A moment of thankfullness

[Stumblefish]

This is one of the few places a post like this will be appreciated for what it is, which is me being very pleased with how things have turned out. It'll need a little explaining. So from the top...

I'm 38 years old and if memory serves I got my first role playing game at the age of 12 (Marvel Super Heroes), I played in a few of those inconsequential little games that never really got going through my teens but never really ended up in an ongoing campaign until about 1996, until then I was one of those people who enjoyed the splat books so much I just bought them and read them and made characters for fun, the potential seemed so good but I couldn't find a group of friends who bought into it.

In 1996 i was asked to play in a game with a friend of a friend, this lasted 7 years, we covered a lot of ground going from 2nd Edition through to 3.5 of D&D along the way. Eventually babies, work and life got in the way and sadly it ended with a whimper as the game just broke down. A few other groups of munchkins and other varieties of nightmare players later and by 05 or 06 I'd given up of finding another group. In 2009 I moved to a new city far from home and most of my old game books were sold or donated as they didn't seem to have a use any more. That and really I should have grown out of that stuff by now, or at least that's what I probably told myself.

Moving to a new city in your thirties is a tricky thing, you want/need to make new friends and the best way to do this is to go out with work colleagues after the day is done. The people most likely to do this are the young ones, the families and responsibilities get in the way for the rest so there I was the old fart with a bunch of new friends who were on average about 10 years younger than me, a good bunch who had their heads screwed on the right way round. About a year after I'd kind of settled in with these guys Skyrim becomes huge and various conversations about it (Which I still don't get if I'm honest) lead to someone mentioning an abortive attempt these guys made at playing D&D a couple of years earlier which crumbled as no-one had really sat down to figure it out. I mentioned that I used to play and ended up telling war stories from the 7 year campaign. It was fun, nice to do that weird reminicing thing about something that never really happened that only other role-players really understand. These guys were lapping it up, I had never run into such enthusiasm. Within a week 3 of these guys turn up at my house asking me to run D&D, 3 of the guys I didn't even know that well at the time. I was delighted but a bit terrified as I'd always been a player. I told them I'd see what I could do and started to try sourcing some old D&D 3.5 books. Obviously this led to Pathfinder.

That was about a 18 months ago, the group of three starters has grown to a group of six fast friends with another two hovering in the wings also asking those questions which would indicate they want to play too. One of the original three took over DM duties 3 months ago and has done a great job while I took a break and got to play for a while after 15 months of being the guy in the big chair just got a bit exhausting. We plan on tag teaming every three months or so going forward as we do a chapeter of our respective adventure paths in turn. I'm taking over again next week and I was trawling the boards and getting set up to drop back into RotR and I just had a little moment of thankfulness that I got back into all this again and that I found a group who really embrace the game for the story and the sense of camraderie fictional reminicence can bring. Monday nights are one of the highlights of the week for all of us. I wanted to share it and here seemed the best place as at least you guys have an idea what I'm waffling on about.

Apologies if this isn't the right thread but I couldn't see a better option on the list when i scanned down. If you made it this far cheers for reading, I'm not sure what the point was but I think I needed to get it down somewhere.

[Apotheosis]

You do a good job of covering your bases, so I'll just make a little note:

Welcome home. =)

[Ciaran Barnes]

I have also found that bringing new players into the hobby, particularly the enthusiastic and consistent kind, is tremendously rewarding. I wish your gaming group long life.

[Kirwyn]

Fight on!

[Jack Assery]

Great story bro, good ending; I like the part when they all started playing, I was like "hey me and my friends do that too!!!", so I was able to relate with that part.

[Mark Hoover]

Nice! I moved just after my 30th birthday from IL to MN. I've always been way into gaming and had a very long-established group I left behind. I went from gaming a couple times a week to not at all for 2 years. Needless to say, I was bummed.

My wife had joined a mom's club and through that I met a guy who used to RPG but now only board gamed. We played a couple games but that was about it. Finally after knowing each other for a while I sat in on his board game nights. I was never a board gamer as a kid or a video gamer for that matter; this guy and his buddies were all IT professionals who board/video gamed constantly.

I didn't quite fit in, but I stuck with it.

Slowly I re-built an RPG group. I've always been the defacto GM so that's where I started. It's taken me roughly 7 years and I've "broken up" with as many gamers as I've gained. But just a couple sessions ago I got the best compliment I've had since leaving IL.

The guy I started board gaming with all those years ago has become my best friend up here in MN and is still part of my group. I'm running a game and a new player wanted to join, but he was hesitant expressing some concerns in an email. Well here comes my buddy who says my games are consistently epic and they won't disappoint.

Seriously, I was blown away!

Anyway Stumblefish your post of gratitude made me want to post my own. I've just in the past few months gained a couple players, played PFS for the first time (loved it!) and have been invited as a player to a new home game starting this weekend. I am blessed in my gaming life!

[blahpers]

Respek knuckles, yo. Keep exercising that imagination, and never let the rules get in the way of a good time with your mates.