TBT: The Games That Changed You


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The magenta Moldvay boxed set. Hooked me hard into D&D in ’82 and almost certainly changed the course of my life.

Omar Sharif’s 2 5 8. I barely remember how to play this board game, but, as a kid, I was obsessed with its tactical scoring. My gateway into chess, go, etc.

They’ve Invaded Pleasantville and Vampyre. Two TSR mini-games that dominated an entire summer for my sister and me. We took them everywhere with us!

Heroclix. Don’t worry. I’ve recovered from the addiction.

Fate Accelerated. Adjectives for stats? A lite version of a great rpg but uniquely super fun? FAE gave me ways to invite so many more people to the hobby.

Ticket to Ride. All games claiming to be competitive/fun for the whole family failed until we got this one. Played several iterations, and they all succeeded.
 

Probably RuneQuest and Champions; they both taught me what I wasn't getting out of D&D, and to a large extent what I was looking for.

Neither of them are games I play anymore, but they were the entry to what I do, and most of what has changed my views since are, to my view, iterations on one theme or the other.
 

The Window. It was the first RPG I read with a laser-like focus on narrative storytelling and mechanics that were designed to fade into the background. Unfortunately, the foreword was very preachy and a lot of people I know didn't get any further than that. It was also one of the first game systems to use step dice (it came out years before Savage Worlds, who many gamers bestow that honor upon) and usage dice (recently re-popularized by The Black Hack).
 

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