We started playing Shadowrun 1e in '92 when we were getting burned out on D&D. Once we played SR we started splitting our sessions between the two games. Depending on the needs of the group I had three runners I switched between; a private investigator with some cyber in him, a journalist that I created with the Shadowbeat rules and a Physical Adept.
We played all thru the '90's till the group broke up in '98. Since then I played when I could till '06 when the main focus moved back to D&D.
I am just now getting back into it and really love the 4th edition, so I really hope CGL keeps producing new stuff.

Grexul

My screenname is missing an 'x'

Well, my first encounter with SR was long before I ever started gaming.

I've always been a reader. My older sister had problems learning to read, so when I was 4 (1983) she was given special "Learn to Read" books by the school. I read them along with her. By the time I hit kindergarten and the other kids were reading "See spot chase the ball." I was reading Stephen King.

Fast-forward to 1991. I was in a used bookstore looking for something in particular and happened to find a used copy of Into the Shadows. I was hooked on the SR novels instantly, but, being that I lived on a farm in the bible belt, they were kinda hard to find. Over the next few years I found a few here and there, but never enough to satisfy. I never knew it was also an RPG.

Then, in 1993-94 or so, I discovered AD&D 2nd Ed. Over the next five years I collected books and played almost weekly. I ended up moving to Colorado in 1997, I was 18. I came home one day determined to move out of the shitty little Kansas town I was living in, and because I'd been working, and getting payed, since I was six, I had a nice little four digit bank account, a gun collection, two wheeled trunks packed full of AD&D books, and a car big enough to hold everything I owned.

I moved several times over the next few years trying to find somewhere I liked. Woodland Park Colorado was the worst. They call it "Hoodlum Park: Where you go on vacation, and leave on probation." I was arrested three times, had my door kicked in twice (no warrant), and no charges were ever filed (hell, I hadn't done anything, I was just a young, pierced and tattooed, freaky-freaky with money, which in their eyes automatically made me suspect), and quickly decided to get the hell out of there. So, I moved to Casper Wyoming. Where I found a nice little gaming store downtown on 2nd street (or maybe it was B street).*shruggs* I spent more money in that store than in all the other gaming stores I'd ever visited, combined. And, I found a new game, playing twice a week, though I had to DM. I didn't really mind though, I had the books for it.

By the time I moved back to Colorado Springs in 2001, I had an AD&D collection that filled 4 wheeled trunks, with just about every D20 variant game supplement I could lay my hands on, including a bunch of AD&D specific books that couldn't put AD&D on their covers because someone else made them. If any of you have seen the non-TSR Dungeon Survival Guide or the Wilderness Survival Guide AD&D books, then you know which book line I'm talking about.

Life happened for awhile, as it tends to do, and my books sat in their trunks for several years, completely untouched.

Then, in September of 2008, I was looking for Poor Richards Bookstore downtown on Tejon, and low and behold, there is a gaming store next door to it.

I went in just to take a look.

I wandered to the D&D section and spotted some kind of weird AD&D 3.5 thing, and thought, "Wafuck? When did that happen? I don't even remember a 3.0." Then I noticed a book misfiled in the middle of that WotC abortion. "Odd. What's this black book?"

By this time I had amassed 35+ SR novels, but had never seen a SR rule or supplement book. Perhaps I had been oblivious to anything that didn't use a d20. But I recognised the name. Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Core Rulebook, 5th printing, 1st printing by Catalyst Game Labs. Hmmmm. I bought it.

I read it.

And, a week later, I took four trunks full of books back to that gamestore. They gave me 50% of the marked value for ALL of them. I got screwed, without lube, and didn't give a damn. I walked out with a $3400 check, and until just now I hadn't even thought about D&D since.

A month later, I was looking at the websites in the credits section. "Dumpshock? What's that?"

Barring internet and computer malfunctions, I've been here ever since. And, though I've GMed 30-40 games, I've still never played SR.

