This was definitely one of the things that created the perfect storm, to use another cliche, that got me fired up about gaming back in the seventies. Technically I started with the blue basic set and 1st got incorperated as we went along and finally into Advanced D&D.8P
In the same format of half page box set was Traveller in 1977.
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| Not just old school it's good reading folks! Wargaming roots are showing big time. |
Very similar to you mate - I started with the red D&D basic set, probably early 80s, with Keep on the Borderlands module... progressed from their through Expert and AD&D... then exams and life got in the way... came back to it briefly many years later to be bamboozled by the array of options available, and which was the best... 3.0, 3.5, 4.0 ? WTF... I think it would be too difficult to know where to start it now! I considered getting The One Ring - 'Adventures' recently, but it doesnt seem miniatures based and I always liked the interaction with the models and floor plans... ah well...
ReplyDeleteFor me the most usable stuff is just the modules themselves. For rules I prefer D&D Cyclopedia if it has to be D&D.
DeleteOtherwise I'm a big One Roll Engine fan. Fast and simple. But I do have a few nostalgia books for sure.;-)
1976? Man, Adam, you're old! :P First one I played properly was RQ III, and I came fairly late to that.
ReplyDeleteScott/Adam (who possibly know already?) 'Old School Renaissance' role playing, right down to using the original brown books is absolutely a thing on the internet. It's not so much my thing, but then I keep wanting a perfect version of my first thing - gritty and random simulation-ism :)
Looking forward to d&d 5.0, when it comes out next year; and Scott, will be running a game tonight where there will be models of guys in their C15th Sallets, and armed with Goatslever crossbows, and it will be on a hex based battle board (if John remembers it...)
No shit I'm old.8P I remember RQ when it was the new blasphemy!
DeleteI've backed off the grit settings over the years, don't need the tables.
And I'll be there!
Not at D&D 5.0... but I'll probably end up playing and I won't sulk. Fair warning, I might kill things and take their stuff.
Hi Adam - At the rate I go, I`d pobably pick up a new D&D and then play it two years later.... Hope you found my 'new RQ' gritty but with easy rules.
ReplyDeleteHaha, that's the nature of new games isn't it?
DeleteYeah fun game last night, despite getting my face chewed off by zombies. I do think the system is quite good.
It did make me look up some additions to my armor. Realized I should be wearing a gambeson, with brigandine as well as plate on my arms and legs and a sallet. ;-)
That is seriously cool. I got into AD&D in August '82, we were 4th formers and thought that Basic (OD&D) as for kids so started with the far more adult (or so we thought) Advanced version. First ever game was the Dwellers of the Forbidden City and have been hooked ever since.
ReplyDeleteDucks put me of Runequest early on, we dabbled in Rolemaster briefly and many other systems over the years (Aftermath being one I really enjoyed) but we've alwas gone back to D&D. I got a group together when I moved back to NZ and the convinced me to run 3E (2001ish) but I burned DMing that by out by 2004 and have mainly played C&C or a 1E/2E since then. We dabbled in 4E but most of us didn't really like it and when one of our regulars threatened to quit the group permanently we gave up on it. 2013 saw my son Finn become a regular member of or game. I Hope to wrap up our current C&C game soon and get into some old school AD&D for 2014. We tried some of the playtests for 5E but gave up and went back to C&C. I don't see enough that I like in the playtests to want to go with 5E but we may give it a go when it comes out.
In 82 I was playing a lot of traveler and ad&d with some merp thrown in.
DeleteHad the same reaction to the ducks but I also had some friends who played and didn't use them.
Our last sessions of 3.25 weren't bad at all, in fact pretty fun despite Jamie's frustration at our xp and loot hoarding ways. Which in fact we do no matter the system!
I love starting out first level (ad&d) with virtually no hit points and really knowing fear! =-O
RQ did seem to get a lot of stick for the poor Donald Duruulzs. However, I think even most Glorantha (the main setting) players didn't use/like them either and, to be honest, I never ran a Glorantha game because it just wasn't accessible to a comparative latecomer in the pre-internet days. It was an amazing system for Fantasy worlds inspired by historical settings though, and this was the default setting (ie Mythic Earth) in the RQIII rulebook. I don't know if you've looked at supplements like 'Vikings' but the attention to accurate detail is amazing. It's more the settings (even Glorantha) that made RQ 'realistic' see this old review quote lol "Cutting mistakes - In a thirty minute Runequest battle (Chaosium) involving 6000 armored, experienced warriors using Great Axes, more than 150 men will decapitate themselves and another 600 will chop off their own arms or legs."
ReplyDeleteI tried doing D&D recently but have run screaming back to historical fantasy.
I do like the rq system as well, do you still have a copy of Vikings? That would be cool to incorporate into a saga campaign maybe?
DeleteEpic is looking pretty good so far as well, seven foot tall long bow men aside!
I got my face chewed off which is pretty standard for me.
Build a skill monkey light fighter and put him in the front line every time!
Ouch!