Troll Lord Games

I was looking over my many shelves of RPG books (19 of them) and I asked myself, "Why do I own all of these?"

I in no way asked myself that with any kind of regret. I have played all but 4 or 5 of the RPG's I own. It's my adventures I am far behind on using. I was simply wondering what led me to buying so many of them. So I looked them over again, doing my best to recall why I bought each one.

The most common reason, which is unsurprising, really, was my fellow gamers. Meaning people I actually know and game with. A guy named Mike Hassle is why I got into Traveller. A guy named Jay is why I got into Twilight 2013. Doug got me into Shadowrun. Nick Dice got me into Legend of the 5 Rings. Rob got me into Mutants and Masterminds. Don got me into CORTEX and Wild Talents. Scott got me into Chivalry and Sorcery and Pendragon. Beowulf got me into Synnibar. Josh got me into Warhammer 2E. Patrick got me into Eclipse Phase. My son Patrick got me into Cthulhu Tech. Jim Shelhimer got me into AD&D, and gaming, period. Kent Small got me into Paladium Fantasy. The list goes on.

Others I got interested in at conventions. Such as Dresden Files, Aces and Eights, Starblazers, Qin: The Warring States, Mouse Guard, Savage Worlds, and a few others.

But by far, people I know got me into playing and owning what I do. The only RPG I really got myself into is Castles and Crusades. Pretty much everything else was because of a gaming friend or a gaming convention.

I'm really glad I have had such good friends, and son, who led me into such great fun.

Money.

That, and having the opportunity to read through a book before buying it to see if it would be something I would want to play.

Oh, and at one point I had this stupid idea of collecting enough RPGs to be a "museum" of sorts, but I realize that dream is never going to happen so I have cut back considerably. There are still lots of games I want, but my decisions about whether I should or not has not, and never will be, influences by the opinions (actually playing a game, however, with someone is different -- here, I mean things like reviews or "sell me" threads) of someone else. They don't play like I do... and even if they do, I don't often agree with anyone. That's because I'm an ass.

Recently, a very tunneled vision of games I'd play. Really one game for a genre I like. (C&C for fantasy, Traveller (Mongoose) for sc-fi) That is really about it.

Before I was like a lot of people and just kind of collected games, that I thought were interesting (Lying to yourself that you'd play it someday.) and it grew almost organically.

I have C&C purely because when I found out that there was an actual paper magazine for C&C I had to check it out.

I used to like one-set-of-rules-to-rule-them-all (GURPS, EABA etc.) but they have evolved into games that sure, at the base is the basic rules, but to go into other genre's your pretty much using the same time reading the specific "add-on" as you would just buying a game that may have rules more fitting for that genre.

The generic system worked for me back then but really only wanting to play the two most popular genre's generic systems just don't make sense for me anymore.

I'm down to a free Fudge PDF and my various C&C PDFs. I've sold everything else.

Fudge is an easy fall-back I can use for whatever my whim of the moment. (I had purchased a couple of books to support the community, but those are gone too.)

I don't remember exactly how I ended up at C&C. I was on a nostalgia kick, looking at a lot of old school D&D variants, listening to podcasts, etc. Somewhere in there I heard enough passing comments about C&C to pick up the intro rules and Shadows of the Halfling Hall. Ran that for my wife. We enjoyed it enough to pick up the core books and several modules.

I got into roleplaying around 1979... my scout troop took a trip to Canada for a high adventure canoe trip (truly high adventure... dangerous stuff... you probably won't find a scout troop taking 12 year olds on a trip like that today). It was a very long drive in several large vans and one of my friends brought his newly acquired D&D books with him. We read the rules in the van and began playing. We took turns DM'ing and basically running through dungeon romps... kill monsters, get treasure, rinse and repeat. We had a blast and the multiple day drive went like lightning. I was hooked.

To make a very long story short... I began collecting D&D books and DM'ing for over 30 years with the same group of about a dozen guys. I love to read, so I began collecting other systems. Although my friends were rarely willing to try new systems... I loved reading the rules, so I kept collecting. Luckily I found C&C, bought all the books and a ton of adventures. I was lucky enough to find a group of great people (and great players) when I moved to Oregon. We played for a little over a year until my work and life became so busy that I can't find time for it (though I hope to find time again in the future).

So, I have literally hundreds of books and boxed sets, spanning 30 years and at least a dozen different gaming systems. I've considered selling most of it, but I still love reading the books, and always have the hope of getting to play.

