Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played #1-10

Over where the sky is blue (that's Bluesky just in case you haven't been on there), much respected and loved comics creator and TTRPG writer, Kieron Gillen, posted to say that he was trying to make a list of every TTRPG he's ever played. 

Alt Text - Trying to make a list of every TTRPG I've ever played, which presently includes such classics such as 'the very complicated home-brew game made by my friend James when I lived in America' and 'The one where you're all sad people at the end of the world with a name that sounds ominous'. 

I'm really hoping that his results appear on his relatively recent blog-site that he launched https://oldmenrunningtheworld.com/ . However, it did inspire me to think... 'Can I remember every TTRPG I've played?'...

Challenge Accepted!!

I know I've been doing my "My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects" series, and there's bound to be a little crossover, but I thought I'd try and do this as well, just to keep my brain busy and so I don't spiral into the mire. Do forgive my indulgences. I'm not going to drag this out into another 100 posts... I promise.

Let's take it a chunk at a time, starting from the very beginning. The order may be a little off, but hey, it is 40+ years ago...

#1 - Traveller

The first three "Little Black Books" for the original Traveller RPG

The first tabletop roleplaying game I ever played was Traveller. I had no idea what I was doing, but I generated a character that sunny Saturday afternoon in what must have been 1983(?) up at JR's place. I remember thinking how old my character was by the time I left military service. I didn't do much, just sat in the background and took in the experience, but I was already hooked by the end of the first game. 

#2 - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2nd Cover)

Had to be there, didn't it? Usually everyone's first game, I leapt straight into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. None of this Basic or Expert stuff, I was thrown into the deep end of AD&D. Admittedly, I didn't even roll a character to begin with. My first character was a Paladin called Ivanhoe that was already at 8th or maybe 9th level. One of the players in the group was bored of playing the goody-two-shoes, and it was just the sort of character I liked playing. I gave him a last name after a few years, Navarre, from watching Ladyhawke, because, let's face it, Rutger Hauer was the coolest thing around. Played him for years, never got higher than 9th level, but always liked playing Paladins ever since.

#3 - Runequest

Cover of Runequest 2nd Edition

That same gaming group seemed to alternate between AD&D and Runequest most of the time, so it was inevitable that Runequest would turn up on this list, and very early. I really liked the way that individual locations had their own armour ratings, but I remember the GM had bought the Big Rubble setting and we kept heading into the Rubble to seek our fortunes, getting a fraction of the way in, and getting our arses kicked so badly we retreated back to the inn and healed up before doing it all again. 

#4 - Star Frontiers

Front cover of the original Star Frontiers "Expanded" Rulebook

Everyone was running RPGs and I really wanted to get in on the GameMastering action, and I preferred SF to fantasy. Traveller was cool, but it just wasn't saying "Star Wars" to be enough. A trip to the local (if you can all it that) game store and that cover for Star Frontiers literally screamed "Look!! I'm like Star Wars, look at me!!" and I had to get it. Absolutely loved that game. Played so much of it, you wouldn't believe. All the way through to the Zebulon's Guide update and beyond. I'd love to see a proper revival, not the nonsense that's happened recently. 

#5 - Gamma World

Much like my desire to GM something, I remember Coop wanted to GM in our group, and his game of choice to start was TSR's other SF RPG, Gamma World. The weird, post-apocalyptic RPG of an irradiated future. I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was pretty cool. Spent most of my time worrying I was going to grow an extra arm or something from the radiation...

#6 - Call of Cthulhu

Cover of 1st Edition Call of Cthulhu

Of course, the other big classic from the early days of gaming had to be Call of Cthulhu. I hadn't read any Lovecraft, so I had no idea what was going on, but I loved seeing those weird silhouettes and wandering around in the 1920s. I ended up buying my own copy (the Games Workshop hardcover version, rather than the boxed first edition) and we played a heck of a lot of that too. Most of my characters went mad, except for the one that died when another character threw a bottle at me to get me out of their tent. 

#7 - FASA Star Trek

Cover of FASA's Star Trek Roleplaying Game

Our "Keeper" for Call of Cthulhu ran a couple of other games for us as well. One is FASA's Star Trek RPG. I used to watch classic Trek on TV as a kid, and a lot of it went way over my head. It wasn't until much later that I really *got* Star Trek and really loved it (but that's one for another story). I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was cool. I remember us playing the Star Trek III Starship Combat game more...

