The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

All right, I'm not actually playing this little game, but maybe if I was, I'd be doing better on my stated blogging goals for this year.  I saw this question over at Rather Gamey, and had to answer it!

Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D.  Why?

I'm not sure how accurate this memory is, but it seems that whenever we played at the Flanigan house we kept Floyd and Zeppelin and the like playing in the background.  The Flanigans were part of original group of kids in our neighborhood that started playing in, I think, 1977.  It might have been '78... I'll have to ask next time I talk to them.  So is my choice a Pink Floyd song or a Led Zeppelin song?  Not even close... that prize goes to Gloria Gaynor singing "I Will Survive.!"

In '79 or '80 (wow, I'm not very good with the dates here, am I?), I started running a game for a group of friends from high school that didn't live in the neighborhood.  We rotated games primarily between four of our houses.  After I got my license, it seemed that whenever I drove over to the Daschbach house, I'd hear Gloria Gaynor belt out "I Will Survive" sometime during that short ten minute drive.  My wife and son have known for years that song SCREAMS D&D to me... simply because it's tied in my mind to the anticipation of heading to a gaming session.  These days, I'm far more likely to hear Cake's version, and I get a kick out of hearing my son sing it.  Truth be told, this version causes the same Pavlovian response in me.

Want me to run some AD&D for you, but I don't seem to be inspired?  Lemme hear you sing, "At first I was afraid, I was petrified..." along with Gloria Gaynor or Cake, and I'll be ready before you finish the song!

Fully formed?

The last two times we played OD&D, my players asked when we'd play Traveller again.  I wasn't ready, as I've been fully immersed in my OD&D world for a long time, but suddenly I find myself back in the Star Clans universe.  During our last Star Clans session, the characters misjumped to an empty hex far from home, and were out of fuel as we ended the session.  Part of the reason we haven't played for six months was because I wasn't sure what would happen next.  I don't tend to plan things out in my game worlds; random events occur because of die rolls during play, and between sessions, I won't give things much thought until something big jumps into my head, 90% complete.

That happened twice in the last two weeks with Traveller.  I knew exactly what to write up for the next session... until two days ago, when the first scenario was completely replaced!  Now it's just a matter of jotting down some notes and scheduling the next game!

Am I the only DM/Referee who "discovers" his world rather than creating it?