Stargazer's World

Nostalgia. We’ve been riding that wave for a while now.

While I have certainly been guilty of buying into it, there is an argument to be made that if we are always revisiting the well of the past, we aren’t really creating for the future. As much as I love new Star Trek or Star Wars projects, I’m just as happy to see wild, new ideas like K-Pop Demon Hunters. My point is this: if we continually look back, we fail to create new worlds or explore new mechanics, and we risk diminishing the very things we loved in the first place.

So, let’s talk about my own nostalgia for old tabletop role-playing games.

If you follow me on social media, you probably know that I always bring up three games: Torg, Fading Suns, and Space: 1889.

After years of waiting, the stars finally aligned. Ulisses Spiele acquired the rights to all three! They put out new editions, Torg Eternity and Fading Suns 4th edition, and licensed Space: 1889 After to Strange Owl Games.

Torg Eternity arrived with an updated, cleaned-up, and easier-to-understand version of the original rules. I ran the Free RPG Day adventure in 2017 and enjoyed it greatly. I backed the original crowdfunding campaign—and all subsequent campaigns—usually at the higher tiers. I have everything Ulisses Spiele has published for the line. I’ve read a lot of it.

But the game is not perfect. While simpler than the original, I find it a bit fiddlier than I currently enjoy, and the supplements have been of varying quality.

I realized that I don’t think I’d run Torg Eternity using the official rules. If I finally get to run the big Torg campaign I’ve been dreaming of, I’d probably use a different system. I already ran a classic Torg prequel using d20 Modern.

So, what system would I use today? Savage Worlds.

I am currently running my dream Fading Suns campaign, and while the new 4th Edition books by Ulisses are beautiful, the rule system feels needlessly complex for my table. So, I am running it using Savage Worlds.

Notice a pattern?

Space: 1889 had a Ubiquity version from Clockwork Publishing (and still available from Ulisses Spiele if you click the previous link), and the current Space: 1889 After has two versions: the Empyrean system and a D&D 5e version. I own the 5e version. But if I ever run Space: 1889, care to guess what system I’d use? (Pinnacle even put out a Savage Worlds version of Space: 1889: Red Sands some years ago, so the work is already done!)

What does this all mean?

First, it means I really like Savage Worlds! As our gaming group grows older and gaming time becomes increasingly precious, we stick with the systems we know and enjoy rather than crunching through new rulesets.

But second, it means that my nostalgia was never really for the mechanics—it was for the worlds. My love was for the setting, the experiences, and the creativity they fueled, not the specific game engine. I am glad I’ve gotten to play Fading Suns. I hope to play my planned Torg campaign at some point. Space: 1889 is not currently at the top of my list, but I’d play it.

However, I also want to play new games. I want to try new systems and have new experiences. I want to run a Powered by the Apocalypse game. I want to try Blades in the Dark (or one of the Forged in the Dark hacks). I want to run Mothership and something on the Year Zero Engine.

Ultimately, I love nostalgia. We got new versions of Ravenloft, Twilight: 2000, Savage Rifts, and Palladium Books even published a new TMNT edition. But I also want new games that explore what TTRPGs can do today.

By now, I think most of my nostalgia wants have been addressed. Well, with two exceptions.

I know we’ll likely never get this because of licensing issues, but I’d love to see a new version of the Buck Rogers XXVc TTRPG. (The closest we can get right now is the amazing Overlords of Dimension-25 by Christian Conkle).

And finally, I’d love to see a new edition of The Whispering Vault.

One last thought: seriously, when are we getting the K-Pop Demon Hunters TTRPG?

Rise from Your Grave! Geeknic 29 is Back from the Dead

Klaatu… Barada… GEEKNIC!

It has been too long, but the stars have finally aligned (and we remembered the exact words this time). The Puerto Rico Role Players are officially resurrecting our beloved tradition.

Geeknic 29: Back From The Dead is happening, and it is going to be… groovy.

For those of you who have never attended, a Geeknic is exactly what it sounds like: we take over a gazebo at a park, we bring food to share, and we roll dice under the open sky. It is a chance to step away from the VTTs and the screens and actually look your fellow gamers in the eye (usually before you betray them in-game).

Whether you are an “Old One” of the local scene or a level 1 adventurer looking for a group, this is the perfect place to jump in.

The Details

• Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
• Time: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
• Location: Parque Central de los Niños, Bayamón, Puerto Rico

What to Bring

• Dice & Character Sheets: Obviously.
• Sunscreen & Water: We are gaming in the Caribbean, after all.
• Food to Share: It’s a potluck-style event, so bring your favorite snacks or dishes.
• Games: Board games, card games, and RPG one-shots are all welcome.

I am planning to be there, hopefully running a playtest session of my homebrewed system, MUGeS (no cows included).

So, grab your boomstick (or just your pencil case) and join us. Let’s make sure this tradition stays alive… unlike the Deadites.

