Oh and why not, I'll join the bandwagon and write my own bio. On with the wall of text!

I'm 35, and my first fantasy RPG experience was actually a LARP, somewhere in the late 80s or early 90s. It took inspiration form the Warhammer fantasy setting, although I wouldn't know at that time.My character was named Glorfindel, which I've been using as an avatar whenever I can.

We started playing tabletop RPGs after that summer. Amusingly enough, it was described to me as being "a bit like live-action roleplaying, except for the live action part...". My first character was a monk in a Tolkien-inspired Rolemaster game set in Waterdeep full of Warhammer elements (such as beastmen and chaos warriors) and no real experienced DM. These were the days of blissful ignorance and discoveries, without anyone to tell us we were doing it wrong. It didn't help that our English was that of elementary students learning English as a second language (we were all francophones from Quebec).

We quickly migrated towards AD&D, this time with a more experienced DM and translated books (2e AD&D, French version, freshly out of the presses). With a good guide to tell us the rules and a more focused setting, we then proceed to fine-tune our roleplay (a concept we knew from LARPing). Good memories from there too.

When our DM left us for college, I became the defacto DM of our group. Our golden years where toward the end of high school and cegep* where we all had cars (country life oblige) and lots of time on our hands. Still, we mainly played AD&D and Star Wars (and the occasional Risk or Axis and Allies game). We continue LARPing for that period as well.

Then on to university, different town, new friends, and the Gaming Club! These were the years were AD&D was scorned and WoD (especially Vampire; the mascarade) was king. I rediscovered Warhammer Fantasy there as well. I had a short but influential game of Dead Lands which I remembered fondly, and my own adapted Necromunda RPG which I adapted from the Games Workshop's skirmish game using Warhammer fantasy Roleplay rules. This one was supposed to be a "one-shot" experiment and lasted for over a year and was a highlight in my "clubard" years.

After that, we played a long lasting AD&D game with a few friends that tarried in our college town after university. This game was somewhat of a round-robin game except for one player who had the "central role", if there ever was one. Some of my best memories, both as a player and a DM, belong to that game. My favourite character does, at any case.

I then started another D&D game (this time giving 3E a try) when that group finally broke apart, this time with a 13 years old kid as my only player, which reminded me of my own debut as a 13-ish years old player. My sister in law eventually join the game, which lasted about 5 years. I think I reach "maturity" as a DM in terms of style and game-mastery during those years, and that is the game I'm most proud of.

Now I'm in some kind of hiatus, itching to play but without being able to commit due to work and family life. My time will come, I guess. I ran a TOR demo with Words of the Wise last spring, which when terribly wrong (in terms of following the adventure) but ended-up a terrific game altogether and a positive road-test for TOR. I remain hungry for more...

glorfindel

*College d'Enseignement General Et Professionel. In the province of Quebec, education system has 6 years of elementary school, 5 years of high school, 2 years of cegep and 3 years of university in order to graduate with a bachelor degree. You can choose a professional degree in cegep instead of moving on to university (for accounting and technician positions etc) which take 3 years instead.

Hello everybody! I'm new around. I haven't found a thread for introducing myself properly but this seems the next best thing, so here I am. Since I'm from Spain you may find some weird stuff among my (few) posts (like misspelling, poor grammar, mixing american and english expresions, literal translations from spanish and so on) but I'll do my best to be legible (Wordreference is your friend, trust Wordreference XD).

As for the (initial) questions of this thread I'm 32 and I have been playing since I was 14. My favorite games (not necesarily in that order) are:

Blue Planet: I'm really surprised at finding only one mention to this game in the whole thread (maybe I have missed others). I was fascinated both by the campaign world and the rules. My favorite RPG by far.

Dark Continent: When your players spend half of a game session climbing the Kilimanjaro and the other half defeating a whole army of Massais and at the end of the day they go home remembering the climbing better than the fight, you know that something really special has just happened.

Cyberpunk 2020: is becoming Vintage by the minute but I still love that 80's feeling and that universe of rebels "desperate but not hopeless" as Green Day put it

Faery's Tale: The rules are shorter than this post but I love the idea and it has worked surprisingly well among my group of players. I think "The best rol session ever", I have played it with this system.

Fading Suns: Both the rules and the artwork were sometimes annoying but I loved the concept and the universe described. I'm always looking forward to another travel among "the darkness between the stars".

Conan: A campaign world I love and a system that fixes some of the things that I like less from the D&D rules.

