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Message: <blockquote data-quote="practicalm" data-source="post: 7924587" data-attributes="member: 6777923">I started in 1979 in middle school.The GATE program in Irvine CA had a teach who introduced us.  I was already a heavy player of warfare board games such as AH Battle of the Bulge and AH Midway.  My family also played a lot of other board games.I was lucky that I had a number of friends who were interested and we played a number of different campaigns and adventures in the Basic Set and then in  AD&D as those books were released. I remember getting them at the old Gamesmanship store at South Coast Villiage (the store later moved across the street to South Coast Plaza)I played a lot of different board, war and tabletop RPGs as well as computer games.I never tried to build campaigns from the computer games but did take a hand at bringing my campaigns into the computer world as much as I could.I was able to get hired at Gamesmanship in the later High School years and worked their full time to save money before heading to college. We played a lot of board games and RPG games with a group of employees and others.We played a number of different RPGs at lunch in the library at University High in Irvine.We also played Killer at school until we got caught at it.  I started a Science Fiction and Gaming Club and we played after school as well.When I headed off to college, I started a gaming club there and we played games in the student union many evenings.  I had game nights in my apartment but we mostly had cooled from playing RPGs, mostly playing board games.I still played and game mastered RPGs at conventions but didn't have a core group until I went to grad school in Washington DC.There, my wife and I played a number of different RPG games with a group there. Still played a lot of board games though.One of my first career positions was in educational game design and we played board games almost every Friday night in the cafeteria.  Much fun was had.When I moved back to southern California, I found a number of gamers to play in my home and I picked up RPGs again playing things like Life With Master and other smaller titles as well as games like James Bond, and GURPS.Moved to Utah for a new position and found mostly board gamers.Back to southern california after a few years and ran game night at my church for over 10 years now.  When my kids were older they started an RPG group at church and I played some and then was the Gamemaster for a long time until I finally got someone to give me a break because I wanted to play Tomb of Annihilation.Will probably go back to game mastering but might need to break the group into 2 smaller groups as we get as much as 8-12 people (though many times just 6).  I was thinking of running a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy or a space campaign.All in all I've mostly been a game master but I enjoy playing as well.I'm in my early 50s and of German and Polish descent.My father's family played board games all the time and will play a lot of interesting games I bring to family gatherings.  (My cousin was the first person to beat me at Agricola scores were 31,30,29 for a tight game)I generally have an idea of where I want the game to go and let the players know about it as part of session 0.  I leave out hooks and player choose what they want to follow. If they don't follow hooks, I have a set of things that happen because of it and this either leads to new hooks or stories that some other heroes took care of it. I work to incorporate as much of a player's backstory as I can into the overall plot and I'm willing to be flexible if we come up with things that seem more interesting.Our recent D&D games are pretty light hearted and with a lot of jokes and stories.I do allow home-brew rules but I don't have too many house rules.  I used to but it just made it harder to add new people.I did share some of my house rules in the days of Usenet and the Pyramid boards so many people used them.</blockquote>

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