Treebore wrote:I was looking over my many shelves of RPG books (19 of them)

I'm pretty sure by this you mean you have 19 shelves and not 19 books on many shelves (the latter would either be really weird, or would imply that the shelves are each very, very short). At any rate, could you post some sort of picture of them. I have 2 large bookcases full of RPG books and constantly get picked on by my players and kids about it. I've even been called a "hoarder" (jokingly) because of my book collection. At any rate, I want to show them what a REAL collection looks like so they get off my back about it.

A couple years back, I made the decision to pare down the RPG material I owned and while some of this has been accomplished, it is no where near where I would like or want it to be.

I have strong attachments to books / games overall. Also, when I do make room, I end up filling it up with other stuff though -- arguably this has been better or more interesting stuff.

A few of highlights of what I've managed to part with: The majority of my Forgotten Realms Campaign stuff (1st and 2nd Edition era)... all 15 books or so of the Player Reference (the brown books) series... as well as the majority of my Star Wars d6 material.

But I've also been acquiring other things though at a slower pace as these are now more carefully decided upon. The DCC RPG, Rappan Athuk, the S&W Complete (incoming), Barrowmaze I & II, Rogue Mage, etc... My shelves are 'fullish' so more needs to be 'gone'.

Ideally, I would want to bring my collection down to less than a bookcase. I currently have more than twice that amount but cutting that down by half is a challenge -- especially if I still want to get some minor value for the stuff as opposed to just giving it away.

M

redwullf wrote:

Treebore wrote:I was looking over my many shelves of RPG books (19 of them)

I'm pretty sure by this you mean you have 19 shelves and not 19 books on many shelves (the latter would either be really weird, or would imply that the shelves are each very, very short). At any rate, could you post some sort of picture of them. I have 2 large bookcases full of RPG books and constantly get picked on by my players and kids about it. I've even been called a "hoarder" (jokingly) because of my book collection. At any rate, I want to show them what a REAL collection looks like so they get off my back about it.

I actually have some pictures from earlier this year that I had up on Facebook when I still used it. If I could put up images here straight from my hard drive you would be seeing them right now, but it looks like I need to upload them to some internet location first.

I've also been wanting new book shelves because I have several 50 gallon storage bins filled with gaming books out in my garage. I should finally have them after Thanksgiving. When my daughter moves out to go to U of A in January we are turning her room into our library/office. Between my wife and I the walls should be solid book shelves, completely filled.

Just books - I'm not including PDFs, of which I have more than I'll ever read (much less play).

1) Savage Worlds: core rule book. For a while, I was a SW devotee, but I've since grown disillusioned with it. I have a pal at work who's really into SW, and a couple others who are willing to play it now and again, so I still keep the core book and some PDFs for that purpose (I was running a SW zombie apocalypse game for them for a while, though I've since grown bored with it).

2) World of Darkness: core book, Second Sight (low level magics), Antagonists (less a monster manual and more a how-to-design book), Ghost Stories (adventure scenarios and lots of GMing advice). I've wanted to run a sort of Angel Investigations campaign for some time now, and I really like the looks of this system, at least prior to having played it. I think I've conned at least a couple into considering it for sometime soon - one is a Joss Whedon fan, the other likes horror RPGs in general.

3) C&C, of course: PHB, CKG, M&T, M&ToA, CM. This is my old-school D&D variant of choice. Duh. Played with James Mishler a bit a year or so ago when he was still in the area, and I credit him with getting me hooked on it. Currently running it PbP for a childhood D&D buddy, and we're having a blast.

4) Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space: core rule boxed set. I've been in the mood to check out some cool licensed RPG with nice production values, and this caught my eye. I'm still reading through it, but so far I really like what I see. Not sure if I'll find anyone to play it with, but I'm enjoying it anyway - sometimes it's just nice to have a cool physical book to pick up, read, and think about, even if I never end up doing anything with it. I'm thinking the rule system (which they also use for their Primeval RPG) could make for a nice core / generic rule set as well.

That's it. I used to have a lot of other stuff, but I sold it off when I realized I'd never play it, or necessarily even want to.

What got me to buy the RPGs I own...

I'd been out of the RPG world for probably 16 years and when I came back from Iraq, I started picking up various RPGs part to reconnect with my youth and to reconnect with friends and make new ones. I realized life goes by quickly, and RPGs were always something I enjoyed, but drifted away from. C&C was actually one of the first few I picked up when I started collecting. I'm like Narpet and like reading, as much as collecting and playing so it all works.

