As a kid, we didn't go to the movies, and we weren't allowed to watch much tv. Dad hated tv and thought it a waste of time. No scifi, fantasy, or comics around the house - entertainment was largely religion-based at that time in our lives. I can remember the other kids talking about Start Wars, but having no idea what they were going on about. I think Empire Strikes Back was first movie I got to pick and go see on my own. I read a lot in elementary school, but didn't discover scfi and fantasy until junior high. We moved at the end of 6th grade, and the new school had a much smaller library, but it was for 7th and 8th grades, and had a good bit of stuff in it. I distinctly remember John Carter of Mars, the Star Trek novelizations, and the Dragons of Pern. The local city library also had a great paperback scifi section, and I found Conan, Gor, and a load of 50s and 60s scifi in it. By this point I was in love with fantasy and scifi, and have never turned back. I remember reading a lot more scifi than fantasy back then, with Asimov and Heinlein being favorites. Speculative fiction, more than warfare, was what I wanted then. History texts, from Greece to the the Hundred Years War fascinated me, and I read everything I could get my hands on. I remember Buck Rogers and tv, and even more fondly remember Wilma Deering. {>{> About this time I found the Lord of the Rings, and soon after was introduced to AD&D by one of the other nerds in my class. I loved it from the start, even though we rarely actually played. Made a random character generator as project in computer class using BASIC on an Apple II.
Moved to a new town, made new friends, and they did AD&D and Traveller. Like before, we rarely played, but we all loved the games and read the Dragon magazine from cover to cover when it appeared in the school library each month. I still miss Wormy. Helped start a gaming group in high school. Started watching Star Trek reruns after school. Moved again, this time during senior year. By this point I'm making my own homerules to AD&D because I saw so many problems with it. Bought the Harn world setting, and realized just how lacking the Greyhawk setting really was. I've been a Harn fanatic since it first came out. Just before starting college I was introduced to the Hero/Champions system for superhero gaming, and shortly after starting college, found another group that used this brand new thing called Fantasy Hero. AD&D was tossed at this point, and I have only played it under duress since then. Started collecting comics at this time, mostly Marvel.
Changed my college and degree, and found a new gaming group. Finally, a group of people I didn't mind hanging out with and that met on a weekly basis. Mostly Champions, but we did a bit of Fantasy Hero as well. The GM also did a lot of Battletech, but I didn't have the time to join in that. The roommate did get me to play a time or two, and we had Crescent Hawks and the earliest Mechwarrior game for my Commodore 64. Somewhere in this timeframe I found the Grey Death Legion books.
After starting grad school, I had to give up gaming because of a severe lack of time, but kept up with the comics and novels and movies. Fast forward some more years, and I buy Mechwarrior II and Ghost Bear. I'm loving the games, but the only setting details I know are in the game. Seems to have little relation to Grey Death and Crescent Hawks to me, but I still like it. Then my college roommate gets me to start playing Battletech with him. That was fun for a while, even if we have very different playing styles. Started collecting all the BT novels, and bought some sourcebooks, minis, and TROs. Sold all my AD&D books, but I did sit in a couple AD&D sessions, just in order to hang out with friends. But, life, marriage, family, distance, etc......tabletop gaming stopped. Still play the computer, still read books, but time is lacking to do either, and I just don't feel the need to actually do a game anymore. Realized a few years ago that I wasn't reading the comics I did buy, so stopped that as well.
I like to think that I've moved on to the next evolutionary step. It sounds better, anyway. I no longer play the game, I design/expand settings and scenarios. I might tweak a rule here and there for hypothetical rule system rewrites, but never actually test them out. It is the setting and characters that drive me, not the rules. Sometimes it is for established settings (Battletech, Harn, Forgotten Realms, Traveller), sometimes it is my own stuff, whether it be superhero, urban fantasy, sword and planet, or fantasy. I've had a small bit published as canon for Harn, did some fanon stuff that was actually published on the net, but most of my stuff is only seen by friends. I'm a sloooooow writer, and I find that about the time I am 85% done, I start getting bored and start working on a new project. I will often go back and add things later, but almost everything is a work in progress. If/when I ever get to retire, I plan to sit down and finish some of the stuff. I think my setting, character, and scenario stuff is pretty danged good, but my short-story writing is somewhere between lousy and crappy. I'm trying to work on that as well, but seem to be accumulating story tidbits, rather than actual stories.