The One Ring: Love the way it keeps the essence of the Middle Earth, love the artwork and love the rules (shadow, travel and combat among others). My only complain is that I think the core rulebook falls more than short on the background part. One way or another the fact is that I wasn't so eager for new material for a RPG since the old times of Fading Suns.

31 here

Been playing since AD&D 2e Revised

Favorite games...

As a GM:

Mouse Guard
3:16
(Hopefully TOR)

As a Player (In no particular order)
L5R 1e
Star Wars Saga
Reign
Serenity
AD&D 2e
Mouse Guard

Add another to that list of forty-somethings. I'm 40... 40... wait, I gotta do the math. 47! 48 in a couple months. I've been rpging since '76, with White Box D&D, though the first game I owned was Avalon Hill's Panzer Blitz. That was probably '74 or '75. As for what my friends and I have done around the old gaming table, a few years ago I did a timeline, so without further ado.

Rough list of role playing games, what I've played, when I got it, etc...

The 1970s

• 1976 - D&D, the adventures of Mergatroid the Golden
• 1977 - Traveller, Empire of the Petal Throne, Metamorphosis Alpha, Melee
• 1978 - Wizard, Gamma World
• 1979? - Steve's Homebrew Fantasy "Ragnarok" campaign
• 1978 - Melee/Wizard "Death Test", FGU's Starships and Spacemen
• December 5, 1979 - Purchased Mercenary and High Guard

The 1980s

• 1980 - The Fantasy Trip "Death Test 2", DragonQuest campaign, The Morrow Project
• 1981 - The Fantasy Trip "Security Station" run by Steve
• 1981 - The Fantasy Trip "Tome of Tormagalin" campaign
• June 10, 1981 - Traveller Book 6 Scouts from Compleat Strategist
• July 10, 1981 - Deluxe Traveller arrives
• July 19, 1981 - Traveller "Free Traders versus Pirates" solo campaign
• 1982 - Steve's Call of Cthulhu "Shadows of Yog-Sothoth" campaign
• 1982 - FASA Star Trek campaign
• 1982 - The Fantasy Trip "Orb Quest" solo
• Fall 1982 - "The B's" Traveller campaign
• Spring 1983 - Marko's Powers and Perils campaign
• Fall 1983 - Winston's Call of Cthulhu game
• 1983 - James Bond 007 campaign
• Spring 1984 - "Doctor Drugs'" AD&D campaign
• July 1984 - Chaosium Ringworld "Dr. Haywood Pink" campaign
• September 27, 1985 - bought Man to Man
• October 1985 - Twilight: 2000, "The Big Game"
• December 24, 1985 - GURPS/Man to Man "Orcslayer" with character Olob
• March 22, 1986 - GURPS/Man to Man Fantasy
• April 1986 - Man to Man "Orcslayer" solo, "The Full Siege" game
• July 16, 1986 - bought GURPS boxed Basic Set at Compleat Strategist
• 198? - GURPS "Orcslayer"
• 1989 - 2300AD "The Very Long Shot" campaign

The 1990s

• October 13, 1990 - GURPS Fantasy "Tullum" campaign
• January 15, 1991 - Marko's GURPS Star War campaign
• December 6, 1992 - MegaTraveller "The Base of the Ancients" campaign
• November 10, 1993 - Findûr Feldarion created for Marko's AD&D2 campaign
• June 5, 1994 - AD&D2 campaign "Halls of Hamalin" (solo)
• July 7, 1994 - AD&D2 Undermountain campaign with Findûr Feldarion, et al
• July 9, 1995 to November 10, 1995 - Ravenloft AD&D2 "Oh My Aiken Gump" campaign
• Early 1996? - GURPS Dragons & Dungeons Undermountain
• August 23, 1996 - MegaTraveller then Traveller 4th Edition "Glory Years" campaign
• June 18, 1997 - Marko's Call of Cthulhu campaign
• January 1998 - AD&D2 Oriental Adventures "Dark Daoists" campaign
• April 1998 - GURPS 2300AD campaign
• September 4, 1998 - GURPS High Weirdness campaign begins with "Enter the Mothman"
• November 1998 - GURPS High Weirdness "The Fall of the House of Rush"
• January 22, 1999 - GURPS High Weirdness campaign "Miami Circle" adventure
• August 12, 1999 - AD&D2 "Return to Waterdeep" campaign

The 2000s

• November 2000 - Marko's D&D 3e "Sunless Citadel" campaign
• October 27, 2001 - D&D 3e "Into the Dragon's Lair" with Varan, Findûr, et al conversions
• September 2002 - D&D 3e "City of the Spider Queen" (lasted only a session or two)

And then the kids came along, the amount of pirate reenacting went up, and it seems my group didn't play any rpgs until...

