Okay, a couple of things recently got my noggin to percolating so I'm asking. How old are all y'all?

Ashnod is older than I expected, Kirby younger. I know Jager is a decrepit SOB, same with someone else here. But how about the rest of you? Let's cough up some chronological ages here people (we're gamers, emotionally we're all boned.)

29/01/82----21

36

34 going on 16.

How old did you think I was, hon?

26 going on 27 in January.

26, and therefore practically dead. But younger than Endeavor by a month or so! :p

Actually, when Endeavor started here, she was 18, then add +1 year for a years worth of time and a +25 years for that little trans-universal jaunt, and you get...

44.

Endeavor is 18 years OLDER than I.

yet she still kept her youthful appearance. ^.^



I hope I age well. With my luck, I'll turn grey at 30, and get liverspots at 40! >.<

I'm not sure if people want to divulge their birthdays, but if you fill out your birthday in your profile, the calendar link at the top will show your birthday as an event. My birthday is in October, but you'll have to go into the calendar to figure out how old I am (if you click on Chosen's birthday it will give you my age).

Phew, I'm not the oldest here. 31.

Bwahahahahaha.....

39, with a birthday in April, folks. Been playing something or other since I was ... 12, so longer than Sphere or Endeavor have been alive.

Yes, they had RPing games way back then, dag-nabbit!

About 24.


Oh, someone pointed it out to me that I didn't mention my own ancient status. 33.

Good answer Prodigy. My old man taught me 1 thing and only 1 thing... women only age between 18 and 24. If a woman asks you how old you think she is, if you think they are under 18 them you think they are 18. And if you think they are older than 24 then say 24. You only have to guess ages between the 2, because any answer other than that will get you into trouble, regardless of what you say.

That's my my pearl for all the fellas for 2day.

Hey, we're all around 12 some odd billion years old anyways. Why split hairs on how many of those years we've been around and we knew we existed?

On a related note, what game got you all started in rpg's?

For me it was Palladium's fantastic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangness. Waaay back before they stopped being cool.

Ah Palladium, crap system but so many memories. Entirely responsible for my vast non-d10 dice collection.

I started off playing the Classic Marvel Superheroes game. The one with the column shifts.

But, my first LONG-TERM gaming experinece was with Shadowrun 2nd Edition.

While it doesn't answer everything, the Getting to Know Each Other thread will give you some info about the other people that frequent this forum.

I started playing D&D when I was ~12. My first nights characters were R.J. Dio and H.P. Lovecraft (yeah I know, not very creative but I didn't know what the hell was going on). The game was horrible and we were all killed by dragons that were polymorphed into rats. Later that year I was fortunate enough to find some people that actually knew how to play.

Marvel Superheroes was my game of choice to run, and despite, or maybe because of, its simplicity it is still my favorite supers game. I guess that has a lot to do with me being here.

Whoops, went back and looked at my earlier stuff. I forgot the Empire of the Petal Throne game I started with. Pre-D&D stuff. Came out with Chainmail, I believe. 1976, jeesh. It was longer than I originally thought.

Original Marvel .... loved it. System was nothing to crow about, but the ideas were fun, the campaigns were fun, and it was the first game I played as an "adult".

MAGE was the first game I played.

That would explain alot about your perspectives on PC's, power, and people.

Oddly, Trinity was my first real game, and then only one session. Then I heard about Aberrant, and got more involved with that.

My first "longer than one session" game was (I believe) a BESM game, oddly enough...

(Rides in on yellow vespa)

BESM? ^.^ Someone say BESM?

NO! NO, it was a misprint, Endeavor. No one actually playes BigEyesSmallMouth.

I turn 31 just before the end of the year. I started playing when I was 13, a Swedish game pretty close to Runequest.

Some years later I bought Marvel Super Heroes RPG but never succeeded in getting anyone interested in the game. I have to say though, that every time I flip through it it looks better and better.

(I have never even seen a physical copy of BESM)

My first game was a session or two of D&D when I was ten. The guy running it moved away.

