Mercurius
Legend
Let's face it: we RPGamers are a greying group - we ain't getting any younger, and not as many newbies are joining the flock, at least the diehard inner circle, as are leaving or--gasp!--Growing Up (Fully familiar with the argumentative nature of many RPGamers, I realize that some will disagree with that assertion, but so what...that's not the point of this thread, so move on 
).
What is the point of this thread? A full-out Nostalgiathon, or Nostalgiaganza, if you prefer. Let's reminisce about what we miss, whether it is an old gaming group or campaign we played in, an era of gaming, a game or game company, a product line, etc - anything you want, miss, and would love to see back but probably never will. I have heard some call the OSR a nostalgia movement and others get offended by that, but this is a place where nostalgia is welcome and encouraged - let your nostalgic heart delight in bygone ages!
A couple guidelines. I'd love for everyone to include their age or year of birth, and the year you first started gaming, with a brief bio of your gaming career (maybe two or three paragraphs, but try not to over-induldge!). I'm not asking your age to impose some kind of age requirement - you can be 18 and feel nostalgic for discovering 3rd edition at age 9, although I imagine most folks drawn to this sort of thread are 30+ and started with AD&D. I just think it would be interesting to contextualize what you have to say, what you're nostalgic about.
I'll start.
Brief Gamer Bio
I was born in 1973 and started gaming in 1981 or '82. I was first introduced to D&D at a Tibetan New Year Festival (Losar) in Boulder, CO. A group of kids dragged me into a VW van, handed me an impenetrable piece of paper (my first character sheet) and I was mesmerized. Later that year, some friends of my older brother lost interest in D&D in favor of Pong-Era computers and gifted me with their AD&D hardcovers - the original Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Deities & Demigods (the original copies of which have long since fallen apart, but all have been replaced thanks to Ebay). I remember carrying the last book in particular around with me in my backpack, pouring over its pages with friends during recess. I was hooked.
I've had a bit of an on-and-off relationship with gaming over the last three decades, being quite into it for a few years and then putting gaming on the backburner, simmering but never fully gone (except for a year or two here and there). I played AD&D 1E for the first years, but in the way that 8-12 year olds often play: very loose, with +7 vorpal swords and quickly established demigodhood. It wasn't until my teenage years, when 2E came out, that I really played D&D "properly," running an ongoing campaign through most of high school.
During the 90s I stopped for a couple years, then started again in '93 or '94, playing some 2E and dabbling with a few other RPGs. I went on an extended hiatus in the mid-to-late 90s until I ran across a little website in 1999 called "Eric Noah's Unofficial 3rd Edition News" and found my way back. I played regularly during the early years of 3E and the OGL, then went on another hiatus in 2004-08, until 4E came out. Since then I've run and played in a relatively regular game, followed the industry, posted on message boards, etc.
Nostalgiaganza!
What am I nostalgic about? Well, I will adapt a semi-famous quote and say that "the Golden Age of roleplaying games is twelve." There is something magical about that time - when the imagination is in full bloom, one's capacity to think has developed significantly, but one has not yet truly discovered the opposite sex or any of the pleasures and perils of adolescence. I turned twelve in 1985, so that whole early first era of discovery in 1982 until early adolescence in 1987 or '88 was one of great imagination to me. Going to a gaming store was a sacred pilgrimage, browsing through the original DMG or Deities and Demigods like reading some arcane tome, and Gary Gygax was a wise sage, the holder of esoteric knowledge.
I am nostalgic about that era of RPGs, when you could buy Dragon Magazine in bookstores, when rules minutia didn't matter (at least to me), when the game and its aesthetics left much to the imagination. I am nostalgic for being able to run myself through the Random Dungeon Generator in the back of the DMG late into the wee hours of the morning and really enjoy it. I am nostalgic for drawing maps of fantasy worlds, not knowing what existed within a mountain vale or forest, and not fretting about the coastline being perfect. I am nostalgic about sketching fantasy characters, making up monsters and magic items. I am even nostalgic for the early days of EN World, when it was still a preview site for 3E, before 3E came out, and the excitement at reading each new tidbit that Eric Noah provided. Did I say that I miss Dragon Magazine?
I still do a lot of this stuff. Some of it I don't, though. I rarely go to game stores, both because they are few and far between these days, but also because they just don't inspire much anymore. I get more pleasure browsing stores on the internet. More than anything, I'm nostalgic for having the time and carefree nature of a child to be able to pour hours into gaming. With a family and career, I just can't allocate hours to playing with the Random Dungeon Generator (and probably wouldn't enjoy it as much if I tried). Perhaps more than anything, I'm nostalgic for an ongoing, immersive campaign that isn't challenged by the realities of adult life, scheduling, etc.
I still crave engagement with fantasy worlds, the free play of the imagination as someone once described the essence of RPGs. My creative focus, when I have the time, is on my writing, but I still dabble in campaign and game design. I still get the same imaginative tingle when drawing a fantasy map and wondering, what lives in this mountain range? What is the Well of Ziurvan or the Mirror of Shalasthara?
But something is missing in my RPG experience, and I'm not exactly sure what. What is nostalgia in relation to the RPG experience? Is it missing a lost childhood? Like memories of a mythological Golden Age, could it be yearning for something that probably never was but perhaps could be? Is nostalgia looking for something in the past that can only come out in the future or, more truly, in the present?
There is no clear place to end this post and I realize that in writing it, I stepped beyond the bounds of my initial intentions. Feel free to participate as you wish, although I would still like to read about peoples' gamer bios and "Nostalgiathons." Have at it, fellow greybeards ;-).
