My Old School Gaming Experience

Before I got to the U.S. and found other gamers in high school, I didn't have much of an old school experience beyond reading my growing collection of TSR games (AD&D, D&D, Top Secret, Star Frontiers) and occasionally trying to play it with friends in Ateneo de Manila Grade School.

Once in the U.S., I found out about the Beresford Recreation Center in San Mateo and the group called "Creative Imaginations" and tried to find a gaming group. My earliest games: a string of Traveller games at the tail-end of a faltering campaign, short but intense Call of Cthulhu adventures, and a series of AD&D adventures set in his home-brew setting "The World of the Great Wheel" by Bill Homeyer.

It was a great time; I was willing to play any game, willing to build characters for games like Aftermath! or Stalking the Night Fantastic or DragonQuest for a night of gaming despite the lack of assurance that the same game would be played the next week.

And there was good ol' Phil, the Parks & Recreations janitor. A nice man who really, really felt that we were all playing these demonic games and would tell us this if asked. We all had a lot of respect for him, because he voiced his opinion to us whenever the topic came up -- but he always talked to us as equals, which was a big thing since most of us were in the high school / early college years.

The games that comprised most of my so-called 'old school' experience: AD&D, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, and Champions.