Durzan Malakim

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? ​Durzan Malakim is the name of a Dungeons & Dragons Online character that I have ported over to several other games. I've grown so used to being "Durz" online it felt only natural to continue the tradition here.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Although I recall owning a copy of the 1977 Dungeons & Dragons basic set, I think I actually first played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As others have noted, it's often easier to indulge in the meta-game of character creation than to actually find and play in games.
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? I first GMed in college by running a game of GURPS Space where the plot was going to be inspired by (read: shamelessly stolen from) Dan Simmon's Hyperion novel. The PCs were supposed to travel from Earth to Mars to investigate some alien artifacts & ruins. Instead, the game became a Mutiny-on-the-Bounty scenario when the ship's PC captain used her socially-unacceptable psionic powers to uncover an NPC's secret involvement in a past murder. After ordering the NPC detained without cause, the other PC's thought she had gone mad and plotted to remove her. Oh the places PCs go...
What are you currently playing/GMing? I'm a player in a game of The Strange, where I cross into alternate realities and try to prevent the world from being devoured by cosmic-scale abominations. No pressure.
 
I'm also in the process of joining a Champions 6E game run by Steve. I look forward to putting on the costume again and rolling lots of D6.
When did you start to play Hero? I ran across the third(?) edition of Champions and fell in love with it. It was the one with this cover.
 

If a Super has a bodyguard when he should not need one, asume the Bodyguard is there to protect you from him.
 
Ties into:
Disarming a normal is a good idea.
Disarming a super should be done with care. Maybe it is a good idea. Or maybe you just took his less dangerous options away.

Just finished Calamity, the finale of Brandon Sanderson's  Reckoners series.
 
The book does not disappoint. It has a tight story with several plot reveals that shed light on the workings and history of the world without slowing the action or character development.
 
Score it a 5 out of 5. A great setting if you want a post-apocalyptic Champions game.

Reading the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson...rather listening on my way to work.  I've been listening more as the story progresses..ended up walking 10 miles today, mostly around my building as I listened for 4 hours.

So comic universes are the only things where "have you tried turning it off and on again" is a bad idea?

Keep your friends close and your enemies entangled.
A Penny saved is a DNPC earned.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men not to act on their phase.

I'm not especially new, but I haven't hit the actual game-related sections of the forums a lot lately due to not really actively playing anything. So, here I go:
 
How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? It's an old AIM handle I used to keep up with my -- wait for it -- Amber Diceless group. It comes from Roger Zelazny's Amber series. I'd give the detailed explanation of what a Pattern Ghost is, but it's a bit complicated. I'll attempt a short version:
 
Amber is one pole of Reality, the other being the Courts of Chaos. Between them lie infinite parallel universes known as Shadows. Denizens of Amber and Chaos are "real" people (at least to their point of view) and possess abilities and powers greater than most Shadow people. Each pole has a mystical construct/intelligence that can confer a certain level of control over Shadow to those who traverse them. In Amber, that construct is the Pattern, which is essentially a pattern etched into the ground. When an Amberite walks the Pattern, they are tested mentally and physically. If they don't die, their blood becomes imprinted with an image of the Pattern, and they gain the ability to travel in and manipulate Shadow.
 
This imprint is a two way street. The Pattern retains an imprint of the walker and can use that imprint to make a living copy of that person, a Pattern Ghost. A Pattern Ghost must draw power from the Pattern or drink Pattern-imprinted blood or die. Since the Pattern only uses the ghosts as tools, those that want to live and be independent need to find a source of Pattern-imprinted blood.
 
It all makes a lot more sense in the context of the novels.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Red Box Dungeons and Dragons, what the OSR grognards are now calling B/X D&D. That was 1981. Moved on to AD&D rather quickly because that's what most of the other kids were playing at the time.
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Some 1st Edition AD&D, though I usually prefer to play rather than GM.
What are you currently playing/GMing? Nothing at the moment. I keep toying with the idea of running a FASERIP or B/X D&D PBEM or PBP campaign, using old modules, but never get around to it.
 