).What is the point of this thread? A full-out Nostalgiathon, or Nostalgiaganza, if you prefer. Let's reminisce about what we miss, whether it is an old gaming group or campaign we played in, an era of gaming, a game or game company, a product line, etc - anything you want, miss, and would love to see back but probably never will. I have heard some call the OSR a nostalgia movement and others get offended by that, but this is a place where nostalgia is welcome and encouraged - let your nostalgic heart delight in bygone ages!
A couple guidelines. I'd love for everyone to include their age or year of birth, and the year you first started gaming, with a brief bio of your gaming career (maybe two or three paragraphs, but try not to over-induldge!). I'm not asking your age to impose some kind of age requirement - you can be 18 and feel nostalgic for discovering 3rd edition at age 9, although I imagine most folks drawn to this sort of thread are 30+ and started with AD&D. I just think it would be interesting to contextualize what you have to say, what you're nostalgic about.
I'll start.
Brief Gamer Bio
I was born in 1973 and started gaming in 1981 or '82. I was first introduced to D&D at a Tibetan New Year Festival (Losar) in Boulder, CO. A group of kids dragged me into a VW van, handed me an impenetrable piece of paper (my first character sheet) and I was mesmerized. Later that year, some friends of my older brother lost interest in D&D in favor of Pong-Era computers and gifted me with their AD&D hardcovers - the original Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Deities & Demigods (the original copies of which have long since fallen apart, but all have been replaced thanks to Ebay). I remember carrying the last book in particular around with me in my backpack, pouring over its pages with friends during recess. I was hooked.
I've had a bit of an on-and-off relationship with gaming over the last three decades, being quite into it for a few years and then putting gaming on the backburner, simmering but never fully gone (except for a year or two here and there). I played AD&D 1E for the first years, but in the way that 8-12 year olds often play: very loose, with +7 vorpal swords and quickly established demigodhood. It wasn't until my teenage years, when 2E came out, that I really played D&D "properly," running an ongoing campaign through most of high school.
During the 90s I stopped for a couple years, then started again in '93 or '94, playing some 2E and dabbling with a few other RPGs. I went on an extended hiatus in the mid-to-late 90s until I ran across a little website in 1999 called "Eric Noah's Unofficial 3rd Edition News" and found my way back. I played regularly during the early years of 3E and the OGL, then went on another hiatus in 2004-08, until 4E came out. Since then I've run and played in a relatively regular game, followed the industry, posted on message boards, etc.
Nostalgiaganza!
What am I nostalgic about? Well, I will adapt a semi-famous quote and say that "the Golden Age of roleplaying games is twelve." There is something magical about that time - when the imagination is in full bloom, one's capacity to think has developed significantly, but one has not yet truly discovered the opposite sex or any of the pleasures and perils of adolescence. I turned twelve in 1985, so that whole early first era of discovery in 1982 until early adolescence in 1987 or '88 was one of great imagination to me. Going to a gaming store was a sacred pilgrimage, browsing through the original DMG or Deities and Demigods like reading some arcane tome, and Gary Gygax was a wise sage, the holder of esoteric knowledge.
I am nostalgic about that era of RPGs, when you could buy Dragon Magazine in bookstores, when rules minutia didn't matter (at least to me), when the game and its aesthetics left much to the imagination. I am nostalgic for being able to run myself through the Random Dungeon Generator in the back of the DMG late into the wee hours of the morning and really enjoy it. I am nostalgic for drawing maps of fantasy worlds, not knowing what existed within a mountain vale or forest, and not fretting about the coastline being perfect. I am nostalgic about sketching fantasy characters, making up monsters and magic items. I am even nostalgic for the early days of EN World, when it was still a preview site for 3E, before 3E came out, and the excitement at reading each new tidbit that Eric Noah provided. Did I say that I miss Dragon Magazine?
I still do a lot of this stuff. Some of it I don't, though. I rarely go to game stores, both because they are few and far between these days, but also because they just don't inspire much anymore. I get more pleasure browsing stores on the internet. More than anything, I'm nostalgic for having the time and carefree nature of a child to be able to pour hours into gaming. With a family and career, I just can't allocate hours to playing with the Random Dungeon Generator (and probably wouldn't enjoy it as much if I tried). Perhaps more than anything, I'm nostalgic for an ongoing, immersive campaign that isn't challenged by the realities of adult life, scheduling, etc.
I still crave engagement with fantasy worlds, the free play of the imagination as someone once described the essence of RPGs. My creative focus, when I have the time, is on my writing, but I still dabble in campaign and game design. I still get the same imaginative tingle when drawing a fantasy map and wondering, what lives in this mountain range? What is the Well of Ziurvan or the Mirror of Shalasthara?
But something is missing in my RPG experience, and I'm not exactly sure what. What is nostalgia in relation to the RPG experience? Is it missing a lost childhood? Like memories of a mythological Golden Age, could it be yearning for something that probably never was but perhaps could be? Is nostalgia looking for something in the past that can only come out in the future or, more truly, in the present?
There is no clear place to end this post and I realize that in writing it, I stepped beyond the bounds of my initial intentions. Feel free to participate as you wish, although I would still like to read about peoples' gamer bios and "Nostalgiathons." Have at it, fellow greybeards ;-).
I often get a kick of the premises of your threads which seem to run counter to actual fact. They're sometimes very interesting threads, like this one, that begin with odd assumptions shored up by some sort of caveat regarding how it is, in your mind, an inarguable fact. It brightens my day. Thanks. 
