Cruising around checking out OD&D resources brought me past The Wasted Lands once again. I read Grey Elf's most recent challenge and something in it inspired me. Truth be told I've been thinking about kickstarting the old blog again, but was simply unsure of the direction to take her. Not sure why, but this seemed a good place to start.
So without further ado -- for your reading humor, my rise in Geekery ...
I was born in in the age of flying saucers. In the late 60's and early 70's in my part of the Earth, it seemed we were near being invaded by lights flitting across the evening and night sky, and by discs that landed in rural sites across the countryside. The local newspapers were awash in such reports, and TV programs covered them in relation to the international race to the moon. I even recall watching the Apollo 17 lunar landing in 1972 on our small black & white television in the living room. My saucer obsession lasted well into 1976, despite the waning of sightings. I inherited a pair of old metal binocs from my dad -- well I actually snuck them at night after he was asleep for some time before he discovered my interests and passed them on to me. I would sit by my window which had a good view of the southern sky and scan the stars for hours. Some nights, when I could stay up late I would lie on our driveway staring up into the stars, imagining what life would be like out there. My interest expanded into all things space related, and I developed a strong interest in space travel, astronomy and anything vaguely "astronautic". I eventually wrote a letter to a regular column in the paper asking about the dearth of saucer sighting since the early 70's and got a thoughtful and helpful response.
Of course I was coming into my science fiction own just about the time Star Wars came out and it so blew the Star Trek and Lost in Space re-runs that I watched out of the water that I was never the same. Like Grey Elf said this was a water shed moment for me, and I too recall staring wide-eyed up at the big screen not believing what I saw--and at the same time believing with all of my heart that this was a possibility.
I should also give due space to my 3rd grade teacher. He was a science specialist and had python's, hamsters, turtles, fish, lizards, and a jungle of plants cared for in all parts of our third grade classroom. I came to him with a strong love of the outdoors and animals already strongly in place, but he deepened my understanding of these realms so much more than I could realize at the time. I told him early on my plans to be a biologist (I knew biologist got to study weird animals in weird places and that was all I needed), and the very next day he brought me one of his college level biology textbooks. I also loved the way he taught math as a system, not as an endless memorization of facts, and I am convinced he started in me my first love for real mathematics--no pun intended.
I also should give adequate voice to good parents. My Dad got me into model building, and electronics. I built my first electronic-crystal radio when I was about 10 or 11. I still recall the radio shack kit stating you could pick up airplane frequencies, but I just hoped it would work. When I first turned it on and tuned it I picked up something I will never forget. We lived by an Air Force Base, and F4 Phantoms would fly over our house all the time. Amidst the crackle and static I distinctly picked up some radio chatter of call signs and technical jargon I didn't quite understand. I was at my customary spot in my south facing window, and i could see that the sun had just set. I was looking desperately up in the sky, thinking it had to be airplanes, but could see nothing. Then I heard it "*call sign" this is *call sign* what say we rise the sun!" "*call sign* this is *call sign* let's do it!!" After which I hear nothing but static and crackles. I was dumbfounded. I had no idea of what they might have meant, until I talked with my dad after rushing in to tell him what I had heard. They were going to fly far enough towards the horizon that the sun would appear to them to rising upwards. This and endless hours fixing electrical problems on the car and boat with my dad sealed my long time love for all things technical.
My mother had read endlessly to me when I was a child. She says it was because I was her first. Whatever the reason it cemented in me a love for fantasy. Winnie the Pooh and his endless adventures were first, and then later a series of blue cloth bound books that contained the stories of Merlin, King Arthur and his Knights, some of the 1001 Arabian tales and and endless retinue of myths and fairy tales filled my young years. I am convinced this is one of the reasons I responded so strongly to D&D when I first encountered it.
Which was when I turned 12, encountered D&D that was. It was at a Boy Scout meeting, which is also rather geeky in many good ways. But this story I've already written about several times, so I won't go into details here. But it did turn me on to fantasy literature for which I will be ever in debt.
By the time I was in high school, I was all geek. Though admirably good looking for my clique and relatively charismatic (humble too) I simply didn't fit in with the "in" crowds. I saw them as hopelessly out of touch with stuff that really mattered, like whether we were going to be invaded by aliens, or if we already were; not to mention none of them knew Monty Python from a hole in the head. No, I hung with the best crowd of friends a guy could have--gamers, sci fi enthusiast, Tolkein aficionados, comic collectors (oh i really should have included my introduction to comics--which I did Elementary time for when I was caught stealing them from the reading room), Dr. Who fans and guys who knew a phaser from a disruptor blindfolded in a Vulcan sandstorm.
Yes, being a geek was good, is good and will be good for all time.
Thanks for the challenge Grey Elf!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
It is Finally Time to Make my Own World!
For those of you who might not know, I am an educator in the public school system (half time teacher half time assistant principal). I have run our school gaming club for six or seven years now, and have loved doing it. It has been frustrating at times, but very worth it. The game club has also been my only real source of gaming in the past half decade with but a few exceptions, and this has colored much of my gaming approach as of late.
