Your gaming experience...

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've been playing since summer camp in 1979. I started with 1E, although back then, people treated BD&D elements as interchangable, so arguably, I also played both versions of BD&D available in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well.

I taught my brother how to play after arriving summer camp and we taught our friends when we moved to a new town. For the next few years, we played D&D and other games that seemed interesting, including Villains & Vigilantes, Traveller, Runequest, Top Secret and Toon.

Later, in college, I picked up 2E and the first wave of White Wolf Storyteller games: Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Wraith, Hunter and Changeling. To varying degrees, I tried those with college and post-collegiate friends.

I ran a 2E campaign set in Mystara's Five Shires just in time for 3E to come out and force a conversion. Everyone involved had jobs and kids, though, so that campaign petered out, although I still count the adventure as a success.

A few years ago, I started up a new 3E campaign for a mix of veteran players and newbies, using the world of Ptolus and intentionally old school elements to introduce the newbies to elements of classic D&D, as filtered through my preference. (No orcs have shown up in the campaign, for instance, but kobolds are the primary menace to their home and the only goblins they've seen ride wolves.)

Five years later, as that campaign winds to a close, we're trying different games as a palette-cleanser and because other games offer other experiences. I'm running a new Mongoose Traveller game, a Castles & Crusades game as a trial run for converting the main 3E campaign and I'll be starting up a World of Darkness/Hunter the Vigil game later this summer.

 

[jbear]

1. Started playing RPGs in 1990.

2 & 3. My first RPG was one I invented after having played Hero Quest board game. It was inspired by Hero Quest and Pick a Path books like Lone Wolf. I had been forbidden to play D&D and this was my compromise to avoid the guilt.

My first official game system was AD&D 2e: A group of kids started a lunch time game. They let me drop in for a couple of weeks. The guilt was too much and so I bailed.

Inspired by what I had learnt playing AD&D I made my second attempt at a RPG at the age of 13. It was pretty much AD&D but changed the whole magic system and deity system to one my parent burdened conscious could safely deal with.

A year later my friend got all the AD&D 2e books. It was too much. I had to play!
It only lasted a year before I moved away.

I didn't play again til I was 22. I wanted to teach the kids I began travelling and living in a circus with D&D. I'm not sure what we played. Basically what I could remember of D&D off the top of my head.

I settled down after many years of vagabond wandering and started to have a steady income (age 26). I saw the shiney 3.5 books in the bookstore. I had to have them. I got the wife and all the inlaws organised into a game. We began playing again.

4e came out. It sounded cool. I wanted to give it a go, so I did. Me and my players prefered it, me mostly because it was more rules light, and easier to run without having to stop the game and check things. My players, because they felt more heroic at level 1 ... we had had a recent incident in a new game of 3.5 that I had started with friends (their first RPG experience) where they had really struggled in a battle against diseased rats, so understandable. Also, reading the DMG and the words 'say Yes' was like taking a burden off my back, that I have found so freeing... my DM style took a 180 degree turn, I think for the better.

I have just had my first Pathfinder character approved here on the boards (Living Pathfinder Group), we are still RPing in the tavern hoping to have a martial character join us in a pbp game. I was looking for a Pbp game, which doesn't seem to be an easy thing to get into from what I could tell, at least. But this living world concept is great, I'm loving it. So I guess I'll get to try out the system pretty soon, but it looks pretty cool so far.

 

[Storminator]

I started with the Fantasy Trip precursors Melee and Wizard in the 70s. After a bit we went to a bash up of various 1e and B and X rules. We played a ton of games back in grade school - traveller, top secret, boot hill, gamma world, ones we made up, TFT, runequest, T&T - I can't remember all of them.

In the last 10 years I've done campaigns of 3e, 4e, M&M & Savage Worlds. A bunch more games as one-shots - Feng Shui, CoC, some time travel game, Hollow World, paranoia, some others.

I'll play most anything for a 1 shot. I don't really have time for the 2 campaigns I'm in - a 4e and a M&M - and they only meet once a month. I'd love to have more time to game, but such is life.

PS

 

[Goonalan]

1. How long have you been playing RPGs?

2. What systems, editions, and different campaigns did you play in?

3. What made you switch from one to another?

Answers

1. Been gaming for thirty years as of Januray just gone.

2. 1st game D&D Red Box- various Homebrew campaigns and one-off Monty Haul style dungeons.

