Believe it or not, I've been playing role playing games (of the tabletop variety) for almost as long as I've been alive. In my humble beginnings, I was but a 4 year old child, playing Dungeons & Dragons with my older brother. For a few years, I would playtest his adventures before he went over to his friend's house for game night. I was so enthralled with the game, I just wanted to play more. I even remember religiously watching the D&D Saturday morning cartoon on CBS (which I own on DVD). It was awesome.
After a while, my brother stopped playing and I was forced into a hiatus, since I couldn't afford any of the books. When he left behind all of his old books, I took them and read them often. I didn't really have anyone who wanted to play back then, so I just collected the stuff. I bought my first dice in 1989 (and still have the original dice bag from then) and bought miniatures at the flea market with the money I got from lawn mowing.
By the time that 2nd Edition AD&D came out, TSR was putting out a lot of boxed adventure games to get new people into the hobby. I bought the Dragon Quest board game, which kicked ass because it came with actual metal miniatures. About this time, I got my younger brother and his friend into D&D. So, I ran adventures for them. It was my first taste of gamemastering (I was about 13 at the time).
When I got into high school, my family had moved and I met a bunch of guys who were really into RPGs. We played AD&D, but they also introduced me to other games. That's when I got caught up in White Wolf's World of Darkness games, espec
ially
Werewolf: the Apocalypse, at first. We'd be up until 2 am playing all sorts of shit. Eventually, I got wise to White Wolf's
Mage: the Ascension. That game blew my fucking mind. Before Mage, I thought AD&D did a shitty job with wizards and mages. I always thought that only being able to use a couple of spells each day and then forgetting how to cast them until you memorize them again was retarded. It made no fucking sense. So, when I first came across Mage, I thought it as going to be the same stupid bullshit. Boy, was I wrong. Reading that book completely coincided with my thirst for enlightenment and was just what the doctor ordered.
So, I spent the next few years of my life (mostly in college) playing White Wolf. I was also working in a game store at the time, which exposed me to a lot of games. I discovered other games like Rifts, Legend of the Five Rings, and (...ugh) GURPS.
Then, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition came out with the open gaming license and everything went crazygonuts. Everyone and their grandmother was making content for 3rd Ed. And while a lot of it was crap, I think it helped bring some people back into RPGs. Of course, I picked it back up and started playing with my co-workers
Then D&D 3.5 came out and told me that those hundreds of dollars I spent on 3rd Ed. stuff was wasted and that I could go suck a dick. Needless to say, I gave up on D&D. I also got burned out on White Wolf, since they pretty much fucked up the World of Darkness storyline when their 3rd Edition line came out. At that point, I put RPGs on the backburners for a few years. I ran a couple of Mage games and played Big Eyes, Small Mouth (the Anime RPG), but, by then, I was sick of it. Every system I played had inherent flaws that chafed me in one way or another. I couldn't find a system that I could get behind anymore.
Then, about a year ago, my cousin-in-law introduced me to a game called Savage Worlds. He said it was quick, easy, and didn't get bogged down in rules and numbers so people could have fun with it. After reading the rulebook (which costs all of $10), I found a new passion for RPGs. Savage Worlds fucking rules. It's a universal system that keeps things moving quickly. It's a blast to play and a breeze to gamemaster. I've already ran a couple of sessions in the Rippers campaign setting (which, just like most of the settings for the system, is really good). There's even third party products for the system, which means a great selection of campaign settings to run. I cannot recommend this game system enough. If you've never played it before, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Anyway, I just wanted to show off my dork cred (and say how friggin' sweet Savage Worlds is). Until next time...
Believe it or not, I've been playing role playing games (of the tabletop variety) for almost as long as I've been alive. In my humble beginnings, I was but a 4 year old child, playing Dungeons & Dragons with my older brother. For a few years, I would playtest his adventures before he went over to his friend's house for game night. I was so enthralled with the game, I just wanted to play more. I even remember religiously watching the D&D Saturday morning cartoon on CBS (which I own on DVD). It was awesome.
After a while, my brother stopped playing and I was forced into a hiatus, since I couldn't afford any of the books. When he left behind all of his old books, I took them and read them often. I didn't really have anyone who wanted to play back then, so I just collected the stuff. I bought my first dice in 1989 (and still have the original dice bag from then) and bought miniatures at the flea market with the money I got from lawn mowing.
By the time that 2nd Edition AD&D came out, TSR was putting out a lot of boxed adventure games to get new people into the hobby. I bought the Dragon Quest board game, which kicked ass because it came with actual metal miniatures. About this time, I got my younger brother and his friend into D&D. So, I ran adventures for them. It was my first taste of gamemastering (I was about 13 at the time).
When I got into high school, my family had moved and I met a bunch of guys who were really into RPGs. We played AD&D, but they also introduced me to other games. That's when I got caught up in White Wolf's World of Darkness games, espec
ially Werewolf: the Apocalypse, at first. We'd be up until 2 am playing all sorts of shit. Eventually, I got wise to White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension. That game blew my fucking mind. Before Mage, I thought AD&D did a shitty job with wizards and mages. I always thought that only being able to use a couple of spells each day and then forgetting how to cast them until you memorize them again was retarded. It made no fucking sense. So, when I first came across Mage, I thought it as going to be the same stupid bullshit. Boy, was I wrong. Reading that book completely coincided with my thirst for enlightenment and was just what the doctor ordered.
So, I spent the next few years of my life (mostly in college) playing White Wolf. I was also working in a game store at the time, which exposed me to a lot of games. I discovered other games like Rifts, Legend of the Five Rings, and (...ugh) GURPS.
Then, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition came out with the open gaming license and everything went crazygonuts. Everyone and their grandmother was making content for 3rd Ed. And while a lot of it was crap, I think it helped bring some people back into RPGs. Of course, I picked it back up and started playing with my co-workers
Then D&D 3.5 came out and told me that those hundreds of dollars I spent on 3rd Ed. stuff was wasted and that I could go suck a dick. Needless to say, I gave up on D&D. I also got burned out on White Wolf, since they pretty much fucked up the World of Darkness storyline when their 3rd Edition line came out. At that point, I put RPGs on the backburners for a few years. I ran a couple of Mage games and played Big Eyes, Small Mouth (the Anime RPG), but, by then, I was sick of it. Every system I played had inherent flaws that chafed me in one way or another. I couldn't find a system that I could get behind anymore.
Then, about a year ago, my cousin-in-law introduced me to a game called Savage Worlds. He said it was quick, easy, and didn't get bogged down in rules and numbers so people could have fun with it. After reading the rulebook (which costs all of $10), I found a new passion for RPGs. Savage Worlds fucking rules. It's a universal system that keeps things moving quickly. It's a blast to play and a breeze to gamemaster. I've already ran a couple of sessions in the Rippers campaign setting (which, just like most of the settings for the system, is really good). There's even third party products for the system, which means a great selection of campaign settings to run. I cannot recommend this game system enough. If you've never played it before, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Anyway, I just wanted to show off my dork cred (and say how friggin' sweet Savage Worlds is). Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment