My first time

To me, part of getting back into the hobby means remembering how I got into it in the first place.

My first time playing D&D happened at a Boy Scout camp. (I can just imagine the people googling "first time + boy scouts" are going to be disappointed in this result.) I was about 12 years old and a few of the older scouts were playing a game and let me join in. While I don't remember much of the game except it really wasn't that long, I did get a taste of it. From then on I was hooked.

This was D&D 1st edition and when I got home I bought the Monster Manual and DMs guide (which I still have). My friends and I started to run our own adventures - making up alot of it as we went. The funny thing is, until D&D 2nd Edition came out none of us ever had a Players Handbook. We kinda made things up or copied other characters...but really, that was the best part.

My first time playing my current game of choice, Call of Cthulhu, was at the 2000 Origins game fair. I had heard about Call of Cthulhu from a guy I worked with. We were in a semi-regular D&D game together and he was describing a scenario his brother had taken them through. His player was a very large detective who waited in the car for the other players as they went to investigate something. However, the anxiety and horror of the unknown caused him to almost have a heart attack. (I can't really do the description of what happened justice.)

Anyhow, I went to Origins with my cousin and decided to try a few games of Call of Cthulhu. The first game was run by Frank Russell of the M.U. Skulls and I played a Grad student who came along with some other MU profs and students to check out a man-eating plant in Michigan. I believe they still run they scenario so I won't spoil it for anyone, but in the end we barely ended up triumphing over a cult and a very put out Dark Young. I was hooked.

That weekend I also played in another game of Cthulhu that is still one of the best ones of my life. It was run by another (now defunct) group. I can't remember the name of it (but if I do I'll post it), but the scenario was that the players were a bunch of high school students whose car broke down in the back woods after prom. Seeking shelter from wolves, we broke into a house that turned out to be inhabited by some strange creatures.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone, as the details are still vague in my head. However, I learned that day how deadly CoC can be as, in trying to knock out a monkey with a fire poker, I ended up almost killing it. I would repeat the same mistake the year after as well. :)

Burned Out

I've been RPG gaming since I was 12 years old. I love doing it. But I'm burned out.

Like any good geek, I've played a number of different games - the most notable being Dungeons and Dragons, Marvel Super Heroes, AFMBE and, most recently, Call of Cthulhu. I love playing RPGs - the freedom it gives you, the time you can forget about your normal life and just have fun. To me, there's nothing like it.

I don't know why I feel burned out. I'm not part of any gaming group that meets regularly (or at all at the moment). For the most part, the only time I get to play RPGs is at the Origins gaming fair; usually running them as opposed to playing. But even as the deadline for submitting games came, I felt no desire to do so.

At Origins I usually run a number of Call of Cthulhu games - sometimes enough to just get a badge (around 16 hours worth) but in the past I've run close to 10 games in 3 days. It was fun. I loved doing it. But this year I couldn't get excited about running any games. I still could have submitted enough to get a badge, but that wouldn't be fair to the players. Nobody wants to have a GM who isn't into their game - it makes the experience suck for everyone.

It was at this time that I came to the realization that for whatever reason, I was burned out on RPGs. I decided I didn't want to feel like this. After all, who wants to hate a hobby that they previously loved to do?

I decided what I needed to do was "reboot" myself back into RPGs. I need to take a step back and rediscover why I love the hobby. I need to re-experience the games and the fun it brings me. I need to start back at the beginning.

This blog is going to have two purposes. The first is to document how I try to get back into gaming. The second is to be used in the process of returning to gaming - writing down the memories of what made it fun, the experiences I've had, and so on.

Here's to a return to gaming.