Smoldering Wizard's Old-School Gaming Forums

Welcome, Oldskolgmr!
We are glad to have you join the forum.

Hi everyone!
I'm afraid that I'm a bit late posting on this thread, as I just got into discussion about games from the get go. It's nice to see a Swords & Wizardry forum on the web, and it's also nice to see that it covers some other ground too.
Just so you know, I started playing BECM (Mystara) when I was at primary school, and shifted to 2e (Lankhmar) when I was at high school. I left the hobby upon leaving school due to not having a gaming group, but returned in 2004 to play Call of Cthulhu. Eventually I made my way back to D&D via S&W, and from there got into, for the first time ever, AD&D 1e. I've also played Traveller, Traveller 2300, Pendragon, and Paranoia, though A/D&D (in whatever form) is the only RPG that I have ever loved. I'm currently planning on having something to do with B/X D&D as a way of introducing new players to the OSR.
Unfortunately I'm not much of a fan of WOTC D&D, as I don't like the game play style, and I find universal game mechanics bland, as a one size fits all approach does not necessarily fit all sizes. Also, 3e and (especially) 3.5e were ridiculously complicated, and 4e just wasn't D&D.
I'm also on Dragonsfoot, especially on the 1e forum, but it sometimes gets unnecessarily high brow over there so it makes a nice change to be on Smoldering Wizard. Sometimes (but not always) the "Advanced" in AD&D just attracts people wanting to be clever.
I'm English, my favourite fantasy authors are Robert Howard and Fritz Leiber, I make and produce radio music for the BBC, and I also sometimes play music at concerts or teach music too. I'm currently 47 years old.

Bill

Welcome, Bill. Glad to have you here!

High brow, heh!
Again welcome Bill! 'Tis a great place to talk RPGs!

Welcome, Bill! What kind of music do you like to play?

BECMI was my first love for D&D, but I've come to appreciate the concision of B/X.

greyarea wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2023 2:44 pm

Welcome, Bill. Glad to have you here!

Hi greyarea!
I'm glad to be here

tumblingdice wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2023 3:51 pm

Welcome, Bill! What kind of music do you like to play?

BECMI was my first love for D&D, but I've come to appreciate the concision of B/X.

Hi tumblingdice!

I play a lot of Jazz, and also some Blues and Soul stuff too, especially earthy, bluesy Soul such as Stax and Chess (I'm a big fan of Memphis and Chicago Blues and Soul). I listen to lots of music though, including Country; Bluegrass; Folk; Rock; Pop; Latin American; Reggae, South African; Indian; and Classical. I am expected to produce other kinds of music, not just the music that I play.

Yes I've come to appreciate the concision of B/X too. To me BECM starts to fall apart a bit with the CMI part. The quest to become a Demi-God is a different game, the Thief gets nerfed, and the weapon mastery system could be a lot better. I also don't like the skills system as presented in the gazetteers, as it just doesn't sit right with a character class based system. A generalised secondary skills system would have been better, like the one that they have in AD&D. I always leave the "I" of the "BECM" as it was obviously just tacked on. The Easley and Elmore art is nice, plus the contributions of other artists in the modules and gazetteers, but it is no more evocative than B/X art, and I've come to appreciate the art of Erol Otus and the others.

Bill

Hey Bill - again, glad you’re here!

badams30 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2023 9:11 pm

Hey Bill - again, glad you’re here!