RGP Goodness - D&D, Talisman, & Pathfinder

Are any of my faithful readers into RPGs? I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons first edition. If I recall correctly, in addition to the red player’s manual, there was a blue Game Masters book and other assorted goodies and it all came in a boxed set. That was when it was published by TSR (Tactical Rules Studies). We then moved onto Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, when the books were large 8.5 x 11 hardcover books:

At the time, my friends and I also played Gamma World, and I split time with one of my friends as GM for that.

For whatever reason, a friend moving, things going on in our lives, we moved away from D&D and RPGs to Talisman, which I've breifly discussed in the past - it captured the fun fantasy aspect of RPGs and the game could be started and completed in one day. Recently, I received an updated version of Talisman much to the chagrin of Mrs. O’ Stuff, and have started playing again.

I’ve also been playing D&D again, this time a mish-mash of 3rd Edition versions of Planescape, Dark Sun and magic systems based in some of the fantasy novels we’ve been reading. The “We” being my brother-in-law and a few of his friends.

At BEA, and through some posts by Matt Staggs, I’ve become aware of a new, impressive catch-all RPG that looks great: Pathfinder. The core book seems to contains all you need to get going on your adventures. Considering the book is 576 pages, it should contain a lot of stuff. The folks I met at the Paizo at BEA were terrific and the sample galley they had of the Pathfinder Core Rule book looked really impressive.