How I came to play role-playing games is a little strange. I had been reading fantasy books for a few years and when I was 11 or 12, I was vaguely aware of some shops which sold games that seemed to be based loosely around these sort of books. I never really acted on this and nothing really happened until I was nearly 14. I borrowed a book from the library called "Fantasy Wargaming" by Duncan Galloway (I think). I ran up quite a few overdue fines with one. . . I was hooked. I didn't really understand exactly what it was all about, but I knew that maps were important. I had always loved drawing maps of "made-up" places when I was younger, and this really swept me up in the fantasy gaming idea. I remember spending an entire weekend when I was staying at my Grandmother's drawing hundreds of maps of dungeons, castles, islands, towers, swamps, villages and everything else I could think of. At this time I had still never heard of Dungeons and Dragons. Fast forward to Christmas 1983 and that great time at school when you are allowed to bring in games. A few of the other boys in the class were playing Dungeons and Dragons. It was like I had seen the light. . . choirs of angels began to play as I realized that this was what I had been looking for. I asked if I could join in, and the rest is history. I am still friends with many of that original group and since then we have played many, many systems as both players and gamesmasters. To be honest, I would put that morning in French class when I played my first game of D&D as one of the defining moments of my life.

Over the years I have built up quite a collection of games and related material (at one point I probably new more about the Forgotten Realms than I did about the city where I lived). Most of the best stuff is distributed about this site. Pick a system from the list.