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(217 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

I'm Ben, an Australian aged about 32. I grew up in a small tourist town on the far north coast of New South Wales; great beaches, if you like that sort of thing, but not much in the way of roleplaying. I tried to run Advanced Fighting Fantasy in high school for my brother but he wasn't into it; my first actual session was a Paranoia game in 1996.

I moved to Melbourne in 1997 and finally got into RPGs at uni, where I played Vampire and through new friends got into the con and live roleplaying scene. Lots of systemless freeforms, some Amber, and a horde of beloved B-list games from the 90s like In Nomine, 7th Sea, Fading Suns and so on.

I eventually came to D&D with a 2nd Edition AD&D campaign started just before the release of 3E. It was meant to transition but never did; I later had my first DMing experience running a sporadic 3E game for around 18 months.

I didn't play for years after that until 4E and a new batch of keen new players brought me back; I've been running a campaign for them for over two years now, plus some less frequent games for a couple of other groups.

Around the time 4E started up I was writing a comedy show about D&D, and while researching the history of the game managed to get my hands on the first two boxes of BECMI. I kind of liked it, though it didn't quite sit right; I started reading old-school blogs, including LoFP. It appeals to me more than the other retro-clones, thanks to the weirder tone and the more sword and sorcery feel; I've been reading some Moorcock and Leiber and I think it really captures some of the same feeling. I'm keen to play LoFP, though so far I've not had the chance.