RPGaDay: Beginning

I found the red box in an antique shop in 2001.  It wasn't an Antiques Roadshow type of antique shop.  They did house clearances, so had a nice line in second hand books and the kind of vintage kitchenware that lasts forever.  I bought a measuring jug there which I've since misplaced and I still regret that.

I read the rulebook cover to cover.  I read the accompanying adventure module.  I read the book 'What is Dungeons & Dragons?' that the previous owner had left in the box, and had a bit of a giggle at its predictions about video games.  I read the hand made and xeroxed character sheets in the bottom of the box, and marvelled at the dice with the crayon to colour in the numbers.

I never played it.

In 2003 I got invited to join a MUD (Multi User Dungeon) which was one of the ways roleplay games on the internet happened back then.  You had to write what your character did and said, taking it mostly in turns depending on who was in the room.  I loved it.  No wonder I like narrative games so much.

The MUD I joined was run by Darren and Gillian Pearce, and in time we became friends.  Eventually they invited me to their house for my first ever tabletop game.  Which, for some reason I don't recall, was Everway.  My character's name was Cinder, and she was a fairytale princess who decided at the last minute that marrying the handsome prince was not for her, put on her magic running shoes, and ran away to have an adventure.  I was hooked.

I continued to intermittently play at Darren and Gill's house, and then found a home group.  But in 2007, White Wolf brought out a new game called Scion.  And that changed everything.

Darren ran a few games.  I didn't really know the worlds of Everway, or Warhammer, or Star Wars.  But Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythology?  That I knew.  That I understood.  That...I could GM.

And that's how it all began.