• Sept 2006 - GURPS 4e Traveller Interstellar Wars "Dirty Rotten Low Down Space Traders A la Firefly" campaign that evolved into...
• October 3, 2006 - Serenity "Lucius Newberry" campaign that transformed into...
• July 2007 - GURPS 4e "Lucius Newberry" campaign
• June 2008 to October 2008 - D&D 4th edition
• February 22, 2009 to November 13, 2009 - Lisa's GURPS “Heroes FUBAR” campaign
• November 20, 2009 - Marko’s Savage Worlds game
• December 5, 2009 - GDW's Mission Arcturus for 2300AD using Mongoose's Traveller

The 2010s

• January 1, 2010 to May 6, 2010 - D&D 4e “Adventures on The LOST Island”
• July 2, 2010 to August 13, 2010 - GURPS Infinite Worlds “Space Venture” I-Cop Mission
• November 5, 2010 - the continuing adventures of GURPS Infinite Worlds I-Cops

The Unplayed Campaigns

• December 1995 – GURPS or Traveller Star Trek
• June 1996 – Traveller:TNE Star Trek
• July 28, 1996 – AD&D2 “A Mighty Fortress Against Darkness”
• December 1998 – GURPS Melee/Wizard/Death Test
• February 1999 – GURPS Space Astral Union aka Space:2299
• October 1999 – LUGTrek USS Constellation
• January 2000 – GURPS Space 1889
• July 2000 – GURPS Traveller Corsairs
• July 2000 – GURPS Weird Old West

And I see I need to update the list with the games we've played since 2010, such as AD&D, Mongoose 2300AD, more GURPS...

Ahh my first commercial rpg gig. I came across the original pen and ink drawings from Dark Continent just the other day, coincidentally enough.

I'm 42 and I've started playing in 1984. My first game was Das Schwarze Auge, then the german D&D (the red box).
I have played many games (Midgard, RuneQuest, AD&D, D&D, Star Wars, M&M, etc.), but currently I'm playing the following games and like them.

- DC Advetures
- Dragon Age
- TOR
- WFRP 2nd Ed. (!!!)

I hope, that I can start with a new campaign in 2013 and then I will use The Window.

And the greatest campaign I know of is The Enemy Within. I have played the campaign threetimes: with WFRP 1st Ed., with ED and then with WFRP 2nd Ed.. Only Empire in Flames is a disappointment, but there is a better last adventure called Empire at War, but it's unofficial, but written by one of the creator of the campaign.

Really? I didn't know. The game was amazing (specially the scenarios) and a great reading too. It's a pity that there were no more material for it (or if there was, it never made it to Spain in any case).

By the way, You don't happen to remember the ISBN, do you ? It´s only that I have tried twice to create an entry for that game in Anobii.com without success, and I suspect that it is due to the fact that I couldn't provide the ISBN (which I failed to find either in the box or the books).

Milo, RPGGeek says the ISBN-10 for the Dark Continent box set was 1424308291. Hope that helps.

Thanks! I'll try to create the entry again and see if this time I have more luck...

Edit: No luck . It seems that there is another rpg named "Hollow Earth Expedition" which uses the same ISBN and the Anobii database doesn't allow two books with the same number. You have to left the second unnumbered and since I have already done that and it didn't work the first time I don't supose it will work now.

The 40 plussers continue. Coming in at 43 and playing since 1980. Started with my friend's older brother's AD&D books. The most enjoyable game I recall playing was the FASA Star Trek RPG. The gm was awesome and that made the difference.

I'm not sure, because it was both a boxed game and the first game from New Breed Games, if it actually had an ISBN - it seems the one I can find for it (1-4243-0829-1) was reused by another game - which makes me doubt it's validity.

There was one supplement - the name of which escapes me right now - was it The Elephant's Graveyard? Fan Boy Three in Manchester UK is run by David Salisbury the author/publisher. I expect he'd be able to tell you more.

Thanks for the information . I'll try to find more about that supplement. As for the ISBN, I have already tried that number (provided by trystero) and found that second game you mention. I guess I'll try to create the entry again periodically till they accept it out of sheer boredom .

