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I did not start off as a gamer. I was a science-fiction fan as a kid: Star Trek, Space 1999, Star Wars, Outer Limits, and atom-age stuff from the prior two decades. The closest I'd gotten to fantasy was watching the movies of Ray Harryhausen, and reading Edgar Rice Boroughs and a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

When I became one of the legion of middle-school boys who made D&D a fad in the early 80's, I wasn't looking for a wargame or a simulation of Tolkien or anything. I think, more than anything, what sold me were the Skeletons, which called to mind the amazing sequence in Jason and the Argonauts, and the

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Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about you and your history with D&D, what you're playing now, and anything else you want people to know about you?

Well, I started playing Red box Basic set when I was in the 6th grade around 1980 or so. My friend Patrick Shepard and I played that, and then 1st ed. We branched out into Gamma World and Top Secret before my parents divorced and I moved to Maryland. Despite not finding a gaming group during high school (except for one playing at a local library I wasn't comfortable with the nature of their storylines at the time), I continued to collect RPGs like Villains and Vigilantes, Marvel Superheroes (Basic and Advanced) and others. When I joined the army and was stationed in Germany, a friend in my unit started a 1st Ed game

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Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about you and your history with D&D, what you're playing now, and anything else you want people to know about you?

I’m a writer and research analyst by profession, and a father of four. As my username suggests, my gaming right now is focused on being a DM for my kids.

I got into D&D in middle school, which was a very long time ago. I played Basic & Expert in early 80s, and AD&D 1e. Actually, I think we just played a mashup of the two, thinking that Advanced was just the next stage after Expert, but I’m not sure. My DM & fellow 6^th grader, Neil, probably knew what was going on better than I did. I do remember having conversations about this new “ranger” class...

We lived deep in the Bible Belt, and my parents

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Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about you and your history with D&D, what you're playing now, and anything else you want people to know about you?

I started playing D&D at a very young age. I can't remember exactly how old I was, but I must have been around eight. At the time, I was into a board game called "Hero Quest." My brother-in-law saw me playing the game and started to tell me about a game from his childhood called AD&D. By the time I was thirteen I was hooked on second edition. Over the years I have played many pencil and paper roleplaying games and every edition of D&D released since then. Today I find myself preparing to run Eclipse Phase. I also enjoy playing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3e. And, of course, I am having a blast playtesting DDN at every

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Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about you and your history with D&D, what you're playing now, and anything else you want people to know about you?

I started D&D with second edition, back in my high school days, circa the late '90's. 2e and grunge music were both on the wane by that time, but that just gave me a robust supply of new-to-me D&D while I
mourned Cobain and discovered girls. The first thing I did with my part-time job money in high school was stock up on as much Planescape material as I could get my hands on, and that setting's vein-deep
brain-candy hooked me indelibly on the game.

I love tabletop RPG's, so I play nearly whatever I can, whenever I can, which can lead to an eclectic collection of experiences. Fourth edition is probably my most regularly

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Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about you and your history with D&D, what you're playing now, and anything else you want people to know about you?

I started off when I was about 10 or 12. My next door neighbor had a relative that played some game that he thought I would enjoy. Something about Dungeons and Dragons . I was intrigued so I went. When I got there, I was given a grey elf fighter/magic user. I named him Xavier, after the X-Men character. And that spawned a life-long love of role-playing games.

Over the years, I've played a number of games including Exalted, Star Wars and most notably, a Vampire the Masquerade character named Jon Brazer. I even dabbled in freelancing for a few companies. However, it was Traveller that got me to start my own role-playing

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In the earliest editions of D&D, player characters could hire henchmen to tag along on adventures.  The assumption was that you wouldn't need to have these NPC companions along if you had enough player characters.

Sometime around 3rd edition and the Leadership feat, that assumption was lost or forgotten.  In 3e and 4e, some classes had companion critters like animal companions and familiars as part of their class abilities.

From a balance perspective this created some headaches, both because the class ended up being overpowered next to other characters and also because of "action economy."  Having a companion allowed a player more actions in a combat round than other players.

So, maybe that early edition assumption should be dusted off.  What if...