I don’t get it. I really don’t.

You can shout as loud as you want about loving or hating a particular edition of a game all you want. The louder you shout the less likely I am to listen to you though. Try and tell me that the way I play my games doesn’t fit into your idea of an RPG and it’s a guaranteed way to get me to ignore you.

So why is it I’m getting sucked into the old school revival fights. I’m not commenting on anyone’s blog supporting one view or another and I’m not getting involved in any threads on the various forums. But at the end of the day it’s still having an effect on me. I see fellow bloggers wanting to give up because it’s just not worth it and others gaining a form of celebratory status because they can type louder than anyone else.

I’ve been playing RPG’s for over 20 years. I’ve ran the entire gamut of games from the original version of D&D right through Rolemaster, MechWarrior, Twilight 2000 to the Storyteller systems. I’ve played in games where the story is the main thing and didn’t roll a dice in months. I’ve played in games where we’ve took 20 hours of gameplay to clear the smallest of dungeons thanks to random encounters and really bad player created maps meaning it takes us forever to escape. Whenever someone tries to define what old school or new school is I sit and tick off most of the points that apply to myself. I sit firmly in the middle and get the best of both worlds as and when I want to play a certain kind of game.

If you want to call yourself a Grognard then go ahead. Personally I’m just a person that’s happy to play OD&D if that is the system that best suits the game we want to play. I play AD&D because I have all the books and know the rules. If I could afford all the books I’d need for 4e I’d probably play that as well.

I guess what I’m saying is I’m fed up with folk shoving their opinions down my throat when at the end of the day it’s a game we’re playing and it’s supposed to be about fun. If your idea of fun isn’t the same as mine then feel free to leave and go play your game elsewhere and shut the hell up. In other words…enjoy what you play and how you play it. We have such a diverse range of games these days that there is something for everyone. Stop trying to pigeonhole them and get stuck in to the game.

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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 managed to take a few folk into playing a game this afternoon in aid of Comic Relief. The idea is to run a Discworld based one of game that will last no more than 3 hours and this will most likely include character creation unless I can get that done over lunch.

The problem I have is I have no books with me and other than winging it with a made-up-in-my-head system I’m going to struggle. Anyone know of any free and easy to learn systems out there that I can use for the afternoon? I’ve already had Dungeonslayers.com recommended to me but what else is out there.

I’ve got 2 hours to prep this game so any helps appreciated.

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