When did you start to play Hero? I played a lot of Marvel FASERIP from '88 to '91 when I was in the Army in Berlin. The group used to play Champions, and had the very book there's a picture of in durzanmalakim's post above. We played a bit with it then, but I didn't start playing Hero until much later, playing PBEM with 4th Edition in the middle '90's.

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? ​Durzan Malakim is the name of a Dungeons & Dragons Online character that I have ported over to several other games. I've grown so used to being "Durz" online it felt only natural to continue the tradition here.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Although I recall owning a copy of the 1977 Dungeons & Dragons basic set, I think I actually first played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As others have noted, it's often easier to indulge in the meta-game of character creation than to actually find and play in games.
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? I first GMed in college by running a game of GURPS Space where the plot was going to be inspired by (read: shamelessly stolen from) Dan Simmon's Hyperion novel. The PCs were supposed to travel from Earth to Mars to investigate some alien artifacts & ruins. Instead, the game became a Mutiny-on-the-Bounty scenario when the ship's PC captain used her socially-unacceptable psionic powers to uncover an NPC's secret involvement in a past murder. After ordering the NPC detained without cause, the other PC's thought she had gone mad and plotted to remove her. Oh the places PCs go...
What are you currently playing/GMing? I'm a player in a game of The Strange, where I cross into alternate realities and try to prevent the world from being devoured by cosmic-scale abominations. No pressure.
 
I'm also in the process of joining a Champions 6E game run by Steve. I look forward to putting on the costume again and rolling lots of D6.
When did you start to play Hero? I ran across the third(?) edition of Champions and fell in love with it. It was the one with this cover.
 

Funny!  I say that because my idea of the perfect RPG system entails exactly one book ... of 400 pages or less... resting on a coffee table with no other materials around it.  That's actually -why- I was drawn to Champions: 1st through 3rd Editions were tiny and 4th Edition ended up being exactly what I was looking for, as one book absolutely could do it all.
 
I think it got kind of ridiculous with 5th Edition (too big) .... and the 2-volume 6th set is absurd in its verbosity ... so colour me pleased to see Champions Complete, since it was a return to what I felt Hero System should be.  You just shouldn't need a crate of books or a directory full of PDF's to play any RPG, IMHO.

Hi
 
How did I come up with my 'handle.'   My mom gave it to me
What was the first RPG you played?  Mentzer D.
What was the first RPG you GM'd.  See answer 2.
What are you currently playing?  Nothing, but my son and I are having fun making up guys and then writing them up in 5E.

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?
 
It was my City of Heroes global handle - I had 27 Brutes on Virtue.  It's a play on the title of a techno song popular when I was in Germany (Das Boot - a techno remix of a show theme)
 
What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
 
AD&D 2nd edition.  Our first adventure was the Mines of Bloodstone because we all lied and said we'd played before and used characters from 'previous games'.  All 20th level Dual Classed with straight 25 stats. And mine was half elf, half ogre. Ah, 11 year olds.
 
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?
 
AD&D 2nd edition.  My campaign setting had flying islands, tinker gnomes whose inventions worked who had a knock off of the Enterprise-D as their flagship and used RoboCop gnomes as their security. Also sentient tarrasques and a race of magic users ripped directly off from the Haydonites from the Robotech:Sentinels series.  Ah, 13 year olds. 
 
What are you currently playing/GMing?
 
After a short stint (20 years) of DMing D&D (2nd through 4th) (with far less sentient tarrasques and RoboGnomes as time rolled on.  Kept the flying islands, though.) I've been taking a break and running a Champions Complete game. 
 
For old times sake it did feature a sentient tarrasque one adventure (A reskinned Grond).  With Champions you can get away with 40 being the new 13 from time to time.
 

Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste.

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?
First Champions character I was satisfied with, based on Captain America
What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

Back in 1978
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?
See above image
What are you currently playing/GMing?
Tend to play only Champions with a slight smattering of Pathfinder