Good of you to mention that, in german that's important ^^

Damn. Well hey, for the first time in years I'm in a discussion with people that don't make me feel old. Or at least much older than the group average. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Started back in '95 when the game store in the City started stocking SR. First thing I bought myself was the good ol' Street Samurai Catalog (1st ed)...I loved the fantasy aspect, but it was always the cyberware that caught me. And the guns. Was pretty active back in the day, we even managed to arrange a couple of meets with the venerable Fortune down in the seedier side of the City. I believe photographic evidence may even still exist on the dumpshock yahoo group.

Kinda lost track during the transition to 4th ed, and moved away from the City...so haven't had access to either games or stores.

ed.
Went back and checked. Yep the photo is still there, and dear lord, my hair was long...I had hair! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

Anyway, for all you new kids here is the link - Dumpshock Member Gallery
And for our little band of misfits - The September '02 Meet

I'm pretty sure that would be Level 12 which was on 2nd Street, though I'm not sure how you would have made it outta there without seeing SR. The owner (Mark Bull) was a hugh Shadowrun fan, and I spent a helluva lot of money on SR in that store (although during that time frame I was probably buying more Warhammer...)

Should I look into changing it? Don't want to cause any international incidents!!!

Grexul

My screenname is missing an 'x'.

I ran into role playing games in 1978, when a buddy of mine handed me a copy of the boxed set of Dungeons & Dragons. "Here, learn this and teach the rest of us." So I did. My wife, my buddies and I played a couple of times a week. I went to my first convention a couple of years later(I think?)... Gencon at Kenosha. Great introduction to cons, that was! Anybody remember "Gee Whiz!"? My wife and I created a whole world together, spending hours drawing and colouring the maps, making notes about characters and cities. She killed my first PC with a falling rock when he left the cave with arms full of treasure. Things went downhill from there for the two of us.

I think it was at Gencon in Milwaukee a year or two later than Kenosha that I found Shadowrun. The founders of Virtual Seattle were running an event there. They lived just up the road from my city. Eventually I ended up playing with them at home. I have been playing Shadowrun for about 20 years now, I guess. (Duh! Anniversary issue, dude.) My second ex-wife is an excellent player and GM. Ran the most amazing AD&D world ever. She's also published 10 novels. Could be why she writes good adventures. Amazing character development for her Shadowrun PCs, but convention games didn't reward it. Too bad. Some good feedback and she could have been one of the game's shining-star writers. Role playing extended beyond the gaming table. The dwarf warrior and the priestess of the Earth Goddess had some good times.

Myriad other games, wonderful experiences, but the one game that sticks with me is Shadowrun. I think in part it is because it seems so easy to step from this world into that one, and so it is easy for me to imagine myself there. My wife now (This one's the keeper!), a deliciously complex woman who plays as long as I keep the game session shorter than a marathon, worries about all the time I spend involved in this game. If only she knew what it was like in the beginning.

With her and on my own, I have adventures and runs to do in this life. Lost cities in the tropical forests of Peru. Derelict internment camps in the backwoods of Alberta. But I still come back to the Shadows.

Nah.
But you could get the "My screenname is missing an 'x'." into your signature, so you don't have to retype it every time.

I have to get my 10 posts in so I can have a signature! I'm not one to just post willy-nilly though.

Grexul

My screenname is missing an 'x'.

I started playing RPGs using various homebrew and book systems in 1978. (Played with some superb GMs, which helped a lot.)
[In addition to some impressive homebrews, we played a lot of Gurps, some Runequest, and dabbled with other systems.]
I GMed Shadowrun first edition, starting before any of the supplements came out. It suited my style very well. (I understand corporate machinations far better than I understand feudal lords.)
I lost touch with SR (and most other active gaming) when I moved cross-country in 1994.

Yours,
Joel

I've been hooked since the first edition. I fondly recall the BBS system before the internet was the internet. I've seen all the incarnations of forums. I lurk alot and comment a little.

I started playing in 1993 after the SNES game came out. We liked it so much that we bought the SR2 main book, as well as Street Samurai and one or two others that I can't remember anymore. I haven't played since 2001 since I can't find a group. I very badly want to play SR4a, so if anyone is in the Columbus, OH area and needs a player please let me know.