D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Recap

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge is now over.  I completed every post and I enjoyed reading many of the posts by others.  I have participated in other similar events with a D&D focus but I think this round of questions was probably the overall best.  I noticed a strong trend of similarities on some posts while other posts were vastly different in experience.  

I attempted to break up the monotony of the posts related to the challenge by inserting posts on other topics at random intervals throughout the challenge.  I noticed something right away when I did so.  The "off topic" posts generated much more traffic than the posts related to the challenge.  I am not talking about a small margin of difference here; it was literally ten times or more for the number of views on the "off topic" posts.

I am not sure that I am going to participate in any more of these month long challenges in the future.  I may participate in a "different" way.  Maybe I will do a combo post every week combining all of the week's posts into one or do a post every 3 or 4 days with the previous 3 or 4 days all lumped together?  I am not 100% sure if I will do anything at all with them yet.  There is the upcoming A-Z challenge coming up and I will make up my mind about participating soon.      

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 28

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 28: What’s the single most important lesson you’ve learned from playing D&D?

Simply that variety is the spice of life even when it comes to a hobby that I enjoy tremendously.  I referred to this in my previous post for the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  My gaming group had a tendency to playing “just D&D” which meant AD&D or Basic D&D.  Even though we would occasionally play something else, the vast majority of the games we played were D&D-like in their rules or play style.  In short, we leaned heavily towards these types of games from 1980 to 1991. 

I took a long break from 1991 to 2000; basically, the entire time I was in the Army.  I played once or twice during that time but I was not excited about A/D&D or even fantasy gaming in general.  It somewhat felt like a chore to me and I needed a break at that point.  The reason for that break was that I had over played A/D&D and similar games to the point that I was not interested in playing anything at that point.

I have a much smaller collection at this point in my life.  Fantasy still takes up the most shelf space but it is a slight margin now instead of the vast majority.  I have a lot more variety with games like SteamCraft (a steampunk role-playing game) and Dead Reign (zombie apocalypse) as part of my collection.  It would be easier to GM some of these games now if I would have expanded my horizons back in my early days of the hobby.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 27

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the 1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 27: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming?

I would not change a thing about when I first started gaming.  There is, however, one thing that I would change.  We got into A/D&D mode and got stuck in a rut.  There would be other games suggested and people were always stating “Man, I need to keep playing my Elf so he can level up” or something similar.  It would be false to say we never played anything else.  For instance, FASERIP Marvel, V&V, Talislanta, and Palladium Fantasy all got their fair share of play.  We actually could have played many more games than we did.  There were several games that each of us bought but could not convince the rest of the group to give it a try.  At times, some of the content would definitely influence or inspire our other gaming but we seemed to stick to just a handful of games when we had many more available.  Just off the top of my head I know that we passed on GURPS and Middle Earth Role Playing just to name a few.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 26

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the 1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 26: Do you still game with the group that introduced you to the hobby?

No, I do not still game with the group that introduced me to the hobby for various reasons.  I am still good friends with some of them and some of them live too far away for anything practical.  Of the ones that are close by, there are too many scheduling conflicts to make it happen.  I am currently in that spot “between groups” at the moment but I do have some potential gaming lined up with my cousin and his wife.  

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 25

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you’ve been in.

The only constants in the longest running gaming group I have been in were Jamie King and me.  We began gaming together in the fall of 1980 and would continue to do so until the summer of 1991. That was the year that the majority of the gaming group was seniors.  Upon graduation, five of us had joined the military and would soon leave out for various destinations all over the globe.

Over the years, others would come and go at the game sessions.  There were times that my brother Mark would play A/D&D with us.  Our mutual friend Dan would join in but it was mainly when it was something other than A/D&D.  He was not fond of the class & level system because his older brothers had convinced him that other systems were “superior”.  The stoner kid down the street – I can not remember his name – would play but he was mainly into the live action events.  For several years, the Carman brothers (Ray and Neal) gamed quite a bit with us and that was when we played the greatest variety of games; Talislanta and Palladium Fantasy were some of the most often played.        

