I've been playing D&D since I was 11. I still fondly remember my first D&D session, particularly how I told the DM that I was going to swing my sword "as HARD as I CAN!"
I started with Basic D&D (the red box set), moved up to Expert D&D (wasn't "The Isle of Dread" fabulous?), and then was wooed by the allure of those beautiful hardback books with the orange spines and joined an AD&D campaign. Some of my favourite D&D moments of that time were found in modules such as The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, the DragonLance series, and the tournament series To Find a King / The Bane of Llywelyn.
I rediscovered the game back in 1995 when I met Densial, and managed to drag another good friend Fergus into the game as well. I believe I played Sylstan, a female human fighter, at our first gaming session. Sylstan didn't make it to the second session - our group found a cavern, turned left and encountered a bunch of Orogs (?) that wiped us all out. Bugger. Should've turned right. Oh well, pull out those D6's!
Possibly my favourite character of all time came out of that period - Jesek, a swashbuckling Mage/Thief elfmaid with a penchant for falconry, red dresses and acrobatics. She had a half-brother called Eolin, played by Fergus. Eolin… Well, let's just say he wasn't the sharpest tool in the box. However, it was Jesek that foolishly gambled with a Deck of Many Things and disappeared into the Void. She has yet to be seen since…
I helped the group dabble with 3rd Edition D&D (aka the d20 system) a few years back, which I think as a gaming system just rocks. Sure, it's not perfect, there are still a few clunky bits here and there but I really appreciate the slimming, trimming and tidying up that the core rules received. No more more thinking "is higher better or worse in this situation?" In the d20 system, higher is always better - end of story. Fantastic! I also think the skills and feats systems are very elegant and make a lot more sense. Probably the only bit I have mixed feelings about in 3E is multiclassing. The updated game mechanic is very, very different from the previous multi- or dual-classing rules. It's intuitive and freeform (anyone can be more or less anything now)… but paradoxically while allowing more options, it just isn't quite as good as multiclassing was under 1E and 2E.
Overseas travel, a career change to helicopters and the birth of my first child pretty much put an end to my roleplaying for many years, but the desire and the nostalgia was always there… In 2007 Fergus mentioned that Gwen's partner Alain was a keen D&Der that just might be interested in joining us for a new campaign… It was so exciting, I just had to let my good friend Tammi know about it. After all, she did have pictures of faeries and dragons all over her desk at work - she might just be crazy enough to give it a try! [Tammi: oh and try she did!! Loved it the first time…and has never looked back!]
I'm very interested in having a look at 4th Edition, when it comes out in June 2008.
Update: I've had a good look through the 4E core rules now. I have mixed feelings about them.
Things I like about 4E:
- Dragonborn
- Tieflings
- Warlocks
- Tiefling Warlocks
- Monsters having roles
- Minion monsters
- The "bloodied" system
- All classes having powers
- Combat sounds like it's really fun!
Things I don't like about 4E:
- The reduction of character choices. Pre-3E was arbitrarily limited, 3E was wildly permissive, 4E seems to be some weird hybrid of the two. I prefer permissive
- The classes feel homogenised. They have more or less the same attack bonuses, saving throws, damage capability… Only the flavour text changes
- The healing surge system. Characters are now able to miraculously recover from massive damage without help, and almost without a thought. As a person who has been hit by a bus, this seems almost insulting
- Role-playing appears to have been deprioritised. Everything revolves around encounters. It seems that if a feat, skill or power doesn't have some sort of combat application, it's been sidelined
Still, I'm keen to give it a go.
Other RPG systems I've had a crack at:
- Star Frontiers (TSR has a go at SciFi - basic, but fun)
- Paranoia (the weirdest game I've ever played - didn't take itself seriously enough for my taste)
- MechWarrior (It's all about the robots, baby!)
- ShadowRun (the biggest consumer of d6's I can name)
I spend way too much time on trademe looking to complete my burgeoning collection of RPG stuff.
The three characters I am playing are Eko, Sigil and Rowaine. Eko is possibly the most thought-through character I have ever created. I have big plans for him - far more than is currently posted on this site. I truly hope he doesn't die early! Sigil is Eko's polar opposite in almost every way. He has the potential to be my fondest character yet. Rowaine is my first-ever paladin character, and draws upon the likes of Paksenarrion, Buffy, Barbie and a close friend in Edinburgh as sources of inspiration. Maybe even a touch of Catti-brie. Paladins - they're not always party-poopers :-)
[Fergus] Craig is that invaluable player that knows ALL the rules. If you ever want to know something like, "Can a Mage/Druid specialise in the longsword?" Craig knows. He is the one we all look to when learning a new system because he will have read the DMG, PHB, Monstrous Manual and 5 other books cover to cover before we start playing. As a DM he is the uberpreparer. He once showed me a map he had created after we'd finished a campaign and were not going back to play those characters again. We had more or less completed the adventure while exploring I would say… 10% of the map he'd created…
Most of all he is a great player! I have tried playing without Craig and it is never as much fun…