See you there!

Someone recently asked me when I started playing D&D. When I told them it was the mid-80s, their eyes lit up. “Wow! The 80s. You had the Stranger Things experience.”

I stopped reflecting on it, and I realized: Yes. Yes, I did.

We didn’t have the Demogorgon (well, not in real life), and we didn’t have the basements. But we had the dinner table, the dice, and the absolute mystery of this game that seemed to exist in the shadows.

The Artifacts of Legend

I was aware of Dungeons & Dragons long before I rolled a d20. As I mentioned in my “Proto-Years” post, the game was already seeping into my life through the LJN action figures and those iconic ads in the back of comic books. I would see the books and boxed sets sitting on the shelves at The Book Store in Old San Juan or at B. Dalton in the mall—forbidden tomes promising adventure.

My curiosity finally won out in 1985. I bought the Frank Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set—the legendary Red Box.

I opened it up and devoured the solo adventure immediately. That part made perfect sense to me; it was just like the Choose Your Own Adventure or the Be an Interplanetary Spy books I loved, but with dice!

But then I turned the page to the rest of the book. The rules. The text. The procedures.

It made no sense.

You have to remember, this was a time before the internet. There were no “actual play” video series, no YouTube tutorials, no Reddit threads to ask for clarification. I didn’t know anyone who played D&D properly.

I did have a classmate who I used to see walking around the schoolyard with a group of friends. He would carry a notebook, reading from it while the others jumped over imaginary obstacles or walked along a line on the pavement. When I asked him what they were doing, he said, “Playing Dungeons & Dragons.”

I didn’t quite know how you played D&D, but looking at them, I thought: That doesn’t seem right.

I learned later that his older siblings played the game but wouldn’t let him join. So, he had done some espionage, taking notes from their books when they weren’t looking, interpreting what he could from overhearing their sessions, and making up his own rules based on the fragments he understood.

I had to find out the truth. I had to know how you really played. But after that initial attempt with the Red Box, I hit a wall. I didn’t understand the rules, and I didn’t have a party. So, the red box languished on my bookshelf, unused.

The Challenge Accepted

Fast forward to the summer of 1986.

A neighbor, one or two years my senior, came back from a friend’s house buzzing with energy. He had played D&D. He was fascinated by it. He wouldn’t stop talking about the adventure.

I blurted out, “I have that game! We should play it.”

“We definitely should,” he said.

I looked at him, relieved. “Since you’ve played it, you should run it for us.”

He hesitated. He admitted he wasn’t sure how to do that part. He looked at me and suggested that since I was the one who owned the box, I should be the Dungeon Master.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I grinned. “Sure, let’s play tomorrow!”

The Long Night

I went back home, pulled the Red Box off the shelf, and started reading.

Panic set in immediately.

It made even less sense than before. I realized, with dawning horror, that I had to read the whole thing, learn to play the game, and run the game… by tomorrow morning.

I should have canceled. I should have asked for a few more days. But I didn’t.

I stayed up late, poring over the text, trying to decipher to-hit rolls and saving throws. Late into the night, I developed a splitting headache. I took some painkillers, rubbed my temples, and went to bed with my brain buzzing. I had learned as much as I could. I just hoped it was enough.

As an aside, looking back now, the Mentzer Red Box was a masterpiece of instructional design. It was steeped in the style of the day—callers, mappers, strict procedures—but it did a wonderful job of teaching that specific style of play. I ran my first session without ever seeing the game played, taught only by the words on the page.

The First Roll

The next day, we met at my house.

There were seven of us—neighbors and childhood friends—sitting around a table. We used my collection of LJN toys to keep track of the marching order. I opened the book, and we wandered into our first dungeon.

That was my first time Dungeon Mastering. It was chaos, it was messy, and it was magic.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In Part 1, I talked about my love for Worlds Without Number and how it scratches that specific itch for fantasy d20 gaming. But what about everything else? What about pulp sci-fi, weird westerns, or space operas?

For everything that isn’t strict fantasy, my heart belongs to Savage Worlds.

If you follow me on social media, it may not be a shock, but if you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, that might come as a surprise. I didn’t always love this system. In fact, if you dig into the archives, you’ll find a long-winded retrospective from 2012 where I detailed my struggle to “get” it. I eventually ran a sci-fi campaign, a nearly two-year-long Wanderers of the Outlands campaign, using it. It resulted in two follow-up posts (the 1st and 2nd post) in which I detailed what I liked and did not like about the experience, as well as the house rules I proposed back then.

I’ve always said that Savage Worlds is a system that plays better than it reads.

For me, it was actually crucial to play it to get the mechanics to click. Coming from a strong d20 background, the shift was jarring. Things like card-based initiative and wound levels (instead of hit points) felt alien. I remember struggling to understand the difference between “Shaken” and “Wounded” during those early attempts.

But once it clicked? It became second nature.

