D&D 30 Day Challenge

I have been terrible about my blogging this year. Plenty of good intentions, but very little follow-through. So today I stopped by Swords & Dorkery and saw the D&D 30 Day Challenge and decided it is just what I needed to light a fire under my ass. Today's post is a combo - Day 1 and Day 2, and then hopefully I will keep pace with the challenge the rest of the month.

How I Got Started

Hard to pin down exactly what year it was, but I know for sure I was playing in 6th grade, so right around 77 or 78. My brother had taught me chess, Avalon Hill board games, things like that. Then D&D came home one day. I had the Holmes Blue Box, and my brother had the AD&D hardbacks. Mikey taught me how to play, and we had plenty of 1-on-1 sessions with Mikey DMing and me playing.

I played with some elementary school and junior high classmates too, and we had hours of fun playing all sorts of characters through various adventures: White Plume Mountain, Survival of the Fittest, and many others. Sure, at times things took a Monty Haul turn, but we were kids! And then one fateful night I was invited to play with Mikey's friends (we went through a very long and memorable session in Tegel Manor), and I met some guys who I would game with from that day on, right up to present day. We joke about opening the first Old Gamers Home for elderly gamers, complete with large-font rulebooks so we can continue to play well into our golden years.

Since Mikey was very restless, cerebral, and always looking for another challenge, I was fortunate enough to try other systems too - Runequest, Tunnels & Trolls, Top Secret, and possibly one or two others. But D&D has always been and will always be my game of choice.

Favorite Playable Race

I am going to go with humans, although you wouldn't know it from my last couple of choices (current character is a 13th level sun elf wizard, previous character was an 8th or 9th level gnome cleric). I enjoy their all-around versatility and adaptability.