1. i bought my first #rpg, #GammaWorld 3rd edition, from a Brentano's bookstore at the #Georgetown Park mall in #WashingtonDC. there's no Georgetown metro station, so my brother and i took the train to Foggy Bottom and, pre-shuttle bus, hoofed it in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1988 to get to the fancy mall so i could buy this game i desperately wanted and couldn't find anywhere else. a few weeks later we found Dream Wizards in #RockvilleMD, and there my troubles began.

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2. i forgot to thread my reply. it's #FadingSuns

https://dice.camp/@mxmarkargent/109542639324193601

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4. the one dedicated gaming convention i ever went to was #Origins '91. i bought a copy of #VampireTheMasquerade from the #WhiteWolf booth. "is this like #Nightlife?" i asked the guy at the table. "better," he replied. sold! is #VtM actually better than Nightlife? Vampire is broody and sexy and has song quotes from bands i haven't heard yet, but Nightlife lets you play like half a dozen monster types, so you've got better value for money. the covers are both cool. idk y'all.

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5. this is where i confess i've been more of a fan than a player for the past twenty years or so. there are only a bare handful of campaigns i have vivid memories of. first was the "avatar" (played ourselves as characters) superhero game in jr high that spanned multiple systems (#GURPS, #DCHeroes, and #Champions 4e *at minimum*) when really we didn't need any system at all. if i did this today it would be either with #Icons or #ChampionsNow.

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second was #AlAmarja by Night, my bonkers #OverTheEdge/#WorldOfDarkness/#DarkConspiracy crossover that I ran using #Storyteller rules, snagging fuel from assorted horror and conspiracy rpgs, Usenet & AOL textfiles, and independent local weeklies. our Al Amarja had vampires, risen, werefelines, alien abductee cyborgs, and boomers from #BubblegumCrisis. (which i still haven't seen, though i scored the vintage DVDs at Goodwill last month.)

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and even if "all the crap in the shadows [came] sluicing out at the first glance of a PC" (h/t Jason Corley), more over the top than #OTE, it worked out.

if I did this today, it'd either be with #OverTheEdge 3e or #ModernAGE.

in 2003 i played a #DyingEarthRPG PC in a short-lived #Exalted campaign where i think the GM didn't quite understand the scope of the setting or the capabilities of the PCs. frankly it should've been a mortals game.

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if i were to run that now, it'd be heroic mortals in #Exalted 1e or more likely #Godbound.

anyway, everything else since then and in-between has been abortive, at least for me. i've thought about exploring play-by-post and solo games instead of running or playing in real time. regular games are just too stressful, especially when my life/sleep schedule is so incongruous with everyone else in my life. or maybe i just need to game with more people in the southern hemisphere.

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6. when i was playing regularly, i was always more of an eternal #gm than a player. i hope that after doing some soloing i can answer this question more fruitfully in the future!

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7. in recent years i've spent something of an ugly amount of money on #ArsMagica, a game which resembles a college curriculum in its extensive treatments of various aspects and regions of the mythic medieval Europe and beyond. but like #Hero, #Mekton, and other games that make extensive solitaire mini-games out of thing-making, im not sure i'd ever be able to get a group together that would fully enjoy every aspect of #ArM, but it makes great idea fertilizer.

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