My Dungeons and Dragons Life

POSTED BY: OPPYH
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 18:29
VIEWED: 13088
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OPPYH

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 7:03 AM

My best friend in the whole world was Jim. He, and I started playing D&D when we were about 14, along with 2 other friends. We would play all the time. After school, and on Friday nights we would usually spend the night at Jim's house in his basement. His basement was darn near sound proof, so that meant we could be as loud as we wanted, battling Dragons or Beholders, and his mom wouldn't wake up. Perfect conditions for a D&D adventure. And to make it all the more cool, his mom usually got us Pizza, snacks, and soda. We had it made. Friday nights were the best. From around 10 p.m.- 5,or 6 a.m. Saturday mornings we were in the Fantasy realm.

It wasn't easy though, most people in my neighborhood , including my mom at one point thougt we worshipped Satan because the nightly news, and Churches throughout the U.S. said if your child plays D&D they will either a. kill themselves, or b.worship the Devil. I never understood that logic. That's like saying if you play a game of RISK, when you finish packing up the gameboard, you'll go out and try to conquer the world. At school, we were just labeled geeks, and I guess I can't argue that one, after all I used to ramble on to classmates about obtaining the Sword of Mumulus, or escaping the Kobold Dungeons in the Gemvir Forrest. The reward of playing D&D was more than worth the minor hassles we got. It was creative fun, and most importantly, it ws pure escapist entertainment.

My friends of that time are no more. People change. The last time I spoke to Jim was about 10 years ago. We went different directions, and lost touch. If I ever see him again, I'll be sure to let him know what a great friend, and Dungeon Master he was.

I'm not through playing Dungeons and Dragons yet. recently I bought back all the D&D books I once had on E-Bay. I have dice, Graph paper, and a friend who also grew up playing Dungeons, and Dragons, and wants to get back into it. We can round up a couple more people, and Presto! I'm 31 years old, I hope when I play again this Fall, I'll feel like Im 14.

So, any Browncoats out there who played D&D, or have any good stories about playing D&D?

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 12:26 PM

I've played D&D since I was in kindergarten. My older brother and I found a boxed set my dad was given as a gift but never used, and picked it out and started playing. I remember there were times when I was in kindergarten and I only went to school half days, but my brother went to school whole days, waiting for him to come home so we could play.

Later, in our school we had 'reading buddy' programs, where an older student teams up with a younger student and reads with them in class. Because we were brothers, my brother was usually teamed up with me - and we read D&D Manuals in class. When the teachers realized this, there was some consternation, but they were more surprised that we could both read at that level.

Played through most of my youth (I remember being annoyed when the game books described the game as being for ages 10 and up, because I was younger), in my teen years got with some of my friends to play during lunch hours at their place (which was near school).

Since then, I've played on and off, though do most of my RPGing online and not in D&D type settings.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
This week: My spoiler-free Serenity review

DAIKATH

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 1:22 PM

Me? Personally I never heard of it, other then it was for geeks. Ive been born in the 80s and in europe so I guess I missed out on a lot on this stuff.

Ive only began to grow interest in it when there was a special Serenity RPG announced. Although I haven't actually played a session yet I do know what it all is about now.

This might not be the most interesting story for most poeple here to read. But I'm really looking forward to this one.

Ive come to realise it is just the same kind of roleplaying we all had a blast doing as kids, acting out our fantasys. Only this time without the 'Bang! I shot you!' 'No you missed!' 'I didnt miss!' part :). And I was the one who always wanted to play that as a kid when the others refused a whole lot .

Maybe if I get enough poeple together and we have the time, money and place for it we can get to recreate the dining room of Serenity to play it in. Think of the immersion for that one . I wouldt want to build it if it had no use, nor do it alone. But it would still be very cool.