#8 - Space Opera

Cover of the Space Opera RPG

What the hell even is the Space Opera RPG? I have a dim recollection of this, and remember it being so darn complicated that we spent two evenings just creating characters... and then never actually got around to playing it. Does this one still count? I've cut many a game from this list that I've read but never played, but does character creation count? I think so... maybe?

#9 - Stormbringer

Cover for Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG

Another one of those "one of the players wanted to have a go at GMing" games was Chaosium's Stormbringer. I remember it being very similar to Runequest, so the learning curve was really easy as we'd been playing that for ages. The tricky thing for me was I was completely unfamiliar with Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, so I was mostly confused by what was going on. Still, the art was cool. 

#10 - Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP)

The cover I remember the most of the old 
MERP game, with the Balrog looking like
Lobo in the background.

Finally, for this first selection of every game I've played, we'll stop at number 10 with MERP, or Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. And I think this was another of the players wanting to GM something. Again (please forgive me, I was young, and not much of a fantasy reader) I was not very familiar with Tolkien. I mean, everyone else in the gaming group had read The Lord of the Rings, but I'd just watched the 70's animated movie. I tried, and I just didn't have the attention-span until much, much later (thanks to Babylon 5 - see, I told you I was a SF nerd). We did play a lot of this as well though, and I have fond memories of the critical tables. 

--

So, that's the first 10 TTRPGs I remember playing. I'm sure I'll go back to this list soon, and try to do the next little batch. When I wrote them down, I did manage to get to 100, but that included RPGs I'd bought and read but hadn't actually played. I may cut those ones from the list, or have a sublist - a side-sidequest. 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY TWENTY-FOUR: COMPLEX / SIMPLE RPG you own

 Day Twenty-Four of #RPGaDAY2023 and the original question from back when RPGaDAY began asked about the most complicated RPG you own. 

I went on about the most complicated RPG I'd played (though played it a bit of a falsehood as we spent so long creating the characters I didn't get around to actually playing it) which was Space Opera, then foolishly went on about D&D - which is still, in my opinion, a bit complicated for me. 

Since then? I still love the simpler systems, and one of the biggest revelations when it comes to how simple you can make rules has to be Tales from the Loop. I remember reading that and looking at the rules section (which must be about 18 pages of the rulebook) and being amazed at how small the rules were, and how much they could handle. 

#RPGaDay2022 - Day 9: What is the Second RPG you bought?

 

Day Nine of #RPGaDay2022 asks the question, what is the second RPG you bought? That's a tricky one, because I bought two fairly close to each other, and I can't remember which came first!! I think it was this way around...

After my first couple of games, I was introduced to Traveller, Runequest, and AD&D, and it was clear to me that I really needed my own copy of the AD&D Player's Handbook. So, after a trip to the aforementioned secret shop hidden above a picture framers in the city 13 miles away, I purchased my own AD&D Player's Handbook. Not the one everyone started with, I had the blue one with the wizard. not the group stealing the stuff from the big demon statue. 

After that, I wanted to run my own game, and when I was buying the Player's Handbook the cover of Star Frontiers caught my eye and kinda stuck in my head, so it must have been shortly after that I purchased the original Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn boxed set. 

I loved Star Frontiers, we played the heck out of it, and Knight Hawks, and Zebulon's Guide. Loved it, and would have loved to have seen it make a comeback... but not like it is... dear god, no... You've ruined my youth... 

#RPGaDAY2018 - DAY 11: WILDest Character Name

It's day eleven of #RPGaDAY2018 - and it's what I call "WILD Weekend" - yes, it's a shameless idea, but hell... why not? The question is "Wildest character name"...

I think most of my characters have had pretty normal names. In my youth I had very little imagination so a lot of my characters had names from movies and TV series. I remember both George McFly and "Wild Bill" Kelso were characters in various Call of Cthulhu games.

Names are always the hardest bit for me when it comes to characters.

Not very "wild" were they?

I remember a couple of character names from my old gaming group - especially Jock Duckbar-McClan-Fagwaters, and Squidroon Dirk.

Maybe it's a maturing of my gaming style but I find the hilarious and silly names of my youth destroy the suspension of disbelief and take you out of the "gaming moment".

I'd be interested to see what everyone else comes up with for this one!

Until tomorrow...

#RPGaDAY Days 25-29: It kinda got away from me...

Yeah, time got in the way again. So let's catch up on the questions before we head into the final stretch!

Day 25: What makes a good character?

It's all down to the player. I've seen some really interesting characters get created at the table, and they just haven't been played very well. You have to like the character you have as well. If you don't like the character you've generated, you really can't get into the game and it takes you out of it.