Savage Fading Suns

I am currently running a Fading Suns game using the Savage Worlds rules, my Savage Fading Suns conversion, and it has been incredibly successful. We have been playing for three years now.

The system is not “rules light,” on the contrary, it has all sorts of fiddly bits and options, but it is easy to understand. It provides a toolkit that lets the group make the game as complex or as streamlined as they want.

The current Adventure Edition (SWADE) is a vast improvement over previous editions. It does a fantastic job of making the system easier to parse and follow. I don’t use any of the house rules I proposed before!  Even the conversion rules I put together for the Savage Fading Suns campaign seem overly wrought. Looking back, I added more than the system needed. Live and learn!

Why It Works for Me

The biggest plus for me is the narrative control it hands to the players. The use of Bennies—tokens that allow players to reroll dice or soak damage—changes the flow of the game. It makes players feel competent and heroic.

I also swear by the Adventure Cards produced by Pinnacle. They add a layer of chaotic fun and player agency that I absolutely love.

There are so many different campaigns, published by Pinnacle or other companies, and the game itself is easy to adapt to many settings and properties. When I get around to running my long-awaited (at least for me!) Torg campaign, I will use Savage Worlds.

Currently, I have the Without Number games for whenever I get that d20 fantasy itch, and Savage Worlds for literally everything else. I haven’t played with the current Fantasy Companion yet, so who knows? That distinction might blur in the future.

Addressing the Recent Controversy

I can’t write about Savage Worlds without addressing the reality of the recent controversy. I know the game’s creator made some unfortunate comments in the current fraught political climate in the US.  While he has since apologized and attempted to make amends, I know that for some, that bridge is burned. I have friends in that camp, and I respect their decision to walk away from the system.

However, I also know other people who work on the game—folks I know personally who are well-meaning, talented, and kind. Because of them and the joy this system has brought to my table over the years, I’ve decided to continue supporting it cautiously for now.

It’s a personal choice, but one I wanted to be honest about.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a game that can handle pulp action, horror, and sci-fi with equal ease—and you’re willing to unlearn a few d20 habits—Savage Worlds is hard to beat. It might read a little strange at first, but trust me: get it to the table, deal the cards, and let the dice explode. You’ll see what I mean.

Useful Links:

• Savage Worlds Adventure Edition is $9.99 for the PDF at the time that this post is written.
• Test Drive Rules: Try the rules for free.
• Pinnacle Entertainment Group

If you follow my Sunglar’s Musings Facebook page description, you might have noticed I mention reviews there. Well, it is time to deliver. I am writing this post here and a similar (Facebook-friendly) version there for the different audiences that read my content.

As I mentioned in my recent post chronicling the 100 games I’ve played in 40 years, I have played D&D in almost all its forms. I played the latest version, D&D 5th Edition, until 2017, but I haven’t run a campaign using that system since. I’ve played a pick-up game here or there, but my tastes have shifted.

Fantasy remains my absolute favorite genre of tabletop role-playing games, with sci-fi coming in a remarkably close second. I also still genuinely enjoy d20-based games. I know the limitations and the critiques surrounding the d20 system, but they are familiar, I speak the language, and I enjoy them.

So, if I’m not running 5e, what fantasy rules system would I use?

My current favorite iteration of the d20 fantasy game is Kevin Crawford’s Worlds Without Number.

The Master of the Sandbox

If you aren’t familiar with Kevin Crawford (Sine Nomine Publishing), let me elaborate. Crawford specializes in OSR (Old School Renaissance) distillations of classic D&D, but with a specific goal: facilitating sandbox-style play.

“Sandbox” is a term that gets thrown around a lot. I’m oversimplifying, but generally, it refers to open-world campaigns where players drive the action rather than following a linear “adventure path,” or storylines that give players massive agency where they go next.

Running a true sandbox can be intimidating for a Game Master. It feels like “homework.” This is where Crawford shines. His game line is built around making running sandbox-style games easier. He delivers handy tools, random tables, and faction systems that spark a GM’s imagination with minimum prep.

He has applied this philosophy to almost every major genre:

• Stars Without Number: His first game in the “Without Number” series, and an incredible sci-fi toolbox.
• Cities Without Number: A toolkit for cyberpunk games.
• Ashes Without Number: For post-apocalyptic settings (ranging from Walking Dead style grit to Gamma World mutant gonzo fun).

And then there is Worlds Without Number, my current favorite fantasy game.

Old School Bones, Modern Muscle

The game is written with a “Dying Earth” / Jack Vance-style default setting (The Latter Earth), which gives it a distinct flavor. However, the tools and system are generic enough that you can use the game for almost any fantasy campaign.

Beyond the tools for sandbox gaming, the book includes an exquisite, simple d20 system.

I’d describe the system as classic Basic/Expert (B/X) D&D with modern sensibilities. While the core math is familiar and straightforward, it offers players many customization options, specifically through a system of “Foci” (essentially Feats). This really makes characters stand out from each other mechanically, satisfying that itch for “builds” without the overwhelming crunch of 3rd Edition or Pathfinder.