JADEHAND

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 2:17 PM

I still play. I had a few encounters with the game before college, but mostly got into it there. Friday nights sci-fi fantasy guild. met some good people there and kinda split off from the guild to do our own thing. Tried several systems but mostly stuck with 2nd ed. After college I have remained friends with most of these guys though or local group switched to Rifts (also a lot of fun). currently I drive about 2.5 hours every third week or so for a current 3.5 ed game run by one of those college friends. In game we're in and around Candle Keep on the Sword Coast if that means anything.
So, If you're anywhere near NC....

Visit WWW.Marillion.Com for a better way to live
Visit www.TheInside.org and see Tim Minear's show Weds. 9:00pm EST.....ah FUX nevermind.

RABIT

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 4:03 PM

Started DMing in 1980 at the age of 10 - I've never really played a lot, just been DM, or GM in other RPGs. In 1984, I moved to a _small_ town in Washington called Pe Ell, and brought the game with me, introducing a bunch of guys to it. We'd play regularly at lunch and after school. In 1985, the high school succumbed to pressure from the local religious groups and "outlawed" D&D from the school. I tried to explain to the principal (a very good guy, I might add) about how ridiculous it was, but there wasn't much he could do.

So I brought in Star Frontiers, a Sci-Fi game from TSR that actually says "From the producers of D&D" on the front cover...

Eventually the principal realized how silly it was and gave up the rule, allowing us to play again.

In Boy Scouts, I was told we couldn't play because it was "immoral". So we just played without dice or books or anything - the players would make up characters in their heads, I'd make up the situation, and we'd go from there, no dice, no rules, just fun stories. My first experience with dice-less gaming, really, and I didn't even know it...

I got to college and played a lot. Left college and kept playing. I have two current campaigns I'm running, one that started in 1998 and another that started in Feb; both are set in the same world I started in high school and played through college.

I'm using the 2nd edition rules, primarily because I'm tired of spending money every time they decide to update the rules. I have also grown up a lot in my style of play, and am not as interested in the power gaming style of D&D. I'm currently working on creating my own rules specifically for playing in my game world.

I've GM'd and played a lot of other RPGs over the years, too: Star Frontiers, Traveler, Twilight:2000, Shadowrun, Amber, Everway (well, a variant, anyway), Bunnies & Burrows, etc.

I love my games...

And I'm really looking forward to checking out the Serenity RPG!

Rabit

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 4:11 PM

I started roleplaying in the second year of university and was hooked from the start. We've had a year long D&D campaign which a friend ran, a year long firefly campaign which I ran (based on my own d20 system) and another short lived D&D campaign that I'm sure we'll tie up eventually.

I'm actually getting a little fed up of D&D at the moment, 3 or 4 times a week people in my house will just pick up a book and start reading through and discussing stats for things they've found. While I really enjoy roleplay, discussing numbers is not my idea of fun and unfortunatly it's really turning me off the system.

Am currently working on a campaign set in the 1920s about a prison break, so hopefully it'll get me out of the roleplay slump!

RAYSTON

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 4:36 PM

I have been Roleplaying since 12, started with the basic boxed set (the red one) played 1st edition advanced D&D for a while. Went on to palladium robotech and Rifts, from there have played many different types including shadowrun, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Vampire, Witchcraft, Armageddon, etc. etc.

If your interested in talking to other gamers theres quite a few online communities. I would start with rpg.net

Quote:
Originally posted by chronicthehedgehog:

I'm actually getting a little fed up of D&D at the moment, 3 or 4 times a week people in my house will just pick up a book and start reading through and discussing stats for things they've found. While I really enjoy roleplay, discussing numbers is not my idea of fun and unfortunatly it's really turning me off the system.

Here here, I love Roleplaying, but sick to death of my Number 12 beats your number 10 and takes your 52 gold type of games. Otherwise known as "I kill the orc and take his stuff".

I am currently in a Game of Thrones Face to Face game, using WFRP Rules. Will be starting a series of oneshots using All Flesh Must be Eaten, and Maybe Witchcraft by Eden Studios, then after that maybe some Call of Cthulhu 1920's style.

