I’ve been going over past games and remembering the old systems I used to play and I’ve came to realise that I really miss playing some of them. It could be the rose tinted spectacles but I do really miss them.

• Runequest
  This was the second system I bought. It took me about 2 years to actually work out how to run a game and it took a good 6 months for me to understand how to draw up a character. I loved the look and style of the system though. In fact any game that has giant ducks as a monster becomes a must buy! To this day I have no idea what actually happened to my rule books as all have left is the Griffin Island adventure.
• Ars Majica
  This was a game that I’ve never actually owned. One of our regular group and my brother split the buying of the books to ease the cost but they have long since parted way as best friends. This has left me to inherit half of the books needed to run the system which other than giving me something to read doesn’t actually let me run any games. I really enjoyed the medieval style of the world and gameplay but we never played it for long enough to explore much further that our initial starting areas.

  Mechwarrior
  I’ve played this game a grand total of once. I’ve never been much of a mech fan but when I got my hands on a Battletech game for my computer many moons ago I loved it. In fact I think I have a copy for one of my emulators kicking about. I think it’s because of the fascination I had with that game that I loved Mechwarrior so much. I could take or leave Battletech though.

• Cyberpunk 2020
  Now heres a game I was facinated with throughout my teenage years. I still think I’ve only ever racked up two or three games mind you with the system. It hasn’t stopped me trying to merge the setting with WOD against my groups will for the last seven or eight years though. I love tech stuff and combining that with my favourite hobby means even when I’m playing a D&D game I’m wondering how I can get a gnome inventor to come up with a decent robotic arm or to fit a targetter to my bow. to this day it’s my favourite setting.
• Rolemaster
  This one is sort of a cheat. I ran this one not that long ago but I get the feeling my players really did begin to appreciate why it ended up being called Rollmaster by it’s critics. I loved the level of detail you could get with your characters and coming from computer geek stock the fact you have so many charts and tables made my heart all fluttery.

I think it’s time to fire up the ebay-mobile and see just how many of my missing books I can track down.

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I’ve been trying to think back over my first games, my first characters and my first sessions as a GM and do you know what? I think I may have mixed up a few of my firsts.

My first gaming session and my first character are well documented thanks to my drug fueled GM and his knack for memorable sessions. Where my memory has started to slip though is in my very first GM’ing session. I could have sworn it was for a Rolemaster game where I threw dragons on an hourly basis at my friends Arch Mage and Warrior Monk. In fact I was so convinced of this until I tried to remember the Spacemaster games I used to run.

One summer when I was about 14 I had picked up a copy of the Spacemaster box set from the Virgin Megastore in Glasgow. It was the first ruleset I actually owned as until then every game we played was owned by either Joe or Chris. There was nothing wrong with this but being 14 it was very much a case of getting half way through a campaign and then falling out with one of my friends who then took their books and went home. My parents were going away for the weekend and taking my brother with them so I had the house to myself on the Saturday and Sunday. I locked myself away for those days in an attempt to learn all the rules so that the following weekend I could run the game. My friends wouldn’t hear of it though as knowing I would have an empty house they all wanted to come over and stay. that wasn’t going to happen though as I was determined to get these rules into my head. I told a white lie in that I was actually going away with my parents in an attempt to stop them coming round. They still did as they knew fine well that by the time I had told them this my parents had already been away for 4 hours.

So anyway I sat in front of the TV with my years supply of Irn Bru and a bag full of snack food and went to it. I’ve no idea what time I was awake until but I remember waking up in a heap on the floor with my face in the middle of the star map that was included in the set. You can still see the drool marks if you hold it up to the light! By about 7pm on the Sunday night I had drawn up a few characters and ran through a couple of combat scenarios so that I knew the differences between Spacemaster and Rolemaster. Whilst not ready to GM I knew the rules.

Over the next few days I came up with very brief scenario to start the game off and decided to wing the rest. My limited experience was already going to mean regular stoppages for checking the rules and mistakes would happen without a doubt. I was as ready as I was ever going to be. I managed to limit the players to Frank and Joe. Anymore than that and I would have seriously struggled.

So the Friday night arrived and we were staying over at Frank’s house so we could have a good run at the opening session. Frank had decided he wanted to be a space pirate so had drawn up a mercenary of sorts and Joe was the pilot for the ship. I filled out the group with a couple of NPC’s and surprisingly the game went very well. My only regret about the game was using our original GM’s star chart instead of the one supplied. There is only so many times you can let the players visit the planet populated by Ogryns that manufactures rubber sex toys without wanting to give up.

How did your first GM’ing session go?

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It’s a big hat…it’s funny…

Over the years I’ve threatened player groups with super baddies and the occasional grumpy vampire on Speed but I’ve never followed through with failed attempts at taking out these baddies. It’s always came down to the Final Battle™ and that was it. If the enemy survived to fight another day they never came back for another bite unless it was going to end the same way.

I’d never really thought about it until I looked out of my window to see the local wildlife sneaking up on an unsuspecting friend and jump him from behind. I’m assured it was all in jest despite the screams of @I’ll kill you for that’ coming from the victim. How often do you ever have your players hunted by a competent assassin?

When I say competent I really do mean one that actually could end the life of a player should the dice roll well and the player doesn’t take adequate protection.

It’s my random thought for Friday night.

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