tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post8558152097657959959..comments2024-03-27T20:09:00.283-04:00Comments on Tenkar's Tavern: Grow the Hobby, Regain the Wonder - Guest Poster - Michael "Zudrak" GrossTenkarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05159289652051155824noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-771574296495050302018-02-09T03:52:16.615-05:002018-02-09T03:52:16.615-05:00My mother mail-ordered the boxed set (Holmes Basic...My mother mail-ordered the boxed set (Holmes Basic) from an ad in Boys' Life Magazine in the very late 70s. I was 11 or 12. As soon as I saw the Sutherland art on the cover I was hooked. I moved on to AD&D soon after, which is still my favorite edition. For my part, I'm DMing my daughters, their boyfriend(s) and my son-in-law in an AD&D campaign. My oldest daughter and her husband have both created campaigns using v3.5. The saga continues...SCE DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10473859875347172757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-77402174069284716412018-02-08T15:52:47.492-05:002018-02-08T15:52:47.492-05:00Cool! I have no experience whatsoever with WFRP, b...Cool! I have no experience whatsoever with WFRP, but I hear from those who have played (including our barkeep, Tenkar) that it is a fun game.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-16501792278343178532018-02-08T15:50:53.572-05:002018-02-08T15:50:53.572-05:00Thank you, Venger! Thank you, Venger! Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-15307618888560472782018-02-08T15:50:22.338-05:002018-02-08T15:50:22.338-05:00How fortunate! The kids will benefit with an exper...How fortunate! The kids will benefit with an experienced teacher as their sponsor. Thanks for sharing that and thanks for your service.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-16755800277376882732018-02-07T10:43:02.537-05:002018-02-07T10:43:02.537-05:00It started off for me when I saw a copy of the Rul...It started off for me when I saw a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia in a second-hand book store, I was wondering around a town (I can't remember where) with my father on a terribly tedious shopping trip, and I had some money that I'd saved in my pocket. My original plan was to buy the book, but my father persuaded me not to make an impulse buy, saying that we could always come back and get it later if I saw nothing else. Of course when we went back to get the book someone had purchased it while we were elsewhere, I ended up buying some crappy choose-your-own-adventure book (that disappeared into the ether a short time later) and my father put up some extra money to buy me a hardback Tolkien Bestiary (since I think hefelt sorry for me).<br /><br />I didn't do anything connected with roleplay until my early teens when I received a copy of MB Games Heroquest for Christmas, this lead to me getting involved with Warhammer and Games Workshop (I know), but I found that I preferred writing the backstories to my armies and imagining the generals and champions rather than actually playing the game. When the GW prices started getting really ridiculous I began looking elsewhere for my hobby fix and discovered the Hogshead edition of WFRP, even writing a couple of short scenarios that appeared on one of the WFRP websites in existence then. WFRP opened my eyes to the sort of game I wanted to play and--since I had the books--I was the GM, and I never looked back from there really.Red Dice Diarieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16518202580306013414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-43721820619131036402018-02-07T08:58:47.658-05:002018-02-07T08:58:47.658-05:00I never even heard of D&D in high school durin...I never even heard of D&D in high school during the late 80's, I join the Army after high school in 1990 and was deployed overseas. I found a dragonlance book laying around one day and started reading it. I quickly work my way through the series. one of the other soldiers saw me with the book and asked me if I played the game and then invited me to join him and his friends. Nothing like a bunch of Infantry guys playing D&D by flashlight. I played for several years while I was enlisted. I drifted away from the game and had not though about for many years. Then flash forward to 2016 I am a teacher now and the administration wanted every teacher to lead a club. The student picked the club and teachers signed up for the one they would run. I was at training the day the teachers signed up, so when I get back the only club without a teacher was the D&D club. So after a few decades out I'm backAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11841086943258841094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-18309608629222351892018-02-07T08:25:17.438-05:002018-02-07T08:25:17.438-05:00Good blog post, hoss!Good blog post, hoss!Venger Satanishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04447932700800930510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-21438893147697669712018-02-06T20:10:42.856-05:002018-02-06T20:10:42.856-05:00Thats almost the exact argument I used to try to b...Thats almost the exact argument I used to try to bring my group around but it didn't take. Most the guys I game with started with 2e and moved quickly to 3e when it came out and so I think for them "going back" would be playing 3e.