Also waiting on a couple of Play By Posts to start, An Angel game (also by Eden Studios, god I love those guys) where we all play high powered "negotiable morales" types who were wronged by Wolfram and Hart. and another call of cthulhu game, using the Mountains of Madness Published adventure.

Love roleplaying, have come to hate dungeon crawling. Dont get me wrong, I dont begrudge anyone else there good time. If your havin fun? then go for it.

Quote:
Originally posted by chronicthehedgehog:

Am currently working on a campaign set in the 1920s about a prison break, so hopefully it'll get me out of the roleplay slump!

LETOV

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 5:11 PM

I started playing quite young with my older brother and sometimes his friends. By the summer of my 11th year I was still playing D&D but I also started playing some other systems. I went to an 8 week long summer camp at Interlochen in Michigan. While technically a fine-arts camp, if you'd peeked into any of the cabins for the Junior or Intermediate boys divisions you'd have probably thought it was a role-playing camp. It was the primary activity day in and day out for 8 weeks two summers in a row. By the end of the 2nd summer I was playing as much of the Marvel Comics RPG as anything.
Even into high school I loved playing the games with my brother and friends. By high school I'd lost interest in D&D and played mostly Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Champions, Vampire... heck, it would take a while to list every system we tried at one point or another ... might try at some point for the heck of it.

Throughout all of it, I mostly only played with my brother, mostly him running games and me playing. I think to us in the end the best part of it all was just creating the story. Heck, sometimes we'd just sit down, create characters, design a story together like we were writing a module for publishing and then go on to the next one.

All that finally pretty much came to an end when he started college. He's only 2 1/2 years older than me so we were quite close but that was basically the end of serious RP'ing for me. Although, I was addicted to Evercrack for a couple years. These days I pretty much only find time for computer or console RPG's (I can't believe I'm probably going to buy an XBox 360 just to get the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion). With my two small daughters I can't really commit to on-line games anymore (its amazing how peeved people get when you have to go AFK to take care of a diaper or screaming child) and I don't really have friends playing P&P games anymore, but I do sometimes think back fondly to those days.

I'm still toying with the idea of buying the Serenity RPG even though the chance of actually playing it is near nil. I'll admit that, while I swear it had nothing to do with power-gaming or anything like that, I probably drew more enjoyment from RPG's in simply sitting down and reading all the source material, creating characters, and designing games than I ever did from actual playing.

- Leto_V

"Well, my days of not taking you
seriously are certainly coming to
a middle." - Mal

REAVERMADNESS

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 5:35 PM

Started playing back in the 80s. Had a hard time though finding very many people who wanted to play (I lived/live in a small town) I really liked it though. Sometimes a group of us would get togther and head out into the woods near our houses and build a camp fire and play late into the night.

I loved DMing, but I think I loved playing even more. That was fun.

Later I also got to play a little with Rifts. That was a very cool game too.

Years later I happend to be going to a friends house and the person next door was having a yard sale. I glanced over there and they had some comics and some board games... and there sat the first run of the "Red Box" (Basic) and "Blue Box" (Expert) sets. The Red Box had been opened, but the dice (and crayon) never were. The books looked like they had never been opened. The Blue Box was (and is) still in its plastic wrap. So I looked about as bored as I could muster and asked "How much?" They looked at them for a second and said $5. I calmly took out my wallet and handed then $10 for the both of them... and as I was starting to walk away with my new found treasure, they stopped me... and handed me $5 back in change! They sit almost as trophies on a self in my computer room.

When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa. Not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car he was driving.

OPPYH

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 6:01 PM

Excellent. your stories are great. Thank you Gary Gygax. I can't wait to start playing again. I always wanted to get into Ravenloft, always seemed a bit too creepy when I was younger, but now I'm ready explore some castles of the undead.

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