Ok, me too then..

I'm 51 (today!). Started in 75 with white box D&D and T&T. We still play weekly if we can, in recent times we've played D&D 3.5 and 4e, Rules Cyclopedia, CoC, TOR, Traveller (original Black Box), Unhallowed Metropolis, Pendragon, EPT/Tekumel, Hollow Earth Expedition and a bunch of other stuff.

I also play a lot of boardgames, especially German ones, and went to Essen Spiel regularly from about 1990 to 2006. Have recently bought 3 more Billy bookcases from IKEA to hold more games which I think takes me over 20 now.

I started with wargaming in about 1972 with Airfix figures, ACW. I've got a fair number of ECW figures in 25mm, and lately have been putting together some forces for a Darkest Africa campaign, also 25mm.

I picked up a copy of Dark Continent recently from Fan Boy 3, they didn't mention a supplement though, I'd like to have a copy of that...

Great to hear from you d(sqrt(-1)) (one heck of a user name! ) .... methinks you're currently our elder TORfellow.
Oh, and happy day to you!

With your gaming-origins I gather you're based in North America? I'm interested to know what game/campaign you most enjoyed.

Thank you CheeseWyrm! I'd have to say that's quite a username too... Actually I'm in the UK, I live near Oxford. I think someone else who posted may be older than me though!

Most enjoyed? Hm, I ran a RunQuest 3 campaign from about 1990-2000 that was great fun which featured the PCs (who were a disparate scummy bunch) trying to set up their own cult of a spirit they had encountered by accident. They did some horse stealing, inculcated local goblins into their cult to gain worshippers, had a deal with a local Giant and his feckless nephew to trade with them (the Giant kept very large and smelly goats that the characters used for food, as guards, and a source of milk from which they made the fearsome and potent cult brew. Hence they were totally drunk most of the time). They also had a friend who was a sorceror and a bit of a necromancer on the side (which he kept very quiet).

Many individual games of Call of Cthulhu. I had one character who was a Doctor, in his entire career the worst thing that happened to him was he sprained his ankle for 3 HP. He saw Cthulhu once, failed a SAN roll, so had to lose d100 SAN, and rolled...04 and was completely unfazed by it. I think he thought it was some sort of optical illusion. Not as lethal a game as it's portrayed to be, at least in my experience.

Oh and I nearly forgot, an ongoing Stormbringer 1e/Hawkmoon game that has seen the PCs travel from the Young Kingdoms to the Tragic Milennium in search of a missing friend, and has incorporated guest appearances from a midget Melnibonean (SIZ 3), Lemmy, sonic weapons using highly concentrated Hawkwind to stun people, a mole machine a la Thunderbirds, the Londra Genetically Engineered Sex Circus, telepathic hunting dogs, mutant Welshmen, a stolen ornithopter in the shape of a flying pig, and lots of other stuff I've completely forgotten.

The user name came about one day when I was writing some C code, and I started thinking about imaginary numbers, and it occurred to me that the best die for a game using your imagination would be one with an imaginary number of sides...I use it a lot on various forums.

Or perhaps he was a RPGer!
(Ever played a character who had RPGing as a hobby?)
Funny the sprained ankle was more traumatic than seeing His Cthulhuness

I have to say that I've never played a PC who RPGed. As a software guy I have a healthy respect for recursion (I wrote a lot of PROLOG many years ago, which is mostly recursively based, and it does strange things to your mind after a while...)

(PS: edited previous post as I'd forgotten about the Stormbringer/Hawkmoon game)

Aww, why does Dragon Warriors win the thread for Jon? <pout>
It was an interesting distraction released from 1985 ... but really?
Oh I get it ... you're not saying it's the ultimate game, but it's your best early gaming memory. Yah, now I'm picking up what you're putting down

While I'm here - having sifted through all the interesting posts I'll summarize to this point by tipping my hat to Zjordi for being our elder thus far, AND to Mim for being arguably our longest-gaming TORfellow. Respect!
(Likewise to all of our talented TORfellows - young & old, noobs to veterans)

40 today! Now I feel part of the real old boy RPers club "... in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed..."

Happy Birthday! How does it feel to be venerable...?

For my part, on the drive to school yesterday, my daughter told me with a child's frankness: "Papa, you're a funny old man."

She inflected the first syllable of "papa" and stressed the middle part. I'm forty-one. Granted, we had our children later in life, but "old man"...?

