Weregaming:
a term I created circa 1976 when the fantasy role-play gaming group at the Defense Language Institute was looking for a name for their unofficial organization.
There was already a wargaming group, who focused on SPI’s games such as War in Europe, War in the East, War in the West, and War in the Pacific (among many others, but you can grasp the concept) who were known as “The Wargamers”.
As “our” group focused on the newly emerging Role-Play Gaming, epitomized by TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons, I named us “were-gamers”. Clever pun, yes? No? Ah, well.
“They were dead before we met them!”
This has been the rallying cry of our gaming group for nigh on 30 years. It’s a mostly true statement, especially when you count the number of zombies, skeletons, and other undead we have gone up against (and generally survived.)
Ashleigh was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons shortly after its initial publication, while serving in the US Navy, at the Defense Language Institute (DLI); Katrina was bitten by the gaming bug before they met, and in the intervening 4+ decades, we have played a number of role-play games.
Shortly after we moved to Washington, we met Bjoern, Erynn, and Marcus. Gordon, with whom Ashleigh had served in the Navy and at DLI, moved up not long after, and the six of us gamed together for several months. Marcus dropped out, Bjoern met Stuart, and later, Liam and Clemeth and introduced them to the rest of us, and more gaming ensued. Gordon & Erynn married, Clemeth died, Liam and Richard moved away to Arizona for a few years, then returned; Cat & Mike and Adam joined us, Gordon & Erynn divorced, and Gordon moved away and Erynn continued to play, and then she moved to Italy, Cat and Michael dropped out for a while, came back, and left again – and then Cat died. And so it goes on to today.
The group currently consists of our rotating Gamemasters: Bjoern, Stuart and Adam, and players Katrina and Ashleigh and Jorgen, who knew Adam many years earlier, and is a mutual friend of the rest of us through other communities, along with Jorgen & Adam’s friend Megan, who recently joined us.
Cat passed away a few years ago, and Mike hasn’t gamed with us for a while, but as we’ve grown older, interests and friendships change. Our core gaming group has now been together for over 35 years, and while we wander from one gaming system to another (GURPS, DragonQuest, Munchkin, etc.) we have had fun with it.
A few quick links
Our friends and GameMasters happen to have written GURPS For Dummies. You should buy a copy! (Shameless plug, royalties are a good thing.)
Information about some of our GURPS campaigns will likely show up here at some point.
Likewise, our DQ campaigns may show up here, along with links to resources for this gaming system.
DragonQuest is a fantasy role-playing game originally published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in 1980. Where first generation fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons restricted players to particular character classes, DragonQuest was one of the first games to utilize a system that emphasized skills, allowing more individual customization and a wider range of options.The title is currently held by Wizards of the Coast, who acquired TSR many years ago, and WotC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro, who has seemingly abandoned the trademark.
Speaking of DragonQuest, do check out the
* DragonQuest Players Association homepage
* DragonQuest wiki For the NZ multi-GM Campaign known as ‘The Seagate Guild of Adventurers’
Ashleigh also maintains the website 
which has many DQ-related items as well.
This and that
Who knows what else will exactly be in this section of the website? I guess we’ll find out after I write it up and post it!
GURPS banner © Steve Jackson Games, and is used in accordance with their usage policy.
The DragonQuest banner is taken from the cover of the Second Edition DragonQuest Rulebook ©SPI, or its subsequent owner, Wizards of the Coast, and is used under a Fair Use guideline, as it is an abandoned product.
The DragonQuest Players Association logo is © DQPA and is used as a member of the DQPA.
