JR

Well let’s see. I believe the first time I’d ever played in a role-playing game was… oh, when I was 7 or so. Aye. It was at summer-camp, one of the older kids had a boxed set, which consisted of a hexagon shaped map, filled with… hexes! We had dice, but as no one really knew the rules, we didn’t roll them. The dice were used as minis.

After that, I had an interest in playing D&D. This was way back when it was still Second Edition. I remember getting to actually play it a few more times, though it was mostly a few friends telling each other what happened.

Some years later, I managed to get a copy of the actual books. So now, I would have rules and everything. I spent that day reading through them, with ideas spinning through my head. The possibilities were endless. At least, they would have been, if I’d been able to get people to play together with. I did spend many a time dreaming up characters I’d play, and adventures I would run. My favorite to this day, involves a world of my own design and a group of curiously well-trained goblins, or the one with the Dragons, or the Wizard’s Guild… or… well, you get the idea.

Aside from that, my huge interest in gaming came mostly in the form of Video Games. When I got my Nintendo… hoo boy. That was the coolest thing ever. I remember playing Duck Hunt, and holding the little Nintendo gun up at the screen to shoot the ducks. I remember discovering that no, you couldn’t shoot those stupid Goombas, and video games were played whenever I would go to visit friends, or when they would come to visit me. I had lots of time to perfect my craft, as it were, due to an extended, by which I mean over three-months, stay in Brackenridge Hospital, after being in a car accident. I remember playing Nintendo with my roommate then, and almost beating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game.

When I was 9 or 10, we moved from Austin down to the Rio Grande Valley, to Harlingen, to be precise. We lived about 45 minutes away from the beach, which was nice. I didn’t do much in the way of gaming, however, and school was… well boring. There was a reason for this; it was far too easy for me. I enrolled as a freshman in University Preparatory School in the fall of 1994. From what I hear though, Junior High isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

High School was fun. It was hard work, but lots and lots of fun. One of the seniors, by the name of Josh Bennett, had a similar interest to mine in D&D, and I would pester him whenever I could about the game. I came to understand more about it than I thought I could. He also showed me the Final Fantasy series of games, and introduced me to Magic: The Gathering. Now mind you, this was back when you couldn’t walk into a grocery store and find booster packs and what have you. We had a couple of games, no one really paid any mind. The years passed, and during my junior year, I met some friends who were into rpgs. Which was totally awesome. I finally had the chance to play out a game of D&D, and I learned that there were more rpgs out there. Well Vampire and Shadowrun anyway. That year and the next, I had the opportunity to really have fun. We’d play during lunch at school, or after school while pretending to do homework. The Player’s Handbook took a place in my stack o’ books between my Geometry and Chemistry books. Alas, there were few games that didn’t turn into ‘kill-filled hackfests’. Especially Vampire. All those powers + no understanding of those rules = massive npc killing. And when it came to D&D, well there wasn’t much interest in that, though we did have a good game or two.

After High School, I did what many do, and took some time off from school to figure things out. This dragged out unintentionally, and after some time, it was back to Austin! I remember looking up a game store in the yellow pages. The first one I’d found was Dragon’s Lair. I called them up, and was surprised to speak with someone who was not only willing to give me directions there, but hoped I could make it in! This was before the Lair had moved to it’s spot on Burnet. It was a nifty little place, and I bought my Shadowrun books there. All two of them. After the store moved, I found my way over there and I saw some little pieces of paper on the bulletin board asking for gamers. I signed up for one of them, and had fun for a while. I played in a game using the Hero system, but with mundane characters who had minor powers. Like, being able to find a fast route from one place to another. It was interesting, but I couldn’t make every game. I couldn’t drive then you know.

I also met John at Dragon’s Lair, though I’m not sure if he remembers. There was a D&D game going on in the store one day, and I asked if I could join. John was playing a female Elven cleric, which I would learn isn’t all that uncommon. That game tanked, and right about the time 3rd Edition came out too, but, I had at least known that you could find people to play with. The Internet has helped me in that area as well. I’d used this lovely program to sign up for a game online, and much to my surprise, it was fun. It didn’t tank after the first few sessions either. The campaign has ended long since, but, the people I met then still game together every Sunday via the internet. Do a search, you’d be surprised at what you can find.

Skipping ahead, my sisters were fortunate(?) to have been enrolled in Latin Classes taught by Gordon. I could tell you some horror stories from the two of them, but as Sierra’s standing right over my shoulder and getting that odd look on her face, I think I’ll digress to the more pleasant things. Things such as the fact that they had a teacher who liked things like Warhammer and D&D.

So… skipping ahead further … I come to the fateful Thursday last year, in which Sierra and I had come back from being very nigh hopelessly lost somewhere out in North Austin and happened to stop by Dragon’s Lair. We were invited to join a short Dungeon Crawl, and that night we did. Two weeks later, we were invited to join in another game, this one fourth level, and Sierra and I had our first campaign. I also got to actually meet Gordon, Pony, Mike, and later Frank and the rest of the gang. And by meet, I mean more than saying ‘hi’ here and there at the store. It was rather fun, though the game did fall through. Pony ended up starting Los Casablanquenos though, which is pretty neat. Gordon and Pony got me hooked on 7th Sea. It’s all their fault I tell you! All their fault! I came up with a Knight of the Rose and Cross by the name of Quinn, and I’ll not forget the first Thursday we played. Or the second one. Or the third… or… you get the idea really. Anyway, I’ve been playing with them ever since, and made some really neat friends. Well that’s all I’ll go ahead and say about me, unless you’d really rather hear more? I didn’t think so.