Late to the Game
I have a relatively short RPG gaming history. Still I certainly enjoy the hobby and struggle with juggling it into my schedule as best I can. In this introduction article, I discuss this struggle and the changes throughout my own history with RPGs that inspired me to start this blog.
In late 2000 (I was 24 at the time), a good friend who was a longtime RPG gamer (Hi, Alan!) invited me to join a Dungeons & Dragons campaign featuring the new 3rd edition rules (I even bought my 3e PHB for the promotional $20). He knew I played and enjoyed Baldur's Gate, so it wasn't a far-fetched suggestion. Up until that point, almost all of my gaming experience had been with board games, puzzle games, and video games. Having been curious about D&D for years, I accepted the offer.
That first campaign was a short-lived homebrew that was quickly replaced by a Greyhawk campaign using Sunless Citadel and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. We played that campaign for a couple of years until we hit a total party kill (TPK) and the DM decided to simply end it there.
A few short-term campaigns later (Oriental Adventures, d20 Modern, Dark Sun v3.5, et. al.), I began DMing my own Greyhawk campaign. This was about a year after v3.5 came out. I had just acquired every 3e core book and the entire class builder series (i.e. - Sword and Fist, Defenders of the Faith, Song and Silence, etc.), which was a little more entrenched in Greyhawk as the default setting. (I shortly switched to v3.5 after reading through the Expanded Psionics Handbook.)
I loved Greyhawk; it was like a giant sandbox with a vast amount of unexplored territory. However, I hated having to scrounge through 1e/2e PDFs, back issues of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, and the dry, text-heavy, encyclopedic tome that was the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Actually, as a DM it really wasn't that bad, but as the campaign continued, my players had a hard time really digging into the setting beyond what I had provided to them in the beginning.
What was lacking was something of a mix of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the 32-page D&D Gazetteer, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and the Greyhawk prestige classes and regional feats from Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. Essentially, Greyhawk needed a 3e player's guide with feats, races, prestige classes, and snippets of history easily digestible by those who are new to the setting. Without such a book, I had a hard time immersing the players in the politics and cultures of the world.
It was around 2004 when we all got burned out on Greyhawk. That's when I proposed that we explore Wizards of the Coast's first original campaign setting, Eberron.
We loved it. It was different. It took the best elements of so many things we loved and fused them together so elegantly. It was designed for the 3.5 rules rather than being designed by heavy influences from previous editions' rules. I still love Greyhawk, so it's not a case of Eberron being for the younger generation or being better than Greyhawk. It was just that Eberron allowed for more flexibility in character concepts, play styles, and world exploration.
Fast forward to 2007. Wizards of the Coast announced the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. At this point, I wasn't ready to switch. I had accumulated a vast amount of 3e and v3.5 D&D books and accompanying accessories, and I was generally OK with the system. However, the more I heard about 4e, the more I was intrigued, particularly about the software side of things. WotC's entire presentation was focused on faster prep and faster play. I was intrigued, but I wanted to wait to see if what they pitched matched what the actual product upon release.
Well, it didn't matter much in the end. By the time 4e was released, my wife was about 7-8 months pregnant and my time was already becoming limited as she needed more of my help around the house. I also pretty much knew that 4e wasn't that much more efficient; not as much as I needed it to be. Besides, I simply didn't want to spend the money on a whole new set of books when I had a baby on the way. Additionally, the software WotC planned to release as part of the 4e package wasn't even in beta yet.
Around mid-to-late August, RPTroll on the RPTools.net forums announced he was going to run a demo of Savage Worlds on MapTool. I guess he and this other guy, snikle, had been playing Savage Worlds via MapTool for a little while and wanted to demonstrate it for others. I had been curious about Savage Worlds having heard about how easy it is to run so I signed up.
RPTroll told me to download a copy of the Test Drive Rules from Pinnacle Entertainment's Downloads page, so I did. I had only read the first three pages of the PDF, and I was hooked. This was what I wanted. This was fast and easy to play. This was what would allow me to continue enjoying RPGs while not taking too much time away from my family.
I immediately ordered the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition online. It was $10! Ten dollars! That's far cheaper for a core set of rules than D&D. That's perfect for someone who has a child on the way and needs to tighten their purse strings.
The game was being run on a Thursday night, and my book arrived that evening just before the game. (I didn't really need it for the game, but I wanted it nonetheless.)
The game was a blast. It was easy to learn, easy to play, and I could see how easy it was to run. Savage Worlds isn't a rules-light system, but it is a rules-simple sytem, and it was more than I had hoped.
Ironically, that night was not only the night that I discovered Savage Worlds, it was also the night my wife went into labor.
Amaril (that's me): "Uh, guys. I gotta go. My wife is having steady contractions."
About 26 hours later, my daughter was born.
I obviously took time off away from gaming for some time. It was around November when I picked it back up again. That's when I started revisiting the MapTool forums and working on macros for Savage Worlds. Then I really got to know this RPTroll guy pretty well. He had more skills with scripting than I, but his output and UI design left something to be desired so I offered to help him out.
Since discovering Savage Worlds, I've been slowly but steadily working on an Eberron conversion based on some bits found across the Intertubes and my own interpretations. I've also dabbled a bit with a S&S-style Greyhawk game set in Stonehold. I'm digressing.
As we got to know one another, we also talked a lot about how challenging it can be to still enjoy RPGs as a hobby while still trying to fulfill family and work obligations. After a while, I got the idea for this blog. I got to learn more about snikle, too, and knew he'd be a great contributor to this blog.
Well, that about sums up my personal gaming history up to this point. Can't wait to see what the future brings!
