Tuesday 18 March 2014

A Late Entry - D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge (Part 2)

A continuation from the previous post of what was supposed to be a Daily Posting challenge for February.

Day 15: What was the first edition you didn't enjoy. Why?
AD&D 2nd Edition.  Multiple reasons.  I bought it when I wasn't really gaming and tried to use it to reinvigorate my hobby. Unfortunately I didn't like the changes over AD&D 1st Edition and neither did my players.  Not just THAC0...

Day 16: Do you remember your first edition war? Did you win? ;)
Probably 3rd to 3.5.  Should really preface this with - I am not a rules lawyer or a believes in Rules As Written (RAW).  I won because of that.  The ability to fudge rules or make it work through GM Fiat or whatever can overcome any discrepancy or flaw in rules.

Day 17: First time you heard D&D was somehow "evil."
This totally went over my head until my 20s (so mid/late 90s) when I wasn't gaming but was researching the hobby during the early days of AOL in the UK and their exclusive TSR / D&D Section.

Day 18: First gaming convention you ever attended. 
I've covered that in my Gen Con UK post - Loughborough 1998.

Day 19: First gamer who just annoyed the hell out of you. 
Hmmm.  Tricky one this.  I don't think I've ever really been that annoyed by a player other than when playing at a convention or similar.  I've had players who have annoyed me but never enough to really bother me.

Day 20: First non-D&D RPG you played. 
Golden Heroes.  Probably just around the time it first came out so 1984/1985 ish.

Day 21: First time you sold some of your D&D books--for whatever reason. 
Never really tracked this that closely...  The biggest clearance I had was when my wife and I moved home 10 years ago and I sold off all of my gaming stuff except for 1 bookcase shelf worth of stuff which in hindsight I probably should have got rid off to as I no longer have any of that either!

Day 22: First D&D-based novel you ever read (Dragonlance Trilogy, Realms novels, etc.)
Dragonlance : Dragons Of Autumn Twilight.  Blew my mind and so many people I knew (gamers and non-gamers alike) were reading those books at the same time.  Largely defined my D&D playing back then and influenced my Kilranthia campaign too.

Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why?
Stephen Lynch's D&D - Not sure why but it does.  I don't really associate songs with D&D other than this one...

Day 24: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why? 
Movie... Probably the Dragonslayer film.  Quickly followed by the Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings movies.  I think if only because they portrayed fantasy as epic story telling.  Other films such as Krull, Hawk The Slayer and Beastmaster certainly were fantasy but not epic fantasy in the way I think of it although Krull specifically comes close to it.

Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you've been in. 
2 different answers here I think.
Campaign - My Kilranthia game that I ran at ORC in Edinburgh.  It ran for the best part of 2 and a half years.
Group - My original gaming group.  We gamed together playing all manner of RPGs during the 80s and early 90s so I'd probably say 6-8 years.  Some of that was weekly gaming, some of it however had long gaps in between.

Day 26: Do you still game with the people who introduced you to the hobby? 
Nope.  I'd like to though if only for nostalgia's sake.  We did go through a phase during the KoA period where we'd get together around my birthday at the shop and game but that was more down to it being my birthday than anything else.

Day 27: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming? 
This is a tough one. I started gaming erm almost 30 years ago so a lot has happened since then. I would say that if I had to change anything it'd be the number of games I bought that I never played or even read in some cases.  Definitely failed on the Only Buy It If You're Going To Use It principle back in those early years!

Day 28: What is the single most important lesson you've learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons?
It's all about having fun.  If you're not having fun then something needs to change.  I'm sure there have been various other benefits but that's the key lesson I've taken.

Phew!  That was more short and sweet again.

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