The original question was:
Oldest Game You’ve Played
That was an interesting bit of research to undertake, and I didn’t expect the outcome to fall as it did.
I started my life in role-playing around 1984. We played a bunch of games released around that time, so I suspected that therein would lie the answer.
Indeed, here’s an incomplete list:
- Basic “Red Box” Dungeons & Dragons (1983)
- Call of Cthulhu (1983)
- Lords of Creation (1983)
- Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (1983)
- Fighting Fantasy (1984)
- PARANOIA (1984)
- Ringworld (1984)
- Middle-earth Role Playing (1985)
- Dragon Warriors (1985)
- Tunnels & Trolls (1986)
- Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (1986)
Now, that might seem like a question answered, but no. In the last few years, I have gotten into old-school gaming through attendance at Grogmeet in central Manchester, annually, and more recently, I have participated in seasons of gaming in The Raspy Raven Discord channel.
Both of these avenues of alternate gaming have provided me with the chance to dust off some old games and play them with people who like something new, even if it’s new old.
So, take those into account, and we add two entries to the list:
- Wild West (1981)
- Worlds of Wonder (1982)
Worlds of Wonder (Chaosium) I ran at Grogmeet, using the many world ruleset (a little sci-fi, a little superhero) for a genre-hopping adventure in honour of the recent passing of Greg Stafford.
WoW is sort of the Basic Role Playing as was, but with a truly stripped-down engine to build up off of, and it’s a pleasure to play/run.
And the oldest game, FGU‘s Wild West, I ran in a Western-themed game event on the Raven earlier this year. some 42 years after its original publication. It has a slim but crunchy rule set that involves careful use of a rule against a table (see image, above) to determine your chance of success, depending on your expertise. And a system for generating the stats and skills of your horse.
The adventure I ran was a remarkably entertaining deathtrap – Johnny Comes Marching Home – with the potential for a Total Party Kill narrowly avoided.
RPGaDay is a prompt-driven experience in tabletop roleplaying, initiated by Dave Chapman of Autocratik and powered by you and me.
The prompts for this year are as follows — and you can find out more on Dave’s website.
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