Now I've got about 25 Comic Defense (Magazine size) cardboard boxes full of RPG stuff. I find they fit the RPG box set and books quite well, easily managable to move around, stack quite well, and keep everything organized. Eventually I'll put them out in a series of bookcases but for now the boxes do the job.

Treebore wrote:

redwullf wrote:

Treebore wrote:I was looking over my many shelves of RPG books (19 of them)

I'm pretty sure by this you mean you have 19 shelves and not 19 books on many shelves (the latter would either be really weird, or would imply that the shelves are each very, very short). At any rate, could you post some sort of picture of them. I have 2 large bookcases full of RPG books and constantly get picked on by my players and kids about it. I've even been called a "hoarder" (jokingly) because of my book collection. At any rate, I want to show them what a REAL collection looks like so they get off my back about it.

I actually have some pictures from earlier this year that I had up on Facebook when I still used it. If I could put up images here straight from my hard drive you would be seeing them right now, but it looks like I need to upload them to some internet location first.

I've also been wanting new book shelves because I have several 50 gallon storage bins filled with gaming books out in my garage. I should finally have them after Thanksgiving. When my daughter moves out to go to U of A in January we are turning her room into our library/office. Between my wife and I the walls should be solid book shelves, completely filled.

May I recommend Photobucket.

redwullf wrote:May I recommend Photobucket.

Yep, that is a good one. You just need to keep it public and hand out the url to people you want to see the pics. I'm doing this with the playhouse I'm building. Kind of a before and after thing.

Flickr is another good one and is more popular than Photobucket.

redwullf wrote:May I recommend Photobucket.

I actually have a photobucket account. When I see my daughter today I am going to ask her to help me take new pictures with her camera. I've easily added at least 30 new items to my shelves since the last set of pics. 2 L5R items just this past week. I got in the Book of Air and The Second City boxed set, which is one of the most awesome boxed sets I have ever purchased.

kreider204 wrote:Just books - I'm not including PDFs, of which I have more than I'll ever read (much less play).

Yeah, I started counting my PDF's last week. I quit going through the various folders on my computer after I got to 500 PDF's. Many of them are actually PDF copies of books I have in print, but at least 100 of them are PDF only products, which I am likely never going to read through, let alone play. I think I picked most of those up as part of the charity bundles I supported on drivethru.

(not counting PDFs or supplements / campaign settings.)

Castles and Crusades - I wanted something that fills the D&D ecological niche, was well supported with good production values, that wasn't as top heavy as Pathfinder and without having to cope with the whims of WOTC.

Fudge 20th Anniversary - Possibly my favorite RPG of all time. I had read about it and had admired it from afar long before I played my first RPG. Its rules light, flexible and largely simulationist by default.

Blue Rose True 20 - I wanted something that would be good at emulating Romantic Fantasy genres, like Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. Its never been used and at this point ive become convinced I would just run such a game in Fudge anyway. I might sell it soon.

D&D Rules Cyclopedia - I picked it up after a stint with Swords and Sorcery. I'm fascinated with it, but don't know if I ever will play it.

Pathfinder - Largely its kept to play with others. I used to DM it, though quickly tired of it as unnecessarily complicated and bloated (and getting more unnecessarily complicated and bloated all the time.) I sold off everything save the Players Guide and the First Advanced Players Guide.

Thousand Suns - I picked it up because it seemed to be emulating the exact type of SciFi I want to run. Don't know when ill get around to using it.

Exalted - I picked it up while swapping RPG books on RPG.net, with the fore knowledge the other DM in my group was likely to run Exalted in the future. That never happened though and its collecting dust. May trade/sell it.

trashheap wrote:Fudge 20th Anniversary - Possibly my favorite RPG of all time. I had read about it and had admired it from afar long before I played my first RPG. Its rules light, flexible and largely simulationist by default.

I've played both Fudge and FATE and I prefer FATE over Fudge. There are plenty of SRD's to get a feel for FATE, plus it is pretty well supported. YMMV and all that.

Sir Ironside wrote:I've played both Fudge and FATE and I prefer FATE over Fudge. There are plenty of SRD's to get a feel for FATE, plus it is pretty well supported. YMMV and all that.