I was pretty much gameless, though I did pick up games - Marvel Super Heroes with the wacky karma point system, the TMNT RPG...

I didn't seriously get into gaming as anything more than a lark until I got frustrated with Palladium, read in their little timeline that they claimed to be The First Universal System, after GURPS... and I thought I'd give The Second Universal System a shot.

Couldn't be happier. Admittedly, GURPS is much like a cow - you can't digest the whole thing, you have to carve off what you want.

Since then I've branched out, with non-WoD White Wolf, GURPS, and on occasion d20. (It had better be a stellar use of d20, though.) GURPS handles crunchy stuff, Storyteller handles non-crunchy stuff, and d20 is for those times I actually want players to show up.

Character age and player age are the same, BTW: 26.

19. And Star Wars, by West End Games.

I am 27. My first roleplaying game was GURPS. That was about freshman year in high school. Played a couple sessions of D&D 2e, didn't like it. I stuck with GURPS until a year and a half ago or when I started playing D&D 3e and Aberrant. So that's experience with 4 (3.5 depending on your views of 2e and 3e) different roleplaying systems. I'm sure there are some here that have played a good 10 or 20 different systems.

My first RPG was D&D when I was about 12,13. The first one I bought was Traveller when it was little black books about a year or so later. I have fond memories of the magazine Imagine and remember when White Dwarf was a decent read. I've got and played ... Vampire, Mage, Traveller (several variations, like you couldn't guess), Cyberpunk, Paranoia, Trinity, Abberant, Warhammer FRP, Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer and probably some others that I've forgot about. Never actually owned Shadowrun and Runequest but I have played them a lot.

Me = 37 in RL, Stonewall just celebrated his 81st birthday. Started playing with the D & D blue and red boxed set when I was 12. I run a home rules fantasy game incorporating elements of D & D and Palladium, with some story elements from the Sword of Truth and Magician Apprentice - Adept (Raymond Feist's series). Have run 1st and 2nd edition Ad&D, Palladium, Amber Diceless, Traveller, Marvel Superheroes, Champions, Call of Cthulhu 1st edition, Villians and Vigilantes, most of the WW stuff, and Feng Shui - probably others that I've forgotten, too.

Stonewall

Oh,I am 22 now-.^

As of today, make that 37.

Happy Belated Birthday, people!!!!

Let me see ... Beyond the Supenatural, Pheonix Command, Battletech, Chill, Twilight2000 (the game was alot more relevant in the early 1980's), SuperWorld, Runequest first and second edition, Traveler (1st edition plus), Aftermath (never finished a session with that one), ICE, MERP, PsiWorld, as well as several systems already mentioned here.

Exactly when did I have the time to meet a girl, much less get married and have two kids?

Hello friends, this is my first post, I think I'm the oldest here, 44, but I have a young heart, and BDW I started playing AD&D2, but the first game I gmed. was Call of Cthulhu, do you remember one of the book scenarios, Corbin's House?

Nope, but it is likely I ran through it at some time or another. Played a bunch of CoC, but never ran a "purist" game.

quote:
Originally posted by Neil Preston
_______________________________________________
Played a bunch of CoC, but never ran a "purist" game.
_______________________________________________
Well, it was the only "purist" game I make, but, you know, it was my first one.

No problems there, BlackStar. How long have you been playing Role-Playing Games?

Hi, Jager, I don't remember exactly the year but I think a safe number would be 20 years more or less, at this time in my country we had only three games translated: D&D (the red box), Runequest and CoC, and it was very difficult (and expensive) to import U.S. games for the few English literate here.

22, 23 this March. I've been roleplaying since 19, mostly online stuff though.

Runequest, eh?

Player: "I roll for Divine Intervention!"
GM: "You roll a 12! You succeed!"
Player: "Aaaagggghhhhh!!! I only had a 13 POW. Now its a 1. What am I going to do?"

Remember that kind of thing happening?

BTW: You have a PM from me.

Oh!, excuse me if I had give you the impression that I gmed. Runequest, Jager, no, I only had play it a few times but many years ago, and frankly I didn't like the system very much.
BTW: now you have a PM from me.

