My first introduction to Dungeons and Dragons, in any roundabout way, was Dragonlance.

My friends Courtney introduced me to Dragonlance back in about 1996. We were into the books, but never really touched Dungeons and Dragons. Looking back, it’s obvious that it was a setting developed through a tabletop game. At the time, it was a fun series of novels we got real enjoyment out of.

I didn’t actually get into D&D proper until after I had met my now husband, Kevin. I had been roleplaying online for several years (back when there was AOL and Yahoo boards, and that’s it), and we met online through a Transformers RPG. Years later, after meeting in real life, he introduced me to Forgotten Realms.

We played (and got exiled from) quite a few private servers. I took a real shining to Forgotten Realms and spend way too much time memorizing lore. Eventually, after moving up north to go to college and later move into an apartment, we found a group for D&D. 3.0 had just turned into 3.5, so we re familiarized ourselves with the rules and set about to playing.

We went through many group changes, but Forgotten Realms was our consistent setting. We had campaigns that lasted several years, and were really heavily roleplay based. But then, 4th edition happened.

We had been optimistic about the 4th edition changes. For years we had wanted a Living Forgotten Realms, and the idea that it was going to happen in a new edition was exciting. But when 4th edition came out, and they eviscerated the complex and large Forgotten Realms to accommodate to the 4e rule set, we made our decision -  we would be sticking with 3.5 for good. We had enough books.

Pathfinder made us change our mind. At the moment, we play exclusively Pathfinder, but may go back to a FR campaign when we’re done with one of our current adventure paths.