Introductions

[Ironnerd]

Hey! I'm Ironnerd and I like BECMI D&D. It all started when I was in Middle School and I bought the Red Box basic set. It's been there, on the edges of my consciousness ever since. In High School, the Military, College, and then as an escape from adulting.

RPG's have been almost as big a part of my life as aviation (where I make the money I spend on RPG's) and Anime. Oh... and wife and kids too, I guess.

Mostly, I just like RPGs. I'm not completely obsessed, I just enjoy the escape. The first RPG I ever played was Basic D&D with my friends in Middle School. I really enjoyed the game and was mostly aware that it was set in a world very similar to Lord of the Rings which I had seen on T.V. thanks to Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass, and Ralph Bakshi. It was not so far off from the Narnia books I had read (although D&D does not have talking beavers, or Santa Claus). I really liked the adventures we went on. Had a great time talking about them at school and at the computer store (run by, predictably, nerds). I really loved making Dungeons - even more than making characters. My friends and I played long into the nights on weekends.

I also got into a game called Villains & Vigilantes, for which I was fortunate enough to write some adventures [semi-shameless plug]

We would alternate between playing as adventurers and heroes, but then some jerk showed me Battletech, and D&D lost me... for a while.

I played AD&D 2nd Edition in the Army, and in College. Played 3rd Edition with members of my Anime Club (GRAAC - Grand Rapids Area Anime Club)- then Big Eyes, Small Mouth came out, and I was pulled away from D&D again.

Many... many years later I was walking through a local Goodwill store and found the Basic Player's and DM's books. So Goodwill got my $3, and I got a HUGE smile.

I wanted to play, but was not able to gin up interest in my local gaming group. They said it was too complex. Battletech was fine, but BECM D&D was too complex [face-palm]. So I did the only thing I could think of; I enlisted my kids. At the time they were 9 and 11 and had a taste for Anime and Minecraft. So, I set the campaign in Japan, and included critters they would recognize:
► Skeletons
► Giant Spiders
► Zombies
(I could not think of a D&D equivalent for a creeper)

The upshot is that they really liked it. My youngest was a total Murder Hobo, but she was manageable. Besides, it's fun playing when a member of the party is called "Kiki the Destroyer".

So I guess I'm a Born Again D&D player, and I want to share the fun of this old system, aa well as keep it going a while longer. I figure I can't be the only one since people are buying the BECMI books on DriveThruRPG at SILVER or higher levels, putting them all in the top 10% of sales (not bad for a bunch of old books).

That's me, how 'bout you?

[hengest]

Hi, I'm hengest, thanks for making this forum.

I love the flavor here already. Very DYI and based on materials with that 80s feel (I am from the 1980s).

I was introduced to BECMI at recess by at older kid. I had no idea what was going on. He had a piece of notebook paper for a map and maybe a couple minis. He told me it was good to be a cleric because they can cast spells and fight. I was a cleric.

Did I remember to say I had no idea what was going on?

I remember being asked if I wanted to cast a spell. I said yes. A combat situation? Then it was explained that I had to stand there and chant. It seemed that I had to chant forever and could never take any other action.

This other kid seemed like an important figure at the time, but now I can't even remember his name.

Not even sure how many times we "played". But...it was my intro to the most awesome hobby I can imagine.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Hi guys, The Perilous Dreamer here, sorry it took so long for me to make it over here. You have some really good stuff here and it has a really good vibe.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

It all started in the early part of 1980. I was almost 8 years old and had just discovered fantasy books like The Hobbit, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Prydain Chronicles. My uncle had a ton of sci-fi and fantasy books so I was always bugging him to borrow more books or watch something else from his movie collection. I still fondly remember watching Excalibur, Dune, and other similar movies with him growing up. Simply put, Uncle David was the cool uncle that every boy should have when they are growing up.



I had some friends at school - Jamie and Dan - that were interested in the same type of stuff. Dan told us about a game called Dungeons & Dragons that his older brothers had introduced to him. This game sounded like something that would be the perfect fit to satisfy our quest for more fantas; better yet, we could make up our own stories about our own heroes. After I went over and played a session of D&D I immediately had to get my own set of the rules and tell my Uncle David about this game.



I happened to be selling GRIT newspaper subscriptions at the time and had enough reward points to redeem for a basic set; I did so and received the Moldvay Basic set a short time later. I also "informed" my Uncle David about this game only to find out that he had been playing for years already. In fact, he gave his Holmes Basic set to me at this time and would eventually give me all of his AD&D hardbacks a short time later. I *believe* that I started with the Holmes set first but it might have been the Moldvay set; either way, both are great introductions to D&D.



Once Jamie and I started playing D&D we found ourselves playing all of the time. I would spend the night at his house some weekends and then he would spend the night at mine on others. It did not take long for us to look for more options and crack open the AD&D hardbacks. At our young naive ages we assumed that more rules must mean more fun and more game so we "upgraded" to AD&D and stayed for years. (note: yes, I know that both games are great in their own right and no one needs MORE rules to have MORE fun - we were not yet 10 years old at the time.) It seemed like we were always coming up with house rules and new adventures to go on. AD&D would be our main game for quite some time. Of course, when the Mentzer version came out and then expanded the Basic rules up even higher we also started playing D&D again.



We would continue to play role-playing games all the way until we graduated high school in 1991. We would add players to the group and wound up with a total of six players. We played many other games over the years. I always seemed to want to play in the fantasy genre and would try just about anything in the genre. Some of them did not make a lasting impression but several caught the attention of the group. Two of my all time favorite games include Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game (1st edition) and Talislanta. (note: I pretty much skipped AD&D Second Edition all together because I felt they were trying to "de-Gygax" the game and be politically correct with some of the changes.)



After graduation many members of our playing group left the area for various reasons. I was around for close to a year and then left for the Army and would stay in for 8 years. I did not play that much during those 8 years and it can pretty well be considered a gaming drought. I did try out Vampire: the Masquerade and discover Magic: the Gathering while I was stationed at Fort Campbell, KY.


After a long time without playing I once again entered the hobby when D&D 3E came out.  I bought the core books and I started noticing other products like Castles & Crusades and several retroclones.  I don't have an active group at the moment but I'm up for it if the opportunity arises.

[Ironnerd]

Whoa... GRIT! I remember Grit.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

Sept 3, 2021 13:12:37 GMT Ironnerd said:

Whoa... GRIT! I remember Grit.

Cool! I always wondered if anybody else remembered.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

My one set of grandparents subscribed to Grit, so when I went over I was always catching up since the last time I was over.