I think jager has lost his mind some more.He said that I was blackstar!

No, I asked if you were BlackStar.

Yeah Dude, I am 26. I grew up in Los Angeles, so I really do talk this way. Ive been playing RPGs since D&D 1st edition. loved D&D 2nd edition. got into BAttletech for awhile, and then a few years ago, I found white wolf, and my ABerrant(favorite game) Im 26. Aspiring novelist/screenwriter, so RPGs help me cook up ideas for stories/scrpits. Its sometime hard to write for longboard, because he is a really naive, and obnoxious , and unintelligent character. I have to dumb myslef down to play him sometimes. So I just take a few shots before we play.

Yes, I think that is the most difficult part of playing a character different from yourself. Sometimes, I use this trick, (in TT), I read some book at the same time and because could only take half notice of the game, it's like a less intelligent person.

I'm 35 (today, in fact ). I started roleplaying about 25 years ago back with the original basic D&D, pre-AD&D, and have played a horrific number of games because I could never settle down with anything, kept searching for a better system.

Systems I've spent significant time with are all the D&D incarnations, GURPS, White Wolf (I was probably one of WW's first customers, though I didn't stick around too long and never bothered to buy any WOD books after the first few Vampire releases), RuneQuest (though that was largely against my will), Palladium, Torg/Masterbook, both Star Wars, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes (one of them), Bard Games' Arcanum, Immortal (not the Highland type, the mythology-based one), Star Frontiers, etc, etc.

Personally, I like character creation in White-Wolf, but don't typically like playing in it (although Aberrant has some neat system concepts). I love the Aberrant and Exalted settings, and Aberrant is by far my favorite supers setting. I'm currently running a very, very AU Aberrant PBEM game using a modified MSHAG as the system, just because I find the ultra-simple SAGA rules work well for email games.

As a Storyteller, though, this can be really really annoying when you have to re-explain things to the player cause they weren't paying attention. Not all the time, I know, and sometimes it creates really interesting character interaction, but it can break the group "synergy" to have someone distracted like that.

As a storyteller, I can say that I don't like it when players do stuff like that. In my Trinity game, one of my players wanted to play a less than intelligent character. The player is a smart guy, so in order to play the character he didn't pay attention to a lot of what was going on, and during long conversations he would do something else. After the game I asked what people thought of it and he told me that he didn't particularly care for it becuase he didn't know what was going on and really couldn't appreciate the story.

Doing things to get into character is a great thing, but there comes a point where I think you should consider how it will affect everyone's enjoyment of the game, not just your playing of the character.

Definitley. people need to be paying attention the whole time. The thing that gets me in trouble with the group is when I play Longboard in character and make wrong decisions purposely in order to establish he is a very jaded tenager(how do you tell a sixteen year old he needs to go to school when e dishes out 20-30 points of agg damage on a daily basis?)they get mad because they have to deal with bad decsions, or clean up after my mess. Knowing me, Josh, KNOWS its a bad decision. I stand by my character. I know how Longboard will act. He's not too smart, but how come Im the first one they call when we need to blow something up, quick fast and in a hurry.How you going to treat me like a punk out of combat, then treat me like a cornerstone when you need a big gun.

How do you dish out 20 to 30 points of aggravated damage?

I think he meant 'daily' not 'at a time'. So, you have Q4 Agg QBolt and you are tossing 4+ at a time, not difficult to get up to 20 in a day.

Sorry, pals if I give you a false impression about the "technic" I use to play a less intelligent character in my last post. I use to read a lot, even at the same time I'm watching T.V. and I had developed something like a double perception. It's not so good as when I put all my attention with only a subject, put suffice to play a TT game.

Right. 20-30 in one bolt no. But two or three if I was lucky

ok, here goes...I am 31 years old, and I started with D&D (of course) 1st ed. in the 4th grade or so...a couple of years later, I discovered Villians & Vigilantes (surprised you old coots didn't mention that one), which led me to Champions (or that one), which led me to good ol' Marvel SHRPG...which led me back to Champions (hardcover, ooh la la)...I've played a number of games over the years, including: Boot Hill, James Bond 007, Top Secret, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Mage(yawn), and Vampire(big YAWN)...but Aberrant is (I swear) my absolute all time favorite.

