Leveling Up My Roleplaying Skills

My roleplaying skills just became a teenager.

I’m not talking about the fact that I’m great at playing introverted, psychotic, angsty people that are still going through puberty. I mean that I have been roleplaying since 1996.

I have seen D&D 3.0 birthed into conception, watched the revisions to 3.5 and remember where I was when I heard D&D 4 had come out (PAX 2007. Great show. I recommend it.). I’m also a part of the movement to bring our games online and into digital formats. Our hobby and industry are growing up, and we are as well.

The people here at Apathy Games have been playing together since 2004. While we’ve not always had a regular game going, we have started some friendships around the gaming table that have continued strong ever since. We’ve grown up and bonded over our passion and hobbies.

Mike of Campaign Mastery wrote an article about players teaching players. While he offered some great advice, what I remember most about the article is his story about bonding with his friend Chris, whom he is still friends with after 28 years. Chris taught Mike how to roleplay. A skill Mike has taken with him ever since and something I’m sure he’s thankful of.

Paul, Jeff, and Hillary were the ones that taught me how to roleplay. It was demanded of ourselves that we develop deeper characters because it made the game more fun. We tried out ideas on each other, teased each other, and bonded over these games. Now we run a business together making games, hopefully to afford other people the same opportunities we had.

Your Call to Action

How long have you been roleplaying? Has it been with the same people? Who was the person who taught you how to roleplay instead of roll play?

As per our promise, we will take the best response and highlight it next Friday when we next go Behind the Bar

http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/ Mike Bourke

Great words, Tyson. It’s always nice to know something you’ve written has resonated with an audiance.

Unfortunately, as you’ll find out in part 2 of the article, Chris and I eventually lost touch, but the people I met because of him are still friends to this day.

One slight oops – your tag of “campaign mastery” is misspelt “campagin mastery”.
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/ Mike Bourke

Great words, Tyson. It’s always nice to know something you’ve written has resonated with an audiance.

Unfortunately, as you’ll find out in part 2 of the article, Chris and I eventually lost touch, but the people I met because of him are still friends to this day.

One slight oops – your tag of “campaign mastery” is misspelt “campagin mastery”.
Wolf

I started in 1985-’86, my roleplaying skills are almost legal to rent a car (or has that changed?), and have been legal enough to drink for almost 3 years now give or take.

Man, the group we had back then were raggedy. And most of the guys moved away, but the core is still there, or were back in ’03. Then I became one of the guys who moved away. (even after a 4 year stint in the Army, we still got together and threw the dice all the way up till when I left.

I think it was about 1992 when we ran a session of Star Wars (the best and original West End Games version, IMHO) for a marathon 15 or so hours, and just as the sun was coming up, we realized that none of us remembered rolling dice. And we were having a ton of fun, so then we just started seeing how much fun we could have just getting into character… That was the first time, the day before I die will be the last.

During my time I’ve gamed with my core group, two college groups (along with that core group, yah, there’s a reason I went into the military, I never got work done in college, what with upwards of 6 games a week, I mean come on now. LOL, seriously though). A local group of Germans when I was in Germany for a few years, two Great, and I mean Great, groups in the 82nd Airborne, back to my old home town group after the service, then I picked up another group or two back home, Then I moved out here to Arizona, and have been in 7 or 8 groups here, still trying to settle down, but I think that a core group is bubbling out of the flotsam there too.

Great article, and good for stirring up the memories. Thanks.
Wolf

I started in 1985-’86, my roleplaying skills are almost legal to rent a car (or has that changed?), and have been legal enough to drink for almost 3 years now give or take.

Man, the group we had back then were raggedy. And most of the guys moved away, but the core is still there, or were back in ’03. Then I became one of the guys who moved away. (even after a 4 year stint in the Army, we still got together and threw the dice all the way up till when I left.

I think it was about 1992 when we ran a session of Star Wars (the best and original West End Games version, IMHO) for a marathon 15 or so hours, and just as the sun was coming up, we realized that none of us remembered rolling dice. And we were having a ton of fun, so then we just started seeing how much fun we could have just getting into character… That was the first time, the day before I die will be the last.

During my time I’ve gamed with my core group, two college groups (along with that core group, yah, there’s a reason I went into the military, I never got work done in college, what with upwards of 6 games a week, I mean come on now. LOL, seriously though). A local group of Germans when I was in Germany for a few years, two Great, and I mean Great, groups in the 82nd Airborne, back to my old home town group after the service, then I picked up another group or two back home, Then I moved out here to Arizona, and have been in 7 or 8 groups here, still trying to settle down, but I think that a core group is bubbling out of the flotsam there too.

Great article, and good for stirring up the memories. Thanks.
http://www.apathygames.com Tyson J. Hayes

@Wolf – Thanks for the reply and sharing your story.

Do you still keep in touch with your original core group or have you lost touch?

Personally I’ve found the group I game with is still my close friends even if they move away or we don’t game together as much as we used to.
http://www.apathygames.com Tyson J. Hayes

@Wolf – Thanks for the reply and sharing your story.

Do you still keep in touch with your original core group or have you lost touch?

Personally I’ve found the group I game with is still my close friends even if they move away or we don’t game together as much as we used to.
Hillary Crenshaw

@Wolf: I can definitely relate to not getting much school work done due to gaming. I think my record is five games at one point. Amusingly enough, it was only with two different groups of people. All four of us were running games (mine lasted a whole of three sessions) and I was involved with another game completely outside of our regular group. Now I only have three going and I feel under-stimulated.
Hillary Crenshaw

@Wolf: I can definitely relate to not getting much school work done due to gaming. I think my record is five games at one point. Amusingly enough, it was only with two different groups of people. All four of us were running games (mine lasted a whole of three sessions) and I was involved with another game completely outside of our regular group. Now I only have three going and I feel under-stimulated.
Pingback: Leveling up My Roleplaying Skills - Followup | Apathy Games
http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

I never really stopped “Playing Pretend” as a kid. I just refined and evolved it over the years into Storytelling for a game. As such my brothers were the first and longest lived (Not in game though, they frequently went through characters like some people go through paper towels. ;P ) players. That gives me a little over 15 years Roleplaying, as I don't really count pre ten years. I did actually have a system developed back then, but it was primitive enough that we'll just lump everything until ten into 1 year. :P As I moved around a lot as a kid, my group has changed so dramatically and so often that I've never really had a “Long Term” group. WA is actually the first place I've ever lived without having several large games running. O.o! (In fact, I haven't run a game in almost two years! D: )
http://www.apathygames.com Tyson J. Hayes

Well you must be having so much fun in your current campaign that you haven't thought about running yourself. :P
http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

Heheheh, that's obviously it. ;P

Really though, my personal/work life has been such a mess that I've just not gotten around to saying “This Additional Time is also Dedicated to Gaming”… I'll eventually crack and just do it. ;P
http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

Heheheh, that's obviously it. ;P

Really though, my personal/work life has been such a mess that I've just not gotten around to saying “This Additional Time is also Dedicated to Gaming”… I'll eventually crack and just do it. ;P