The book also includes robust processes for dungeon exploration, faction play, heroic or high-level play, and domain rulership. These are modular—you can use them to enhance your campaign or ignore them entirely.

The most distinct mechanical shift is spellcasting. In Worlds Without Number, spells are potent, but you get far fewer of them per day. To me, that’s the most significant change in “feel” from standard D&D. (Though, if you prefer traditional OSR-style spellcasting, the author includes notes on how to adapt that, too.

The “Without Number” DNA

One of the strongest selling points for me is cross-compatibility. The Without Number series all share similar systems, and the rules are easily interchangeable.

The books include notes on converting between the different bits in different systems. So, technically, your fantasy games could be mashed up with sci-fi, cyberpunk, or post-apocalyptic rules. Even some of Crawford’s older games, like the Lovecraftian Silent Legions, can be used with these modern iterations with little work.

The Critique

The game is not perfect, and I want to be honest about that.

First, it has far fewer illustrations than a modern audience is used to. I would certainly like more art, but that is a matter of personal taste. Second, the layout. While the rules are straightforward to understand, the books are written in a dense, “wall-of-text” style. Some rule reorganization and a more “breathing” layout would make the game truly perfect.

But these are nitpicking. The book is truly an excellent TTRPG resource, written by a single person, which is a staggering achievement.

Try It for Free

You don’t have to take my word for it. The barrier to entry is non-existent.

The game is available for free in PDF format. And I don’t mean a “Quickstart” with levels 1-3. The free version is a massive, complete game. There are “Deluxe” versions with extra rules (which I own in PDF and print, and believe are worth every penny), but the free version is likely all you will ever need.

I REALLY like these books and wholeheartedly recommend them.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll discuss the other system vying for the top spot on my shelf.

Get the Books:

• Worlds Without Number (Free Edition)
• Worlds Without Number (Deluxe Edition)
• Stars Without Number (Deluxe)
• Cities Without Number (Deluxe)
• Ashes Without Number (Deluxe)
• Sine Nomine Publishing Website

Preamble: This post is closely tied to a post I wrote during RPG a Day this year, for day 21, Unexpected. It inspired me to dig deeper into adventures I’ve run as a GM. It may rehash some of the same topics, but this one goes deeper into my motivations and covers other topics. I hope you like it. On with the post!

If you gather a group of gamers from my generation in a room and shout “G1,” someone will inevitably whisper back, “Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.”

There is a core, shared language among players who grew up in the 80s and 90s. It’s built on the foundations of the classic D&D modules. The Keep on the Borderlands. In Search of the Unknown. The Slavelords series. The legendary GDQ series of adventures that took players from fighting giants, down into the depths of the earth, all the way to the Demonweb Pits to face Lolth, the Queen of Spiders herself.

These names are gaming landmarks. They represent a shared cultural experience that binds the Old School community together.

And I have a confession to make; I missed almost all of them.

I didn’t run through the Caves of Chaos. I never faced the Slavelords. I didn’t even play the “modern classics” like The Sunless Citadel.

You can see the map above on Dyson Logos’ blog here.

As a player, the only true “classic” I can claim is The Haunting, that terrifying walk through the Corbitt House from the original Call of Cthulhu boxed set, which, by the way, Chaosium recently revisited for their latest edition of CoC.

This art is by Mockman, and you can get an art print here.

But on the D&D side? I did not play those classic modules.

For decades, I’ve told anyone who would listen: “I don’t do modules.” I found them constraining. I didn’t want to read a script; I wanted to build worlds. I prided myself on my homebrew settings and the scenarios I cooked up from scratch. To this day, if you ask me, I’ll probably tell you I don’t like running pre-made adventures.

But as I’ve been digging through my history for this “40 Years a Gamer” series, I realized something funny. My memory was lying to me. I have run adventures—quite a few of them.

When I sat down to list them, I realized that while I avoided the “classic,” I was running scenarios. Here is the actual track record:

Adventures Run

• D&D Mentzer Basic Set Adventure (Castle Mistamere) – 1986 & 2016

I ran this for my very first game, and quickly began to improvise and add details, never really populating the second level, instead going straight to another module, the next on this list.

• Rahasia (We played about halfway through) – 1986

I really like the module’s concept and story. It gave us the classic moment when one of the players wanted to pee in the water where a Water Weird lurked, and it just grabbed him by the unarmored lower portion of his body and dragged him into the water. But the player lost interest in the exploration, and I soon transported them into my first homebrewed adventure.

• The 14 Quests of HeroQuest – 1991to1992

These I used as teaching tools; the board game as an introduction to tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), but it was their simplicity and ease of use that I enjoyed.

