By 2007, I had been playing at Sammy’s house for about two years. We were deep into my second D&D 3.5 run, having just wrapped a Tri-Stat dX sci-fi game—set in the same universe as an Alternity campaign we’d played years prior. But I wasn’t just there for my own sessions; I was constantly dropping in on other games at Sammy’s, too.
The Lair of the Mequetrefes
To the best of my knowledge, Sammy’s house was the original location of the first FLGS in Puerto Rico: The Role-Playing Emporium. I’ve erroneously identified it as the Gaming Emporium in the past, but more on that later! Although the store had closed years before, Sammy kept the old shelves and some inventory in an apartment at the back of the house. It was anchored by a gaming table with a large, gridded, erasable board affixed right to the top.
It was a mix of game room, man cave, and den of iniquity, with a rotating crew of gamers, young and old, sitting at that table. He called his crew the Mequetrefes (good-for-nothings or busybodies).
Peter, a longtime friend and former regular in our group, had moved on to other campaigns at Sammy’s. I believe he was the one who started organizing the trip to Gen Con 2007, though I heard about it from one of my players, Luis Alvarado.
I had always wanted to go to Gen Con, so I was immediately on board. In 2007, along with Sammy, Peter, Luis, Tato, and Piwie, we made the pilgrimage to the holy land of gaming in Indiana. It was a magical time, and honestly, it deserves its own separate post. Strangely enough, I didn’t meet many new gamers there; I mostly stuck to my pack and didn’t branch out much while in Indianapolis.
I did, however, run into a long-time friend: Daniel Perez, better known as Highmoon.
The Highmoon!
Let’s rewind. I met Daniel at Metro Comics in the early 90s. He came to my house a few times, and we had friends in common, though I don’t think we ever actually played together back then. He also spent a lot of time at the Role-Playing Emporium, so Sammy was another link between us.
He eventually moved to the US, and we lost touch for a while, but social media helped us reconnect. Daniel was a key figure in supporting the Puerto Rico gaming community in the early 2000s. By around 2006, he was writing TTRPG supplements, posting about his games, and hosting a podcast with our mutual friend, Braulio.
I listened to at least two episodes where they discussed the origins of the PR TTRPG scene. Braulio actually owned a store called Gaming Emporium—a tribute to Sammy’s Role-Playing Emporium. (And there lies the source of my confusion between the two names!) I remember talking to Daniel back then about wanting to do more for the island’s gaming community.
Seeing him at Gen Con in 2007, however briefly, was amazing. We stayed in contact, and in the early days of Facebook, he invited me to a group he had created: Puerto Rico Role Players.
Boricuas Roleros
That group was transformative for me. It connected me to a broader gaming community, some I knew, many I didn’t. Daniel made me an administrator and encouraged me to get online, connect with other gamers, and start blogging.
I wasn’t quite ready for the blogging part yet, so I poured my passion into growing Puerto Rico Role Players. Slowly but surely, the group expanded. Around 2008 or 2009, we tried to organize a Thanksgiving meet-up. I know Vincent (a fellow admin), Gilberto, and others made it, though I couldn’t attend. By 2009, members were meeting informally at small-genre cons on the island, and we decided it was time to organize an official event to promote the group and teach new players how to play.
While this was going on, I began reading blogs and leaving comments, which led me to another pivotal figure in my life.
Enter the Stargazer
Michael and I were talking the other day, and we think we started writing back and forth around 2008. It is strange to have such a dear friend whom I write to almost every day but have never met in person. Over the past 18 years, Michael has become someone I respect and care about deeply.
He invited me to collaborate on his blog. I was reluctant at first, but his and Daniel’s encouragement, combined with the work I was doing with Puerto Rico Role Players, finally pushed me to write my first post.
2010 Was a Great Year
- February 19th: I wrote my first post for Stargazer’s World!
- March 2nd: We held the first official Puerto Rico Role Players event at Central Fan Fest 3 in Cidra, sharing our love for TTRPGs and running demos.
- April 11th: We hosted our first Geeknic—a picnic for geeks where we ate, played games, and bonded as a community.
A year later, in 2011, after two more Geeknics, we held a “Geek Caucus” for volunteers and organized a group of admins to keep the momentum going.
I continued posting regularly here at Stargazer’s World. In February of that same year, a local newspaper even interviewed me for a special section on hobbies (I’ve been interviewed twice since then for other articles and videos). I also returned to Gen Con in 2011, this time with press credentials, writing coverage for the blog.
In the years since, Puerto Rico Role Players has organized 29 Geeknics, Painting Days, demos at local conventions, Halloween Spooktaculars, and holiday events. I jumped into #RPGChat and joined RPG a Day the year after it began, posting on the blog, social media, and eventually my YouTube channel.
From the Pit
By 2017, I was fully immersed. I was blogging intermittently, the admin for PR Role Players, running demos, and engaging with the online world. Then I had another crazy idea: Why not stream a game?
That year, my friend Carlos Steffens opened a new FLGS, The Gaming Pit. I wanted to playtest the new edition of Alternity, and I thought: what better way to support him and the new game than to stream the adventure live?
It was a very amateurish Facebook endeavor, full of silly mistakes—like starting the stream with the camera sideways. I only intended to do two sessions and be done, but the group got hooked. Through that game, I connected with two PR Role Players members, José García and Felipe, and reconnected with AJ, whom I knew from the old Metro Comics days.
We decided to keep the cameras rolling, and Desde La Fosa (literally From the Pit) was born.
We played Star Frontiers, FrontierSpace, Silent Legions, the Free RPG Day Torg adventure, World Wide Wrestling, Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 2e, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others. You can see some of those games on the Desde la Fosa YouTube channel. It was never a professional studio production, but we had so much fun.
And then Hurricane María happened.
It changed everything. That is a subject for a future post, covering the next period in my gaming history.
“But wait!” you say. “This was all about community in the larger TTRPG context. What about your actual weekly game? The people you play with?”
Well, that’s the subject for the NEXT post. You did notice the title said, “Part 1,” right?
