Self-Introduction

Message:

1977 -- I was born
~1985-1993 -- I on-and-off-again played D&D with my school friends (who are still friends to this day;) I think some of us got as far as 5th level BECMI; My favorite dungeons were the "weird" ones. We never understood or got into (I'll call it:) the "points" game of D&D, though I wish I had. We also played: Paranoia, Jorune, Albedo.
~2010-2014? -- wandering through a board game store, I saw DCC, fell in love with it immediately, despite having not played a role playing game in some 20 years, and DMed a couple of games for some younger friends, who enjoyed it as well, but, being a dad of a 10 year old girl, didn't have much time to go deeper
2022 -- played 5e with a girlfriend, and got deep into it, but was also frustrated with the "playing house" feeling: liked the lore, but felt like there wasn't a "game" underneath it -- and indeed, was surprised to encounter that suggesting adding more "game" to the game was met with hostility and suspicion

Throughout all of this time, though, I have played and enjoyed a broad mix of board games. I have always had board games in my life. I think it has something to do with ADD/ADHD, because most people I know who play board games are also ADD/ADHD. (Though I know ADD/ADHD people who are not "idea" oriented, and they do not like board games at all.) I think it provides a certain kind of stimulation that ADD/ADHD people crave and can't stay sane, without.

I have been trying to imagine a game that was somewhere between a role-playing game, and a board game.

I like how computer games and board games have a finite number of options. I like how role playing games have an infinite number of options. I like how computer games and board games have a "game" that can be solved -- it's like a puzzle, though I generally dislike "lock-and-key" or "pressure-plates-in-specific-combinations" type puzzles. I much prefer "puzzles" like: "How do we survive deeper into the dungeons? What kinds of weapons and armaments do we need? Our high level wizard just died -- how are we going to raise or find a wizard up to level? How does this world work? How can we bend chance towards our ends?"

I have come to eschew "story" and "narrative" to a degree -- I prefer to call it "flavor text" now. I like flavor text, and I don't truly dislike story or narrative, but I don't like how they have come to completely obscure the game -- so is my feeling based on the games I've been playing lately, and the role players I have been bumping in to. I'm looking for the *game.*

That's how I ended up here.

I posted a post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/ysknu4/are_we_roleplaying/ -- trying to figure out how to sell the kind of game that I want to play, and somebody said: "Red aka George Rahm used to run Space Gamer / Fantasy Gamer Magazine in 90's and started Better Games in 1988. Can be found lurking in the dark shadows at spacegamer.com. infamous for his board gaming like mechanics."

https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/ysknu4/comment/ivznvoc/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

I watched some of the videos on YouTube that he linked to, and I thought, "OH! OH! This looks very much like the kind of thing that I am looking for!"

I had a friend who I described the kind of game I want to play, and he said, "Why don't you just write computer games?" The answer to that is that it just takes too long to write computer programs, and it takes too long to change computer programs. But all you need to make a change to a pen and paper game, is just some words.

I have been writing in my notebook a number of different ways of doing combat resolution, and worlds, and research questions, trying to hack at this space of fun games that have a solid foot in the imagination and possible with role playing games, and a solid foot in board game mechanics.

The last games I've been really enjoying produced by other people are D100 Dungeons and D100 Space.

I've been working on several games of my own, the most mature of which I call "Fairy Gardens," and I have several versions of it right now, some written out in 10 pages of documents, and much of it written out in my notebooks and my memory. I have a lot of failed efforts, as well. I'm really struggling, and I'm struggling to find players, too. Everybody I know seems to want to play house with D&D-themed characters, and have really firm opinions that that's what a role playing game has to be. I don't mind people enjoying that, but I'm trying to find local people who might be interested in the kind of game that I want to run.

I look forward to buying several of the games that you have created, and figuring out how to play them, and how they work. I have tried to follow along with some of the videos posted on YouTube, but there's a lot of assumed knowledge that I don't have, so it takes deciphering on my part. If you could recommend a specific book or product for me as a new person to your style of play, I will buy it immediately.

Thank you for your time,
Lion Kimbro

Yours,