Gidday

Hi there, kia ora and welcome to another blog about gaming.  What's this about?  Well I have been watching and reading many blogs about role playing, Dungeons and Dragons in particular and the OSR if we are gonna get all technical to be precise.  I thought, well I don't see many blogs from this part of the planet and perhaps our place in the world could offer a unique perspective on gaming, or - maybe not - I guess we'll see where this goes.
I hope to use this and two other blogs to organise and present some  of the experiences, thoughts and  (most importantly) games that have occurred over the 31 odd years I have played and  (mostly) DM'd.  DMG I hope to use as a vehicle to record our ongoing games and some of the folk lore surrounding our older games.  On PHB I hope, with the help of the other gamers in my group, to offer up some of our ideas on houserules and such that have impacted on the various games we have played.  Lastly on MM I hope to look at the current gaming scene  ( probably just look as we kiwi's aren't known for our outspoken-ness) and throw in the odd rant, rave or idea about whats happening.  Of course this could all go down the gurgler within weeks or days but hey, I'm here now so lets get going...

So I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in late 81 with the Moldvey set and the wonderful Keep on the Borderlands.  I was 20 at the time and started off with 3 people I managed to rope into a game, Mark, Dave and Julie ( yeah a girl in the first group!).  They were all around 15-16 so off we started with on our first adventure which for me hasn't really stopped since.  The first game was a lot of fun and we had some ( I guess you had to be there) hilarious moments.  First time out of the gate I got caught up and flustered in the text and tried to get all storytelly and proceeded to pronounce to the group a  'set of decorations' (directions) next thing they knew there was a 'flock of raisin' (Ravens) about them.  Great start!
That group lasted until just before the end of our summer holidays and by that time Julie had gone through three 'Evality's' to pay back the two boys for fighting over treasure and letting her die defending against an orc.  Each Evality tried and failed to take out the boys characters.  So Julie left our group.  It was also a time where (through misreading the book)  the elves had to get out of their armour to cast their spell(s), thereby making easy picking for a nearby owlbear. It was about 3 years before the next female graced our gaming table.  Also by the end of summer I had purchased the Players Handbook for this thing called 'Advanced'.  It had the players very interested , especially in the Assassin, Monk and this thing called Psionics.

Well that'll do for now, more on the back history next time (if I don't hear too many groans).  So watch out , once we get our collective arses in action, for some ,hopefully,  helpful ideas over on PHB.
Cheers for now
Steve