A moment of thankful reflection (RPG context)

[R_J_K75]

Oh, c'mon, advocate!

Those people will never have what had.
I’m old! And I’m grumpy! And I don’t like things now compared to the way they used to be. All this progress — phooey! In my day, we didn’t have this Amazon Internet Thingy that would send you a D&D book when you needed it. No!

There was only one game store in each state — and that store was open only one hour a year. And you’d get in line, seventeen miles long, and the line became an angry mob of people– fornicators and thieves, mutant children, circus freaks and grizzled wargamers that hadn't showered since the 50s — and you waited for years and by the time you got to the front to buy your copy of the Monster Manual, you were already senile and arthritic and you couldn’t remember your own name. You were born, got in line, and ya died before you even got to roll a single d20!


Life was simpler then. There wasn’t all this concern about hygiene and communicable diseases and playing "remotely" and on "Roll20". When I started playing D&D, we didn’t even have Kleenex. When the eldest male child in the family turned seventeen, he was given the family handkerchief. It had never been washed and was filled with diseases and swarming with flies. If you tried to blow your nose or even looked at that Kleenex wrong-like, you’d get an infection and your head would swell up and turn green and small children would turn and scream and run in fear just at the sight of you! We didn't need no ZOOM to scare those children.

Life was a carnival! We entertained ourselves! We didn’t need to get together a "group" to "play" "D&D." No, in my day, there was only one show in town - it was called, "Play the BECMI module by yourself, over and over again, and watch Aleena die." And you thought, “Oh,no! Maybe I should have tried something else this time! But it was too late! You were responsible for Aleena dying again.

Kids today don't even know. And one day, they will be complaining about those youngsters zipping by on their hoverboards and playing holo-D&D, and how wizards get d100 hit points, and have "always on" 9th level spells now. HA! You just wait.

Damn that was one long rant and I LMFAO. Yes!! The guy at one of my FLGS was arrested for unspeakable acts while the other looked like Mork from Ork. Definitely needed to make a saving throw entering either establishment because you were taking your like in your hands.

 

[R_J_K75]

I am worried that, by the time we are able to go to them again in any meaningful way, they will no longer be there.

That's too bad. A lot of places aren't going to be there once this pandemic is over, which I would assume that RPGs being such a niche market that more so. A good friend of mine for the last 30 years opened a bar about 4-5 years ago and from what I hear will not be re-opening. Only place in the neighborhood I felt comfortable in anymore. Its a shame that it seems that's going to be the story all around the world for the small business owner most likely.

 

[R_J_K75]

I was only saying that the experience playing in those early days can't ever be repeated. And to be part of that experience was something I'm lucky for.

Totally agree. My group now is mostly younger and newer players. Theyre about 30-35 but haven't played long. In 1987 youd be hard pressed to find a player that didn't have a 10 foot pole on their character sheet, now its 10 foot what. Back then a simple pit trap took 3 hours to navigate, now it seems passé.

 

[darjr]

YouTube

www.youtube.com

 

[Ath-kethin]

That's too bad. A lot of places aren't going to be there once this pandemic is over, which I would assume that RPGs being such a niche market that more so. A good friend of mine for the last 30 years opened a bar about 4-5 years ago and from what I hear will not be re-opening. Only place in the neighborhood I felt comfortable in anymore. Its a shame that it seems that's going to be the story all around the world for the small business owner most likely.

That's true. It sucks for everyone.

But since the small businesses I care about most are the comic shop and the game stores, I'm frankly not as concerned about the others.

While I had many fine experiences in bars, for example, they were nowhere near as formative as the ones I had in bookstores and comic shops. Of the things I'd like to be able to pass on to my kid, the smell, look, and community of book and hobby shops is the top of my list.

 

[R_J_K75]

While I had many fine experiences in bars, for example, they were nowhere near as formative as the ones I had in bookstores and comic shops. Of the things I'd like to be able to pass on to my kid, the smell, look, and community of book and hobby shops is the top of my list.

I've seen a lot of bad things go down in bars so I salute your desire to steer your kids away from that part of society. I can say that some of my fondness memories as a child was in comic and game stores as a child. I remember buying Sider-Man 252 in 1985 at Queen City Books in Buffalo, which last I checked is still around, The other which was this three story store in Toronto ON called the Silver Snail. My mother dated a lounge singer in the Royal Yorke Hotel on Front Street and my brothers and I would walk from there to Queen Street, probably a good half mile to a mile to get there. The sights and smells for a 10 year old kid were so amazing. I can still remember the anticipation walking in the door to see which comics were new that week Secret Wars, GI Joe and I'm pretty sure the 3rd floor was RPGs. Well worth instilling that in the next generation, memories that will last a lifetime.

EDIT: ...buying Sider-Man 252 in 1985 at Queen City Books in Buffalo... My father used to take us there every month to get comics.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm grateful for the first FLGS I ever called home. This was in the early 90's, and the town I lived in had never had a gaming store with space to play. Before that, through the 80's, here were a couple of comic book stores that also sold some RPG stuff, and another store called Imperiums to Order that was a games store, but was housed this wonderfully cramped turn of the century home and which didn't have any space to hang out or play. It was one of those stores that seemed to never have enough room for it's inventory, never mind a gaming table, and there were always piles of books stacked precariously on every counter. I did buy my first GW figs there, a lead Human Bloodbowl team (Go Reikland!). Imperiums also had the first real used RPG section that I'd ever experienced. It was in a narrow hallway at the back of the store, with shelves on both sides so you almost had to shimmy in sideways. None of the books were in bags or anything, and I spent many happy hours pouring over cracked copies of old D&D modules, Conan books, Top Secret, and all sorts of wonderful and arcane gaming materials.

