Games

One of my earliest gaming memories is from the old 1981 version of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. I received this set as a gift from my grandparents in 1984; I didn't have anyone to play with but I still loved making characters. I fondly recall spending nearly a week making every character portrayed in issue 104 of Savage Sword of Conan, which came out in September of 1984.

By 1985 I had met some other kids in my neighborhood that also played D&D. I recall my only character from that time that survived past third level and advanced into the Expert Set rules; an elf whose name I have long since forgotten even though I vividly remember his adventures. During this time we played The Keep on the Borderlands, Palace of the Silver Princess, The Lost City, The Isle of Dread, Curse of Xanathon, Master of the Desert Nomads, Temple of Death, and lastly Maze of the Riddling Minotaur. After finishing that string of adventures, my elf was 8^th level and my friend Brian's thief was 9^th level. Our DM really didn't know how to handle high level characters; we ended up getting transported into the "modern day real world" where my elf died after teleporting (via a scroll) too low and getting embedded up to his waist in the middle of a highway, right in front of a truck.

Sometime in late 1985 or early 1986 I moved on to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, forever leaving behind the Basic and Expert Sets. I played a halfling thief for awhile, then retired that character when The Temple of Elemental Evil was released in 1986. The paladin that I played was part of a large party; we had three total player characters plus seven henchmen to make a party of ten. We were no match for the moathouse and after we fled, the DM let us bring back our retired characters to reinforce the party. With a total of six player characters and twelve henchmen, we ransacked the moathouse and entered the temple itself, only to eventually die in the nodes. My paladin died fairly early in the quest but my halfling thief made it to 6^th level before dying in the nodes. He was knocked off a ledge in the air node by sphinxes, falling and breaking a leg. Shortly after that the party encountered a tribe of giants and while the rest of the party ran, my poor halfling hobbled on his broken leg. The DM simply told me that, "the giants form up into two teams and proceed to play soccer with the halfling." At least it was an entertaining death.

I continued to play 1^st edition AD&D for the next three years, then quickly switched to 2^nd edition in 1989 when it was released. After I graduated high school in 1990 my gaming became less regular. I drifted a bit, still gaming with my high school friends when I could but also running one-offs and short campaigns for various people I met. I wasn't picky; I recall running games in abandoned houses a few times, and even once in a gas station at 2 am. I eventually drifted away from my high school friends; some bad choices led me to a path where I had few real friends and, while I was still gaming, it just wasn't the same anymore. I played various game systems off and on throughout the end of the 1990's and into the early 2000's, but it wasn't until around 2010 that I really started to play regularly with a group that I could rely on and call friends.

I have a considerable amount of content from prior campaigns which I would also like to add on this site. Much of it was on the prior verson of the site but it's not compatible with the code for this upgraded version. Once I get a chance I plan to add it as an archive. In particular, much of the older campaign stuff includes conversions of older 1^st edition stuff into either 3.5 or 5^th edition; in some cases content conversions are into GURPS. Perhaps someone will find it interesting.

Boardgames have risen to become my current favorite type of gaming. I've heavily invested in my collection and as more and more people get the vaccine and gaming in person becomes a reality again I've been trying to play at least once per week.

My love of boardgames has inspired me to write a software tool to track my game inventory and provide useful filters to help me select the right game for every circumstance. If you're interested, you can view that tool at bruke.net/Games/Boardgames/Inventory/

I'm currently developing a database for all the games I've played. My goal is to take a photo of the game right after setup and then again after there's a winner. I want to add data like how many people played and how long the game took, as well as my rating of the game. I'd like to also add the players but not everyone wants their names on the internet so that probably won't happen. Once that data is properly coded I'll add a link here.

Lastly, I'm trying to develop a tool for Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion that displays the cards available to each player and which tracks campaign progress. It's still very crude but you can see the current version at bruke.net/Games/Boardgames/Gloomhaven-JotL/. I'd like to eventually do something similar for every legacy-style boardgame that I own but that's a ways away still.

I haven't been playing many PC games lately. I played a bit of Civilization IV recently but that ended when one player just couldn't fit it into his schedule. I've also been plaing more of 7 Days to Die than is healthy, staying up too late and missing sleep. I even tried to stream a bit; you can see the sad results on MI-Games YouTube channel. I am eagerly anticipating the upcoming Alpha 20 for 7 Days to Die.

I've also been working on setting up a server to sell game hosting. It's been an interesting journey and you can see the results at mi-games.com if you're interested in getting a game server.