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 24

I will be really surprised if Krull is not mentioned several times by other participants.  My buddies and I were all excited by the Krull trailer and we talked my Uncle David into taking us all to see it.  The Glave made several appearances in our campaigns over the years. I always stop and watch for at least a few minutes if this movie is playing.  D&D comes to mind instantly because it was the first time all of us in the group went to see a movie that we related to our game sessions.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 23

I must have borrowed this movie from my Uncle David "a million times" when I was a kid with D&D always on the brain.  I used to play this movie when I was working on D&D stuff.  I would get out some graph paper and just start knocking stuff out.  That is why O Fortuna from Excalibur makes me think of D&D when I hear it.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 22

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 22: First D&D-based novel you ever read.

The first D&D-based novel I ever read was actually a trilogy; the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman.  I do not recall a lot of the details around that time; did I buy them all at once or one volume at a time?  What I do remember is that it was summer time so there was no school to be worried about.  I started reading until I went to sleep that night. 

The next morning, I got dressed and then I started reading again.  I remember this so well because my grandmother was worried because I had “done nothing but sit there and read all day” for several days in a row.  I wanted to tell her to relax because this was not 1940 but the modern world; there are plenty of modern conveniences that make “working in the field all day” obsolete. 

I stopped reading and asked, “What do you want me to do?”, as I waited for an answer. 

She got a puzzled look on her face and replied, “Well…I don’t know.”, and went back to whatever it was she was doing at the time.

I continued on and finished the trilogy.  I would go on to read several more Dragonlance novels over the years.  For the most part, I think the Weis & Hickman contributions are the best but there are others that are just as good.  The one I currently need to buy and read is the final volume of the Dark Chronicles trilogy. 

I know some people do not care for these books but that does not dissuade me from reading them.  I choose not to get irritated or argue with them – different strokes for different folks sort of thing.  Not everybody is going to like everything I do and the opposite is very much true as well.    

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 21

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 21: First time you sold some of your D&D books – for whatever reason.

The first time I sold some of my D&D books was after a few years in the Army.  It was during the height of popularity for Vampire: the Masquerade and I could not find anyone interested in playing A/D&D.  I thought long and hard about but I eventually reasoned that I probably would not be playing again and probably should not hold on to stuff that would just take up space.  I sold quite a few items and I now wish that I had not done so.  Since that time, I have purchased some of the items again but nothing will replace the actual books that I had accumulated since the early 1980s.  Lesson learned!

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 20

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 20: First non-D&D game you played.

I am absolutely positive that the first non-D&D game I played was a science fiction game.  It was either Traveler or Star Frontiers.  I am leaning towards Star Frontiers because my brother got it one time when we visited the local game store so I could pick up one of the D&D boxed sets.  Neither of these games really caught on with our group but Gamma World did.  We played and enjoyed several editions of the game – my personal favorite is still the original – and it would directly lead us into picking up RIFTS years later.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 19

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 19: First gamer who just annoyed the hell out of you.

The first gamer who annoyed the hell out of me was actually one of the originals of our gaming group.  He was a good player and DM but he started going through a phase as a player that just started irritating pretty much all of us.  For some reason or another, he became obsessed with his character being “the best” regardless of the situation.  It may not sound too bad but I will provide some examples.

One example is character creation – we used to just roll up characters and then bring them to the gaming sessions.  This guy started showing up with characters that had multiple scores of 17 plus and even showed up once with straight 18s!  The only answer he would give was that he had “rolled it all with my dice” which we knew was bogus.  The DM decided that we should all generate characters at the first session of the next campaign.  This guy takes out every d6 in his dice bag and rolls ALL of them.  Then he was pulling out three dice and assigning them to an ability score.  Keep in mind that boxed sets were really common during that time and most boxed games had at least a d6 or two in them.  It was not hard to see how he way rolling those scores with 30 or more d6s. 

Another example of irritating behavior was his decision to start solo adventuring his characters that he was using in campaign play.  He would get a module, his character, and his dice and just start reading through the module.  There was no attempt at impartiality in his dual role as DM and solo player.  He would show up to the game sessions with his character and there would be additional experience points, levels, treasure, and other stuff on his character sheet.  There were several players that got really irritated about that.

After a few of these episodes, he came around and started gaming like we had always done before.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 18

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 18: First gaming convention you ever attended.