I have never quite clicked with FATE like I do straight Fudge. The meta-narrative control aspects give, is just not my cup of tea. Though I realize im in the minority there. FATE is by far the more popular version of the two. I also think Fudge is perhaps under appreciated, and encourage folks to also check out it's free rules.

FATE can be a challenge to learn to run "right". Eventually you will, but it can take some time to get there. Recently a guy did some blog posting on Google+ that does a great job of clearly explaining how to use the rules, so if a beginner gets their hands on that first, it will make mastering FATE a lot easier. I am too invested in FATE to go with Fudge anymore. Meaning I own 3 FATE RPG's, plus I have really come to enjoy how FATE works.

trashheap wrote:The meta-narrative control aspects give, is just not my cup of tea.

Same here. I think it's a great idea, just not for me.

Just Jeff wrote:

trashheap wrote:The meta-narrative control aspects give, is just not my cup of tea.

Same here. I think it's a great idea, just not for me.

I had serious doubts about it at first as well.

trashheap wrote:I have never quite clicked with FATE like I do straight Fudge. The meta-narrative control aspects give, is just not my cup of tea. Though I realize im in the minority there. FATE is by far the more popular version of the two. I also think Fudge is perhaps under appreciated, and encourage folks to also check out it's free rules.

I don't think it is under appreciated. When I was on RPG.net there was a lot of Fudge fans, but they migrated to FATE after it came out. I mean Fudge is the ancestor of FATE.

That link I posted went to the wiki of FATE. I thought of just linking to a SRD website but there were plenty links to the FREE srd. Evil Hat didn't put out a generic FATE set of rules. They just used Spirit of the Century as their srd. Everything you need to know is within SotC for the FATE rules set, but some of those fan websites break it down so it is a generic rules set. I should also mention that I'm talking about the current FATE rules set and not the earlier ones. The current rules are much better than its predecessors. The wiki also has a list of current games that support FATE. One of the reasons (Other than liking FATE rules) that makes FATE so appealing to me. Sure FATE and Fudge are toolboxes but as I have posted on other threads, I don't have the time or inclination to create a whole world or a series of adventures. The mix of genre's that FATE provides covers most of those area's that I'm interested in.

Spirit of the Century is made to be a one-off (Though you can expand to a full fledged adventure) and once you get your head around the rules it truly can be played in one night, creating characters and all.

FATE also falls between regular rpg's and diceless rpg's. I've tried diceless and I came away dissatisfied. As far as giving the players more "power" with the narrative, if done right, engages the players more, even when it isn't their turn and creates some interesting story telling.

To make this clear, I'm not trying to sell you on FATE, everyone's tastes are different, but if there is someone reading this post and is curious enough to want to try a different system, between you and me there are enough links for them to check them out for free.

For the record, I have, SotC (high flying noir) , *Starblazer Adventures (high flying science fiction) and The Dresden Files (Based off of the book series by Butcher) and wouldn't mind checking out Diasporia (Hard Science fiction), Legends of Anglerre (Straight up D&D type fantasy) and Strands of FATE (The first real toolkit for FATE.) These books are a good example of just how flexible FATE is without having to change the system. Don't get me wrong there are added rules depending on the genre it represents. But the core rules stay the same, they just add-on needed rules, like ship creation, ship combat, world/planet creation, etc for Starblazers but, in each case even the add-ons maintain the core rules set, without breaking the system.

For the record, I know what it feels like to be in the minority. In extreme cases like Amazing Engine and Everway.

* When Starblazer Adventures was announced I was all giddy thinking that it was based on the anime series Star Blazers. Instead it was a game based on the British comic of the same name. After the disappointment was over I enjoyed just what they did for the game, which, if I wanted, I could adapt Starblazer Adventures to Star Blazers if I wanted.

I was thinking it was Star Blazers as well, but the art being wrong kept me unsure. I bought Starblazers by winning the ENnies auction to spend the evening with the creative team that came over from England in case they won the award, which thy didn't. So I also got to talk to the whole team, except one who couldn't make it, and got them to sign my copy. I also keep hearing that Starblazers is going to be rewritten to update its rules and reprinted, but I have yet to see that actually happen.

Several of my face to face group has been asking for Dresden Files to be run, so I will do that soon too.

Treebore wrote:What got you to buy the RPG's you own?

90% of them it was because I liked playing them so I purchased. In that order. 10% because I could use material from them for one of the 90% games.

Treebore wrote:I also keep hearing that Starblazers is going to be rewritten to update its rules and reprinted, but I have yet to see that actually happen.

