I first started playing D+D here in the UK in 1979. Then I graduated to AD+D (and I can remember the first 400 editions of the Dungeon Masters Guide going on sale this side of the pond).
And I’m still playing 1st edition - and with some of the same people. :eek:
I also run 3 groups at my School.
My fellow players have spread out a bit - we are currently in Central London, Heathrow, Portsmouth, Woking and Rutland.
But the magic continues… 
Well, 1979 is impressive. I’ve found few other gamers who have been at it as long as that.
I started playing D&D back in Jr. High School in 1977. We also played Gamma World, Warlords of Barsoom, and Boot Hill.
(There was another game, where you played the monsters and the DM played the human dungeoneers… I can’t recall the title, but you drew a card from a deck of cards to determine which monster you were… from the Ace of Spades (Gold Dragon) to Deuce of Clubs (green slime or something).
Since then I’ve played just about every game out there, but I most enjoy Car Wars, Call of Cthulu, and Spacemaster. In fact, I still play Car Wars, and even have international standing in the World Autoduel Association, as a member of the Southern California Autoduelling Brotherhood (SCAB).
I also play D&D monthly in Pasadena. We’re always interested in new players.
I recieved the D&D boxed set as a birthday gift in June of 1977. It took me a while to figure out how to play the thing, it was so revolutionary to me at the time. I’ve been playing on and off since.
Systems I’ve run:
D&D
AD&D 1st, 2nd, 2nd Revised
D&D 3.0
GURPS 3rd
Khaotic/Legendary Lives/Lost Souls
Hero/Champions
Star Trek (FASA)
Amber Diceless
Systems I’ve played in (beyond the list above):
TMNT/Palladium
Traveller
MechWarrior
7th Sea
Systems I hope to run someday:
Savage Worlds
Fudge
Lords of Creation (after a few mods )
Nobilis
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
JOhn.
Okay! If I could tell you were in the D.C. area, you were just e-mailed. Thanks CandidGamera!
I don’t have much else to contribute to this thread, but I hope everyone looking for a group manages to find a good one.
Orlando girl gamer geek here.
I actually started with fanficcing and text-based RPing, so I’m more interested in plot and character development than any particular system. Just tell me what the rules are and I’ll try to play within them, but my Inner Brat does occasionally try to bend or break a few.
(Ah, my poor DM, who had to put up with my requests of wanting to be the “Comic Relief Ninja”. :D)
Sounds like you’d fit right in with our group - we’ve had a Swamp Barbarian (his mission was to bring back enough money to his tribe to create a dry place to sleep!), a travelling Cleric (sounds normal … but what about his portable blow-up altar?!) and a Magic User whose owl familiar was polymorphed into a wolf (he kept looking at the sky and howling mournfully).
::sputters::
Why on earth would you do such a horrible thing? You’re taking the two worst aspects of each system and trying to combine them!
I’m currently working on the opposite - taking GURPS character creation and trying to insert it into D20.
You know, I almost said something to that effect… but I didn’t want to be divisive.
Actually, I don’t mind d20 Character Creation. But GURPS’s combat… yikes. GURPS is about an inch away from a good pit thread on my part.
Then again, given the conversation I just had on AIM, maybe a Great Debate about the flaws and virtues of Class/Level vs. Point-Based systems would be in order.
Well I don’t dislike GURPS - I don’t like the combat, but I don’t hate it, and the rest of the game makes up for it to some extent in my opinion.
D20 character creation… I don’t mind it. It annoys me because I can rarely create the character I want to play, but I don’t think it’s fundamentally broken. This is primarily just because I’m awkward and overly used to GURPS character creation anyway. 
It’s just that given these two games, were you to ask me any one feature about them that needed changing, those were exactly what I’d have picked - GURPS needs a better combat system, D20 needs a more flexible character creation system. These dwarf any other problems with the games. Hence my startlement at the attempt to combine them…
Very true.
Actually, though, GURPS - I may never play GURPS again. I have serious issues with many things in the game. I love their sourcebooks, though.
Been playing weekly with my core group for years and years. Currently I’m running Savage Species - monsters as PCs using D&D 3.5. We change games every few months. Our main game is Hero Wars, offspring of Runequest. One of our players writes for Issares, and the stuff he runs is essentially playtest material for them.
I’m also in another campaign where we’re PC dragons, using D&D 3.5. We play when we can. This is all in Raleigh, NC.
