Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Dannyalcatraz]

I must have just been lucky. Very early on, in high school, I was exposed to several different games. Basic D&D was followed very quickly by AD&D, but also Gamma World, Traveller, and Space Opera. As we were officially the "War Gaming Club" I was also exposed to many board games. Anything from Chess, that I completely suck at, to Air War, which I was pretty good at.

There was also a WWI air combat simulation game, the name of which escapes me, that had a mechanic for pilot experience. I was OK with it, but not great, and a couple of the regular players liked to use me for target practice to advance their pilot experience. Until, that is, I discovered the Spad and fighting against German aircraft on the vertical, instead of the horizontal. Frustrated the hell out of them

Oh, I had been playing chess since 2nd grade or so- years before D&D was on my radar. Dad taught me that. And Mom had been teaching me conventional card games like Gin rummy since pre-K.

No, they didn’t let me win.

 

[Ryujin]

Oh, I had been playing chess since 2nd grade or so- years before D&D was on my radar. Dad taught me that. And Mom had been teaching me conventional card games like Gin rummy since pre-K.

No, they didn’t let me win.

Pretty much the same with chess, except in school and not my parents, but not consistently enough that I ever got any good.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That is why I stopped, the internet has a way of cultivating bad habits that don't play well in real life. We all know what D&D is, play it or don't. Not that I didn't hear people complain back in '79, sort of a time honored tradition.

Well, with brand new players people often don't know what it is; unless you watch a let's play (and carefully one that doesn't play too fast and loose with the game play cycle) people can get a pretty confused impression of what the game play of a system is about.

But making it clear what it is and raining on it aren't the same thing.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I must have just been lucky. Very early on, in high school, I was exposed to several different games. Basic D&D was followed very quickly by AD&D, but also Gamma World, Traveller, and Space Opera. As we were officially the "War Gaming Club" I was also exposed to many board games. Anything from Chess, that I completely suck at, to Air War, which I was pretty good at.

Yeah, this was closer to my early experience. I mean, D&D was still the big dog, but it wasn't hard to be exposed to a lot of other early RPGs.

 

[dragoner]

Oh, I had been playing chess since 2nd grade or so- years before D&D was on my radar. Dad taught me that. And Mom had been teaching me conventional card games like Gin rummy since pre-K.

No, they didn’t let me win.

Pretty much the same with chess, except in school and not my parents, but not consistently enough that I ever got any good.

Yeah, this was closer to my early experience. I mean, D&D was still the big dog, but it wasn't hard to be exposed to a lot of other early RPGs.

I played chess, was in chess club from 7th grade on, which is where we also played war games and RPG's. Played cards too with my parents, and siblings, gin rummy was a big one; plus whatever we would get from hoyles. Once I had chess dreams though, that and being good enough to beat the average person, it lost its magic. Friends took me to a pub in SF where they were all playing chess for pints, I found my limits on pints that afternoon. Squad Leader one had a blank chit for a leader one could play through linked scenarios and rise in rank, and ability; sometimes joke that is the first RPG I played. I loved the microgames, and task force games in plastic bags. Played Battle of the Five Armies by TSR before D&D, and the Imperium board game before Traveller.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Pretty much the same with chess, except in school and not my parents, but not consistently enough that I ever got any good.

I’m good enough to be dangerous, but not technically good. My play was honed by playing my Father, who read all the books. I never read the books; I still have never beaten my Dad.

When I was a member of my HS’ chess club, I lost to Fool’s Mate at the hands of a low-ranked player. I also beat the tar out of every other player in the club. I was the only player (at that time) to announce “checkmate in X moves” (did that multiple times, much to the delight of the club sponsor), as well as the only one to force a stalemate. I screwed up badly, and I could feel my impending loss, so I suckered the other player into the tie.

The last time I played live opponents was at a house party in the early 2000s. I was too drunk to dance or mingle, so I just kicked butts at chess until I was sober. (I didn’t lose any matches.)

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I must have just been lucky. Very early on, in high school, I was exposed to several different games. Basic D&D was followed very quickly by AD&D, but also Gamma World, Traveller, and Space Opera. As we were officially the "War Gaming Club" I was also exposed to many board games. Anything from Chess, that I completely suck at, to Air War, which I was pretty good at.

There was also a WWI air combat simulation game, the name of which escapes me, that had a mechanic for pilot experience. I was OK with it, but not great, and a couple of the regular players liked to use me for target practice to advance their pilot experience. Until, that is, I discovered the Spad and fighting against German aircraft on the vertical, instead of the horizontal. Frustrated the hell out of them

Blue max?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I loved the microgames, and task force games in plastic bags.

The mini games from Metagames/SJG, Task Force Games, TSR and others were so much fun!

Also Nova’s 2-player combat book games- Ace of Aces and Lost Worlds were a blast, especially on road trips.

 

[Ryujin]

Blue max?

I don't think so. I would have played whatever game it was in something like 1979-1980, but Blue Max appears to have been published in 1983. I did a quick image search and from what I remember the cover art looked like Knights of the Air, by Avalon Hill, but I can't find a published date for it.

EDIT - Though I had found it, but was wrong. What I found was a book, not a game. Knights of the Air was 1986 or so, so not it.

 

[Staffan]

I must have just been lucky. Very early on, in high school, I was exposed to several different games. Basic D&D was followed very quickly by AD&D, but also Gamma World, Traveller, and Space Opera. As we were officially the "War Gaming Club" I was also exposed to many board games. Anything from Chess, that I completely suck at, to Air War, which I was pretty good at.

Sweden in the late 80s and early 90s was a bit odd when it came to RPGs.

The Swedish-language market was absolutely dominated by the company Äventyrsspel, who were making a fair number of games themselves. They were publishing Drakar och Demoner (the predecessor to Dragonbane) and Mutant (sort of spiritual predecessor to Mutant Year Zero, but while MYZ takes place in a setting where civilization fell in living memory for some, Mutant was set some time later when rebuilding had started) that they were writing themselves, but they also had translated versions of Chill, Star Wars, and Middle-Earth Roleplaying. They had one half-way relevant competitor in Lancelot Games, who also published a handful of games: the low-fantasy Khelataar, Western, and Wastelands (post-apocalyptic where the apocalypse was an alien invasion).

However, one of the things Äventyrsspel published was a magazine, primarily focused on providing bite-sized (and sometimes not so bite-sized) material for their games. In one of these issues, they published an overview of English-language RPGs. Not super-detailed, but like a paragraph or two about each of about 30 different games (although maybe more like 25, because they treated various GURPS sourcebooks as separate games in separate genres). In subsequent issues, they provided more in-depth looks at various games – notably Rolemaster and Warhammer FRP. This, of course, opened the eyes of many young gamers to the wide variety that was out there.

Then came the 90s, and with the 90s came the release of KULT. This was, I believe, a major mistake on their part, because it was a significant shift from the fairly kid-friendly RPGs previously published. Certain people launched attacks on RPGs as a whole, and major toy and book stores didn't want to deal with that fallout and stopped selling them – so now you could only buy RPGs in specialty stores. Buf if you're visiting a specialty store anyway, why would you buy one of the boring Swedish RPGs, when you could buy Warhammer FRP which had a punk dwarf on the cover? So in the early 90s, gamers would often be playing a wide variety of games.