I'm not saying I'm super immersive or anything - far from it. But you have to at least like the character you have. Too many times as a kid I generated D&D characters I didn't like and just didn't enjoy playing them... finding myself putting them at risk needlessly until it wasn't long before I was cracking open the rulebook to create another character.

Day 26: What Hobbies Go Well with RPGs?

You mean you have time for hobbies as well? Jeez, I must be doing something wrong. I guess that as RPG gaming is quite imaginative and creative, suitably creative hobbies probably go best, such as writing, art, crafting... Making stuff!! Make art, be it words, visual or more! Just do it!

Day 27: Most unusual circumstances or location you've gamed?

That'll probably echo back to the 6th response, raising money for the local church roof with a marathon RPG session. The last place you'd expect a 90 hour game of D&D to be played, especially in the 80's, would be a church hall. I'm sure that place was haunted as well...

Day 28: Thing you'd be most surprised if a friend hadn't seen or read?

It still surprises me when someone hasn't seen Star Wars. Any of them. What's wrong with you?

Day 29: If you could game anywhere on Earth, where would you choose?

That one's easy. J K Rowling's house. I'd run a game at J K Rowling's house to show how RPGs work - to prove that a game can be fun, exciting, creative and imaginative without changing or harming the source. I'd get her to join in on one of our current Star Wars games - a massive amount of fun, excitement and drama that doesn't lessen Star Wars at all. Doesn't destroy canon, doesn't ruin the films or the books, and hopefully, by the end of the game, she'd let me write the official Harry Potter RPG...

We can dream, can't we?

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Days 19-24: Previously, on #RPGaDAY

There was a good reason why I didn't try to run #RPGaDAY this year, and it's a good job I did. Things got on top of me, dayjob, writing, and more... so I'm a little behind. That, and there are some questions this year that I really have no idea how to answer. Let's try to catch up ready for the final week...

Day Nineteen: Best Way to Learn a New Game?

When I first started playing RPGs, I played in other people's games. First of all it was JR's Traveller game, then Pete's AD&D and Runequest. The advantage there was that I was joining a game that other players already knew how to play, and they could guide me, help me with the rolls, and bring me up to speed.

The first game I bought to run was Star Frontiers, and by then I was more game savvy and after reading the rules multiple times before trying to run the game. But nothing actually beats playing. Playing gives you a real sense of how everything works.

I'd really like to experience FATE and how it works in play. It's all fine reading the rules over and over, but I haven't experienced it in action to see it actually underway. I think the only solution to that is watching "actual play" videos on Youtube.

Day Twenty: Most Challenging but Rewarding system you learned?

I guess the most challenging game has to be Nobilis. It really took a while to grok what was actually going on in the game, and it sat on the shelf for ages with me taking the "great white book" off of the shelf every so often to give it another try before giving up again with a resounding "I have no idea what's going on..."

Then I read the examples of play, and everything really clicked into place. While I still haven't played Nobilis, the realisation of how it works was excellent and really opened my eyes to a different way of playing games. One day, I hope to experience it in action.

Day Twenty-One: Funniest Misinterpretation of a Rule in Your Group?

That one I have no answer for. I don't think we've ever misinterpreted a rule and had a funny result. We've usually just realised that something wasn't making sense and ignored it, getting on with the game.

Day Twenty-Two: Supposedly Random events that keep recurring, and
Day Twenty-Three: Share one of your best "worst luck" stories.

I've merged these ones together, because the most recent "worst luck" story is mostly due to a "supposedly random event". We tried our hand at The One Ring recently, so that our usual Star Wars GM could get up to speed for running it at GenCon. However, I think were was something wrong with my set of dice for the game. Considering we must have rolled about 10-20 times each evening, easily over 50% of the time we were rolling the "Eye of Sauron" on the d12. Bad, bad, bad...

Especially in combat with a bunch of brigands.

Which brings us to today...

Day Twenty-Four: What is the game you are most likely to give to others?

The game I'm most likely to give to someone is going to be Conspiracy X 2.0. I loved that game, and very happy with how the new version came out. And, thanks to Eden, I have multiple copies as the author / line developer. It's a great example of a neat, compact, portable RPG book with everything in a series of small books.

Game I'd LIKE to be able to give to others, would probably be the old WEG Ghostbusters, or Eden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. Probably the finest examples of accessible and cool RPGs ever produced.

Right, that's it! I'll try to keep up for the last week!

Until then, LLAP and Stay Multiclassy!

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Day Seven: What aspect of RPGs has had the biggest effect on you?

