I'm a Gamer. A REAL Gamer, an RPG Gamer, not those video-game n00bs who dare call themselves "gamers." I sometimes use the capital letter to indicate the difference between (video) gamers ("Dude! I just got a PS4! I'm a gamer!") and (RPG) Gamers ("Dude, last night I lost the 13th level fighter that I've been playing in my friend's Greyhawk campaign for like 5 years!").
The point is, I'm a Gamer. And I have been for some time. This is on my mind because I just celebrated my 39th birthday on September 10th. And I remember that my love of RPG gaming began with a birthday in the 1980s.
Oddly enough, I cannot now be 100% certain what year that was. My recollection now is that it was September 10th, 1985, but my recollection may be flawed. It might have been 1986. I know that by 1987 I was already a fledgling Gamer, so it had to be before then.
So this birthday marked 39 years on this planet, roughly 29 of which I have been involved in RPGs. It is a significant year to consider these things - the RPG hobby began with the first publication of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, so this year (2014) marks the 40th anniversary of the hobby. My hobby has been around just one year longer than I have, and for nearly three quarters of its existence, I've been involved.
I had been playing those adventure books that let you choose your own adventure. My family couldn't keep up with my demand, so I used to get them from the public library (in Woonsocket, in the great state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations). I remember first seeing AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) books there. So I became aware of the existence of RPG games by about the time I was 9.
So, my birthday in about 1985. I knew of the existence of D&D. I didn't know how it worked, but I knew it existed. I was entranced by the idea. So when we went to the local Waldenbooks at the Lincoln Mall (a now sadly defunct bookstore and, last I checked, largely defunct mall), and my family asked me to pick out something I wanted for my birthday from the bookstore, I picked a D&D box.
At this point I knew nothing about RPG gaming, really. I remember wondering if the box had a board in it like other boxed game sets (like Monopoly or something). I wondered how the game was played. I couldn't wait. I did not realize I had picked out the wrong box - I picked up the black box because it looked cool. This was the "Master Set" for ultra-high-level D&D. I probably should have gone for the red one - the "Basic" set. I also didn't realize that this basic D&D was different from the Advanced D&D books I had seen at the library. I remember being a bit disappointed when I finally opened the box and started looking through the contents . . . and quickly figuring out my mistake. I couldn't play D&D for my birthday with only the Master Box.
This did not deter me. I took out books from the library. I eventually picked up the Basic Box. I slowly figured out that there was a difference between D&D and AD&D, although I (and every other Gamer I met in those years) mixed the two systems somewhat freely. I taught myself the rules. I started making dungeons - using massive amounts of paper making wonderfully illogical dungeons. Eventually, I started playing by making solo dungeons for my little brother Eric and running his characters through them. My friend Billy used to play with his own group (he went to a private school, and I went to a public school, and I think his group was friends from his school, but I could be wrong). So Billy and I rarely played together, but we shared stories and ideas and swapped modules and such.
Humble beginnings. I would be years before I had a full table of Gamers. In the beginning it was just me as Dungeon Master and my brother, and maybe a friend. On a couple of memorable and fun occasions, my brother and two friends.
I remember how hard it was making sense of all the rules. The original editions of D&D and AD&D I played had evolved organically over a decade. New rules were just tacked on every so often. It could take a lot of cross-referencing to figure out how things were "supposed" to work . . . but we were young kids, and rarely played the games strictly by the Rules As Written . . . we took to heart the refrain found in many D&D books that the game was meant to be played however it was most fun for all concerned. Even so, I dearly wished someone would publish a version of the game which had been planned from the ground up, not just allowed to sprout in all directions organically without any plan behind it. Bring a little order to the chaos.
My wish was granted with the advent of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition (2nd Edition AD&D). Many people in the Old School Renaissance (OSR) now look back with horror on the coming of 2nd edition, but I welcomed it at the time. It was just what I had thought the hobby needed . . .
More thoughts to follow when I have time . . .
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