Carried on with D&D for about 3 years as a player.

Then switched to DMing (probably played as a 'player' in less than half-a-dozen games since then)

DMed every edition of D&D as and when the next iteration came out-
various campiagns including Homebrew, Greyhawk (for nearly two decades), Dark Sun, Eberron, Forgotten Realms and now WOTC Nentir Vale.

Played in one game of MERP, DM'ed several games of Paranoia, lots of WFRP (various editions) and... that's it.

Total games played (made up numbers) would be something like-
MERP = 1
Paranoia = 5
WFRP = 15
D&D = 1000s

3. I didn't switch... I'm still here.

Cheers Goonalan

 

[Jacob Marley]

1. How long have you been playing RPGs?

Since 1991.

2. What systems, editions, and different campaigns did you play in?

1st Edition AD&D, 3.5 Edition D&D, 4th Edition D&D; Pathfinder; 2nd Edition M&M; Star Wars SAGA.

3. What made you switch from one to another?

A friend's older brother taught us 1st Edition AD&D back in 1991 and we played weekly until we all left for college in 1996/97. Since then we may get together a handful of times a year to continue the campaign.

In 2004 another friend of mine found out I played D&D and invited me into his 3.5 campaign. We have been playing together ever since.

I have played 4th Edition, Pathfinder, M&M, and SAGA at various points over the past few years at conventions and in-store pick-up games.

 

[the Jester]

1. How long have you been playing RPGs?

2. What systems, editions, and different campaigns did you play in?

3. What made you switch from one to another?

1. Started in 1980.
2. I have played in or run:

• 1e AD&D
• Basic/Expert D&D
• Arduin Grimoire/D&D hybrid (weren't they all back then?)
• Gamma World
• Star Frontiers
• Top Secret
• MagicWorld
• SuperWorld
• FutureWorld
• Stormbringer
• Paranoia 1e
• Twilight 2000
• Robotech
• Star Wars d6
• Traveller 2300
• Marvel Superheroes
• Gamma World 3e
• 2e AD&D
• Paranoia 2e
• Palladium Fantasy RPG
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Homebrewed Crossroads system
• Vampire 1e
• TORG
• Amber Diceless Roleplaying
• Werewolf 1e
• Warhammer Fantasy 1e
• Paranoia XP
• Wraith 1e
• Mage 1e
• Mage 2e
• D&D 3e
• Homebrewed D&D "3.Matt" version
• Warhammer Fantasy 2e
• Call of Cthulhu
• D&D 4e
• Homebrewed D&D Jazz system v. 0.1
• Homebrewed D&D Jazz system v. 0.22
• Homebrewed D&D Jazz system v. 0.23

As near as I can reconstruct it, that's the rough order I played them.

3. Nothing "made me" switch. I've usually been playing and/or running at least two games at a time for decades. Often different systems, sometimes the same, usually with lots of overlap between groups. I have preferences but like to try new things- heck, I still have a couple systems on my shelf I haven't ever played or run that I'd like to try (Blue Rose, Iron Heroes, etc)! Hopefully I'll get to them one of these days....

 

[The Shaman]

1. How long have you been playing RPGs?

From 1977 to 1989, then from 2002 to the present.

2. What systems, editions, and different campaigns did you play in?

I started with blue box basic D&D then moved to 1e AD&D as it was released. I played 3e D&D for a little while, and played a little OD&D and red box at different times over the years.

As far as fantasy games go, I also played The Fantasy Trip and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay a little bit.

Medieval fantasy was never my first interest as a gamer, however. Early on I picked up Metamorphosis Alpha, Boot Hill and Bunnies an Burrows, followed by Traveller and Top Secret. In the Eighties I added Flashing Blades, Chill, Marvel Super Heroes, and Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes.

After taking a thirteen year hiatus from gaming, I returned to gaming with 3e D&D but soon moved on to d20 Modern and Mutants and Masterminds. I played a little Call of Cthulhu and Grim Tales.

Over the year I've owned a number of games which I never played or tried as one-shots: Gangbusters, Star Frontiers, Burning Empires, Savage Worlds, Mythic Russia, Swashbuckler, Maelstrom, and En Garde! all come to mind, but I know there are others I'm forgetting.

About five or six years ago, I returned to my early interests in gaming: Traveller, Top Secret, Flashing Blades, and Boot Hill.

