About

Time to update this ABOUT page, I think… Not sure if anybody reads them really, but here it is.

This blog is basically a simple collection of thoughts and rambling reviews on RPGing. My era was what I like to think of as the golden era of RPGing, c. 1984-1989. Although this era was basically the second generation of gamers, I think it represented a time when stupid-sided dice, DM screens and spotty boys reached a critical mass and came close to crossing over into the mainstream. Certainly I can remember seeing a copy of the Fiend Folio in John Menzies at this time. Okay, we weren’t there at the dawn of the hobby and we with our gamebooks, spiky-bits miniatures and cringe-worthy D&D Cartoon probably were responsibly for it being relegated into the gheto of uncool pastimes together with train-spotting and stamp collecting, yet for a while it was the new nerdy avant garde, tame eroticism and had a certain Satanic kudos similar to what death metal had a few years later. I dare say in terms of numbers more might play today than then, but now it is just an established part of geek-culture.

I did play again in the mid-1990s, but the experience lacked the excitement and nervous energy of those heady days, when it was acceptable to propose the Houri as a character class for adolescents to play in a national magazine.  I’ve never played since, but I’ve always kept one ear to the ground as while roleplaying rarely, if ever, matched its potential or my expectations, its importance in those pivotal years of my life, between the age of 12 and 17, can’t be denied. In some ways I’d like to play again, but in reality I know it’ll never happen. But, I’m still interested, in theory if not in practice and as I trawl through my old games, flogging some on eBay, flipping through others and stashing them back in the boxes from where they have lain for the last decade or so, thoughts and observations, both old and new appear in my mind from which this blog sprouted… It’s lain fallow for two years, but again I find myself tempted to fire off some posts and see what happens.

Today, there’s the ideological divide of old skool/new skool, sandbox vs storytelling, which mirrors the same discussions found in the letter pages in my day. Interesting stuff, which draws me in. I think there’s something to be said for both approaches and don’t see them as being mutually exclusive.

Anyway, some more rambling and opinionated reviews will commence. Opinions and comments are welcome.

Thanks for reading

S