Hey folks! I’m a returning member. Years ago I spent a lot of time loitering fault in the chat room of the old site. My username was jb105 then. So many good conversations about gaming. I look forward to meeting new friends and linking up with old. 
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Sadly, making a living in the RPG industry is a super tough gig.
Those look super nice, @TwoGunBob!
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Very nice reading through all of these intros, with people from so many era’s and systems. I was notified I am almost out of likes just from reading through here and appreciating everyone’s background!
My name is Chris, turning 51 in a couple weeks.
My intro to all this was with D&D in January 1980 at my friend’s house with his older brother who had what 8 year old me thought was the most amazing castle and dungeon construct made of Lego, Clay, Balsa Wood and, of course Paint, complete with Miniatures! I was hooked. That campaign ended almost as soon as it began as that older brother went back to college, then my moving away.
A few months later I had my own Red Box, followed about a year later with the Blue Box. I would GM with anyone interested, but never anything regular. When I was 12 a friend of my father’s saw me running an adventure with a friend. He left and came back with a large gymbag full of the core 1e AD&D books, dozens of supplemental adventures, cities, dungeons all gathered over a number of years, and a storage box full of painted miniatures which he insisted I borrow and try something outside of those boxes.
Eventually I had my own books, miniatures, etc, and had a regular campaign going for a few years. Until moving again.
A few years later in high school some friends asked if I wanted to play D&D and I eagerly accepted, showing up with my full stash of everything 1e, only to learn that 2e was now a thing and that was what they were playing. So, of course I hated it at first.
Eventually played Ravenloft and Dark Sun with a couple groups, the I GM’ed Planescape and Birthright for a couple other groups. Then “life”.
A trip to see what was going on in the world of gaming at my favorite local tabletop shop happened to be the day the owner was putting up the new 3e materials. I scooped up literally everything over the next few months to prep for the next group of victims I could conjure with my own homebrew campaign which incorporated some of the world of Birthright with 3e, as best as I could manage. Turned out a group of my wife’s friends caught wind of what I was doing, and they wanted to try D&D after enjoying another popular system at that time (Vampires and Werewolves, oh my!). They were an excellent group until one of them died, and we had trouble continuing as the group without him. I think we had probably run our course by then, regardless.
A couple years later my son and one of his friends asked me questions about D&D, since my collection of books, boxes, etc were stores on a closet shelf in my son’s room. Next thing you know I’m running a 4e campaign for my son and his friends.
Ultimately my son and his friends found other groups and “life” found me ending our campaign. But it was a boon to my son who inherited EVERYTHING I owned. All of it.
So this “return” here is a bit awkward because I have no rules or reference material! I had not even considered starting anything up again until reading the invite email, and the invite thread
I’ll be mostly lurking perhaps as my now-virginal status of having no readily available materials, and being several years out from doing any gaming, actually affords me the ability to see what folks are doing and pick something to dip my toes into.
I think this is a great group here from all of the intros.
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I feel like I’m late to the party here. Just got back from Amsterdam.
My name is Russell and I made my first character back in 78. Unfortunately, I never actually got to play until 88 and instantly fell in love with the game.
Fast forward to 2007. After spending so many years playing the game and relying, for the most part, on the local comic book store and word of mouth to find fellow gamers, I found Pen & Paper Games. Suddenly, a great new way to find players! I loved it. Eventually, I ran my own, very enjoyable play by post and played in others.
When Farcaster changed/updated the site’s format, it was not quite as much fun . Yes, I know, there were a lot of silly, nonsensical threads back in the day. But I made a lot of friends both online and in person because of the connections I made there. I stuck with the site for a while, but eventually it became clear that it was no longer what it once was. So, I’m hopeful that this new version, while it may be quite different, will become something that will be just as useful and enjoyable as the first version once was.
In the meantime, I have since spent a lot of my time traveling around the world and exploring other rpgs, ranging from Trail of Cthulu to Night’s Black Agents to Pathfinder. I am currently about to restart an online Rebooted Greyhawk campaign and really looking forawrd to it!
Thanks, @Farcaster, for giving this another shot and sending me the invite!
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Think of it as a new era of being a player!
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I reckon I’m next, then. I go by Mac online, mostly. I’m a grumpy old 54. 
Married, 8 children, all but one grown. 7 grandkids. Cheeseburger and Stout fan.