In the early 90's my new home opened. It was called the Gamer's Guild, and it was glorious. It had all the RPG stuff, but also an enormous selection of miniatures, and it had not one, but two gaming tables, plus a painting station. Talk about Nirvana. That store, and the regulars there, were my first real gaming group. I learned how to play Warhammer there, and had a great time watching a couple of the regulars put the boots to a couple of gents who had come down from the GW office in Toronto on a 40K challenge. There was always a good crowd around, and it was a wonderfully friendly place. In retrospect I'm kind of shocked and how easily a really wide range of ages and backgrounds just kind of melded together.

The Guild was also where I played D&D for the first time with some serious players. Previously it had all been lads from the neighborhood I played with, and while that was great and those guys were the guys I grew up with, the guys at the store were a little older and they seemed professional. They had been there and done that, and didn't give an owlbear turd about being nice to the new guy, they were there to play. I really felt I had to bring my A-game to game with them. They laughed in the face of TPKs and liked to drink lemon vodka in little glasses out of the freezer in the back when we played after hours.

I pretty much lived at the Gamer's Guild until it closed, and I'm thankful for the years of great times, the great people, and the opportunity to really spread my wings as a gamer in the company of like-minded questers.

 

[Eltab]

I am grateful for the collaboratively-built House P'Tal, a city created on the early Internet (about 1995) for Gamma World.
What if a warbot was assigned to protect a medical facility?

 

[Shiroiken]

I am worried that, by the time we are able to go to them again in any meaningful way, they will no longer be there.

This is why I'm thankful for CCG players (despite the fact we refer to them as card vermin); they're the ones who've really kept those FLGS open for all these years.

 

[aramis erak]

Ok, well maybe not the actual word, but rather from one thing that represents. I started playing D&D in 1981.
[snip]
There were not "one true wayism" of playing RPGs in general. You truly made the game your own because you didn't have anyone else. Most of us who played D&D back then also created our own RPGs because there weren't many available or accessible.

I am so grateful I got to experience that. So what is one thing, rpg related, that you're really grateful for?

Having started gaming about the same time, I definitely consider myself a big of a grognard, as well... but the stuff after the snip? It already existed.
One-True-Way-ism... very clear in the rants by Gygax in Dragon. Even if he was doing it to be ironic, a lot of people seemed to take it to heart and generate a nasty GM vs Players mentality.
Very few people I knew actually wrote their own games. Most of them simply altered D&D to add things their setting, not a unique game. Most of them sucked. And the Photocopier made it possible to distribute their add-ons, but most weren't making their own games.

There was, by 1981, a good variety in print, too...
D&D vs AD&D was already a thing. And three rulesets in print Classic D&D (LBB), Holmes Basic, and AD&D. Mid 1981 brings us another basic: Moldvay.
Tunnels and Trolls came to be in 1975, as a reaction to reading the rules of D&D. Rejecting the wargamer inspired rules, it is the first game to really streamline the mechanics to consistent use. By 1979, it had become it's long-stable 5th edition. (Which is once again available, but was available thru the early 2000's... and, due to fan demand, is now available in PDF.) It's companion game, Monsters! Monsters!, was also in print.
Boot Hill was halfway between RPG and minis game, and was out.
Metamorphosis Alpha and Empire of the Petal Throne both came out around the same time as T&T... these D&D variants were official stuff...
Gamma World had become something other than Met Alpha...
RuneQuest and Traveller were both in print. As was Starships & Spacemen.
I think Space Opera dates to 1982,. Star Frontiers is also class of 1982. As is Cook's Expert Set for Moldvay or Holmes basic.
Oh, and there was also the Dallas RPG. (No combat! Social Situations resolved by die roll modified for RP!)
Palladium was just releasing the Mechanoids in Dec. 1981.

RuneQuest would expand out in the early 80's to a bunch of games, T&T would get a third in the early 80's as well. Palladium exploded with new games through the 80's... D&D would get 2 more revisions, AD&D two more as well, before 3E stopped both lines by introducing a new core engine, consistently 1d20 roll high.

Which leads me to my own first grognardy thanks:

The multitude of Systems.​

The multitude of games has been an expensive, but rewarding, part of my lifetime learning passion. I was never satisfied with one game to rule them all. I tried to go that way with GURPS, but realized quickly (tho' not quickly enough), that I didn't like the approach of the mechanics.

My first indication there was a wider world was the middle of the AD&D DMG... with conversions for Boot Hill and Gamma World on pp. 112-114. Couple that with disliking AD&D by comparison to Moldvay... in 1983, I discovered people playing other RPGs.

And all those systems?

The willing-to-experiment players I've had over the years​

There is no benefit of multiple games if everyone wants to play only the one engine and only it's best genre...

The friendships forged by gaming, be it card, board, or RPG.​

This is where the computer games really don't hold a candle to the older forms. Computer games don't give the same level of interaction nor the physical proximity... nor, really, the emotional intimacy of a regular group of games players.

The very interesting online discussions. ​

Most have been enjoyable. A few weren't enjoyable, but were definitely educational.

The ability to play with the best gamers I've ever had the pleasure to GM for.​

I've had a group of players for the last 7 years - all both able to think in character, play hard systems, and play systems hard, and do all that at the same time... And when I left Alaska, they had me keep GMing for them. Players who aren't afraid to give me story hooks. Players willing to suggest suitable complications.
Players well worth the time to prep for.