I Could Not Have Said It Better...

I know, I know... you're saying "You just started this blog and you're taking a break already?".

Quit whining or you get the HAND!

Well, not really. Here's the scoop - Easter and Christmas, my schedule is full. So, after March 31st, I'm back in the wiz biz. Until then, here's a great article on someone who gets it...

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/10/8_
things_that_ruin_dd_games.php

How To Find New Players (or Make Them), Pt. 2

I hope you are still with me after my last rant, but if you are not, it's probably because you are one of the people I described so vehemently.

So option two, since I figured it's going to take a while to find these perfect gaming partners, I decided to try to make some. Here's what I had to start with, a wife who could care less about sci-fi/fantasy geek stuff, and a seven year old daughter who is a chip off the old block.

All I had to do with my daughter is to leave a few old modules and various books with cool covers around and she was in. She is so much like me (a total geek) it's scary.

Family fun!

My wife was another story. She's an awesome chick, but this was not her bag. I wasn't holding out much hope for my homegrown group. It was time to think this thru to ease her into this world of wizards, warriors and the almighty d20.

Starting with a full blown D&D game, even B/X, would be way over their heads, so I started seeing what else was out there. We had all been playing Monopoly, Life and other assorted board games for a while now, so I thought something in that direction might spark an interest. As a kid, I remembered playing the original Dungeon! board game, so I searched around and discovered Wizards of the Coast had reissued the game, repackaging it with some killer artwork.

How cool is this?

This was going to be awesome! I got a Barnes & Nobles gift card for Christmas, so I figured this was meant to be. I couldn't wait to play, the reviews were great and the system seemed easy enough to teach the family. Game night was set, let's see what happens.

Next, who's going to step up to the plate and slay some monsters...

How To Find New Players (or Make Them), Pt. 1

Over the last two years, the desire to start RPG'ing has slowly consumed my everyday thoughts. After breaking out and subsequently reading and re-reading all my old books, modules, etc..., I soon found myself contemplating the main problem and reason why I got out of playing in the first place. It's difficult to find other like-minded players that will commit to a regular weekly or bi-weekly schedule.

Let's break down those two issues real quick. First, when I say like-minded, I mean - stable, nonalcoholic, non drug abusing people who don't have a rap sheet and aren't a giant pain in the butt simply there to make everybody's one chance in a while to get away from reality not worth the effort. These people should know who they are and not bother with any game I would like to be a part of or organize.

I desire this experience again to have fun and fall into a story. Not to examine the minutia of every rule written, not to berate a DM because my character died, not to take the game so seriously that it starts mirroring the junk I have to deal with in real life, i.e people with no imagination and a seemingly large stick up their behind. And if you were overly bothered by any grammatical errors in the last few paragraphs, you can remove yourselves from the list also.

Ok, now that that's out in the open, let's discuss schedule. My schedule is whacked. I work on the weekends, and generally have a few days off in the week. Around here, a bunch of people work in the tourist industry, so that is not so weird, but a typical 9 to 5'er usually can't do the weeknight thing. This stinks because I am really looking people who have stable jobs and familys, a decent supply of morals and ethics, and can actually smile and, once again, have fun.

I'll be honest, now that I'm older, wiser, and way more paranoid, I am even considering background checks on people that are interested in putting a group together. Sounds crazy right? Well, just go on your local sexual predator list for your area, it's a real eye opener, especially if you have kids.

Stay tuned for Part 2 on this topic, where we discuss option 2, making your own gamers from scratch.

Business

Ok, so now that we've got all that out of the way, I guess I need to explain the name of this blog. I wouldn't want to keep all you faithful readers in suspense, so here it is.

I live in a place many thousands of people visit every year to hopefully escape their mundane lives and pickup a sunburn or two. Heck, we've even got our own reality show on TLC! That's right, you guessed it, sunny Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! Or as we call it, The Grand Strand (hence Strand Classic Adventure, yep).

Myrtle Beach - aka Redneck Riviera

Sounds like fun right? Well, it's actually not that bad, I've lived in worse places, but a gaming mecca it is not. I've just started investigating, but I realize once again why I quit gaming when I moved here in 1990.

So, cross all your fingers! Let's just see who's out there. So far, I've got my wife and seven year old daughter into it. Maybe even our neighbors kids seem interested.

This is going to be some experiment...

REBIRTH!

There was a time, many moons ago, that Dungeons & Dragons was my only escape from a world I was hopelessly forced into, a place where I could make few choices for myself, a place where circumstance was a bleak reality.

I was a kid.

This could be misinterpreted as a sob story of sorts, but make no mistake, most of my basic survival needs were met, I had a place to live, food was provided on a regular basis, and I would occasionally have an opportunity to visit strange, sparkly places (the mall). 

A broken home at the age of seven was the catalyst that would shape my desperate battle to escape my surroundings. Displacement from the established norm has a tendency to warp a developing persons views of life. I was plunged head first into a world that was as uncomfortable as it was disheartening. 

I realize now I never really found a place in that world, living with relatives who were, by most standards, completely dysfunctional and wholly narcissistic. They reveled in their own soap opera lives, something I saw as a cycle to escape from as soon as the law would allow.

My saving grace, other than the strong hereditary passion of angling, was discovering the universe that had been created by a company called TSR. I was exposed to this wondrous creation by my older cousin Michael. I was forced to live with him and my two other cousins off and on for years, plagued by their incessant need to surround themselves in drama on a constant basis.

But, I must thank him on some level, because his devotion to gaming sparked my imagination. My earliest memories of fantasy were holding an original monochrome version of the popular AD&D module G3-Hall of the Fire Giant King. The cover of this well used booklet became etched in my mind, displaying all the imagery I would need to begin a journey into a land I could truly become another person in. Finally, a place that I could be something, a hero, a warrior, a wizard. It was a place where anything could happen, there was no school with it’s mind-numbing classrooms, instead there were piles of gold and magical items waiting to be discovered. 

I would eventually inherit that piece of history, saving it from lonely abandonment and eventual landfill destruction, placing it in storage more than twenty years ago. It fell into place in the boxes of my accumulated RPG materials, mainly First Edition AD&D products with a smattering of other oddball periodicals, rulebooks, and assorted many sided dice.

These boxes would get an occasional browse, usually when I would move, but no real desire hit me to rekindle my gaming days. 

This all changed a few years ago. A summer of circumstantial inactivity put me in a position of rediscovery. The stained and mangled boxes came out of the attic, and along with them came a renewed sense of excitement! Times were changing, and it was time I did too. Time to go back to a simpler world, where I think I really have wanted to be for a long time. 

Back to the dungeon...