Started playing D&D back in '79 or '80. I can’t remember if I played Chainmail first, or the Red Box Basic edition. It was a loooong time ago. Anywho, like most of these dice flinging geezers, I’ve run the gauntlet of most games made in the 80s (from D&D, AD&D to V&V to Space Opera, TW2000, Gamma, Paranoia, Boot Hill, BTech, Car Wars, Marvel, Champions, GURPS, etc.), a fair amount in the 90s (mostly WoD, 2nd Ed AD&D, and a ton of indie games), and then moved into MMOs in the 00s (but still played a ton of 3.5e, Eden Studios stuff, and WoD campaigns).
Currently, I still play SWTOR online, D&D 3.5 Ravenloft campaign setting (that I run), I am being dragged into the 21st century by one of my younger sons with playing D&D 5, and I am slowly working on a future campaign for a Conspiracy X / Call of Cthulhu crossover, probably set in the 1930s-40s.
I am also semi-retired, as of Friday, doing some independent philosophical/theological research, and working on a few novels, varied genres, fiction, first one is a darkish fantasy. Can’t say anymore yet.
I’m glad this site was reformatted and restarted. I definitely miss hanging out with my own peers, especially now that I am living up in the northern wastelands of the Dakotas. Hard to find gamers here. Can you believe it?
If anyone does the Old Republic thing, and is on Star Forge, hit me up if you like.
Cheers!
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I’d post mine, but they are too shyto get hin front of the camera, they are that beat up.
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The fact that you still have them is a grand testament to the game. 
Greetings! I’m Jason. One of two brothers behind Wood Planet Gaming Lodge. Thanks to my brother, I’ve been into TTRPGs for 30+ years. Cut my teeth on a home-brew setting using Chaosium’s BRP system. From there went into Star Wars d6 and Call of Cthulhu. I didn’t play any other systems for a longtime, but later on I got into some Savage Worlds, Supernatural, and Hollow Earth Expedition. Of late I’ve fell in love with OSR games (specifically White Star) and Mothership. I feel fortunate to come from a gaming family. Between my kids, my dad, my siblings, and even some cousins we can always get a game going if no friends are available.
As I said elsewhere I played through and took over a weekly White Star campaign that lasted for probably six months. Currently playing a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign ran by my brother. Come New Year I’ll be kicking off a Tall Tales B/X campaign. Additionally, my brother and I will be releasing a 3rd party planetary setting book for White Star. So, I’ve been keeping busy rolling dice.
Outside of TTRPGs, I’m simply a dude who enjoys pipes and cigars with my wife. I also happen to be an Anglican priest.
Anyways… I’m glad to be back for the relaunch.
Keep those dice rolling!
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Those 1st edition core books were BUILT.
Here is the D&D shelf. The digest sized brown 0 edition books are in a file folder. AD&D, 2ed AD&D, 3.5 D&D and Pathfinder. 4th does not darken this shelf. 3.0 was moved downstairs. I didn’t figure I needed instant access to both.
The two cases on the top are pocket knives.
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Ah, I see you have ducks in your dungeons…
All in a row. That is my milk and quackers.
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Players beware! One should know better than to touch a duck in a dungeon.
(Munckin card game reference)
That was one shelf. The two under it are RPG books. A full case in the basement and the file cabinet full of modules. I never throw anything out.
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I gave away all my (A)D&D stuff to kids, but ended up tossing my Dragon magazines as they weren’t interested. Kept all my other games. I also have hundreds of pdf games.
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Glad to see this site resurface. I always thought the map feature was one of the most useful ways to assemble a group. I’m one of the people who used it pretty much for that, and once I found a group I didn’t use the site much. But each time I moved it helped me find a community of people to game with.
I’ve been playing since I was 5. WEG Star Wars was actually the first game I cut my teeth on (then 2nd Edition D&D the very next day), but the TTRPG scene has moved a lot since then. Now I am a huge fan of narrative systems, especially PbtA games: Masks, Brindlewood Bay, Dungeonworld (and its many offshoots), and things I’ve found PbtA hacks for (like Star Wars or Conan). Hoping the site can help bring together the smaller niches, the indie games and connnect people in ways that just a rolling list of advertisements alone in a forum can’t do.
Can’t wait to see how things shake out as the site reemerges for a new era.
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That looks like a great game space! That bare wall behind you makes my merchandising instincts kick into to overdrive. Merch that wall 
!
Those old books full of traps and puzzles are worth their weight in gold to an unprepared DM!!
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