Wow, let's go for the big questions!

Okay. RPGs have been a part of my life for a long, long time. And RPGs have had a major impact on my life in four, very distinct and life changing ways.

First of all, I'll just get this out of the way, I was a nerd as a kid. Slightly dumpy, weird looking kid, and I didn't really have many friends. I had a couple of really close friends, and we hardly did anything without each other. But RPGs changed all of that. Thanks to the D&D group(s) I was in, which merged into a great RPG group, I had the best friends ever. Especially through those awkward teenage years when social standing is weird and bizarre, we stuck together - we gamed constantly, and now, thirty-plus years later, we're still the best of friends. We may be miles apart, spread across the world in different continents, we're always there for each other and rally to each other's aid if necessary.

We're like veterans of a war, only we were fighting orcs, sathar and broo. The bonds formed in those years of adventuring have made us the best of friends. To the Eight (and more) - Bragi, Mole, Milo, Cooper, John, Pete, JR, Fordy, and the extended family of Gladys, Norm, and more... You're all legends, and I'll always have your backs.

Secondly, I got my first job thanks to RPGs. Interviewing for a job in cartography working for the local council's Nature Conservation group, where I'd eventually end up amending Ordnance Survey maps to highlight sites of importance, I was my usual nervous self.

The interview went okay, and I got on well with the two who were doing the interviewing - Mark, and Doug. And I got the job! Hurrah!

Later, working with Doug, we were chatting and he revealed that the position came down to two finalists - me, and someone else. And I pipped the other to the post due to my playing tabletop roleplaying games. Doug said that thanks to RPGs, he knew that not only could I draw maps, but I knew how to work in a team (party) and could think my way out of problems.

Thirdly, the dumb response is that RPGs have certainly had a major effect on me as I now write RPGs. Livin' the dream!

Fourth, and probably most importantly, I met my wife at an RPG session. You can't have any bigger effect on your life than to meet your lifelong partner. So, thanks Debs, for being not only awesome, but also being a gamer.

Okay, much to do. Until tomorrow. Stay multi-classy!

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Day Six: Most amazing thing a game group did for their community.

Clipping from the local paper in the late 80's. Names have been removed just in case anyone doesn't
want to be associated with me. I'm at the back on the right, grinning like a loon.

I'm taking the question as referring to a game group I've been in rather than one anywhere in the world who have done far more than our tiny effort, but it was quite an effort none-the-less.

I've written about it before on my blog, but back in the late 80's my little game group decided to play a marathon session of multiple games for 90 hours, sponsored to raise money for the local church roof. I know, D&D in the 80's raising money for a church?

Anyway, check out my earlier blog post as part of my "Roll Your Own Life" series to hear tales of muscle cramps, hallucinations, and strange visitors.

We may have only raised £150, but in converted to today's money, that's about £300, which isn't bad for sitting on our butts eating junk food for five days...

Until tomorrow, stay multi-classy and keep good friends.

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Day Five: What Story does your group tell of your character?

Another question about memorable moments in my gaming past. What story would people tell of my characters?

Besides the acts of stupidity that I've listed before, there's probably the tales of my D&D characters from days of yore. I always played Paladins, except once when I thought I'd try something different and I created a thief. A thief who liked to set off traps to see what they did. I mean, what's the point of a trap being created by the DM if you don't spring it after you've noticed it to see what it does?

I mean, Indiana Jones triggers every trap to show the effects, so why shouldn't I?

Well, maybe when the trap triggers a teleportation spell that removes you from the dungeon and places you into the sky, a mile above the pyramid you are investigating, leaving you to return to the scene under the natural speed of gravity. *splat*...

Didn't make it beyond level one.

Until tomorrow, stay multiclassy.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 30: Favourite RPG Playing Celebrity

Today's topic was a bit of a fun one - inspired by a news item online listing gaming celebrities, I just thought it'd be cool to hear if people knew of any others, and to discuss the coolest gaming celebs out there.

My choice was an obvious one, mostly as his love of D&D had inspired one of his most popular characters. And the dynamic of his D&D group playing had influenced the way the group worked in the Fast & Furious movies.

Vin Diesel is a bit of a legend as well.

Until tomorrow, for the final day...

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 22: Perfect Gaming Environment

Day 22 is the rather odd question, "Perfect Gaming Environment". Where do you like to play?

When I was young we did all our gaming around a table, but then, a lot later in life, I discovered the delights of gaming in comfort. Sitting on the floor, bean bags, piles of cushions, or on the sofa... Oh, yes...

