RPGS and Me

Welcome to D9 minis 5 year anniversary post #2!

RPGs have always been my main focus of nerding. I was first introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in the first edition of Ad&D but really started playing when second edition came out. I can still picture the full color art in the players and DMs books from 2nd edition as well as the dividers in my two monstrous compendium binders. I played 2nd ed through college and then, after a few years off, made the leap to 3rd. Several campaigns in 3rd edition led to my first golden period of RPG gaming in 3.5. My group, which included some of my oldest friends and my wife, tackled Paizo's "Age of Worms." While we didn't finish the whole path, the two odd years we spent working through the majority of the modules were some of the most enjoyable times I've ever spent gaming. From there we went on an Eberon kick (still my favorite TSR/ WoTC published setting) right up until 4e hit.

I knew 4th edition was going to be different, but we tried it anyway. After many sessions that just felt lackluster to me, our group slowly slipped apart. You know how it goes. One week you can't get everyone and then a few more weeks go by, and then you toy with starting new characters, and before you know it everyone just stays home and plays WoW.

I switched over to Pathfinder and got the group together after a year or so hiatus and launched several games. The Pathfinder system was what I wanted from my RPG, especially at the sweet 3rd to 10th level range, so it became my system of choice and continues so to this day.

For the last two years, I have been DMing a group through the depths of Rapun Athuk, published by the sadistic bastards at Necromancer Games. We made some interesting tweaks to make sure the party didn't wipe every single session, and unleashed pure munchkin power gaming so that they had a shot at survival, and now after many, many hours, the group has hit level 14 and is pushing into some of the lower levels of the Dungeon of Graves. It is our goal to see the final battle with Orcus sometime this summer.

Once Rapun Athuk is done with the PCs, we plan to move on to the Skull and Shackles adventure path. It's time for some l-ARRRRR-ceny on the Inner Sea!

Outside of Pathfinder, I'm looking forward to some other RPG work in 2015. I really would like to give Star Wars: Edge of the Empire a try, as well as Numenera and The Iron Kingdoms RPG. All of them have a cool mechanic and incredible settings. So many games so little time.

One thing is for sure. If I had to drop all of my nerdy pursuits except for one, RPGs would be what makes the cut.