This was making the rounds on various social media sites. I shared there, but wanted to make a record of it here.

1.) Holmes Blue Box Basic – This is how I got started all because my brother convinced me to buy it.
2.) AD&D 1e Because Holmes Blue Box said that’s what you had to buy.
The rest in the order they come to mind, I don’t remember the order we first played them.
3.) Metamorphosis Alpha 1e
4.) Gamma World 1e
5.) Boot Hill 2e
6.) Top Secret 1e
7.) Gangbusters 1e
8.) Star Frontiers
9.) Marvel Superheroes
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We tended to buy the latest RPG from TSR. I subscribed to The Dragon, and was up to speed on all the newest RPGs.

We made up our own space pirate game, very rough. It had an interplanetary war component, even rougher. There was also an RPG component that took ideas from all the other Science Fiction RPGs we could get our hands on. A lot of creativity, world building, game development, and fiction. All that survives are memories and most likely my brother’s short stories. Unless one of my brothers has any notes or documents we had, it is lost to the mists of time.

We had one session experience with Traveller, Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, and perhaps others. Those were presented by younger players who thought they were cool, but couldn’t present them well. For some, the character creation was too cumbersome. Some consider AD&D to be difficult, but one can still roll up a character and be up and running quickly compared to a lot of games.

I cam to appreciate later versions of Basic D&D with the old school movement that showed me that our trained response from the verbiage in Holme’s Blue Box that it was for babies was misplaced.

I like the simplicity and creativity of all the retroclones getting back to simpler times.

I always struggled with aspects of game mechanics and making my own back in the day. It isn’t as difficult as I led myself to believe, and am glad I finally stepped out of my comfort zone to try my hand at it.

Back in the day, I’d rather play than GM. Now I think for the most part, I’d rather GM than play. It ebbs and flows with my current interest/focus.

I like to play with creative people who see things in the scenario I didn’t necessarily describe and who run with their idea of the world and make a new thing that is alive.

I have many more ideas than I will ever be able to implement as a GM, so I share them in hopes that others will get some fun out of them. I owe a lot to my brother who got me started so long ago when he convinced me to buy Holmes Basic.