Getting to know some of you

[KILLGORE]

I started in 1979 with DND. Although I really enjoy 5E, there are times I miss 1E/2E. A little of it is nostalgia, of course, but everything was fresh and new--not simply a rehash or re-invention of established content. Back then, I played everything TSR made...DND, Top Secret, Boot Hill, Gamma World, Star Frontiers among others. I found myself branching out to other companies/systems. Played the hell out of some Rolemaster... Original Rifts. FASA Star Trek. Had some great pulp adventures with a game called Justice Inc. I also began wargaming slightly before DND. I ended up owning probably two thirds of everything Avalon Hill made...man I miss that company...another casualty of Hasbro. Also played countless hours of Star Fleet Battles.

Today I mostly play 5E. All of my gaming is done through FG. I tried Foundry, and while I won't say anything bad about it, I simply like FG more. I have a pretty well established group of 6 players, none of whom I knew before we started playing DND together on FG. We've been playing together almost 4 years now. We are planning our first meet at PAX Unplugged (Philadelphia) in November. It will also be my first game convention. We started out playing 5E together with me as forever GM. Finally one of my players asked if I'd like to play and offered to GM Starfinder. So we alternated weekly between DND and SF. Lately, we're still doing DND, but that same player has fallen in love with Dungeon Crawl Classic. We've had a blast running through a couple of funnels and we're getting ready to start a full Lankhmar campaign. Lankhmar is one of my favorite settings, so I'm really looking forward to playing through it. Two weeks ago, we took a break from DND and played the Alien RPG. Most of my group are fans of the movies/setting. I'm not going to lie, it was the most fun I've had GMing something in a long time and my players, who are usually a pretty crunch loving group, stepped out of their comfort zones and dove into playing the pre-made characters--all of whom have their own secret motivations/agendas. We got just half way through the intro adventure, the Last Days of Hadley's Hope. The game really surprised me and even though I know it's not feasible in FG, I'd love to drag and drop the stress system into my DND game.

While I enjoy the content of Critical Role, I held off on Daggerheart, for now. I'm really intrigued by Draw Steel though. I saw a couple video reviews and liked what I saw. Enough that I'm considering swapping out DND for DS. I'm not trying to get political--I love my DND, but I'm not a fan of Hasbro and while I believe DND will survive, I wonder if it will have the same soul.

Your story is very similar to mine as in going back into dnd after many years playing other systems. I enjoyed reading this.

[Mytherus]

This is only my 7th year playing dnd with fantasy grounds. Which also coincides with the same year I came back to the hobby. I played AD&D in the late 80s to early 90s. In high school a couple summers I’d run short games for some friends . I also played twilight 2000 GURPS car wars robotech (literally it was one game though) on or two others I forget. Then the in the mid 90s until 2018 I didn’t play any ttrpgs I only played computer game rpg games. But I got my brother using fantasy grounds too but he plays with a separate group . We don’t play together.

Since I’ve been back to playing using fantasy grounds 98% of everything I e played in the last seven years had been 5e. I played a couple sessions of star finder I think as starting a pathfinder game (as a player) but that fell apart for weird reasons before it ever started. I keep wanting to play different systems but I do like 5e and I have just so much material for 5e and this so much more money tied up in 5e than any other system. That with limited time it’s very hard to switch to playing a different system. I lm making a go at learning daggerheart. There’s stuff I already do not like though in that system but with some of the options for more organized play might fix some of it. (I do not like the no initiative thing not for playing over a vtt with just voice comms , a live in person game that’s different) so if I run that I’m going to use the optional spotlight rule or whatever they call it in the book. (I’ve only just started reading the pdf ).