• Dragon Mountain (The first book only) – 1993

Another module with an ambitious storyline, which also gave us a classic moment in our games, when the arrogant elven fighter wizard threatened the enemies inside a house, and the antagonist spellcaster cast the Feeblemind spell on him! (If you click on the link, apologies for the text of the spell.)

• DragonStrike (Ran about half the adventures included) – 1993

These, like HeroQuest above, were used as teaching tools. However, these were not as much fun as the previous game. I think the best thing about the game was the “instructional video”. In this post-LOTR era, with Critical Role animation as popular as it is, it is incredible to think how thrilled I was for this video. I showed it to people who wanted to know what D&D was about. You can see it for yourself in the video above,.

• Lords of Darkness: The Dread Lair of Alokkair (The Lich adventure) – Circa 1998

By this time, I had decided not to run pre-written adventures. One of my players back then disliked this. I think he thought adventures were balanced and proper, but found some of mine too wild. I think the adeventure beforeI rand this moduel they had been shrunk by a magical pool and found themselved invoved in a war between homanoid insects in a magical faerie realm. Regardless, he asked me to run one, and I chose one I could adapt to the campaign. I didn’t have fun playing this. My lack of interest wasn’t a commentary on the adventure itself (I remember little of it), but on my mindset at the time.

• Lady Blackbird – 2010 & 2013

This changed my mind! By this time, Puerto Rico Role Players had formed, and I wanted one-shot adventures I could run at events, such as the Geeknics (a picnic for geeks). This was a delight to run. It started to change my mind about running adventures.

• Alien Survivor (a Lady Blackbird hack) – 2010

I couldn’t find a copy of the game online, and then found out the author has an unfulfilled Kickstarter I did not know about. I found someone hosting a copy of the game if you want to check it out. On to my memories of the game. I tried this hack with my regular weekly group, after playing Lady Blackbird, but it fell flat. I think they just didn’t want their regular campaign interrupted for a one-shot. I then thought: Well, pre-written adventures are for conventions, Geeknics for other events, but not for the weekly group.

• Pathfinder 1e Beginner Box Adventure – 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, & 2016 (I ran this using D&D 5e rules for the last two sessions!)

If you see how many times I’ve run this adventure, you’ll see it is the one I’ve run the most. The Pathfinder 1e Beginner Box was a great tool to teach the game; the adventure was so good that I started using it to run D&D 5e. It ran in one session, ideal for teaching people about TTRPGs.

• The Wild Hunt (Savage Worlds Test Drive Rules) – 2014 & 2025

I’m a big fan of Savage Worlds; it is the system we use for our current weekly campaign, so teaching it to others was a big thing for me. I ran it for new players in 2014 and for more experienced players who had not played the system last year.

• Wreck of the Magellan (Alternity Playtest) – 2017

I was a huge Alternity fan, so when Sasquatch Games came out with a playtest for the new system, I was all in. I ran it over two or three sessions; we streamed the game (in a very rudimentary way), and it led to the Desde La Fosa project. The adventure was ok, the new Alternity system was a disappointment, and ultimately, I think Sasquatch Games handled Kickstarter fulfillment and the line poorly.

• Invasion (TORG Eternity Free RPG Day Special) – 2017

We were still doing Desde la Fosa, and this was a Free RPG Day adventure for TORG Eternity. I loved running this. I am a massive fan of TORG, and you can see the videos here. Mind you, they are in Spanish.

• Down Darker Trails (Call of Cthulhu Western adventure) – 2019

When my son was born, I took a short three-month break, and when we went back to playing, I wanted to run a campaign that took as little prep as possible so I could concentrate on taking care of my child. I decided to run Chaosium’s Down Darker Trails adventures. I was so pleasantly surprised by them. Easy to run, with lots of ideas and details, but open enough for me to run in my style. This was a turning point.

• Blood on the Range (Savage Worlds Test Drive / Deadlands) – 2024

I ran this Savage Worlds Test Drive for Free RPG Day 2025 at Titan Games Caguas to teach people about the system. It’s a great introduction to the rules and to the Deadlands setting. I took considerable liberties with the plot to make the story mine.

• The Dare (Call of Cthulhu) – 2025

This was our Halloween game last year. Initially written for Call of Cthulhu, I ended up using Eldritch Hack instead. The plot is very detailed, but I was able to read it, run it through the details, and really make it my own at the table again.

• The Quintessential Dungeon – 2025

I ran this over the holidays and wrote about it in this post. A one-page adventure with a map and details so you can improvise on and run it. This is ideally the perfect type of adventure for me.

The Pattern in the Noise

Looking at this list, the pattern becomes obvious. I don’t hate adventures; I hate homework.

Most of the games on this list fall into two categories: Teaching tools and One-Shots. I love a module designed to introduce a system, like the Pathfinder Beginner Box or the Savage Worlds Test Drives. They are efficient, focused, and do precisely what they promise.