Well, maybe in a few more years I will mature from "funny old man" to "venerable"...!

KIDS...

I am 35 and we have been playing Warhammer Fantasy Role Play game for the last 15 years without interruption. The last edition has been like a bucket of cold water for us, but it has one good thing! It has allowed us to look around and discover other rpgs, like the fantastic One Ring

My favourite systems

-Rune Quest
-Warhammer Fantasy (1st and 2nd ed)
-Marvel Superheroes (TSR)


I keep in my heart also AD&D and MERP as I started playing rpgs with this two (and RQ).

With a bit more of time, The One Ring can be in this list. We have only played a few sessions, but we have enjoyed it sooooo much! And curiously, is one of this few games where we don't feel like adding house rules...really really rare.

Congrats man.... My next one is the 40 mark as well... and it's moving fast. I've been having fits about it all year. My working assumption right now is that once it's over and done with I'll be okay again. But right now, it IS scary... significant somehow. I don't feel 40. Does that mean I have to start wearing shirt and tie to the office?

/wolf

Ai! Mae Govannen! I am a late comer to the TOR party (Dec '12, just acquired the whole product line for X-mas) and only a bit of a dabbler in RPGs over the course of my 45 years on this Primary World. Besides being a husband and dad to two boys, nigh 4 and 6, I am a professor of systematic theology/philosophy.

With that as my primary role, my secondary role is being a Tolkienite of sorts, which means my chief hobby is exploring and experiencing the Secondary World and legendarium sub-created (sic: discovered?) by JRRT in as many ways possible.

While all of that may sound very lofty, in actuality it means that besides occasionally reading the primary and secondary material (i.e. Flieger, Shippey, Other Minds, Other Hands, Martinez's essays), I will (upon some review and inspection) try all the various games that attempt to re-create or simulate Middle Earth, especially after PJ's LOTR films came out.

While there is a good deal of bad/mediocre games out there, I've sustained my non-RPG playing interests with Middle Earth CCG, Knizia's co-operative euro board LOTR games, and Lord of the Rings MMO (Landroval, the RPG sever supposedly). Must admit I never really gave Decipher's CCG or RPG much of a chance...which seems to the verdict of many/the market

However, nothing has come as close to representing JRRT's world for me as that of RPG'ing (both IRL and via email) back in ealy-2000's under the direction of Chris Seeman's homemade MERP-inspired, near-mechanical-less/dice-less system--extreme emphasis on the Role over the Roll. This unfinished campaign took place right before the Great Plague (TA 17th cent) in Eriador/Forodwaith. It was a memorable experience due largely to Chris' fecund imagination and scholarly knowledge of all things Middle-Earth/Arda

Now, after being tipped off by Chris to the existence of TOR, my present goal is to LM with a group of 5-6 RPG'ers I know from playing Magic The Gathering with over the past couple of years (I quit Magic and sold my collection--what a money pit!). I think most if not all will be open, though one of the best in the group adheres to Moorcock's "Epic Pooh" critique of JRRT--oh well.

To wit, while I've never GM/DM/LM'd in the past and while I have only a little PC'ing in my past, I'm hoping/praying that TOR, as a system and content (more to come right?), will see me through this newest phase of my Tolkienite existence. I hope to get a campagin up and running by the early Spring '13.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and say a big thanks to all the august members of this forum (plus game designers). I've been impressed with the enthusiasm, dedication, and knowledge in the now 70 pages of forum threads. I hope that all that will continue as the new year comes! if you have any suggestions for pass on for such a newcomer, esp. to LM'ing, pass it on.

Apologies for being so long winded. Hope I hit the TN for my Courtesy role...or it is Awe roll....I dunno, still a noob....Do tell.

Welcome to the game Boronind and to the Cubicle7 forum! I believe you will find The One Ring to be absolutely delightful. As a professor of theology and philosophy, you may also enjoy the writings of Matthew Dickerson (PhD, professor at Middlebury College in Vermont) and Louis Markos (PhD, professor at Houston Baptist University). Dickerson wrote A Hobbit Journey (2012), which explores the "hobbitish pursuit and practice of peace, even in the midst of a world at war," while Louis wrote On the Shoulders of Hobbits (2012), which seeks to show readers "how powerful stories and their characters act as teachers and examples of what to be and not to be in real life." Both men have provided scholarly and thought-provoking ideas in each of their works.