with a few slight edits ]Grognard time
I've been into games of one sort or another since I was a kid. Battleship, Monopoly, Chess. Wargames then role-playing. RPGing (DnD specifically but others too) was played and run. I was president of the local club (two different clubs actually) and even organized a con.
This was all while I was in the Army and on post. Once I got out and moved away from post, the gaming slowed down quite a bit. I got into video gaming and LAN parties (I'm a computer geek
). Command and Conquer and Starcraft mainly but we also did some Quake.In 94 I ran my last D&D game. My daughter and her friends played it but they were more into Rifts. On-line gaming and LAN parties were the norm.
Then I got back into motorcycles. Way back when I started D&D, I'd ride my motorcycle with my gaming gear strapped on. When I got back on bikes, I did some distance touring. Last year I was the high mileage rider for my bike brand.
Last year I also started working from home. The lack of social interaction had me hunting around for groups. The local bike groups were ok but I'm a touring kind of guy and the local guys basically stayed around the city. From a bike stand-point I learned a lot but our riding styles were different.
One of the things I lean towards from time to time is minimizing my stuff. I have a lot of music, books, computers, comics, gaming stuff... Heck, I'm not a pack-rat but I do have a bunch of stuff. I'll look at it and consider giving or selling it. My wife gets on me as well for having stuff without using it. Like the gaming gear (which were all in boxes
).So back in November I unpacked the boxes. I intended on e-baying or otherwise selling it off. It had been 13 years since I'd seriously looked at the gear.
D&D, Car Wars, Cosmic Encounters, Talisman, heck there's Shadowrun which I liked and ran (1st and 2nd). Cthulhu which was interesting. Paranoia. Illumaniti. Old wargames. I basically sat in the room and unpacked it all
I did a little searching on the 'net and found this site (rpg.net). I also found Dumpshock and Paranoia-live. I updated the gaming index so I'd have a good idea of values and found myself getting sucked in again. So I made a choice. I decided to focus on Paranoia and Shadowrun.
I did some work hunting down books and bringing my Shadowrun books back up so I had them all (it's one of the reasons I have so much stuff; I like to be complete
). I also found and bought the novels for background and some ideas on runs.I was going to run 3rd edition back in February but no one showed up for the game so instead I waited for a bit. Then the meetup group folks (http://shadowrun.meetup.com/79) started a Shadowrun game on Wednesdays. I signed up and started going. This was about 3 months ago. I've been playing pretty regularly.
About a month ago, I set up a meetup for today to _run_ a Shadowrun 4th Ed game. I snagged the first 4th Ed Missions game. Nice and simple, milk run if the runners choose or fighting the entire way.
I read more of the 4th Ed books. Core, Augmentation, Street Magic. I printed out the Missions and player handouts pack and read them several times. I ran a couple of combats between triad's and some of the sample characters. Heck I broke out my old DnD game notebook and put everything in there
But I'm nervous. Butterflies and all. It's been a while and these are all new guys. I got a couple of guys from the local bike list who were interested. I selected a FLGS to host the game and posted a flyer.
So today, nerves and all I showed up at the shop. I dragged all my gear towards the back room past the wargamers. The shop owner said there were a few folks waiting for me.
Five. (One more came a few minutes later.)
I set my gear up and introduced myself. We went around the group and everyone seemed pretty ready. I asked for a little patience (I had done that on my flyer and the meetup notice as well).
So a little scared and all I started the game. It was pretty good in general. The group basically made the safe decisions and it was a milk run. I did pretty well in keeping the game flowing and the players were into the game. We did pretty well over all even if it was a little uneventful. They even kept themselves in place when the biker gang rumbled around them and put the boot to one of the cars.
Once the game was over, we all shook hands and discussed the game. Then talked about getting together next week or the week after (for the folks who play every other week).
Overall it was pretty cool.
I have some practical info on how to play again. I'll review what happened and practice more of the rules (the basic combat stuff worked out but the more extended stuff like cyberware and magic is still a bit... vague). So I'll set the basic combat in memory again and do some more practice with cyberware and magic.
It'll be fun
Sorry for the length but it's something I wanted to comment on.
Carl