The others are what we could call outline or framework adventures. Look at Lady Blackbird or The Quintessential Dungeon. These aren’t rigid scripts; they are situations with an outline of a plot that demands the GM be creative to fill in the gaps.

This is where my tastes have evolved. In recent years, I’ve become very interested in usability. I love the modern design philosophy we see in Old School Essentials, Dolmenwood, or the Merry Mushmen adventures. I’m currently reading adventures by Joseph R. Lewis (I’m dying to run Raiding the Obsidian Keep), and I find myself nodding along to the advice from Ben Milton at Questing Beast regarding adventure layout.

I prefer a one-page dungeon like The Quintessential Dungeon over a 300-page campaign book any day. Give me a map, some evocative bullets, and let me drive.

Growing into the Role

I think a lot of my early aversion to modules came from insecurity.

When I was a young GM, I felt like the module was a test I had to pass. I thought I had to run it exactly as the author intended. If the book said the door was locked, it had to be closed. I felt constrained by “canon” and the fear of “doing it wrong.”

40 years later, that fear is gone. I’ve grown confident enough to know that the book is just a tool in my toolbox. It’s not my boss. I can take a module, rip out the parts I like, ignore the parts I don’t, and reshape it to fit my table. It’s always been supposed to be like this; it took me a while to internalize it.

So, I must revise my stance. I do run adventures. I have a “type.” I like frameworks, clean design, and room to improvise.

But I’m curious, what about you? Are you a devotee of the classics, or do you prefer to roll your own worlds? And did anyone else miss the Caves of Chaos back in the day, or was it just me?

Hello friends! Welcome back.

Continuing my celebration of 40 years in this hobby, today I want to move from the “proto-history” I wrote about in my last post to the actual history. The meat and potatoes. The games themselves.

As I prepared for this anniversary, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time: I sat down and reviewed the list of every single tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) system I have played at least once. Not just the ones I ran campaigns for, but the one-shots, the playtests, the convention games, and the indie games.

I went through my memory, old character sheets, and the blog archives. I counted them. Then I recounted them.

The total came to exactly 100!

When I first tallied the list, I thought I was stuck at 98, as I had said previously. I was a little frustrated—just two short of a perfect number! But then I took a closer look and realized I had missed two. The total is exactly 100. It feels like the stars aligned for this anniversary—a perfect century of systems to celebrate four decades of rolling dice. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.

Before I share the list, I want to offer a caveat, much as I did in my last post. Looking at a list this long might seem like a flex, or an attempt to claim some “guru” status. It is neither.

Having played 100 systems doesn’t make me a better gamer than someone who has played D&D exclusively for five years. This list doesn’t mean I’m claiming to be a grandmaster of any game; it reflects curiosity. It represents a restless imagination and, more importantly, it represents the incredible friends—from my early days playing with my classmates and neighbors, to the connections made via Stargazers World and Puerto Rico Role Players—who were willing to say, “Sure, Roberto, I’ll try this weird game where we play cats/space explorers/movie characters.”

Every entry on this list is a memory of a table, a group of friends, and a story shared.

So, for the curious, the nostalgic, and the completists, here is the log of my 40-year voyage, thus far, organized by the eras and genres that defined my time as a gamer and Game Master.

The Foundation: Dungeons & Dragons, D20 & Retro-Clones

It started with the Red Box in 1986. D&D, and the evolution and variations of that ruleset, have remained the spine of my gaming life. From the Gygaxian prose of AD&D 1e, to the complexity of 3.5, to the sleekness of Shadowdark, D20 is a gaming language I speak fluently. Unlike the other lists included in this post, this one is roughly in chronological order of how I played them.

• D&D BECMI and Rules Cyclopedia
• AD&D 1st edition
• AD&D 2nd edition (including Ravenloft Masque of the Red Death & Skills & Powers)
• Buck Rogers XXVc (yes, the mechanics were pretty much AD&D 2e with sci-fi elements!)
• D&D 3rd & 3.5 edition
• Star Wars Saga System
• D&D 4th edition
• D&D 5th edition (2014 version, haven’t played the 2024 version yet!)
• D20 Modern
• Pathfinder
• Microlite20 (Fantasy and Zombies games)
• Mutants & Masterminds (2nd and 3rd edition, including DC Adventures)
• Basic Fantasy RPG (OSR retro-clone)
• Castles & Crusades (Troll Lord Games)
• Amazing Adventures (Troll Lord Games)
• Shadowdark

The TSR Era (Non-D&D)

If you grew up gaming in the 80s and 90s, TSR was the biggest elephant in the room. I have a deep love for these systems, especially the FASERIP chart of Marvel Super Heroes, Star Frontiers, and Alternity.