I haven't been to or are in the loop, but the last time I was at the Cubical 7 website I'd wondered if Starblazers had just become an after-thought. They had a GM screen for Starblazers but you can't get it now. I also heard that they were going to do another book in support of Starblazers (Universe book?) That never happened, but it did happen for Legends of Anglerre.

I guess all books can use a facelift but I didn't see too much wrong with Starblazers, except it looked like they just copy-pasted the basic rules directly from SotC and changed very few things to reflect a sci-fi book. Wouldn't mind seeing that get an overhaul.

Several of my face to face group has been asking for Dresden Files to be run, so I will do that soon too.

They did a good job of emulating the books. You can actually play a competent human (Karrin Murphy) that equals any of the supernatural beings.

I know it is another book but get the; Our World book, if you haven't already. It is well worth the money.

I sold off my entire RPG collection when D&D 3e came out (~2000) and got pennies on the dollar for all of it (mostly 1e/2e stuff)...which I used to purchase 3e materials.

My RPG collection is now fairly small, but here is why I bought each of them:

D&D 3e: It was a new shiny edition and I was pretty burnt out on 2e anyway.

D&D 3.5: I only played 3e for a year or so before I fell away from RPGs due to my group disbanding. When I found people to play with again, 3.5 had come out and nobody was playing 3e anymore.

D&D 4e: Was excited for something different than 3.5, which became a major pain in the ass to run as characters advanced to higher levels.

New World of Darkness: Wanted to try out a modern game and this one came highly recommended.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Wanted to try out a zombie apocalypse game and this one came highly recommended.

AD&D 1e: Got the bug to return to simpler fantasy gaming that did not require a combat grid and rules mastery,

Basic D&D: Same as above.

Castles and Crusades: Wanted to be able to use stuff from every edition of D&D and build my own game of choice. Castles and Crusades fits that bill!

I won't be specific about every game I own, but I'll touch on a few.
D&D basic (Moldvay/Otus) and 1E-
I'm not sure whom I played with first, Mark or Sam. Sam had the Otus set, and I perused it at a sleep over. That said, I remember meeting Mark in middle school. All of us 6th graders came from four different elementary schools. Anyway, Mark was drawing pictures of Tron, and another character I was unfamiliar with...Bilbo Baggins. Also drew swords, and the like. I liked to draw, and we all loved Star Wars. The rest was was history. My friends and his friends ended up playing D&D together, as well as other TSR, Fasa, etc. games.

Savage Worlds-
Still playing, but not as much as I'D like. Around the late 90's-early 2000's, I was playing classic Deadlands. Sometime between 2002 and 04, I heard about SW. Probably flipped through the book eventually, before playing my first two games at Archon 2004. One of those games was with DL/SW creator, Shane Hensley. I was sold at that point. Converted many WOTCians to SW. No small task. Haha

Castles and Crusades-
I knew nothing of TLG prior to 03. I met Stephen C. and Todd Gray in the dealers room of the Egyptian Campaign that year. I'm hopeful through undeveloped film, and con booklets, that I can determine whether or not I actually played the beginnings of C&C, or not. Either way, I yucked it up with those guys from 2003-2007 at EC. I know I first played with Todd by at least 05. I have hi-8 video of that. Can't remember if Book of Extraordinary Names was my first purchase, or phb/m&t/Crusader 2 in 2005. Todd and Stephen sold me on the system. The Gygyax involvement probably didn't hurt. Also, I loved talking to the guys about everything from classic rock to politics to all things geek. Of course, I would continue to see them at Gen Con's 2005-09, and TC 09. In 05, I would meet Davis, Peter, and Mark for the first time. Great guys. All of them. It was a long time before I actually ran C&C, and I usually played at cons. For a number of years, I have been running the game and selling product at cons. It's my first choice for fantasy.

Like tylermo, I'll only speak for a couple.