So when we started this year I was using my somewhat modified AD&D approach, which I am beginning to transfer over to a purely Classic D&D, Moldvay/Cook rules set to make things simpler and freer for us all. My default campaign for the longest time has been Greyhawk, but it's simply been a default, it is not like I have done anything special with it. I also love the B series and decided to start this new group with B1 In Search of the Unknown. One of the pluses of restarting with a new group of gamers every two years (we are a two year junior high school 8th and 9th grade) is being able to run the same modules on a two year basis.
This year as I've transitioned to a more Classic D&D ruleset, I've considered switching my campaign to Mystara. The Mystara Cyclopedia and the Vaults of Pandius have some great info on Mystara, as I don't own the Mystara supplements, just some of the modules set within it. But I was reading some the information there, and began to think again about starting my own campaign world. I've tried this before, but it just feels like now is the right time to begin a project that may carry through the end of my gaming days. I've tried this before, but always get overwhelmed several hundred pages into my creation. Yeah, several hundred pages. I think I've been going about world creation all wrong--at least wrong for me.
See, I read the Mystara info, and I love the intricate level of detail, the storylines, the mythos, the geography, the history, the biology, the magic, and on and on. So when I try to start a world I try to put all that information in from the start. I sort of feel the need to answer all of the players questions up front. But do I really need to do that? No, of course not. In fact I know that there is another way to design a campaign. I've just never done int that way.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Mystara, Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Blackmoor or any other major campaign setting. Each in fact began a bit differently. Greyhawk started as a dungeon, that expanded into a city so adventurers had a place to rest and refuel between forays into the dungeon, Mystara started a simple map of the Known World, on which DMs could hang their creative hats. Forgotten Realms started as the place Ed Greenwood set his fictional stories that he wrote as a child. Only later was it used as the setting for his D&D adventures.
I think I will start mine as a town. It will be the place from which all my adventurers hail, and will be modest in size. My initial thought is to post the updates here just to let you know how things are going. It will also be using the Moldvay/Cook rules, but I may use some stuff from the B/X Companion later on. I'm not too fond of the BCMI / RC rules though, but they may make an appearance over time. I'm also going to try and create all my own adventures for this new world, so that the place is completely homebrew, except for the rules in the Classic Edition.
And my first act of creation ... the name of the town shall be ...
So when we started this year I was using my somewhat modified AD&D approach, which I am beginning to transfer over to a purely Classic D&D, Moldvay/Cook rules set to make things simpler and freer for us all. My default campaign for the longest time has been Greyhawk, but it's simply been a default, it is not like I have done anything special with it. I also love the B series and decided to start this new group with B1 In Search of the Unknown. One of the pluses of restarting with a new group of gamers every two years (we are a two year junior high school 8th and 9th grade) is being able to run the same modules on a two year basis.
This year as I've transitioned to a more Classic D&D ruleset, I've considered switching my campaign to Mystara. The Mystara Cyclopedia and the Vaults of Pandius have some great info on Mystara, as I don't own the Mystara supplements, just some of the modules set within it. But I was reading some the information there, and began to think again about starting my own campaign world. I've tried this before, but it just feels like now is the right time to begin a project that may carry through the end of my gaming days. I've tried this before, but always get overwhelmed several hundred pages into my creation. Yeah, several hundred pages. I think I've been going about world creation all wrong--at least wrong for me.
See, I read the Mystara info, and I love the intricate level of detail, the storylines, the mythos, the geography, the history, the biology, the magic, and on and on. So when I try to start a world I try to put all that information in from the start. I sort of feel the need to answer all of the players questions up front. But do I really need to do that? No, of course not. In fact I know that there is another way to design a campaign. I've just never done int that way.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Mystara, Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Blackmoor or any other major campaign setting. Each in fact began a bit differently. Greyhawk started as a dungeon, that expanded into a city so adventurers had a place to rest and refuel between forays into the dungeon, Mystara started a simple map of the Known World, on which DMs could hang their creative hats. Forgotten Realms started as the place Ed Greenwood set his fictional stories that he wrote as a child. Only later was it used as the setting for his D&D adventures.
I think I will start mine as a town. It will be the place from which all my adventurers hail, and will be modest in size. My initial thought is to post the updates here just to let you know how things are going. It will also be using the Moldvay/Cook rules, but I may use some stuff from the B/X Companion later on. I'm not too fond of the BCMI / RC rules though, but they may make an appearance over time. I'm also going to try and create all my own adventures for this new world, so that the place is completely homebrew, except for the rules in the Classic Edition.
And my first act of creation ... the name of the town shall be ...
Gedrion
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Missing The Original Dragon Magazine? Check Out These OSR Mags
It's a podcast--but it RAWKS!
It's first issue is out soon, but you can get on their email list now!
And if you know of others, let me know and I'll add them to the list. Some of the above are for free download online, but others are available at a modest fee. I love the OSR. It's got it's issues, but overall we are definitely in a renaissance of Classic D&D gaming. Oh, and just becuase I love it and it had a wonderful old school ethic I'm going to add what I wait each month for right now:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)