Top Ten: My early years in gaming

So my early years of gaming began with really having a mom into LOTR, reading mythology and fairy tales then playing Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982. Later 83-84 I want full nerdcore and we got into the elmore and earlier box sets of DnD. Most weekends we would play fri night to sun arvo and at school.

We tried some other games. One friend got MERP which we didnt actually play. I got Gammaworld 2nd ed while in holiday in UK 84 staying in awesome places like Bath and Caerphilly castle (where moat ducks were 50:1 male to female and pretty rapey). Did play a bit but it was great imagination fodder and I still think is one of best over all games ever for layout, art and setting. Star frontiers followed and a bit of dabbling with James Bond, Top Secret and Traveller. We found Champions book for $5 bucks and we all got it and started my 20 year long super hero game that within a year was changed to TSR Marvel Superheroes.

Mom insisted i play sport or take up a activity and school chess team didnt cut it so I found a wargaming club with lots of old bearded guys and uni students. Some dangled me out of 4th floor windows with a bag on my head and a noose and oney guy hit me with a car and i hung onto hood while he swerved around trying to throw me off. I became persistent and good at being stubborn and arguing with adults. I played paladium, dnd with armslore claw lore, oldschool greyhawk, Aftermath, and Toon. I began hanging with uni age guys and played stormbringer, cthulhu, paranoia, superworld and runequest which seemed indy and alternative at the time. I got to read lots of old 70s games around the club including wargames, boardgames and old dnd. Saw first Warhammer games.  Also I started reading comics lots as they were always lying about. Ocasionaly older gamers would want to but in our games and hijack them. I ran a great Oriental Adventures game with 12 players that split into ninjas and non ninjas.

By 85 - 86 I went to rich school in city that was freaking horrible and I got caned weekly. Id go to library after school daily and hung out with computer gamers, hackers, shoplifters and roleplayers. There was quite a bit of symbiosis between them. Christians would hassle us and librarians helped us "You boys are not using spells to sly or summon demons are you?" - No sir!

I worked in comic and games shops a bit. We were massive marvel fans - i had the x-stuff, a friend got hulk and spiderman and another got avengers and we read everything marvel did for years.

Later school in Adelaide hills was better and I kept up library and my club and my old fist gamer group going. After school I was hanging in city gaming for days with unemployed and uni studenst and moved into a house where we did my first net trolling age 19, had a pool, got into vodka and up to 8 guests would be in house playing games. I was a IT salesman a bit and most of us ended up in uni. I got involved in uni clubs as office bearer and brewing club and hemp club and many others and student media. AdnD and other games were big but we lived Marvel days a week and my concerned parents would check if I was alive. Cthulhu was pretty big too. I studied art history/archaeology in museum studies and philosophy. I did a bit of film and classics when uni lost all my records for two years and I was Ill lots with various things that were undiagnosed arthritis related.

DnD second  ed rolled round and it popular and we were mad for. The monster books were a bit anoying. First four complete class books and green history books were good. Then I got grupy TSR not supporting old games, dragon and 2nd ed stuff was written and designed with less effort and poorer art and design. The Elmore age was over.

Rob Liefield killed marvel comics for me for over ten years. I liked the DnD history stuff at first but I got into reading the classics and history inspired by study, Cthulhu and RQ and decided I was better off knowing Herodotus than Dragonlance and mostly have read non fiction or translations of epic, myths and legends since. Played mostly Marvel, Runequest (including my Babylon setting) and cthulhu till about 2006. I moved to Sydney mostly working as artist around 2007 and after I was a bit over my romance with art got back into games as I realized my gamer friends were probably better. So I started SOGG southern oldschool gamers group and played Gamma World and Cthulhu. I had been playing PC game temple of Elemental Evil game and it was my first exposure to post early second ed. ablout 2010. Players wanted to play DnD so while Ill I wrote my EMO dnd house rules. By 2012 I was blogging and went to a con and a club and a week later I lived above the club for several years and kept it up till early this year. My history games were supposedly Cthulhu but that was to suck kids into RQ as nobody would play it if I said that. 1490s Darklands, Vikings and Babylon, Marvel, Modern Cthulhu and more over years.

In Adelaide I'm playing LOTFP and my Xor setting. Still looking to game more and meet more people and hoping to publish this year.......

Im notorious for preferring oldschool games and wondering why ppl change stuff and why ppl homebrew less in favour of canned products and settings.