(Another) New Beginning

Where did all the content go?

It’s my habit after letting something, like this blog, to sit idle for an extended period of time to scratch it and start fresh. Things are a little different this time around. None of the projects have been scratched. In fact, a new one has been added to the list. I’m not starting any of the older projects from scratch. Work has been done on them, and there’s no reason to toss that. Things are continuing at their usual slow pace.

I am, however, taking this opportunity to go over some of the content here. As some of the projects have changed or been scrapped (before the lapse in updates), I’ve pulled everything for the time being. Much of the content will be back up after some review and possible revisions. There will also be new updates, including a brief post about each of my current projects that will be covered here.

Between the old content being re-posted and the new content already written, there should be regular updates here for a while. Beyond that, well, the hope (as always) is that I continue writing. Join me as I once again head down the road of game design.

My Credentials

A few months ago, I realized that I’d been role-playing for just about 25 years. I started in 3rd grade. 3rd grade! I have played and/or gamemastered tons of games. I never seriously tried to design my own, however. I mean, a couple of times, I threw some ideas together, but I never really put any effort into them.

My most notable (and latest) attempt was in high school, about… 13 years ago or so. And even then, it wasn’t going to be entirely original. The setting was that of Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series of novels, and the origins of the system were gleaned from the first book of that series, when Andy-Andy is creating her character.

I started role-playing because of my older brother. Well, actually, it was due to an even older kid who lived down the street. His name was Andy, and looking back, I can’t even think of why he would hang out with a couple of younger kids like us. He used to bring us pirated copies of games for our Commodore 64, he brought us tapes of music he was into (he’s to blame for my interest in Genesis and, therefore, Peter Gabriel), and at one point he brought over a role-playing game.

Andy started by running for my brother and his friends. I’d sit and watch whenever I could. The game he was running was called MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing). It was too complicated for me, but I liked to pretend that I could play. I’m sure I was very annoying-little-brother-like. Eventually, Andy brought over Marvel Super Heroes, and said that I could play. I have no concept anymore of what happened. Who I played, if I made my own character or used a pre-generated one, what the adventure was, any of it. But it obviously made an impression.