Wow, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m no fan of the combat system; I think it works OK up to the point of automatic weapons, and their hand to hand combat rules are awfully complicated. But what else bothers you? I love the character design system and what it allows you to do, and find it great as a GM for facilitating adventures. I’ve played time travellers into ancient times, historical middle ages, 1930’s pulp, modern horror, fantasy and cyberpunk using the same system. It’s been pretty even cross genre.
Now we could talk about their magic system, but that’s probably more a thread for the Pit.
I’m more interested in plot and character development, too*: if we have 2 more ppl we could play D+D!
*oddly enough, more plot when I am playing, and more character development when I am DM! I don’t want to have to put effort into shaping a character based on someone elses social rules, but I don’t mind figuring out mysteries and coordinating with other players.
Yeah, the GURPS character creation system is brilliant. That’s why I’m trying to bolt it on to D20. (Although the mishmash that’s resulting from that is suggesting there will be a lot more changes to D20 than just the character creation by the time we’re done…). The problem with GURPS is that it has a one brilliant point, a few good points, awash in a sea of things which are merely ok, or are downright awful.
I do agree that the flexibility of GURPS is fantastic though. I very much like the fact that I can effectively create any world I want and will (probably) be able to implement it in GURPS.
I used to like the GURPS magic system - it has some good points to it. Then I thought about it a bit harder and decided I hated it after all. The basic idea isn’t bad, it’s just terribly poorly implemented.
The GURPS character system is too wide open for me - I need the structure of D20. With GURPS, I’m never sure how powerful a character is, or if a high skill score is actually high or not. I want experience levels and orderly character progression, without the hysterical abuses (especially with “character flaws”) possible in GURPS. The current D&D system has so many character creation options and possibilities that I don’t think the wide-openness of GURPS as all that much of an advantage anymore.
As for combat, GURPS, with its one-second round and emphasis on hit locations, is the only realistic simulation for modern or futuristic combat I’m familiar with. While its melee combat is a mess, the firearm rules are pretty good. Maybe it’s because I (and my co-players) have a certain amount of modern-arms experience personally, but I can’t abstract gunplay - anything less than insanely detailed just doesn’t work for me.
IQ Stat - Overloaded. It’s used for everything mental. Perception, Willpower, Intelligence - It’s ALL IQ!
Combat System - Well, ridiculously complex, yes. But one can just use a streamlined version. (Seriously, the combat flowchart provided in Compendium 2 illustrates the sheer insanity of the system… I forget how many steps there are.) Plus - Defense divorced from Offense, by which I mean - in a Supers game, let’s say there’s a character with a ridiculously high Dodge defense. Since an attacker, no matter how skilled, can be trumped by a defense roll, the probability of the master gunman hitting the super-dodger and the probability of the complete incompetent hitting the super-dodger begin to move dangerously close together.
I also don’t much care for the magic system. The psionics aren’t very well put together either.
For my cross genre action, I prefer Hero. Or Torg. Heck, half the time, I might even pick RIFTS over GURPS.
Okay, that last bit was an exaggeration.
Ok, so at the pitiful pleading of moi, I’m posting to this thread. For the past year or so I’ve been working on a D&D 3.x campaign world. Frankly, due to life stress and other hobbies, it’s still half-baked.
But, if folks are willing to deal with a mostly-unfinished world, I’m willing to run a least a few one-offs for the Bawlmer/DC area folks. Email me and I’ll send you a bit about the world and we can talk scheduling. If there’s intrest, I’ll probably create a Yahoo! group as well. Besides, mabye it’ll give me the motivation to finish the damn world.
Cheers,
tdc
Wow, TDC, that’s real swell of ya! I’ll let Blue Kangaroo do the negotiating, since she seems to be the group leader.
I’m trying to imagine what playing in an unfinished world would be like. I’m imagining something like a really bad text adventure, something like Thy Dungeonman!
I’m willing to travel to Pittsburgh or Baltimore/DC, if invited. I can make a weekend of it, but would probably limit visits to once a month or so.
Um, almost certainly better than that, Alan. I think. 
Steelerphan, sure, we can make room for you. So that’s
BlueKangaroo + hubby+ freind
moi
Alan Smithee (Unless or until he moves)
Steelerphan if he can hike all the way out here. Incidently, moi and I used to live in Indiana, PA, a much nicer hike for you.
Right now I’m looking to just run a few one-off’s, nothing too involved. Eventually, I’d like to run a regular campaing on something like a twice a month basis.
That’s probably enough for now, lest this turn into a major hijack.
I’ll be sending you all an invite to a yahoo group so we can continue this discussion.
Cheers,
tdc