I first started playing AD&D back in high school somewhere around 1978.  My friend John was the instigator.  At first John was the GM and I (and one other friend) made up the adventuring party, usually running 2-3 characters plus assorted ablative armor ... I mean henchmen.

The group split up in 1981 when we graduated and all went off to different colleges.  That's when I fell in with a rough crowd.  You know the type, the ones experimenting with GURPS, Shadowrun, and even Champions.

Well I paid the price for my follies as did we all, but I eventually pulled my life back together in time for Second Edition and found comfort in a close group of graduate students at the university where I worked.

Life was tranquil for a time; then came the great slayers: Graduations, Jobs, and Spouses!  By the time I moved away, the group was a shattered ruin of its once glorious self.  No more were the cries heard of "Cleric!  I've got a papercut on my finger!  Heal me!"  or even "Control your halfling, Sir.  This is a quality evil establishment!" Dark days were mine indeed.

Then came the light.  I was reading usenet one day (yes my life was that pathetic), and I came across a link to RPOL, and it was the beacon of goodness that has led me here.

At first I just joined a couple of games (which all died within days).  Then I joined more games (which also died within days).  So naturally I joined even more games (which all died within days).  Then I said to myself, I said "Self!  You can do better than this.  Why not run your own game and bring suffering to others?"  And I replied to myself, I said "Self!  You're a genius."  I then blushed, because I'm naturally very modest.

And that's my story.  The very same day I looked through my collection of the D&D modules I had intended to run once I found a new gaming group (and had failed for over three years), found the Sunless Citadel and its follow-ons.  It took years, multiple groups, parallel universes, and a lot of patience, but three members (two having persevered all the way from the beginning) have finally survived and are ready to move on, with the assistance of a few newcomers to the gloriousness that is: The Forge of Fury!  Which died within days.

And flushed with excitement and belief in my own omnipotence, I opened a new chapter upon RPOL; that of Rappan Athuk, the Dungeon of Graves!  This killer dungeon has already seen many heroes fall.  Although, to be honest, most of them were just characters of players that stopped logging in and posting (you know, that 'died within days' thing that happened when I was just a player).  But even vengeance/cleaning out the deadwood deaths are still deaths.

And now, I have done what I swore that I would do one day.  I asked friends to join RPOL and my game.  And some of them even said yes.  So now, we will once again raise swords, wands, and a belt ... don't ask, really ... and take on the Evil that lurks in the depths.   For fame!  For glory!  For Bunnies!  (again, don't ask)