How I came to love old role-playing games
This is me just trying to explain why I like and love older games.
Why do I like Paranoia! but love Metamorphosis Alpha? Why do I like 3E D&D but love OD&D (plus Grey Hawk)? Why Classic Traveller over most sci fi games?
Really I have reasons for each, I suppose, but when you see a pattern in yourself you can either deny that it exists or admit the truth to yourself. I see this pattern and I am trying to embrace rather than deny the truth of it. Hence my screen name, a purposeful corruption of the words "Old school gamer".
I grew up in the eighties, about ten years after most of these games were published. I grew up playing the common games of the times (with the exception of any form of D&D); mostly Champions (HERO system), then Fantasy Hero, then GURPS 3rd ed., and finally White Wolf games (World of Darkness).
I travelled in a clique in my town where we loved the idea of point buy character creation. Champions was largely a series of duels and simple punch outs in our game group. GURPS 3rd ed. was really my first taste of Serious character creation (wink! wink!). We played a lot of GURPS mostly because it was the chosen game of our dedicated Game Master (GM) let's call him B., and he was really excellent.
We tried adventures, in basically, each of the GURPS game books. Our GM could be relied upon to buy each read them and run an adventure from each. At some point he contacted SJ Games and we started to do a little playtesting for them (for free). B. (the GM) was to some degree a writer, and games were an outlet for that.
At some point I took a break from gaming for a few years, and when I returned B. was using the World of Darkness games from White Wolf. He wrote and co-authored several book and supplements for them. I had no idea how many until I met a young woman from Germany, who loved White Wolf's publications. She recognized B.'s name instantly when I mentioned playtesting with him (to impress her).
As long as B. was around we had World of Darkness games from White Wolf to play. Until he moved, of course. Most of my old gaming crew moved from my home town (really a city) off to the four corners of the world.
It was not to the early 2000's that I really returned gaming. That was when I ran my first brief campaign set on Tekumal using...GURPS 3rd ed. (Brett Slocum's Tekumel site) That was popular enough with my players to that I thought of running other games. This was when Griffin Mountain (about which I have blogged) entered my life, bringing with it Runequest 2 and 3.
I blogged about The Arduin Grimoires, as well. Another old game influence. I remember also growing up reading Dragon Magazine, and seeing articles on Metamorphosis Alpha rpg that interested me. Slowly interest in these games was building in me.
Then point at which all things turned to old games was about six to eight months after COVID hit. My girlfriend broke up with me (leaving me very alone with extra time), both of my parents died (leaving me a bit of money, now gone), and I was fired from my last most serious job (again more time).
I had been entertaining the idea of gaming online and since I was now part of the online world (like everyone) I thought of online gaming. My first stop was Reddit, the LFG's (looking for games) section. I lurked there for probably a couple of months until I saw an LFG for an Empire of the Petal Throne game. I replied pretty quickly, and I joined a group of young people.
We had a campaign DMed very well by S. using the original EPT rules. We played for about a year and a half, until we found out about M.A.R. Barker and his Pro-Nazi connections. That pretty much put a nail in EPT for me. Our group discussed it, and we came to the consensus that we couldn't continue to play EPT. We played a few other games, but we soon split up.
I wandered other parts of the internet. My EPT group had turned me on to using Discord as a means of communication.
I had used some of my inheritance to buy PODS of a few older games, mostly Runequest 2. I also bought a few games I had wanted to read for years on eBay.
I read a lot of blogs and when I searched the term Arduin I started seeing people talking about āThe OSRā as a thing. I read several blogs before I started to think I really liked what I was hearing about it.
I joined a few servers (including a pivotal Big gay server that was labeled OSR). I found an OD&D game on line and played a few games.
I liked it and I searched out another OD&D game. We only played a few sessions but I liked it. At some point I joined a Holmes D&D group for a session.
I really liked the discussions and dialogues I saw on this big gay OSR server. The people there talked about a lot of games and they talked about old games as well.
But I was distracted by Runequest. After having M.A.R Barkerās EPT ruined for me I longed for another deeply detailed fantasy world. So I gravitated to Glorantha and Runequest.
I thought I was familiar with Runequest 2 & 3 (wrong). Everything I was seeing was for the new RQG, so I tried playing a few games. I didnāt care for it.
I managed to find a group playing RQ 1-2 and I joined, and I had a personality issue with someone and quit.
I found a different group using RQ 2 which I thought I might like better, we were using live text. It was a small group of one other person, the GM and me. I loved it, but I had a major health problem and had to quit to take care of my health.
When my health was better the small group had folded. I joined a group playing RQG and I played through Six Seasons in Sartar.
I really disliked how that adventure was written and the I almost quit. I stayed through the end of it and was fine when we finished it.
I decided to maybe give up gaming, however I wanted to keep my games this time.
At some point my friend from the old EPT group talked me into playing a game with him. I got the gaming bug again. This time though I wanted to be the Game Master.
The Big gay Server had a lot of DMs and GMs, that was kind of were they hung out. I wanted some more advice about being a Game Master before I tried it. I had decided I wanted to GM RQ 2 and that was as far as I had gotten.
I asked for some advice on getting a game started. I recieved the simple gospel of; use a little material (core book, and one or two other supplements), and I was to start GMing and gaming ASAP!!! That message was 95% of what I needed to hear to get me started!!!
Retired Adventurer (Retired Adventurer) gave me the last 5% of secret sauce I needed (thank you RA) to feel prepared. I started looking for players for an OpenQuest RPG game of Griffin Mountain shortly.
Shortly OpenQuest RPG every other week wasnāt enough and I thought to try GMing RQ 2 again. I formed up a core group for a game set in pavis, and that has been the most challenging thing Iāve ever done in my gaming life.
Reading the RuneQuest 2 rules is tough enough, as a player. When youāre the Game Master your command of them has to jump up a lot.
Iām challenged constantly to keep up with rules on drowning, encumbrance, on top of rules on combat and magic. RQ 2 is really the one old game I feel is surpassed by a younger cousin Openquest rpg. RQ:G has many of the issues I saw in RQ 2.
Why did I grow to love these old games? To my mind it's a matter of preference. I prefer to build a character up from a low starting point (even if relatively quickly) than start as peer to one of the Greek heroes or Demi-gods. Most of the time.
Shout out first to Justin H., Jenx, Havoc, Oldhawkeyes for being my first player (and a Great Classic Trav. GM), and to Retired Adventurer for explaining how to run a campaign setting of any scope without psyching myself out.