Top 12 Clues You’re a Role-Playing Old-Timer

You’ve probably played a role-playing game. Who hasn’t? They’ve been around for almost 50 years, and have been winning Origins Awards for 45 years. They’re everything from Dungeons & Dragons to Deadlands, Traveller to Twilight: 2000, Star Trek to Star Wars, Ghostbusters to GURPS, Paranoia to Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

(OK, so maybe that last one didn’t win an Origins Award. And isn’t exactly a role-playing game. But, you know, I needed something that started with “P.”)

But have you ever wondered if you’ve played RPGs long enough to be considered a true veteran? Well, wonder no more! With this handy guide handily below, you can learn if you qualify as a Role-Playing Old-Timer! To unmask your role-playing status, put down your boxed set of Vampire: The Masquerade, or Mazes and Monsters, or whatever amazing game you’re playing, and check your clues!

Alden Loveshade is a table-top gaming industry professional, giving him the perfect credentials for writing this Top 12 list. This is an ad for *Fantasy Folk | Elves*, a game module written by Alden Loveshade for Steve Jackson Games.

Top 12 Clues You’re a Role-Playing Old-Timer

12 — You remember when a gaming convention was 20 guys in the back room of a hobby store.
11 — That wargamer who once told you that roleplaying would be a flash in the pan is now retired and on Medicare. And so is his son.
10 — You recall a friend saying, “Hey, I just realized — we could adventure someplace other than in a dungeon!”
9 — You keep confusing the current rules of a game with the ones from five editions ago.
8 — You remember deciding, after seeing the movie Wizards, that a game with both magic and technology could never work.
7 — You recall exclaiming, “Wow! This latest edition actually has an index!”
6 — You find yourself saying, “Yep, if we wanted a fighter, rolled three six-sided dice and got a Strength of 7, by golly we played a fighter with a Strength of 7.”
5 — You remember debating the hit points of Saturday Night Live’s Mr. Bill.
4 — Your old gaming buddy from high school just bought a set of glow-in-the-dark dice for his granddaughter. Who’s in high school.
3 — You once could hide your collection of every role-playing game in existence behind your 8-track player.
2 — You remember when an “old-timer” was anyone who had roleplayed longer than 12 months.
1 — Your new players keep calling you “Grandpa.”

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Alden Loveshade

Alden Loveshade first thought of emself as a writer when in 3rd grade. E first wrote professionally when e was 16 years old, and later did professional photography and art/graphic design. Alden has professionally published news/sports/humorous/and feature articles, poems, columns, reviews, stories, scripts, books, and school lunch menus.

http://AldenLoveshade.com

Alden Loveshade