Twelve years ago, I rediscovered the joy of simple, old school gaming through a rules-light d20 clone called "microlight20".

 A gent by the name of Greywulf was very active in this space and he'd started the old site microlite20.net. It had a blogging feature and my very first oldschool related post was on May 12th: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20100611221707/http://microlite20.net/blog?page=5

Howdy!Submitted by chgowiz on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 13:26Oh, another blog. Yay! :)
My "old" blog is at http://chgowiz.livejournal.com - it's full of other 'stuff', not related to gaming and D20 or m20.
Coming soon to this site, however... the m20 character generator! A basic 'core' version was scratched out this weekend, but now I'm working on a 'better' version that will include Macropedia rulesets.
More to come as Greywulf gets this site up and running...
Links

Heh. Even back then, if a programming or hacking challenge raised its ugly head, I would jump in feet first. That's how I got involved in the One Page Dungeon Template thing...

Anyway, my search for a fun D&D game to play had rekindled in late 2007, early 2008 when I sat down with a borrowed copy of the D&D 3.5 rules and tried to scratch out a campaign for Ultima. After needing spreadsheets and a writeup that felt like a movie script, I realized that I wanted to go back to the days of when D&D (to me) was simple and fun. Thus, I wound a crazy road through microlite20, then through Swords & Wizardry and OSRIC, finally coming back to just playing the originals now that they were commercially available again.

What a fun journey.

Participating in an RPG does something to the brain, I think. There's an imprint that happens.

If you've read Dragonriders of Pern, (spoilers for those who haven't), I think of it similar to how someone imprints on a dragon during Hatching. You discover the game that speaks to you, and it's a match that will never ever quite go away. It's a first love. With all the ignoring of the warts and issues. The first time of escaping your life and living vicariously through the life of a made up character - or as a deity of a made up world. It something that I think has a profound effect on us, especially when we encounter the concept and play as a child. Impression.

For me, that impression was with Holmes (which was, IMO, OD&D levels 1 -  3) and AD&D. I've played other games, I can appreciate other games, but I will always be imprinted with those originals.

I made a list of the things I've written, been involved in or contributed to during these past twelve years and it's told me one thing... I'm part of a special group of players who imprinted much like I did. We're a raucous bunch, opinionated and crotchety about our games, but at the core, I suspect there's a feeling of wonder and joy, much like that first time we picked up those dice and stepped into another world. We love to create, to share and to experience the game again and again.

Happy Anniversary, y'all. I'm really glad I discovered our niche of a niche. I'm here to stay.