D&D - I was interested in fantasy for quite a while before picking up the game for the first time. I had seen the Conan movies, Beastmaster, the Sword and the Sorceress, and Excalibur (to name the ones I remember having a big impact one me) and was deeply engrossed in any fantasy I could digest. When I first came across the D&D cartoon, it was 1986 and I absolutely loved it. It took a few episodes to notice the "based on the game..." notation at the end of the show. But after I saw that, I was on my first quest. At first, I hadn't much luck - no trace of the game at K-Mart, Wal-Mart, or Zayre (there wasn't a hobby shop nor a Waldenbooks in Kissimmee, at that point). So, the summer before getting the game was kind of a bummer. Then, a few weeks into my 7th grade school year, this kid (which I didn't particularly care for, since he was a punk) was hocking off his brother's Mentzer Expert Set (no dice, no box) for ten bucks. I told him I'd bring him $10 the next day (I remember him telling me, rather bluntly, that he wouldn't hold it for me) but he actually came up to me the next morning, asking for the money. From there, it was over. The Waldenbooks got built, a hobby shop moved into town within walking distance, and the rest was history.

C&C - It was 2007, and I had yet to attend my first Gen Con (20 years and I was overdue!). But it was something I kept up on, living vicariously through the forum-goers' accounts of the going-ons at the Con. Well, I couldn't get into the Wizard's site that weekend, because they had the site down and had this "4dventure" banner up. I knew what that meant, but I didn't know what it fully entailed. Well, I was hopeful but worried - I really loved 3.5, figured it still had plenty of life in it, and didn't see the point on changing so soon (yes, I said "so soon"). Well, as the weeks went by, the scant details turned me off. Plus, the marketing was atrocious. I knew that I wasn't going to go the 4e route (something that would prove to be a wise decision). So while I'd played many games in my life up to that point, D&D was always my main game, my go-to guy. And that was going to change. I mean, I figured I'd stay with 3.5 for a while, but eventually I'd leave that and go to something else. I had to finish my campaigns (one I was running and my next one that I had already planned) but more importantly, I had to ween my players off d20. And it just didn't "feel right" anymore. I can't explain that last point very well, but it was like the magic was gone for some reason and I didn't want to stay with 3.5 anymore.

So, it was spring of 2008, and with 4e nearing release I started looking for a new game to play. I re-examined older editions and almost settled on 2e AD&D when I came across the C&C section at my FLGS. No, I didn't buy the books that day...I had already bought them in June of '07, looked them over, and they'd been sitting on the bookshelf at my house for almost a year at that point. So, I went home and looked them over again - this time a little more in depth. I liked what I saw. And from that point on, I knew C&C was the future at my gaming table. I've had a hell of a time getting everyone on the same page - it seems that the players at my table (and many are pre-3e players) are having a hard time defining their characters without the use of skill points and feats - but it finally looks like they're there. I think once they truly "unlearn what the have learned" they'll be okay.

D&D Basic: Saw it in a comic book store wayyyyy back when, and thought it looked pretty cool. A friend of mine bought it and said it was better than sliced bread, so I asked for-- and got it-- for Christmas my freshman year of high school. Pretty much from then, I was hooked, moved on to AD&D, fell in love with Race/Class and most of what I picked up through 2E was based on that original basis.

D&D 3.5: After a long time being out of the RPG phase and mothballing my game books (with the exception of owning some various PDF's and such), I took my computer to a shop to get it fixed and its hard drive cloned. After seeing some of the pics I did and the PDF's I stockpiled, the owner wanted to know if I played, and if I would be interested in joining a gaming group. They played 3.5, so I bought the slip case of the three base books to get back up to speed.

Pathfinder: Because my opinion was that 4E looked like video-game-based rot, and I liked a lot of Paizo's other stuff, module wise, and decided to back their horse.

C&C: Went to Gen Con a few years back and decided I wanted to pick up a new game system every year I went. This particular year, Davis saw me looking over the TLG stuff, called me over and spent maybe ten minutes telling me about the basics of the game, and sold me just that quickly on both the game and the TLG peeps. He made me a sweet deal on a bundle for PHB/M&T/OGaM, and would have added a small army of modules and supplements if I hadn't already blown my Gen Con budget the three previous days.

Hmmm, . . .

read an article about D&D in Time or Newsweek in ‘76 and was very interested, but was far more engrossed in getting my college degree at that time than trying to find the game (of course, like many – I’m sorry I didn’t buy OD&D).

It wasn’t until late 1978 that I purchased the BD&D Holmes boxed set (recalling that article, but seeing the fantastic artwork on the cover of the box ~ that was the kicker for so many of us).

Fast forward to August of ’04 when I was perusing a computer gaming magazine that featured an article about the 30 year anniversary of D&D . . . and I went online to learn more and discovered C&C. I bought the boxed set in September or so and was blown away.

All my other RPG purchases were generated or inspired by these forums and my friends here, the LGGC or other online research.