[Blahness98]

I got into the hobby when a few college friends invited me to play 3e in the tail end of 2002. The group then moved to 3.5e and kept playing for a while before it broke up because we graduated and moved out of the area. My sister and her friends were running a Cyberpunk 2020 game that I was able to join in with for a while before she moved out of the area. And then I kinda just drifted. Reading PDFs of various systems, collecting digital versions of the games I wanted to play but couldn't find a group for. The usual when you couldn't find a group to join in/didn't have time to join in with. Didn't do much aside from read for a few years. Got the bug to play again and went looking for a way to play online. Found FG and thought it was a good tool and managed to score a Dragon Lance game with an awesome GM. Played that until the game broke up in the second book. Tried playing in a few other games, swapped over to the brand new Pathfinder rules around 2010 and started running that. 15 years later, still running PF1e.

A lot of different systems have come and gone in that time that I read and wanted to play. Had fun with Cyberpunk 2020 and really want to give RED a try. The Cypher System is something I want to run at some point and am working on my own take of LITRPG using the system. It will be interesting if/when I get the basics down. I tried but couldn't get into 5e after playing PF so long. Couldn't wrap my head around the cookie cutterness of the characters and the lack of options. Blades in the Dark and the spinoffs of that system have me interested as it seems like an RPG version of the TV show Leverage. Outgunned looks like a fun action RPG. Pathfinder 2e is something I want to play, but my PF1e brain doesn't let me differentiate between the editions even though I do like 2e. Starfinder 1e was just PF in space with unchained rules tossed in, so that wasn't as bad.

Eventually, I'll run some of the settings and systems I have on my shelf, maybe even some of the stuff I have in PDF form from Drivethru. Just got to break my PF1e addiction first..

[mhossom]

I started playing in 1978 with the Blue Box. I still have it and the full set of dice, btw. Over the years, I have played every version of D&D except 4e and 5e 2024. Along the way I have played many other systems, including Traveler, Rolemaster, PF1e, Savage Worlds, and a couple of homebrewed systems.

My current group has been using FG for a number of years now and is currently playing PF2e. I'm pretty impressed how easily FG seems to adapt to all of these systems.

Next up will probably be a Starfinder 2e campaign.

[BushViper]

I'm closing in on 50 and started playing D&D in the late 80s. However, I really cut my teeth on 2nd Edition. I played 3.x, but skipped 4e entirely and have a plenty of time in 5e, but haven't played 5.5, yet.

Over the years I've tried several other systems (Vampire, Shadowrun, GURPS, Mech Warrior, and several others), but I've never gotten even remotely as invested as I have in D&D. My physical D&D collection is truly massive -- which includes 500+ hardbacks (official and third party) and more than 1500 total unique items such as boxed sets, softcovers, etc.

I'm a forever DM and I don't ever see that changing because I don't have much typical creative talent, but worldbuilding is something I'm actually pretty good at so it gives me the needed creative outlet.

My last campaign ran for nearly 3 years and I'm gearing up to run another one of similar length.

[sorvan76]

I'm closing in on 50 and started playing D&D in the late 80s. However, I really cut my teeth on 2nd Edition. I played 3.x, but skipped 4e entirely and have a plenty of time in 5e, but haven't played 5.5, yet.

Over the years I've tried several other systems (Vampire, Shadowrun, GURPS, Mech Warrior, and several others), but I've never gotten even remotely as invested as I have in D&D. My physical D&D collection is truly massive -- which includes 500+ hardbacks (official and third party) and more than 1500 total unique items such as boxed sets, softcovers, etc.

I'm a forever DM and I don't ever see that changing because I don't have much typical creative talent, but worldbuilding is something I'm actually pretty good at so it gives me the needed creative outlet.

My last campaign ran for nearly 3 years and I'm gearing up to run another one of similar length.

Ditto on closing in on 50, lol. Remember getting invited to my first D&D session and I bit their hand off, as I was big into fantasy and had a bunch of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, which were choose-your-own adventure books. My first character was a thief, I didn't get to pick as the group were wary of the newcomer, lol.

Anyway, fast forward to now and here I am playing 5e and 5.5e, sort of a fusion at the moment. I've played loads of different stuff over the years. Was really into the Palladium stuff in the 90s, like Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas and Superspies. Always came back to D&D though. 2nd Edition was my favourite.