My Roleplaying Summary

Copying Vincent's idea...

Broken down into major periods of life, that don't exactly conform to shifts in my gaming philosophy...

My formal role playing history started in fall of 1977 at my friend's birthday party (I was a freshmen in high school):

• We got introduced to the game with Holmes Basic D&D (the very first version of said game - which is different from later Basic D&Ds)
  
• My friend got Chivalry and Sorcery for Christmas, I made efforts over the years to run this (and wore out my friends book in the process)
  
• Somewhere in there we got the Original D&D boxed set plus supplements, some time later I got my own set
  
• I got the AD&D Players Handbook for Christmas in 1978 and we started playing AD&D (well sort of, because of course we didn't have the DMG yet...)
  
• Somewhere in there, I started fiddling with Traveler
  
• Somewhere in there, I bought RuneQuest (1st edition) and fiddled with it
  
• Tried Boot Hill and dismissed it
  
• Ran some Top Secret
  
• Ran some Bunnies and Burrows
  

Attended a MIT Strategic Games Society Summer Con (probably 1978, or maybe it was Winter Con 1979 - but I vaguely remember warm weather), ran AD&D for 16! players

• Shortly thereafter, I started gaming with the MITSGS, and started what is probably my longest campaign (it would last until I went off to college in fall of 1981), probably really started in late 1979 though with the way people ran games at MIT with PCs being exchanged between different GMs campaigns, it's hard to nail down when it really started)
  
• Ran games with various other game systems that I can't really remember
  
• Played in a few different D&D games
  
• Ran some RuneQuest
  

Then I went to college (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

• Continued running AD&D my freshman and sophomore years
  
• Somewhere in here, in the summer, ran RuneQuest in space at MIT, switched to Traveler after a few sessions, said Traveler campaign after a total shift in players would run once or twice a year through 1986 or 1987 or so, or maybe as late as 1989)
  
• Tried to run RuneQuest, it flopped badly
  
• Played in a few Cold Iron campaigns
  
• Started running my first Cold Iron campaign (in Harn) in fall of 1983, this campaign would mostly peter out by fall of 1985, though I ran a couple bits with one player in fall of 1986)
  
• Ran Chivalry and Sorcery again (for a session or two)
  
• Probably ran a few other random games
  
• Ran Champions for a while
  
• Ran Justice Inc. and Espionage for a session or two each
  

Then I continued with graduate school at RPI

• Started running Fantasy Hero in fall of 1985, this campaign would end up migrating to Cold iron, and finally AD&D by the end of the school year (with a one or two session interlude with an obscure home-brew system I can't recall the name of - have to check at home tonight), campaign ended late spring of 1987
  
• Started work on my own game system, originally called Now for Something Completely Different, originally derived from the Gazis experience system for Traveler, later bolstered by ideas from GURPS (and later called Yet Another Generic Game System in honor of GURPS), played a session or two
  
• Played a few sessions of D&D
  
• Started a new Cold Iron campaign spring 1988 (in Blackmoor), this campaign would last until I mostly finished grad school at the end of the summer of 1989
  
• Ran some Top Secret SI and Traveler as breaks to that Cold Iron campaign
  

Then I was done and started job hunting

• Started game design on YAGGS in earnest in fall and spring of 1989
  
• Played in a GURPS Supers campaign
  

Moved to North Carolina in April of 1990

• Ran YAGGS, RuneQuest, and GURPS Supers with NC State game club
  
• Ran Everway
  
• Tried YAGGS again with caver friends
  
• Played in a demo of 7th Sea
  
• Ran a session each of 7th Sea and Deadlands with a caver friend
  
• Ran a disastrous RPGA Deadlands module at Trinocon
  
• Ran GURPS using YAGGS magic system (2 sessions)
  
• Ran Evil Stevie's Pirate Game for the first time at BrickFest 2000, would continue running this at conventions (LEGO and game) through 2004
  

Moved to Oregon March 2002

• Ran GURPS in Talislanta using YAGGS magic system (collapsed after 1 or 2 sessions)
  
• Ran Cold Iron in Talislanta
  
• Started Arcana Unearthed campaign in fall of 2003
  
• Ran demos of Cold Iron, Fudge, and RuneQuest summer of 2004 after AU campaign died
  
• Played one Fudge session (disastrous)
  

Took a break fall of 2004 while I bought a house, moved, and settled in

• Started Cold Iron Tekumel in spring of 2005 which died after a few sessions
  
• Started Arcana Evolved campaign in Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting in spring of 2005
  
• Ended AE campaign and started Cold Iron Blackmoor campaign fall 2005
  
• Ended Cold Iron campaign spring 2006
  
• Spent five painful sessions of chargen and almost play of Burning Wheel
  
• Started RuneQuest campaign late spring 2006
  
• Ran a Dogs in the Vinyard demo
  
• Ended RQ in late summer
  
• Ran two sessions (didn't even finish town) of DitV
  
• Started Arcana Evolved campaign in Ptolus fall 2006
• Started dating Saranna
  
• Ended the Arcana Evolved campaign in spring of 2007, ran a couple sessions of house ruled AD&D
• Dropped out of gaming other than forum/blog involvement as wedding plans with Saranna progressed. I am slowly working on starting an OD&D campaign.
  

Largely in part due to haze of time, the high school period (and first couple years of college) is very hazy (though I could dig through my collection of articles saved from the Wild Hunt APA and probably pin a few dates down). The high school era was definitely characterized by a lot of experiments in different games, though eventually a solid campaign settled down at MIT (though still with breaks for other games). I'm sure I've left out short-lived games here and there throughout the time (at least until 2002). Some game experimentation involved nothing more than spending a few hours with a couple other players creating PCs for a game, then never actually playing. I often got complaints for trying "the game of the week" though I have mostly settled down now.

Frank