[ak_aramis]

January or February of 1985. A buddy of mine, Dan Henschel, had Melee, and we had a windstorm so bad it nearly killed the school-bus and occupants thereof. So we found ourselves with a week off school due to weathher. (Eagle River, Alaska - it was wind and rain over extant cold-soaked ground with ice.) So I skated over to Dan's, about 2 blocks, and we played Melee and SFB. I found it a few weeks later at The Book Cache (a "local" chain of bookstores in Alaska; by 1990, they were sold to a canadian company) on 4th Ave. (about 500 or 600 block. No longer there.)

Anyway, TBC had copies of Wizard, Melee, and a bunch of the adventures. I bought, typically, one a week. It took a couple weeks to save up for Dragons of Underearth and Lords of Underearth.

Spenard Hobby had Advanced Wizard, Advanced Melee, and the FMC. I got those on a buying binge in 1988. (Spenard Hobby, in that incarnation, was dusty, stacked to the rafters, narrow aisles, and chock full of all kinds of hidden goodies. The location is now Plato's Closet - Spenard and Northern Lights. And it had no art supplies that weren't for minis, trains, or modelwork - for real art, they sent you two blocks away to Blaine's - which is still present, according to Google Maps. Note that Bosco's was 2 blocks away, and started a price war on games... killing Spenard Hobby.)

I played mostly solo. I did run some short campaigns, 3-4 adventures, with certain friends. Dan and I stopped playing Melee before I could acquire a copy of In the Labyrinth. I eventually bought a copy of ITL from a friend. Complete with errata penciled in obsessively. (If he wants to out himself, I'll leave it to him. He's on the boards here, tho'.)

In the late 90's I ran a 2 month campaign with 4 hour sessions. In the Early 2000's, I ran a 3 player game with Gargoyles, 5 hour sessions. We transitioned to GURPS for IOU, with the same characters, but it flopped. GURPS just wasn't good for doing Gargoyle humor.