[rant]My only real pet peeve (not that you asked) is when the fact that I role-play comes up in conversation, people tell me about their Magic deck. What exactly leads people to believe that Magic has anything to do with role-playing? Aberrant(and the like) is about group socialization and experiencing modes of expression outside your own, while Magic is about...math. I hate that (so-called) game. [/rant]


BTW: Ahem, watch closely...Str=5, M-Str=5, Claws=5(aggravated extra)....you are looking at MINIMUM 30 agg levels per hit....unless I am wrong, but that's how I read it

I never went for V&V, but I did play... hmmm... Superworld? Something like that. Did some Champions but it was sooooo sloooooowwwwww. Now Boot Hill is blast from the past, I'd completely forgotten that one.

And aggravated claws does either Quantum + successes or just your claws dice as aggravated (depending on whether you have the errata in the APG). Your strength is not made aggravated "for free" (and if it was, it would still be Quantum + successes, not 25 auto-successes.

Vitalis, thanks for your input, and I would love to go along with that, but that is not how I read it...follow me:

MSTR 5 (p.156)...and gain[25]automatic successes to Strength/Might rolls and close combat damage dice pools.

Claws (p.186)...When used in close combat, Claws convert the bashing damage caused by the characters normal punches and strikes into lethal damage.

Aggravated Extra(p.231)...when applied to a power that causes ...lethal damage, makes that damage aggravated. The character inflicts a base amount of aggravated damage equal to Quantum, then adds attack successes from her skill roll to determine the total aggravated damage inflicted.

as far as I can tell, there is not errata in the PG on Claws, and the Aggravated errata deals with the range of ranged attacks.

So, I can see where you get the Q+success formula, however, if M-STR adds successes 'automatically' and Claws does not disallow those successes as lethal, and the Agg Extra doesn't even mention them yea or nay, then I must assume that the 'automatic' successes must be applied to the close combat damage dice pool

Trust me, I hate it too...but if I can't point to something to disallow it, then how can I argue with a player who wants it? For all I know that was within the creators intent, because to have the STR and CLAWS(agg) at that level would cost 30np already. Besides, doing it your way would mean that M-STR was completely irrelevant in determining agg. Claws damage...and that I do not buy.

Agg. damage isn't about brute strength. First read the extra on page #231 of the core book.

That part alone seems pretty clear on how it works rules-wise. However there is more information on page #253

Nothing about those types of injuries indicated brute force as a method of infliction for Agg. damage. Furthermore it can't be soaked unless a Nova has hardbody and, when it comes to healing the damage, Novas don't get their healing multiplier and baselines can't even heal the damage!

Agg. Claws are nasty, but brute force has nothing to do with it. Even Wolverine's claws don't do Agg. damage. Sometimes you have to look at the spirit of the rules and not just the letter of the the law.

But, your honor!

lol@myself...I get it, I get it...I've just been playing with my rules-lawyer players for so long, that I guess I've become a bit of one myself. I hate that the rules are so ambiguous, though, because it seems to me that even if you have nuclear isotope claws, you should do more damage with M-Str than without it (instead of the same whether you have it or not).

However, I learned a long time ago not to allow Agg. Claws unless it was a case of an Attunement/Density Decrease nova who wanted to phase a coffee cup through people's heads and leave it there...otherwise, with MSTR, it just seemed too powerful, and your explanation, while I'm sure the correct one(and, incidentally, the one I tried to give my players), is a slender hook on which to hang an explanation to them of why they can't use their auto-successes.

Meaning, I buy it(sort of), but they won't(at all), so I won't re-open that particular can of worms. Besides, what the hell are you going to do with 30 levels of aggravated damage? Just kill everyone? Gee, that's fun. Claws by itself is bad enough(a level 1 power that lets your bashing be lethal? And, that