So this Saturday Jan 28th marks a reunion of my original high school AD&D group: four people including myself, my cousin David, our friend Barry, and our friend & original red box D&D DM Steve. In Jan of 1983 we all sat down together for the first time and played Dungeons & Dragons. We played a few games as a group, a partial group, and even a couple of one-on-one games with me and Steve. A few more school mates floated through from time to time, but we were the core group for all of the 6 months we gamed in rural Cedartown, GA. David graduated that year and went off to a nearby college. I ended up moving to Shreveport, LA by the end of the summer for half my senior year. By the time I returned, Steve had moved back to his hometown of Cleveland, TN. I found some new players when I returned and spent most of 1984 running my own adventures as a DM. In the spring of 1985 I joined the USAF. ... but that's another story that involves a certain Temple of Elemental Evil. Ahem, there were a few years in the late 90's when Steve and I ended up living near one another in metro Atlanta again and had a few campaigns with a couple of other players. But then he remarried and lost interest again before 3rd edition was released. And a few years after that Barry and I reunited briefly for a couple of games before that group disintegrated. And here we are - 29 years to the month after the four of us started this journey - about to sit down around the table again and play Dungeons & Dragons. And I believe we are each very much STOKED! Having become most familiar with the AD&D 2nd edition ruleset during the reign of THAC0, I've chosen to run the game under those rules. It's what I know best and what I'm most comfortable with. David & Barry should thoroughly enjoy some of the great options for their characters. Speaking of which, I have rolled up pre-gens for the group and figured out best option for the most action-packed game is to drop into The Ruins of UnderMounatin for an old school dungeon crawl. :twisted: The 7th level party consists of each of the core classes and four different races: Garulf Tor, Human Fighter - no true 'kit' but built to be a bit of a ranger with a bastard sword/short sword two-weapon style. Gwarr Kegbreaker, Dwarven Specialty Priest of Moradin – who speaks wisely and carries a BIG hammer Inkling Travestee, halfling… uh, ‘Bard’, yeah, he’s a bard for all intents and purposes… *wink*wink*nudge*nudge* (thief 'halfling swindler' kit) Cloudwalker*, Elven Wizard – Academician kit; would rather be in a library than a dungeon, but the idea of spellbooks left by fallen adventurers is too great to resist *his given elven name is too difficult to pronounce in the common tongue. I allowed them to choose the class they wanted to play in order of seniority by age. David chose the cleric, which makes sense because he is a licensed minister of the gospel. Barry chose the wizard, which makes sense because he is a bit of the brainiac and always favored the wizards. Steve chose the fighter because he loves being the (often senseless) tank. hah hah! Which leaves me the halfling rogue to run as an NPC. And I always favored the swashbuckling chaotic good types. I'll leave you with that for now. I'll check back in after Saturday to let you know how it all went. Thanks for the inspiration GaryCon!
I understand that one. The "original" DM we had, I recently found out, passed away a number of years ago. It really surprised me because he would have still been fairly young. I also have been unable to locate one other person I played D&D with back in the day. The other one I can think of would probably not even be interested. Strangely enough, my gaming heyday picked up when I was in my late 20s and early 30s. I've more memories from that time than the sporadic gaming I did as a kid.
the game could not have gone much better yesterday... smoother maybe, as we were all a bit rusty... but we all had a blast! So much so that I and my three long-time friends & fellow old-schoolers have decided to make this a quarterly event. We're each very busy with career and family. But we will make sure to set aside an occasional Saturday to continue this venture for as long as we can. I cannot express my happiness any better in having accomplished this reunion after so many years. My only regret is not having tried it sooner. I'll write up a summary of the session and post it in the next couple of days. Thanks again to the GaryCon community for the inspiration. You folks ROCK! :mrgreen: ~Hoyt.
Hoyt, That is a great story. Gaming and D&D in particular is the catalyst for many life long friendships. For me, Gary Con has become a big reunion with many people that I have gamed with across the various stages of my life. There are family members and Old Guard that I played with as a child, several old Army buddies from Germany circa 1990-1992, some from my college days (gaming at my Dad's on the porch), and even a former Marine I met on my last deployment will be coming this year. There is something about the shared experience of RPGs that forms strong bonds. I am glad your group got back together for some new adventures!
