of a time back then. After that I moved to D&D 3E when it first came out in 2000 and played it for a year or so before going on a six-year-long hiatus from gaming due to moving to Kiriat Shmona in the north to study at the Tel-Hai college and not finding too many gamers there.

I got back into gaming when Hani expressed interest in it in 2006, initially starting Shadowrun 4E and then moving to D&D 3E in 2008. I think that the move to retro-clones was mostly inspired by gaming with Hani; she's an avid role-player and a very creative player, but she HATES the highly-complicated rules of D&D 3E. So, in 2009, we moved over to BFRPG, and enjoyed it MUCH more than D&D 3E.

Currently we're between games, and intending to start Stars Without Number campaign next December. However, in the fantasy side of things, I'm slowly gravitating towards S&W:WB and LotFP as they're even simpler and faster than BFRPG.

I heard about LotFP on Dragonsfoot for some time, but when the Grindhouse edition finally came out, I saw some of its sample artwork and was GREATLY impressed, so I ordered it two days ago. I've already downloaded the PDF today and skimmed through part of it, and LOVE it, and I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the boxed set.

Re: Introduce yourself!

Another french guy, here, Alexandre, born in 1972. My first rpg was the red box in 1982. I like the whole RPG thing but D&D ? Not that much... Fast forward 28 years and lots of rpgs as a player but mostly as a GM. Not so long ago I read about LotFP on the Storygames forums, downloaded the rules, read them... And then I grabbed everything I could.

I know run a Dark Heresy game using LotFP (with a few twists of course) and just started two LotFP campaigns. So far, so good !

Re: Introduce yourself!

French canadian here! smile
I live in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I mainly play Burning Wheel and Labyrinth Lord.
I tried LL to run a West Marches style campaign set in a fantasy mythic Russia.
I discovered LotFP on the storygames forum, I was hooked by the title, the cover & the game atmosphere.
Since I really enjoyed LL, I decided to try LotFP and I really liked what I was reading.
I just own the PDF of LotFP and The Stargazer Tower, but I plan to enventually buy the beautiful box set.
I will run The Stargazer Tower at our local con in Montréal (Le Grand Roludothon).
Eventually I also hope to run a LotFP campaign for my LL/BW group.

Last edited by Gwion (2011-04-18 21:48:20)

GM: Labyrinth Lord. Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
Player: Looking forward trying Stars without number.