3. What made you switch from one to another?

Sometimes it's simply trying what other gamers are playing at the moment. Sometimes it's seeing if another game does something I like better than the game I'm running right now.

Mostly it's that my tastes run to genres other than fantasy roleplaying.

 

[Bluenose]

1. How long have you been playing RPGs?

Since 1976

2. What systems, editions, and different campaigns did you play in?

I honestly couldn't tell you them all. Long-term campaign play with the following rules sets:

All versions of D&D (BECM was what I've GMed most);
All versions of Traveller except GURPS Traveller (I've played sessions of GT, but not often: and yes, this does mean I own and played Traveller 4e);
Runequest 2 and3, Mongoose Runequest 2 (single sessions of MRQ 1);
Pendragon, 1e, 2e, 4e, 5e (never 3e, for some reason);
Legend of the Five Rings, 2e and recently 4e;
Traveller 2300;
Heroquest 1e and 2e;
Dragon Warriors;
Legends of Anglerre.

Single sessions or a few sessions of;
Paranoia, Tunnels and Trolls, James Bond RPG, Spycraft, Mongoose Conan 2e, Starblazer Adventures, Macho Women with Guns, Qin, WFRP 2e and 3e, Call of Cthulhu, PDQ Questors, Bushido, 7th Sea, Star Trek, Buffy/Angel, Firefly RPG, Bunnies and Burrows, Lejendary Adventures, Chivalry and Sorcery, and others that I don't remember off hand.

3. What made you switch from one to another?

Different games are good at different things. Once I know what I want to run or play I'll select a rules set based on that. No doubt I could make a game of King Arthur's Knights work with most versions of D&D, but I see no reason to when Pendragon does it better.

 

[OnlineDM]

1. I had a brief time of trying to play around 2002, but really started at the beginning of 2010.

2. I played a little bit of D&D 3.0 in 2002, then mostly D&D4e for the past year and change. However, I also got the chance to try out GURPS, Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds at a recent convention.

3. Well, I haven't really switched from D&D4e (my first ongoing game system), but I wanted to try out the other systems just for the sake of learning something new. This is something I love about conventions - the chance to try out a totally new gaming system without having to really learn all of the rules beforehand, find a group, find someone to run the game, etc. I just enjoy the novelty of trying different systems.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1. How long have you been playing RPGs?

Since 1977.

2. What systems, editions, and different campaigns did you play in?

My list would really be too long, and I know I've forgotten some, so here's a list of highlights (and lowlights):
All editions of D&D
At least one edition of 3.X RPGs: Midnight, True20, Arcana Unearthed/Evolved, Pathfinder
All editions of Champions/HERO
All editions of Traveller
All editions of Paranoia
2 editions of RIFTS, plus at least one each of these other Palladium RPGs: Fantasy, Heroes, Inc., Robotech, Beyond the Supernatural (and more)
2 editions of M&M
2 editions of GURPS
2 editions of Deadlands
2 editions of Shadowrun
One or more editions of each of the WoD games
Prime Directive
Space: 1889
Call of Cthulhu
Stormbringer
Godlike
Brave New World
Underground
Aberrant
Fading Suns
Dragonstar
Dragonmech
MechWarrior
Mekton
Silver Age Sentinels (Tri-Stat)
The Fantasy Trip: In the Labyrinth
Universe (SPI)
Everway
Primal Order
Playtest of ACE (unpublished)

3. What made you switch from one to another?

Partly to try new things- my first three RPG experiences were, in order, AD&D, Original Traveller, and Champions.

But it was also about playing what my friends were interested in playing. I'd say 75% of the games I tried out (but for my first 3 and the 3.X games) were tried because someone said "I'd like to try _______ out."

And I'd go along with that.

To be honest, I think that broad experience made me a better player AND DM. I learned different genre conventions, for instance. More importantly, I found how to find fun in any system.

Some games I only played a few sessions of, usually because the GM or others had an issue. I do not recall ever saying "Play that if you like, but I'm out." (Except Champions Fuzion edition.)

Others, though, are perennial faves. I'll play almost any version of HERO, Traveller or D&D without hesitation- and I'm not a huge fan of 4Ed, either- because I have a certain feel I get playing those games.*



* 4Ed does NOT give me the same experience as previous editions, but it's still an OK game.