<br /><br />I think for people just getting into RPGs it's D&D or, if they happen to be lucky enough to know someone that plays RPGs, it would be whatever that person plays.<br /><br />If I'm a new player walking into a local game store I'm going to be walking out a D&D 5e player (or maybe Pathfinder, but D&D 5e is king around here). Anything else is a niche game and isn't sold, stocked, or represented; because they don't make money I assume.<br /><br />It's funny because so many people go online for everything now you'd think someone interested in getting into RPGs would stumble across a free game like S&W and go from there. That doesn't seem to be the case however. New people still seem to want to visit brick and mortar shops to talk to real people. Which is fine but then they end up only being exposed to whatever the shop happens to sell.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08306086466457427941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-66673232637928596582018-02-06T19:39:22.603-05:002018-02-06T19:39:22.603-05:00Well said, Chris. The back-to-basics approach give...Well said, Chris. The back-to-basics approach gives the player more agency since the character being played has less bells and whistles. It's helped me win the argument when I said that the character sheet is the players' "game piece." The more the game piece can do, the less the player can do because choices are walled in by the character's abilities.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-89671785563342402432018-02-06T19:35:13.525-05:002018-02-06T19:35:13.525-05:00Nice. The good thing is that the original and adva...Nice. The good thing is that the original and advanced lines were not so far from one another. When we moved in 1982, the kids in the new town were playing Advanced. We had just moved into Marsh/Cook Expert to go with our Moldvay Basic set. It didn't take long until my brother and I adjusted. Thanks for sharing, Brett.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-52870001354936139542018-02-06T19:31:35.161-05:002018-02-06T19:31:35.161-05:00Bahahaha!
"Erelhei Cinlu?!?" :tosses b...Bahahaha! <br /><br />"Erelhei Cinlu?!?" :tosses book in the air:Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-28528318559037351562018-02-06T18:43:05.954-05:002018-02-06T18:43:05.954-05:00It was mid 80's for me, I was 8 or 9. Hanging ...It was mid 80's for me, I was 8 or 9. Hanging out at a friends place messing around with his dad's computer andjust generally being kids my friend happened to show me a box of books he had under his bed that hsi dad had bought him. Inside that box was the Mentzer red box set and Star Frontiers.<br /><br />We played both games that day, my friend as the DM and me as the single player. The Star Frontiers game I don't remember but the D&D one I sure do. I played a Dwarf, I found a treasure map that ended up leading me to a stash of 1000 platinum, I remember asking "What does 1000 platinum look like?" and my friend replying, "Its a shiny block about the size of a car". That moment has stuck with me since. <br /><br />Those two games were the only RPGs I played until high school when I got pulled into a game of Heroes Unlimited and things just took off from there. Been playing RPG's ever since.<br /><br />I've tried to get back to playing Basic D&D but I find that many players who have played newer, more "modern" games have a hard time returning to the "basics". That could just be my game group however. Its a shame because theres a lot of wonder to be had when you get back to being a kid.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08306086466457427941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-55878918854060289142018-02-06T15:35:23.574-05:002018-02-06T15:35:23.574-05:00Fall of 1979, I was a sophomore in high school. A ...Fall of 1979, I was a sophomore in high school. A guy I made friends with in math class carried around with him some non-school books, which I now know were the 1e core rule books. I eventually asked him about the books and he invited me to his weekly Saturday game to see what it was all about. It was a lot of fun and I soon bought the Holmes boxed set for myself. That was before I understood about different editions of the game, all I knew was that the box said Dungeons & Dragons on the cover.Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15771231698501570926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-54001155996512698242018-02-06T15:20:44.157-05:002018-02-06T15:20:44.157-05:00My father once told me he flipped through one of m...My father once told me he flipped through one of my D&D books just to see what all the "D&D is bad" fuss was all about. I asked him which one, and it turns out he picked Vault of the Drow. He told me he couldn't understand a word of it, so it was probably okay. :-)Greyhawk Grognardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13929743865700766901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-53639131893148748782018-02-06T14:03:40.053-05:002018-02-06T14:03:40.053-05:00Misfit toys finding a loving "home" make...Misfit toys finding a loving "home" makes for a great Christmas story. Thanks, Denis! Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-33362772632898937822018-02-06T13:50:58.884-05:002018-02-06T13:50:58.884-05:00When I was 11, my older sister subscribed to Mythl...When I was 11, my older sister subscribed to Mythlore, which was a LotR and Narnia fanzine. One Christmas my dad got her the Phb and the Magenta Box. She had no ibterest, but I did. That door opened and never closed.Gwythainthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05184355400691527355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-19631207998277633272018-02-06T13:11:24.773-05:002018-02-06T13:11:24.773-05:00Wow. That's quite the unique experience. Thank...Wow. That's quite the unique experience. Thanks for commenting, T.G. <br /><br />Reactionaries, censors, and shows like 60 Minutes did much harm to the RPG hobby. Instead of having D&D lauded as something that was inspired from reading and could inspire one to read more, players had to defend their choice of game.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-25379348380484076442018-02-06T13:02:22.977-05:002018-02-06T13:02:22.977-05:00Excellent! Thanks for sharing, Josh.Excellent! Thanks for sharing, Josh.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-309541162377794842018-02-06T13:00:21.953-05:002018-02-06T13:00:21.953-05:00It spreads like a virus. The only cure is MOAR RPG...It spreads like a virus. The only cure is MOAR RPG.Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-44395236094758523982018-02-06T12:05:52.858-05:002018-02-06T12:05:52.858-05:00I got into RPGs as a lad of 9 years old in 1988 or...I got into RPGs as a lad of 9 years old in 1988 or so. My father was a career Navy man and we were attending a party at his bosses house. This happened to be at Yokosuka Navy Base in Japan. The bosses oldest son had a copy of Palladium Books Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG. I was hooked at first flip through. I played for the first time that night. Mom thought D&D was satanic but the turtles were good to go! I would hide my D&D books from her for years. Spines facing inward on the bookcase so they didn’t get binned while I was at school.<br /><br />I couldn’t find the core book at the base book store (which had a surprisingly large rpg section) but I cobbled together a game with the rules I could remember and the After the Bomb setting sourcebook. I later mail ordered the code book and hence became the forever DM. T.G. Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00527211964131659943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-72673983153442959062018-02-06T11:49:50.415-05:002018-02-06T11:49:50.415-05:00I knew of D&D because of games like Baldur’s G...I knew of D&D because of games like Baldur’s Gate and because of the novels. But my first time playing was because of my uncle. We played 3rd edition. It was like an eight hour game with a mindflayer at the end of the adventure that we had to kill. It was awesome.Josh Beckelhimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00744921526846445990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-25616414338851297822018-02-06T11:27:19.970-05:002018-02-06T11:27:19.970-05:00Cool stuff, Joe. I regret not learning about those...Cool stuff, Joe. I regret not learning about those "bookcase" war games and the like until much later when I discovered Dragon Magazine. Zudrak (Michael G.)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13516066174600510254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-69895448893692649202018-02-06T11:00:58.730-05:002018-02-06T11:00:58.730-05:00I saw D&D ads in comics for years before meeti...I saw D&D ads in comics for years before meeting anyone who played. It was during the Satanic Panic and my parents and grandparents wouldn't pick it up for me. However, I was able to get MSH. Fast forward a couple of years and I had a friend that played D&D and another that had MERP which he gave to me if I remember correctly. RPG fever just snow balled from there.Chris Hambrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04064352346010040713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724254580047847936.post-48548968798055610102018-02-06T10:41:36.722-05:002018-02-06T10:41:36.722-05:00I started off as a hex-and-counter wargamer, with ...I started off as a hex-and-counter wargamer, with SPI and Avalon Hill games like Tactics II, Afrika Korps, World War 3, and Invasion America. RPGs were in the air at the time (mid/late 70's), and I kept seeing references to D&D in catalogs, so I picked up the LBB's out of curiosity, and then almost immediately Holmes Basic.Greyhawk Grognardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13929743865700766901noreply@blogger.com