Recent content by John Dallman

Plausibly connected with the draft in the USA?

Depends on the system. For the D&D I still play, which is oD&D and AD&D1e, yes, there is a lot of house-ruling, because it's necessary to cope with gaps in the systems, and places where the rules are either incomprehensible or silly. I started playing those games in 1979, and have continuity...

I'm generally happy for players to develop their backstory during play. Requiring a complete one before the start tends to lead to clichés and tropes, which often don't fit the setting very well.

Well, it probably could work, but refining it into a working system would take a fair bit of playtesting. I don't see the appeal, myself: it restricts my control of a character and adds lots of randomness, which doesn't seem to be representing anything in the character's situation.

I still play D&D with some of the same people as in the eighties, but much less often. I've played fair amounts of Champions and RuneQuest with a different group, and currently mostly play GURPS (WWII, Monster Hunters and Infinite Worlds) with two overlapping groups.

I learned of the existence of RPGs at my first SF convention in summer 1979, aged 18. The idea seemed immediately interesting, although I didn't try to play at the time, because there was an enormous range of other things to do at the convention, and it was clear that RPGs took time. I found my...

The second issue of The Path of Cunning, apparently still the world's only GURPS fanzine, is now available for download. It was written by Paul Blackwell, Phil Masters, Sean Punch, Bill Stoddard, Roger Bell_West and John Dallman. Artwork by Kurt Wilcken, Dan Smith, Wikimedia Commons and Dover...

I'd advise against the random table. Allowing the players to chose what happens to their characters between eras gives them much more control; having options corresponding to that table would be perfectly reasonable.

Well, I experience what you seem to be seeking, but it does not come easily. The two things that seem to be necessary for it, in my case, are: Playing the same character a lot. After something on the order of 100 hours of play, I start being able to think as the character very easily, and they...

Like many others, I don't usually hate games, because I don't play them if they seem defective. There was one game that I hated, and which my character hated for entirely different reasons: I hated it because the action sequencing method (for fights, and any other fast-moving actions) was...

Would that have been an adventurer-related accident, perchance?

I hit this problem many years ago, and the solution I found comes in several pieces: You don't get to resurrect people who have died of old age. Sensible monarchs retire when their heirs are ready to take up rulership. Larger polities tend to be run by oligarchies, meeting as councils, rather...

I started in fall 1979 - will that do? I'm in the UK, and I know several people who have been playing for longer than me, who you might be able to enlist.

Customised dice. Here's an album of pictures. I had these made by the Chessex Custom Shop in 2014-16; I stopped when I ran out of ideas and the UK pound abruptly sank in value.

Nowhere near that in these campaigns: I don't think there is anyone over level 40.