"Who are you and what's this about?"

That's a fair question. Let me introduce myself. My name is David North, and I call myself the Retro Gamer (more on that later). This little blog is just a place for me to chronicle my varied adventures across my role-playing Multiverse.

This Multiverse is a collection of game universes that I play in. What I plan to do is have several pages dedicated to some game campaigns I'm running in those universes. So that's what this is about. Now a bit more about me, as a gamer.

As a kid in the 1970's I consider myself very lucky, in that my father was a gamer. Board wargames, like those of the Avalon Hill Game Company were popular at the time and he played them. When I was old enough to understand them I played them with him and became a gamer too. Well, the same stores that sold wargames also sold a new kind of game... Role Playing Games. I discovered these around 1978 or so, first with the most popular one, Dungeons and Dragons. But I was a sci fi fan, so it wasn't long before I found Traveller. My dad and I (and some school friends) played it alot.

I became a game junkie. Throughout the late 70's and early 80's I bought and played dozens of rpg's (and wargames too) set in all sorts of genres. In the mid 80's I served in the military and met gamers there too, where I continued to buy and play rpg's.

Then in the 90's, something changed. the 'focus' of rpg's shifted. Role Playing Games of that era (and continuing to today) began to put more emphasis on the Role Playing aspect, and less on the game aspect. Story telling became the main focus. The idea that your character could die due to random chance faded away. Main characters don't die, after all... Right? That would ruin the story!

In addition to, and complementary with the emphasis on story telling, was that character creation became more detailed and narrative based. Characters entered the game fully fleshed out... They were heroes from day one.

Now, I don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with this style of gaming, but to be perfectly blunt, it's not my style. From the time this "New School" style of gaming took widespread hold in the 90's until quite recently, I have had a hard time finding new rpg's that I liked. As a result I kept falling back on older ones... "Old School" games. 

You cannot possibly imagine how happy I was, then, when the Old School Revival happened. Suddenly I found that I wasn't alone after all in my love and preference for the older style of game play. Now, there are many new games coming out that use old school mechanics. It's truly a gaming renaissance.

So, that's why I call myself a Retro Gamer. I prefer to game in the old school style.

So now... Onward to adventure, old school style!