THE CONCEPT

I got my first Basic set from my aunt and uncle during Christmas, 1982.  At 11 years old, I didn't really understand a lot of the rules at first.  But I knew I loved Conan and Elric and the Fellowship of the Ring and I wanted my experience my own adventures and I had a vivid imagination.

Let me take a small detour, here.  Before third grade, I was way behind in my reading level.  I do not have any learning disabilities, nor ADHD, nor anything else (nor do I disparage anyone who does).  My parents were very young, had their own very small (at the time) business, and three young children, me being the oldest.  Many week nights for the first years of their business, my grandmother would watch us, before my youngest brother was born.  Then when he came along, there were times when we would sleep at the shop while they worked into the night, until they converted our garage into a makeshift auxiliary workspace so they could be home at night, moving materials back and forth via their company truck.  In any event, there was not a huge amount of time for my school related work.  I barely did enough to move along in school!  I wanted to play sports and ride my bike around and basically do anything but school work.  My parents did the best they could; they were young and overwhelmed and we didn't have much money and they had to put up with a lot of crap from their family's for their life choices (all that started changing for them by my senior year in high school, when they started making good money).

Third grade was different.  First, my teacher realized that I had some ability.  For myself, math was something that did not require tons of homework to learn (at that level, of course). So she had a first semester "math race" based on our scores on daily math quizzes.  There was a big poster on the wall that kept track of it all and there were prizes at the end (aha!  a carrot!).  When it was all said and done before winter break, I had come in third in the whole class.  Not too bad, I reckon.  My prizes were various dinosaur related things, because she knew I loved dinosaurs.

From there, my teacher made it her project to get me moving in reading.  She challenged me often-- it was spring of 1980 at an old Lutheran school and she was definitely also old school, and she and her husband were also farmers, so you can probably imagine the scenario.  Part of our English instruction for the spring was to work through a series of reading pamphlets and respond to the questions at the end.  They were color coded to denote ascending levels, and everyone did them at their own pace.  I was not working on them, because I could barely read.  

One day, she embarrassed me in front of the class (like I said, old school).  I stewed the whole rest of the day.  Thereafter, I forced myself to start working on those damned pamphlets.  I worked my way through all of them as fast as I could, and the more I read, the better I got.  A lot better.  When everyone else was still cruising, I had finished them all.  The whole rack on the wall.  Not wishing to slow me down, she asked the fourth grade teacher for materials for me to keep going.  I worked through those, as well.  She then asked the fifth grade teacher for something challenging that might keep me busy for the remaining time until summer break.

He gave her a copy of the Hobbit from the school library.  The rest, as they say, is history.  I read and read and read.  I still played sports and did other things, but really learning to read was almost literally like having a light turn on.  The only thing in life I remember being even more stark as to before and after was when my child was born.  The world had opened up.

I loved writing as much as reading.  D&D was a natural outgrowth of all of it and it actually helped me develop those things even further.

I took the AP English course in high school at the insistence of one of my teachers (I had written a narrative essay in the first week of school that the teacher had then asked me to read in front of the whole class.  I thought he was going to make fun of me.  I had everyone in the room rolling with laughter at the jokes and engaged with the various points I was making.  Before I had sat down, he asked me "Why did you sign up for English IV?  You don't belong in this class."  He transferred me to AP English that week.)  When it came up, I took the AP test and got a bunch of college credits out of it.  I think then they gave you a numerical score out of 5.  I got a 4.  3 was the minimum for college credits, I think.

I went on to college and had a double major- prelaw and English literature.  I was accepted into the University's Honors program and the English honors fraternity (I think it was called Sigma Tau Delta), yada yada yada.  I ended up going to law school, and have been practicing law now for many years.

For a number of years over the last decade, I have served on the board of the local adult literacy council, and most of those years as president.  It's mission was particularly important to me, the kid who didn't know how to read and might have never done much if someone hadn't taken an interest and provided the resources for me to learn.  I had hoped for that light to turn on for others, too.

So, anyway.  Why all this backstory?

When I played around with the materials, it was mostly during holiday breaks, but especially in the summer.

By late spring of 1984, I had started collecting copies of Dragon magazine, which I got from a small business down the street named West Wind Book Store (which is long gone now).  I still have most of those copies, although they are pretty tattered!

For the first few years, gaming opportunities with others were few and far between.  So I was both the player and the DM most of the time, and it didn't seem to matter.  It was enthralling and fun as hell.  There were a lot of other things going on back then, like scouts and sports and friends, so my social activities were other things, not D&D.

I didn't start regularly playing with my friends until I was 16 or so, when we could all drive to each other's houses to play on Sunday afternoon.  That is something we still do to this day, whenever we can, basically the same group of guys, thirty plus years later.  We played first edition AD&D back then, and now we play Pathfinder.

So now when I have time, I want to revisit and re-experience the Basic/Expert/Companion material as something amusing to do in those very rare moments I am not doing something else.

I know for sure that I am going to play through BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle, B6 The Veiled Society, O2 Blade of Vengeance and XL1 Quest for the Heartstone, because that's what I always did. I am almost sure I also always played through X5 Temple of Death, as well.  I am going to use the module in Dragon #92 called Sword of Justice, which was also a staple.  When the Companion rules came out I played through Test of the Warlords several times, and I want to again.  Anything else I am able to get to is a bonus.

I don't know what level I will be at the end of each module I play, so I will add material as necessary.  Elves advance rather slowly in level, so I bet it should allow for me to fit in quite a bit of stuff.

I even know how where I want to start!