• Alternity (TSR version)
• Amazing Engine (settings Bughunters & Galactos Barrier)
• Boot Hill
• DragonStrike (TSR’s boardgame role-play hybrid with a VHS cassette, I used this game to teach people how to play TTRPGs.)
• Gamma World (3rd and 4th edition)
• Marvel Super Heroes RPG (Basic & Advanced)
• Star Frontiers

Palladium Books

Many of us played them. We struggled with the rules. We loved the settings. Rifts, Robotech, and Heroes Unlimited were absolute staples of my early gaming years.

• Beyond the Supernatural
• Heroes Unlimited
• Nightspawn (renamed Nightbane)
• Ninjas & Superspies
• Rifts
• Robotech (Palladium)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness

World of Darkness

I didn’t play as much WoD as some of my friends in the early 90s, but I did play these three.

• Vampire: The Masquerade
• Vampire: The Dark Ages
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse

BESM & Tri-Stat (Guardians of Order)

• Big Eyes Small Mouth 2nd edition
• Sailor Moon (I was a player in one session, I was Sailor Uranus. I kid you not!)
• Silver Age Sentinels
• Tri-Stat dX

Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, Steampunk & Space Opera

As you know from the blog, Sci-Fi is my other great love alongside Fantasy. From the hard sci-fi of Traveller to the space opera of Star Wars, I’ve tried to travel to as many stars as possible.

• Alien (Free League)
• Alien Survivor (Lady Blackbird Hack)
• Alternity (Sasquatch Games playtest)
• Battlelords of the 23rd Century
• Bubblegum Crisis
• Coriolis
• Cyberpunk
• Dr. Who (FASA)
• Fading Suns
• Justifiers
• Legacy 2nd edition
• Mega Traveller
• Paranoia
• PsiRun
• Shadowrun
• Shatterzone
• Space 1889
• Star Trek (FASA)
• Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (D6)
• Stars Without Number Revised
• Underground

Fantasy (Non-D&D)

There is life beyond the D20! Some of my most evocative gaming memories come from teaching my high-school girlfriend’s little brother to role-play with HeroQuest, or from the narrative beauty of Lady Blackbird.

• Amber Diceless
• Fabula Ultima
• HeroQuest (the board game, used to teach how to play TTRPGs)
• Lady Blackbird
• Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP)
• Symbaroum
• Talislanta (2nd edition)
• The Black Hack
• Warhammer Fantasy 1st edition
• Warrior, Rogue & Mage

Horror, Dark & Post-Apocalyptic

• Call of Cthulhu
• Cats of Catthulhu
• Dark Conspiracy
• Don’t Rest Your Head
• Eldritch Hack
• Silent Legions
• Ten Candles
• The Dead are Coming
• Twilight 2000 (1st edition)

Action, Pulp & Cult Classics

• Car Wars (we integrated RPG elements early on, and eventually I played once using GURPS Autoduel)
• Ghostbusters
• It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show
• Street Fighter
• TORG
• TORG Eternity
• Weird West

Superheroes

• Champions
• Guardians (StarChilde Publishing)
• DC Heroes RPG

Universal & Narrative Systems

• FATE
• GURPS (1st and 2nd edition)
• RISUS
• Savage Worlds
• TWERPS

Homebrewed Systems

Finally, the tinkerer’s workshop. These are the systems my friends and I built. They might not be famous, but they work for us.

• Attack/Defend/Know (homebrew d10-based system)
• Bieber Fever! (That’s exactly what it sounds like, a Justin Bieber-based game, filled with pop icons and references. See the character sheet above!)
• Edwin’s OD20: Opposed D20 (a friend’s homebrewed system)
• MODS (Lao & Fernan’s system playtest)
• MUGeS (Homebrewed system in development)
• Oldchester (Kirk’s free-form narrative Play-By-Post)
• Simple D6 (homebrewed narrative system)
• Three Attributes & Fate (a quick homebrew I put together for a pick-up game)

So, there you have it. 100 systems.

It’s been a wild ride from the rudimentary mechanics of the 80s to the narrative-forward indie games of today. I have loved (almost) every minute of it.

If you want to keep up with these celebrations, share your own stories, or just chat about gaming in smaller bites, I’ve launched a new Facebook page to connect with friends and readers: Sunglar’s Musings.

I’ll be sharing shorter ideas, updates on the “40 Years a Gamer” series, and probably a few more old pictures of our games, I’d love to see you there.

Now, the big question remains: What should be game #101?

If you have a suggestion for a system that is glaringly missing from this list, let me know in the comments. Or, better yet, tell me how many systems you have played—whether it’s 5 or 500—I’d love to hear about your journey.

Hello friends! Welcome to 2026. This year marks a special occasion for me. This coming July will mark the 40th anniversary of the very first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) session I played. My first time Game Mastering. I want to mark the occasion with an official celebration in the summer, and activities throughout the year, including a series of posts here on the blog.

Let me start with a caveat I’ve shared before, but one I think is essential. Sometimes I see people throwing around their “years played” as if it were a rank that made their games superior. Let me be clear: Playing longer does not make you better. If you are having fun and your players are having fun, that’s what matters—whether you’ve been playing for four decades or four days.

