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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Byrons_Ghost" data-source="post: 1406281" data-attributes="member: 7396">Ya know, I think this thread deserves to be longer. And since I don't have any players right now, I can't post in the "Great game groups" thread. As for terrible games, well, I'm not going there.Anyhow, years and years ago (too many, really) when I first came to college, it was from playing nothing but OD&D in high school. We'd had a few first ed. books that we'd use for ideas, but that was it. I only ran in Mystara (then known as 'The Known World' or 'The Gazetteers'), and the other DM only ran in Greyhawk. So we had some rather limited experience with the whole scene.Anyhow, this was about the same time 2nd ed was just out, and WW was also really starting to take off. I didn't like 2nd ed compared to the D&D box sets (note to Diaglo: yes, yes, we know!) There were way too many rules, goofy restrictions like level limits, and it seemed that everyone else had these munckined-out characters with even more ridiculous rules tacked on.So, I started trying out other games. The first Call of Cthulhu game was one of the most fun games I was ever in, even though I look back on it now and there wasn't much too it. We went off some kidnapped girl, she was hung out as bait by her werewolf kidnappers, we (well, ok, I) got torn apart. It was the first time I'd had a character brutally killed in a game (in high school D&D there always seems to be a Res around somewhere), and I loved it. So after that, it was almost nothing but Call of Cthulhu for me for a long time. This was a high-mayhem group; the game was run like a bad day in the trenches, and seeing six or seven sessions made you a veteran character. Still, after years of D&D, I had a great time- even if my string of dead characters and botched roles gave me a reputation as the unluckiest person in the club (and this was against some tough competition, too).Anyhow, I go through that and some other various games and and it rolls around to '94 or so. A lot of the Cthulhu people have moved away and things are sort of in a lull, and I take a room near a guy in the dorms that had made the occasional session. We get to talking about gaming history and I find out that he, like me, would only run Mystara stuff, and that he's getting a group together. He does 2nd ed, but still keeps a lot of the old flavor rules and stuff- like dominions, for instance. So I figure I'll give it a try, and this was the campaign that got me back into D&D.The other players (or at least the early ones; our DM pretty much let in anyone) were all great, the DM was great- funny, good at characterizations and descriptions, tough without being cruel. He could really make the setting come alive, and since it was one that I'd been reading and running, but not playing in, that made it all the better. The DM could be a bit railroad-ish at times- particularly when it came to running modules, which he usually did. Unlike other railroad DMs, though, he got us as involved in the setting as possible, as opposed to deciding that the written books were law which could never be changed. Even from early levels, we were dealing with nobility and powerful people who could've smote us with a glance. There was never any big metaplot "chosen ones" reason for it or anything like that, it was just accepted that was how the world worked. The game was high-magic, fairly whimsical, and completely over the top, but it was a blast. If it had been another game where we were villagers killing orcs for better equipment, I probably would've passed, and wouldn't be playing 3rd ed now.</blockquote>

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