The Early influences of Brad, Jeff, Mark, Jim and Jim's brother Adam slowly broke away as a few years went by... Jeff in the Navy, Brad off traveling and and simple falling out with Brad, Jim and Adam.
So after High School there were still games to play but for a couple of years I kinda got away from playing and worked 2 jobs, one during the day and another at night, I was working full time during the day at a factory, store, or delivery and at night waiting tables at banquets and later working in a Palmer Video in Somerville... my focus shifted to working and women and the occasional game
In 1989 Bridgewater Commons Mall opened and soon after a Gaming store opened there.
This led me to connect with the biggest influence on my gaming - Mark C and the most creative person I know - Steve K
Mark C, Steve K, Greg B and myself would form the core of our group we added other players over the years such as Scott C, Steve L, Chris and Linda and others that joined us like Vince A
We were not only gamers, we all truly enjoyed each other's company and did many thing together as a group
We liked to go out and have fun aside from the game.. in fact it was unusual for us not to be together when time permitted it. I know that I was creatively stimulated more by Mark, Steve and Scott both as a player and a DM /GM than ever before or since. They literally pushed me to create and expand my skills
This was a dynamic time as all of us were very into making the game as good as it could be.. The role playing was getting explored and expanded, the quests, challenges and puzzles were getting higher billing than the fighting.
Many of us were running the game, as once campaign ended, another DM would take over and run a new one for the group. During the time when you were playing, you had time to create new adventures
I was churning out material for my world Pak-Zaroth and starting to develop my new "Monster" whom I call The Cuhre - bad ass invaders from another continent.. I never developed the continent where they rule because I had no intention of anyone from Pak Zaroth actually venturing there. I did complete the culture and the hierarchy for the creature
The players started out as having grown up in Port Greybar... When you want a stating location, make it a port simply for the possibilities it presents.. Then I went with Towns.. Northport, Southport, Royt, Faralmar
I created the map, placed the towns, then created the rulers and notable people for each town. Then created some political intrigue to run for a good long time in this world. Then placed other races in regions of the continent, Keeping humans to about 1/15 the scope of the known land and islands. I then did some rough natural resources and trading lines for the towns... I felt it best if there was not a huge deal of trading and most towns were self sufficient. There are 4 geographical "Kingdoms" and 3 of the 4 have a Lord, the fourth is a Barony and is the newest ruler.
The guilds for Thieves and assassins and a few other secret societies were completed after that.
Then I set about filling in the Legends of the lands that would become adventures or remain legends that were not explored
Unfortunately, the large map of Pak Zaroth does not seem to want to be found or has been discarded... I found a small copy but it only has some of the features on it.. here is the map of Port Greybar
The shape of the world was quickly coming into shape and the first adventure in the new world was protecting a Farm from a Wolf on the outskirts of Greybar
Many of our older and higher level characters were being retired or turned into NPCs (Non player characters) for the most part and only brought out for special games
We started getting into other games systems at this time to break up some of AD&D and because some our players were interested in running these games
Battletech
Call Of Cthulhu
TOON
Shadowrun
Gurps
Dream Park
Vampire
DC Heroes
Marvel
James Bond
Top Secret
Killer, the Assassination game
and many others
During this time, I met my wife, who, God Bless her, puts up with my insane gaming.
At one point I have had 3 game nights, Tuesday(AD&D), Friday(Vampire) and Sunday(AD&D)... always crazy
We also started doing conventions in 1992
No comments:
Post a Comment