Archive 001
Hello. I am your RPG Archivist. I have a YouTube channel that has been dormant for a while, RPGArchivist. If you’re interested in looking up any of my past videos, just follow this link: RPG Archivist – YouTube. I am now trying my hand at blogging.
It is my intent here to talk about tabletop RPGs and my own experience in the hobby. Maybe I’ll meander off into relevant corners of the hobby like miniatures war gaming, painting, and the like. This blog would also give me the excuse to explore the vast collection that sits in boxes unread and collecting dust. But who knows what’s going to strike my fancy first?
Since this is an introduction I’ll tell you how I got into the tabletop RPG hobby. Imagine a camping trip in a beautiful Boy Scout camp in the Southwestern portion of Louisiana. It is the beginning of the 1980’s. Three-sided shelters with bunk beds sit among the occasional tent. In the back of the camp is a pavilion where Troop 172 had gathered under lantern lights. A senior scout has a copy of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook and some very peculiar dice lying out on a picnic table. We have all made our characters and I set forth on my first D&D adventure into The Caves of Chaos in the classic adventure The Keep on the Borderlands. That is what launched my interest in the hobby. I was fascinated. I’d always loved board games but this was completely different.
My parents knew a good thing when they saw it. I was a kid with dyslexia and no interest in reading. Let’s be honest, reading is a chore if you can’t focus on the words on paper. Or on the blackboard for that matter. My math skills were not particularly good either. But here was a game that involved reading AND math and I was already hooked. On the advice of the DM, my parents waited for the Mentzer red box to come out. It was not AD&D but it was going to be a streamlined rules set for new players like me. So, on Christmas of 1983 I got the Dungeons and Dragons Basic set.
I spent the rest of that Christmas in a back room listening to my new AM/FM radio reading everything in that boxed set. I colored in the numbers on my powder blue dice with the crayon included in the box. I played the solo adventure multiple times. To this day, I give props to any core rule book incorporating a solo adventure for new players. I even attempted to run my first game in the beginning adventure, Castle Mystamere. My DM skills were not great. I didn’t like going outside the blocked text. And things tended to break down as soon as the players got to the second floor. That was where the new DM was expected to fill the rooms himself. Nevertheless, I was not discouraged, and each time I tried to DM I got just a little bit better at it.
And I did get better; so much so I’ve considered publishing my own books. My collection and experiences have only grown since those days. I know a little of the hobby’s history, various systems, and even have a few more obscure books. Here I hope to share all that with you and hopefully you will find it entertaining as well as educational.
Good gaming from your RPG Archivist!