Today's video, the awesome Shanna Germain from Monte Cook Games is the special guest, who tells us how the environment can be changed to add atmosphere and effect to the game.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 17: Favourite Fantasy RPG

The question that launched a thousand answers of "Dungeons & Dragons"... the question where I don't say D&D... just to be weird like that.

Must admit, while I've played a lot of D&D, Runequest, and more - and while my only current game is fantasy - I've always preferred modern settings or science fiction. You can blame a very formative experience in my youth seeing Star Wars for that one.

However, when it comes to fantasy RPGs, I did prefer something else to D&D. I'm sorry...

Today's video features guest appearance by freelance writer and designer T.R. Knight.

Right, back to writing!

Stay Multi-classy!

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 16: Longest Game Session

It's really a sign of the times when a long game session for an oldie like me is about three hours. I'm in a game once a fortnight, and find it hard to squeeze in the time to do it. Gone are the days of my youth - when I was a teenager we used to play four or five nights a week, and afternoons at weekends. Just couldn't get enough of it.

It's weird but I can still picture the rooms we used to game in, at various houses... the subdued lighting, the DM screen, the 8pm cup of tea.

We just wanted to keep on playing.

One day we had the crazy idea of playing non-stop for 90-hours to raise money for charity...

Many thanks to Lynne Hardy for helping with today's video!

I've written about our marathon before as part of my "Roll Your Own Life" blog posts, you can read about it here!

#RPGaDAY - Day 30: Rarest RPG Owned

I do have a bit of a thing for those collectors editions, like the leather bound D&D 3.5s, the collector's Buffy RPG books, and the leather bound Deadlands... but Dune deserves a special mention...

#RPGaDAY - Day 24: Most Complicated RPG Owned

I like simple games. Ones that I don't have to keep looking things up on charts, tables and supplements. Maybe that's why I've always gone for simple systems that you can remember what to do pretty easily - Ghostbusters, Star Wars D6, World of Darkness, Unisystem and so on...

It doesn't mean I haven't bought or tried many incredibly complex game systems in the past.

The worst culprit in my recollection is Space Opera.

The whole game just seemed to be a mass of charts, tables and pages, upon pages, of character creation and combat rules. Just rolling up a character took multiple evenings, and it just put us off completely.

However, it's not a game I've ever owned, I only spent hours generating a character in my youth...

No, the winner of this title for Day 24 of #RPGaDAY is an edition of a game I used to play a LOT as a kid, that became far, far, FAR too complicated for me to ever consider playing, even though I bought the posh slipcase of the rulebooks.

#RPGaDAY - Day 17: Funniest Game You've Played

Conventions are all about having fun, so when better to talk about the funniest game you've ever played?

#RPGaDAY - Day 13: Most Memorable Character Death

As it's the 13th, and unlucky for some (well, I guess that's more effective if it's a Friday, but, hey...) I thought we'd go with Most Memorable Character Death for #RPGaDAY...

#RPGaDAY - Day 9: Favourite Die / Dice Set

Day 9 of #RPGaDAY is "Favourite Die / Dice Set". I love dice. I don't know why, they're just something I can't stop loving. There have been times designing WILD that I've thought about ditching dice altogether and just using the Tarot cards, but I find there's something super fast about the way dice work and their mechanic. I may change my mind...

Anyway, onto my favourite die...

I have a lot of dice. The wife and I have accumulated a lot over the years, so we've taken to storing them in a dispenser that once resided in our old Ottakar's bookstore.

If you want to take a look at the die in the video, I do keep it on a little stand in an old dice box, like a treasured relic from the past...

#RPGaDAY - Day 4: Most Recent RPG Purchase

For Day 4 of #RPGaDAY I headed to The Games Room, in Norwich, a really cool shop in old part of the city. Elm Hill is ancient, the shops are all in listed buildings and they even converted part of the street into being a market for the film "Stardust" - If you look at this site by local photographer David Woodcock you can see the Games Room converted with small birdcages on the front of the shop for the filming.

The shop has been the "go to" place for all kinds of gaming for as long as I've been living in Norfolk, so it was the place to head for some recent purchases!!

There I picked up the new D&D Starter Set, and the FATE powered Atomic Robo RPG.

#RPGaDAY Day 3: First RPG Purchased

Day Three of #RPGaDAY is "First RPG Purchased". While Star Frontiers was the first game I GM'd, in order to feel like the rest of the group I was playing with, I felt the need to purchase dice, and my own copy of the AD&D Player's Handbook. A gem I still have even now...