I have only been one dedicated gaming convention in my entire life.  It was the first year of Conjuration in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Once again, I owe that trip to my Uncle David.  I do not recall hardly anything about it except for a few details.  We went the cheap route and slept in my uncle David’s van.  I know for certain that Steve Jackson Games was one of the vendors as I bought Necromancer and Car Wars from their booth; Steve Jackson may have been manning the booth because the person looked remarkably like the pictures I had seen.  There was a vendor selling hand made swords.  Somebody was hawking the entire Man, Myth, & Magic series to people as they passed by his display.  There was some sort of Star Trek miniatures game going on in a rather large space but I have no idea which one was being played.  There were several people in costume running around the convention.  I remember it being fun but that is about all for the details.  I need to get out and go to another one some time…

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 17

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 17: First time you heard that D&D was somehow “evil”?

I remember my step-dad made some sort of vague remark such as “I’ve heard some weird stuff about that game” when he saw my friends and I looking through our A/D&D books.  He did not insist on anything but just simply stated he had heard things.  It really was not a conversation at all.  The topic was pretty much dead at that point.  Fast forward a few months and then the television movie being played that night was Mazes and Monsters.

All of us sat around the living room watching the movie.  My step-dad made a few “yeah, that’s what I heard” comments but never really tried to push the issue with me.  He actually told me to “be careful” with the game!  I was intrigued by the bits of game rules hinted at throughout the movie but I mainly sat there with some quad paper drawing dungeon levels for the entire movie.  I would actually read the book years later; as usual, the book was better.  I even found it in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart a few years ago.   

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 16

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 16: Do you remember your first Edition War?  Did you win?

I have had some serious discussions over the years when it comes to game and game systems.  When I say “serious discussions” I do not mean the “dig in and call for reinforcements because this means war” type of discussions.  What I mean is two people offering up points and counter-points to determine which game or game system would be better in play for their group.  I have had many of those discussions and I do not recall any absolutely uncivil or rude behavior.

When I think of edition war it brings to mind images of “that guy” at the friendly local game store that absolutely has to make snide remarks about the shopping habits of other customers; worse yet, the employees that do this.  I have no problem spending my gaming money elsewhere but that is a different rant.  I think you all know the people I am talking about.  The ones that insist on going on about why your game sucks in a John Madden-like rant when you pick up a book to look through it at the store.

Winning is not the point and I will generally just ignore these people.  At my age and in my location it is difficult enough to find people to play with in a face to face game.  I am generally willing to play just about anything to give it a try.  Playing is more important than critiquing every little aspect of every game.  If I find out that I do not care for the game through play then no harm, no foul.   

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 15

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 15: What was the first edition of D&D you didn’t enjoy? Why?

The first edition of D&D that I did not enjoy was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition.  My buddy Jamie picked up the core rulebooks as soon as they were released; he was a big fan of second edition and would later buy a boat load of the “Complete” series of books and other expansion material.  I had been following the articles and surveys in Dragon magazine leading up to the second edition so I was pretty interested to see what they were going to do with the game. Jamie brought the PHB, DMG, and MM over after he bought them and I looked through them and determined “they had gotten it wrong”.

It did not take me long to form my opinion – this is the kid friendly version of AD&D.  I kept noticing stuff that was taken out of the game.  The Assassin and Monk were absent from the classes like the Half-Orc was absent from the races.  There were no demons and devils in the Monster Manual.  The DMG was not full of archaic references that Gygax made in the original version.  It appeared that nothing from Unearthed Arcana was included, either.  Comeliness was not added to the list of Abilities.  Why were the Barbarian, Cavalier, and Thief-Acrobat not included?  I was not happy with the products as I perceived them – updates that actually took away content from the original – and I never did buy them. 

We did use some second edition stuff in our AD&D games, though.  The Bard and THACO were great changes.  I just never really saw the necessity to change over because the game systems were very similar.  For the most part, if something from a supplement caught my eye then I could most likely just use it as is or make a judgment call.  I was a little interested in the reprints but I held off because I am still not ready to pull the trigger on second edition.    

  

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 14

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 14: Did you meet your significant other while playing D&D?  Does he or she still play? (Or just post a randomly generated monster in protest of Valentine’s Day.)

