#RPGaDay2022 - Day 13 - How Would You Change the Way You Started RPGs?

 Day 13 of #RPGaDay2022 brings out the shoulda/coulda/woulda in me:  "How Would You Change the Way You Started RPGs?  

I would have started earlier, it would just be figuring out where the deviation point would occur.

Most of early junior high (6th/7th grade was sandlot football, wiffleball, bikes, and collecting baseball cards with the crew (Upper Deck didn't even exist yet).   I could have picked up the D&D Basic Set from Waldenbooks (or an adventurous bike ride to Hobby Hangout on the other side of town) at any point earlier, but getting that group to play (with super strict Catholic parents) would have been difficult.  

Since Satan was real to them, but the Force was okay, I could have stumbled through the 1st Edition Star Wars rules, but I probably would have delved into the Strat-o-Matic/AAPA Baseball game side of games more than I did. 

The best option would be to become gaming friends with my high school crew earlier, which is fine.   I was already in classes with most of them a year or two before, it was just that RPGs weren't a popular topic of conversation.  Our group formed because everyone was a 15 minute max bike ride from each other.  Knowing now what I had learned about that year, I would be been able to scratch Star Frontiers and Palladium TMNT off my bucket list, and become a GM earlier, probably still trying to run Temple of Elemental Evil.  

These pictures are about 15 years after I started playing RPGs....

With that earlier start into gaming, I would first play outside my group.  There were other groups in the school and trying to bridge those groups would have expanded social circles some of us didn't attempt to do until well after high school.  

 

.... and almost 20 years ago. It's our Hackmaster game, btw.

I'd also focus more on makings journals for my campaigns and keeping track of game records, ideas, etc.  What eventually would turn into my blog would look more like a scrapbook/binder of ideas, clippings from Dragon, etc back then.  

So outside of starting early, playing more, and perhaps not enlisting in the army and focusing on college right out of high school, if I'm going to use my magic powers into a case of "Knowing then what I know now."  I would make far smarter decisions with my gaming purchases.  High school was a lot of AD&D 2nd Edition, and with a little early wisdom, I could have avoided a number of stupid purchases I never got any value out of.  

With some of my savings, I'd focus on other games I purchased later in life, but would have enjoyed in high school.  I'd also have a larger budget for Crazy Egor's when they came down to our local convention scene in '90/'91.  I'd also ponder investing in proper paints (probably Armory) for all the Grenadier figures I didn't paint properly until 25+ years later.

And if I'm going to be all Biff from Back to the Future II, I've got to save up a good pile of cash to pick up anything that says Magic: The Gathering from late summer of '93 until Spring of '94 and just sit on it until now, or maybe. 2030.... but that's outside the realm of RPGs.