Let’s see what’s behind the round window.

Todays deep dive question is “What is the 2nd RPG you bought?”

To answer this one we need to once more jump in to that Delorean and go back to the life shaping year 1988.

It, (to paraphrase a famous quote) was the best of times and the worst times.

In 1988 I was living down in Brighton, studying at the Polytechnic.

It was the first time in my life that I was living away from home. I was adjusting to living in a hilly place. Brighton with its hills is the complete opposite to the Fenland town I had spent my whole life in. Which is flat as a pancake.

The previous year we had “survived” the great hurricane that had hit the UK. With all the fallen tries around Brighton it seemed to an active imagination like mine at the time like Saruman had been at work here recreating Isengard.

The start of 1988 saw my Grandad passing away. I remember being told he’d gone into hospital, and I was planning to travel back to see him. However my aunt (living in Horseham at the time) asked me to call in on the way back. Which I did. It was then she told me he had died.

Later in the year I got to meet Ace Frehley and get his autograph at a record signing in Kingston Upon Thames. Followed a couple days later seeing his first ever UK solo gig. I was buzzing those few days.

During the Summer my brother and I were at the Castle Donnington Monsters of Rock gig. Where we saw KISS. But acts like Guns and Roses were also playing.

We saw one or two other groups that year. But I can’t remember who.

Then in September Dad decided to take his own life. I was at home when this happened. I tried to resuscitate him. I’ll never forget the taste of his breathe. As you can imagine this hit me pretty hard. The new academic year started weeks later. We had barely said good bye before I was back down in Brighton.

My final year (I was doing a two year HND) was more me trying to deal with Dad’s death than studying. It was a very rough time. But I some how passed.

So there you have some context around my purchase of my second RPG. Some of this will be very new information to some of my friends.

From previous posts in this years #RPGaDAY we know that D&D was my first purchased RPG, and that MERP was the first one that I had played.

However my second RPG purchase was not the rules for MERP but the core rulebook for the Elfquest RPG.

At the time I was developing a serious comic book habit, with the Brighton Forbidden Planet being my main dealer of choice.

I had already bought a complete set of the Howard the Duck comic book in the search of the first ever KISS comic book appearance. I really got into Howard the Duck through this search. A love of the character I still have to this day, despite the movie.

I was buying Batman and Punisher comics, Nausiccaa plus some other manga. But more importantly I had stumbled upon the Pini Elfquest comic.

There was something about these wolf riding elves and their search for a new home and other elves that just grabbed me.

So when I found out that there was an RPG (basically by seeing the rule book on the shelves at the Brighton FP) I had to buy it.

Sadly I’ve never gotten to play the RPG. I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and read the rules completely. Only ever skimming through them.

I know there are some criticism of the rules and the bonding of elves with there being little or no control over who bonds to who. In these more enlightened times I’m sure that if this was to be updated that that problematic bit would be dropped or handled more sensitively. Let alone the mechanics simplified and made more accessible.

Maybe one day I’ll get to play it, or use it with a system like Genesys.

What was the second RPG you bought?