On 3/22/2011 5:09 PM, John Francis wrote:
On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 02:16:28PM -0500, Walter Gilbert wrote:
Very cool shot, Larry! I've been trying to think of what it
reminds me of, and at the risk of outing myself as an old-school
Dungeons& Dragons geek, I finally figured it out. There's a
creature called the "Shambling Mound" in the Monster Manual:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/3183005607_b4626432ba.jpg?v=0
Now, feel free to go about making fun of the D&D nerd.
-- Walt
I think I've got you beat there - I've still got my original 1974
D&D booklets (the white-boxed three volumes, plus the first four
expansions). They're in fairly good shape, because by the time I
was gaming regularly we were either using AD&D or, more often, a
variety of home-grown rule systems loosely based on AD&D.
The most common variation was one that would be recognised by an
average RPG player of today - using mana points, rather than the
fire(ball)-and-forget magic system of by-the-book D&D/AD&D.
I've also got a complete set of Dragon magazine up to issue 250 or
so (including all 7 issues of the pre-cursor Tactical Studies Rules),
and a fair assortment of other gaming accessories from those days.
My subscription to Dragon started around issue 60, I believe, but
I was able to fill in most of the early gaps in the late '80s by
scouring sales I found on this newfangled usenet newsgroups world
(including one generous gamer who sold me 30 early issues at face,
including half a dozen issues from the first three years; the only
issue that really forced me to pay collector prices was issue #1).
Yeah, I'd say you have me beat by a pretty good margin, John! I
probably played my first round of AD&D in 1983, or so. You must be
sitting on a small fortune in collector's items.
I haven't played since I got out of high school -- before the 2nd
edition Player's Handbook came out with the new classes. There were
about six or seven guys I played with regularly, and I don't think we
ever played a single round by-the-book -- though we had good
intentions. And we always had a good time, which was the important
thing. Eventually, though, it got to the point where we all had pet
characters that we larded up to the point of invincibility, which took
the sport out of it.
Still, it kept a bunch of small-town kids entertained and out of trouble
during summer vacations. And our parents always had a pretty good idea
where we could be found after sundown.
-- Walt
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