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In the inaugural episode of Barbarian Needs Food, Evan and Paul discuss what got them into Roleplaying Games in the first place.
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Barbarian Needs Food, a Roleplaying Games Podcast
A casual podcast discussing Roleplaying Games and RPG fan culture
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Barbarian Needs Food, a Roleplaying Games Podcast 
When I was nine years old, my parents bought me the D&D (not AD&D) Basic Rules set. I had nobody to actually play these games WITH, mind you, but I eventually also got the Expert and Companion sets just so I could read through the books. The setting and the lore was interesting to me. At some point I reluctantly joined up with some group of AD&D players (who also played Marvel) at the local library, all of whom were teenagers. Being the fourth grader at the table of nerds? Not a good time.
After the first time I went there on a weekend and the DM said “oh, you walked into a trap, make a saving throw!” which I made so I “only” took 50 points of damage and was killed immediately, I concluded that the entire pursuit was one for control freaks who want to play God on whomever they can sucker in. This was the polar opposite of fun.
I never played tabletop gaming ever again. And fantasy no longer appeals to me. It wasn’t the game. It was the fandom.
Nearly twenty years later and having been subject to several tabletop gamers over the years (practically all of my friends except me, in fact) there has been nothing to convince me that my childhood assessment was wrong. The end result is that I harbor a disdain for tabletop/pen-and-paper gaming (especially fantasy), but I still have a working knowledge of the settings and passing familiarity with the mechanics of it all.
I’ll just stick with the videogames. My imagination died long ago anyway.
Don’t shoot food!
The thing I always thought about RPGs was that if you were playing Let’s Pretend then why did you need rules?
On the other hand, RPG writing did give us the Rolemaster Critical Hit Tables, which are some pretty funny stuff. It turns out that there is an actual amount of damage that Hokuto No Ken-type attacks do to people, so if you’re a high enough level, it is possible to survive having your entire head explode.
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D&D Red Book…ah yes. I had SUCH a crush on Larry Elmore’s drawing of the Cleric.
Please, please do an episode on Paranoia, by West End Games. It’s the sort of game that Daryl would GM if he didn’t hate tabletop RPGs.
In regards to Jeff’s entreaty, I can only say this:
“Happiness is Mandatory, citizen.” 🙂
The computer wants you to be happy. If you are not happy, you may find yourself used as reactor shielding.
Twas a good episode. I wasn’t particularly fond of RPGs before, but you’ve got me interested.
This is a good podcast guys. some games i would love to here you discuss. paranoia. milleniums end (sadly out of print) Twillight 2000 (truely a kick arse game) star frontiers (old school retro bliss) and i would be keen to hear your opinions on the Gurps system.
keep it up!