How old were you when your first GMed an RPG?

Angus MacDonald · Mar 17, 2018

I was 16. I probably would have started earlier, but I only found D&D through Brookhurst Hobbies in the later summer of 1975...

Shiroiken · Mar 19, 2018

Officially 15, but I actually wrote my own RPG and adventure when I was 13 because my brother wouldn't let me play D&D with his friends. I never actually got to run the game, because my brother's DM found it, and allowed me to join his game anyway. I brought my two friends I was going to run it for into the D&D game shortly afterwards.

Mercule · Mar 19, 2018

I was 10. Learned the game at summer camp. Came home and taught friends. Logical extension of that is that I was the GM. I'd definitely played less than a half dozen sessions, maybe as few as two, before turning into a nearly full-time GM. Over the last 45 years, I've probably GMed 80% of my gaming time.

Eltab · Mar 19, 2018

HS Freshman, beginning of the school year, so 13. I had discovered D&D and Gamma World at school, and talked my parents into letting me buy GWvol1. My cousins came over for a weekend and we tried playing a completely-random Gamma World scenario. We found out that none of us were that good at on-the-fly descriptions.

As a player, same time frame, I created a Brontosaurus character that I never decided if he was man-sized or Brontosaurus-sized. To get away from some raiders, I stepped into the river and submerged briefly, then came up next round and used Radiated Eyes on the lead bandit. (Microwaves were a new invention back then.) The DM then noticed the entry for the Herkel ('piranha') and said to me "Guess what you stepped into?"

My first D&D session, I borrowed a friend's character as we explored some ruined temple. We found an altar to Thor; my character made a reverence but he threw his hammer at me - a hit - down to 2HP! The other fellow in the group says "I disbelieve in you" and Thor disappears. I wasn't sure the group would invite me back...

Legatus Legionis · Mar 19, 2018

Ath-kethin · Mar 22, 2018

I was 15 when I ran my first game, but I had started playing at 14. A friend had bought the original Earthdawn book and started a campaign - he wasn't a great GM, but nobody is on their first go.

A year or so later I was in a different school and a bunch of people were playing D&D. That's when I discovered that the Dragonlance books I loved so much were based on D&D, and I was running a game based in Krynn within a month.

If I were to describe the campaign in a word, it would be "memorable." And I don't necessarily mean it as a compliment.

MNblockhead · Mar 22, 2018

My youngest son ran a game of Hero Kids when he was 6. I helped him create the dungeon in Dungeonographer and print to paper, but he populated it on his own and tied it together with a story. Both of my son's inherited the DM gene from me I think. Now at 8 and 12 they are each running their own campaigns and I can finally play instead of DM. The other benefit of having your young kids DMs is that it is the most effective way to get your non-gamer spouse to play!

Scottius · Mar 23, 2018

I was in the 6th grade when I first discovered roleplaying. So around 11 or 12 depending on what month it was. I began my gaming career by GMing right out the gate. I had discovered a trove of RPG books at the local library (a little D&D and a bunch of TMNT & Other Strangeness books). I recruited friends from school to be my first gaming group after I was able to track down the odd dice required at a local comic book store.

BaytAlAzif · Mar 23, 2018

Under 10 for sure. I remember my first RPG (a fatal run with my brother into the Caves of Chaos under a genius babysitter DM) but I have no idea what I DMed first! It must have pretty soon after that, but I can't remember. Huh. I'll ask my brother and see if he has any memories of it!