The Passion of the Gamer

This year I was growing tired of gaming. I was beginning to feel worn out. I can't really put a finger on what I was thinking, except that I felt jaded with game systems and adventures and I was floundering. I was really only gaming because it's a weekly social gathering, and I'd rather spend time with friends regularly than abandon it because I'm not feeling excited by anything I'm playing or could be playing. Just going through the motions.

When I bought the Dungeon Crawl Classics rulebook this year I thought I was purchasing a quaint little d20 compatible book with the resources to simulate the feeling of a 1st edition game. That is a simplified way of looking at the game because it does simulate the feel of 1st edition play and it does use the basic mechanics of the d20 system, but DCC is it's own game. And I love it. Literally LOVE it!

It's one of the most interesting games I've read in a while, it excites me because it manages to convey a deadly feel into a game using modern mechanics and terminology. It does everything right that my recent role-playing experiments failed to live up to. I feel like I have been serving stale bread and moldy cheese to my gaming group for the last year when I could have been serving this delicious cake with frothy ale. Now I want to play in it, I want to GM it, and having read it from cover to cover I just want more of it! It has made me want to attend conventions again, has inspired me to read more of Appendix N, and has given my love for gaming new life. A single book has brought me back from the dead.