No, I did not meet my wife playing D&D.  She has not played and has expressed no interest when it has been mentioned.  On the other hand, she does like the card games like Magic: the Gathering, Spellfire, and some others we have tried.  We recently bought Munchkin and are waiting for the opportunity to play.  She may not play D&D but she does enjoy computer games like Diablo and Tomb Raider.  She also happens to like movies such as The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  Basically, there is a lot of common ground on similar subjects but she just does not play D&D.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 13

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 13: First miniature(s) you used for D&D.

Okay, this will be the easiest question on this challenge to answer.  Miniatures have gotten nearly no use at all in the games I have played.  For the most part, we never used them but jotted down the marching order on a piece of paper.  The very few times – maybe three times in 30 years – that I can recall using miniatures involved us picking up whatever small items – extra dice, poker chips, eraser –  were sitting around to help keep one spread out combat straight.  I have some miniatures and I have always wanted to play in a game that uses them but I have yet to play with a group that uses them.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 12

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies.  Does it still exist?

The very first store where I purchased my gaming supplies was Tulsa’s Original Game Shop in the Farm Shopping Center. My first trip there was – again, thanks to Uncle David – in the summer of 1980. It was a small hole-in-the-wall operation but there was a ton of gaming products on the shelves.  My first visit there was when it clicked that D&D was not the only game in town.  I bought many products there ranging from old Steve Jackson mini-games like Car Wars or Ogre then also Palladium Fantasy, DC Heroes, Talislanta, FASERIP Marvel, and a bunch of others.  The staff encouraged customers to try other games than D&D so it was nice not hearing all of the “you’re doing it wrong” if you play that game nonsense that is common in some shops.

Unfortunately this shop is closed now.  Sometime around 2005 the Original Game Shop moved from the Farm Shopping Center to a strip mall approximately a mile away.  There was more room for product but something was not quite right.  Ben, the owner, was having some health issues and it was apparent that it was affecting his routine; he was forgetting to special order items, stock certain items and he just was not the same.  The store carried on for a while and then I pulled up one day and it was out of business.  Fortunately, there are at least three relatively close game stores that I can visit now.      

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 11

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.

I do not recall ever wishing one of the DMs would approve of using any particular splatbook BUT there was my AD&D game that I hoped the players would embrace using Unearthed Arcana.  I remember being extremely excited about using the stuff inside after flipping through the contents.  I thought there was plenty to like – new ability score generation methods, new races, new classes, etc. – and it would help get our game a fresh start.

Unfortunately, I was pretty much the only one excited about the book; Jamie might have been also.  It was apparent that most of the players were kind of burned out on A/D&D gaming at the time and wanted something different.  I am pretty confident that we would have tried out some of the options in Unearthed Arcana if the book would have been released sooner.  That led us to try out different games such as Marvel Super Heroes, Champions, Car Wars, and many more.  We would eventually return to A/D&D and would even use some of the Unearthed Arcana options but we never did run a campaign using many of the options. 

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 10

This post is part of a series of posts in the D&D 40^th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge.  The information in many of these posts is related to events that occurred primarily in the1980’s. Since it is now 2014, I can not guarantee complete accuracy with such a large passage of time but I will present the events and information as best as I can recall.

Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.).

I ran across Dragon magazine during one of my visits to the friendly local game store.  I am not sure which number was on the issue but I do know that it was lower than 100.  I read that thing front to back and would read it again several times.  I got a subscription so I would not have to go to town to pick it up.  I used to pick up Dragon quite frequently in the store after my subscription ran out; plus, it gave me an excuse to visit the game shop.  I used to have several folders with articles I had cut out to use in our games. 

Over the years, I have read many different gaming magazines and have valued them quite differently.  I never much cared for Dungeon even though I think it’s a great idea.  I was just more interested in the general purpose type of magazine that I got from Dragon.  I have read issues of Roleplayer, Pyramid, The RIFTER, Shadis, White Dwarf, and many others.  The only magazines that rivaled Dragon in the enjoyment and use I got out of them was The Space Gamer and The Fantasy Gamer.  I know that there are email newsletters, news sites, forums, and other online things that can serve as substitutes for these items but I really think we are in need of a quality magazine or two that we can pick up in print every month or so.