There was a time when every page on the Internet had a section on ‘what is roleplaying’. These days, awareness seems to be much greater, and there’s less need to explain things. This is a good thing[tm]. There is still a lot of misunderstanding around about what roleplaying is as well though. This is a bad thing[tm].

Am I going to fix that? Probably not. I roleplay. With friends. It’s most excellent fun, and when I’m not feeling too stingy, I GM the odd game now and then as well. I like to think I’ve got a lot of roleplaying experience, but that’s not true. I’ve played quite a bit, and run quite a bit, but my actual experience is quite narrow. I’m doing my best to fix that though.

Now we’ve moved down here to Nottingham, we are both playing more than we were in Stockton. Once during the week with a couple of long-standing friends, and once at weekends with some new-found friends. So far, things are going well!

I have played quite a few gaming systems at one time or another, including, but not limited to, [in a semi-quasi-chronological-order]

• Dungeons and Dragons [original]

  This is the game I started playing first, while I was still at school. I still own all the rules and several (many?) modules and accessories. I was looking for a second-hand copy of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, and finally found it on e-bay.

• Dungeons and Dragons, 3rd Edition

  Well, Wizards of the Coast have done the deed. They’ve released the third edition of AD&D, they’ve dropped the Advanced bit (since the original D&D is out of print, there’s nothing to be Advanced from), and they’ve revamped the rules quite a bit. I like it. The Players Guide certainly seems more mature than the 1st/2nd Edition versions, the rule changes are sensible, they’ve dropped THAC0, and they’ve made the combat rules more specific.

• Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 1st & 2nd Editions

  At the time, this was an entirely natural progression from D&D. We managed to play quite a few adventures owning only the DM’s guide, I’ll never know how we managed. Anyway, started with 1st edition, still got the rules (DM’s guide only of course!), and now own far too much 2nd Edition stuff. I’ve also converted just about every AD&D spell name into pigeon-latin. Yes I know I’m sad, but it adds atmosphere to the game.

• Warhammer FRP

  I haven’t played anywhere near enough of this – it’s quite an excellent system. I really must buy the rules one day. [Update : 24/1/99 – Got the rules for Christmas from Grete!

  Further update : now have a couple of modules and a source book as well. Really must play more of this.

• Super Hero thingy [Golden Heroes? Golden Super Heroes?]

  I played a little bit of one of the super hero RPG genres. Couldn’t get to grips with it though.

• Call of Cthulhu

  I wouldn’t have expected to enjoy this, but I did. It’s excellent, and with a GM who can create atmosphere (David Sant and Tony Byrne for example) it’s superb. Getting your face sucked off has never been so much fun.

• Paranoia

  I ran this, I’ve never played it. Howling laughter. Screams of agony. Most excellent. The computer is your friend. Can’t always get it right though – we tried to play this a short while back (mid-2000) and I totally failed to generate the right atmosphere, total disaster 🙁

• MERP

  Playing this at the moment (20/9/98 – when I forget to update this for 12 months, someone let me know). It’s good, I’m enjoying messing about in Tolkein’s world, although it feels a bit like messing about in his garden. Any minute he’s gonna see me and chuck me out! [Update : 24/1/99 – Andy let me know, we’re playing some other stuff now!! Although we’re still intending to get back to the MERP]

• Toon

  One game so far – enjoy it – hopefully more to come.

• Force Lords

  A new game some friends are putting together, very enjoyable, had two or three playtesting style games now!

• Pendragon

  One game of this as well, went hunting some deer I recall. I keep meaning the buy the rulebook.

• Ars Magica

  We’re just starting to roll up characters for this [as of 21/4/99] which takes some time in it’s own right, and then we’ll get round to playing it.

  Well, we tried playing it, and it didn’t go too well (perhaps I can’t GM after all), although I think people want to try again.

• Deadlands

  Andy has the rules – we’ll be playing it eventually!

• Xena & Hercules

  Well, it was a bit of fun, and quite entertaining I thought 😉

• Legend of the Five Rings

  [September 2000] We’re currently playing this, and it’s currently excellent 🙂 The Dragon Clan is mighty indeed. I love the rules, I love the background, I love the humour, I really do like the system.

  [June 2001] We haven’t been playing this for a while now, and in fact, we’re now playing D&D 3rd Edition.

• Torg

  Played a couple of times, but I can’t get on with the system, we will probably try a few more times.

• 7th Sea

  Not played yet, but Christine has the rules and sourcebooks, and we will be rolling up characters soon.

• Fading Suns

  Played a couple of times, I quite enjoyed it, but I was playing a combat wombat at the time, and as a group we never really seemed to gell.

• Live Action Roleplaying [LRP, LARP]

  Until I met Grete, I’d wondered about LARP, and considered it, but never got around to it. We couldn’t make the ’96 or ’97 Gathering, and we didn’t find any local places in Stockton (we had no transport). Again, the move to Nottingham helped, and my first Live Action Roleplaying was with the Melnobs, in the Viper faction, at this years Gathering (98). It was most excellent fun. We’re going to try and make some moots, and perhaps some smaller, more local events, but you know how cash is …

  Update 18/04/99 – we did make it to the Omega LRP event in Manchester.

  Updated 21/9/99 – and I’ve banged a couple of LRP related websites together, check out The Lorgaire De Eolas and Just Another Gathering Website.

  Updated 13/9/2000 – Well, we’ve been ‘doing’ Omega for two years now, I really can’t believe it. We’ve done four events, we’re quite established! We are very much looking forward to the next event, in 2001. One problem with two events per year, the years seem to fly by!

  Updated : 01/12/2001 – my character died at the last Omega event. So I’m now playing a salamander wizard 😉