Of Dice And Men: Nostalgic and Contemporary Gaming

Something New

With My DM still lost in the wilds our DnD group has been continuing to look at some different game systems. And with one of our players off busy with the duty of his gainful employment I took the opportunity to bring in my nephew in for a game. He had never played a pen and paper RPG and his only table top experience was a couple games of 40K years ago. Lately his gaming has been restricted to DotA and CoD basically he was supporting everything that was wrong with the gaming industry.
The Savage Worlds game we played was set in Deadlands. It was just one of the free one sheet adventures. I have't tried many different RPG systems and never tried Savage Worlds but the game we played was tons of fun. I gave the rules a good read and I liked what I found. The game is designed to be fast, fun & the rules don't get in the way of role play like the way some of the DnD 4e rules do.
Some of the more notable moments include.

my gunslinger fanning her hammer to take out a Zombie bandit
a mad scientist blowing a hole in wall with a lighting bolt to escape a burning building
a tophat clad huckster exploding two zombie cowboys in showers of gore with a deck of magic cards

My nephew who was a little apprehensive of the whole RP thing loved it, he really liked the whole aspect of building the world in his mind. I was a little worried that he wouldn't get it but despite the paper standees and simple dry erase lines on a perspex sheet he was immersed.

Something Old

The game that started it all for me was HeroQuest I played this game so much with my brother and our friends I think I had memorized the location of every trap on all the maps. we played that game to destruction and years later the few remaining minis were fodder for my first painting attempts and conversions. While my young mind had found new fantastic worlds to explore HeroQuest still held a special place in my geek heart.

A lifetime later a young man and his wife are browsing a thrift shop when the man discovers an ageing but complete copy of his favorite childhood game. He seizes his chance to relive a segment of his past and to finally get a fully painted set of miniatures for HeroQuest.
After much struggling I have managed so slap some paint on my set. Playing with a set that is fully painted felt amazing but perhaps I see it through a haze of rose tinted nostalgia. The other players stated that they would prefer to play Deadland instead.