Forty years is a personal milestone. It reminds me that I’ve been playing these games I enjoy so much for over half of my life—77% of my life, to be precise. I’ve formed lifelong bonds of friendship and camaraderie, and it continues to drive me to support gaming in my local communities. Forty years is a big deal to me; I want to celebrate it and share with all of you what it means.

In previous posts, I’ve touched on some of what I will talk about today, so rather than repeat what I said, I’ll try to summarize and link to the relevant posts in case you are interested in reading those.

I started playing TTRPGs, specifically Dungeons and Dragons, in the summer of 1986, but my love of fantasy and storytelling did not begin there. In a way, I was primed to love fantasy, sci-fi, superheroes, and telling stories from an early age. My family always read to me as a child, even before I could read on my own. I loved comics from an early age and still read them today. Before I was in school, my grandmother would take me to Old San Juan, buy me comics at the newsstand, and sit with me at the Plaza de Armas in the old city, reading them to me.

Her reading so enthralled me that neither she nor I noticed a photojournalist snapping our picture, which was published in a local newspaper. You can see the image below.

Sunglar’s grandmother read El Chapulín Colorado to him.

I don’t recall when I first saw it, but Disney’s Robin Hood and Rocket Robin Hood were a significant influence on me as a child. For years, I played Robin Hood every day, and my grandmother played every other character. I would often dictate to her what her response should be.

I was also interested in tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. When I was four years old, my grandparents travelled to New York City and brought me back four Mego World’s Greatest Super Knights. If I remember correctly, I had King Arthur, Sir Launcelot, Sir Galahad, and the Black Knight.

Like any kid my age, I was influenced by Star Wars and Star Trek. Still, movies like the animated Lord of the Rings, Excalibur, the original Clash of the Titans, Conan the Barbarian, Beastmaster, Fire and Ice, the Sinbad movies, and the animated version of The Hobbit shaped my view of and expectations for what fantasy was.

I read The Hobbit the Summer before I started playing D&D, but I knew about the story and the world of Middle-Earth because I grew up with a relative who loved Professor Tolkien’s works. She would often gift me Tolkien-themed calendars for Christmas. I would examine the art pieces for each month in fascination, even before I read the books.

One such gift was the Hildebrandt Brothers’ 1982 Atlantis Calendar, which fascinated me. As I said in this 2015 post, when I got this calendar, it fired up my imagination. My mastery of English was still developing, so I did not fully understand the brief descriptions of each painting. I would look at that calendar over and over and come up with different stories each time. This calendar, and specifically that piece, had a significant influence on my ideas about how to organize an adventure into a story and the events that unfold along the way: challenges, allies, failure, and triumph.

One year before, in 1981, I also got an Odyssey 2 console along with a deluxe cartridge game, Quest for the Rings. Here is the original post I wrote about the game almost 16 years ago. I never understood the game, but the components, the board with a map, the art in the rulebook, fired up my imagination.

All this really prepared me and shaped my play patterns, so I was ready to embrace fantasy gaming, even if I didn’t know it, first, with my love for the electronic fantasy boardgame Dark Tower. The game was published in 1981, but I got it in 1982 and played it incessantly—Solo against the tower, with my friends who would be my first players. Despite being an electronic game, it had so many tactile components, the board map with the different kingdoms, miniatures, like a traditional TTRPG, it used all of those to spark the imagination.

But most of all, what prepared me the most for playing TTRPGs in general and D&D in particular was LJN’s Advanced Dungeons and Dragons toys. I won’t go into deep detail, but figures like Strongheart and Warduke were totems of the game for me long before I understood the rules. Here is the 2010 post about toys, where I discuss my memories of the toys and how they influenced me. These toys, along with the D&D cartoon and TSR’s D&D comic ads, trained me to be interested in and play D&D.

Two other significant influences on me as a proto-gamer were the Choose Your Own Adventure books and their variations, which I wrote about here, and which taught me to conceive stories with branching, divergent paths and outcomes depending on the protagonist’s choices.  The other one is the ElfQuest comic book, which I’ve written about often on the blog, the latest one being this post about inspiration, which, apropos, is very relevant to the topics in this post. ElfQuest is another fantasy classic I read before playing TTRPGs, and it was equally, if not more, influential on my storytelling style than Tolkien.

All the above, along with some other details I might have forgotten, shaped me as a child and young adult and influenced my role-playing games, even before I opened a TTRPG book.

These days, I continue to share my love of storytelling, not just with the players in our weekly gaming group and the fellow TTRPG enthusiasts in Puerto Rico Role Players and Dungeons & Dragons Puerto Rico, but with my son. I tell him a bedtime story every night, with ongoing plots and recurring characters, and ask him what he would do. I hope to continue sharing my love of storytelling with a new generation.

I’d love to read about your experiences becoming a gamer. Please leave a comment below.