At what age did you start gaming?

[Jeb McDonald]

11-13 for me

Fall of 1978, and I was 12. My older brother just started highschool and brought home the (original) boxed set--the one with the light blue cover. He had me roll up 3 characters and he proceeded to DM me through the dungeon which was located at the back of the book. My first character died at the teeth of one of those Giant Rats.
I'm now 38 and have regularly played D&D weekly for the past six years (in addition to less regular games over the 20 years prior to that). For the guys with who I play, we realize D&D is a game, and we treat it as such. We could walk away from it, but why would we (grin)? A wonderful game. It keeps me sane.

 

[FireLance]

I started with the Fighting Fantasy solo adventure gamebooks when I was about 11 or 12. Then, at 13, a schoolmate introduced me to Tunnels and Trolls. Switched over to Basic D&D and 1e AD&D shortly after. By my count, I've been gaming for 20+ years. Time flies when you're having fun.

 

[Galethorn]

Well, counting computer games, I'd say I began gaming when I was about 7, when I became literate enough to use the keyboard for those short bits of the game that didn't use the joystick.

As for roleplaying, I'd have to say it started when I was 12.5, when I tried out the 'fastplay' rules that Wizards had out before 3e, with both parents and a friend.

Now, I'm a month from 17, and am getting the last of my notes ready for a city adventure I'm DMing on saturday.

 

[thepriz]

I started gamming when I was in 4th grade. We would use are own rules and use are imaginations to take us many places. I then descovered there where rules for playing the game and using my own money that I made I bought the Basic D&D red box set. Everytime I got a little more money I would go buy the next Basic D&D box set. I really looked forward to the new rules and spells. When I got older I started looking at the advanced rules. I had a hard time understanding all the rules or the 1st ed but I bought most of the books anyway. When the second edition came out I started to buy them and I could understand the rules a lot better. I have almost every 2ed book made. Then Third edition came and I have bought every rulebook that Wizards has made with the exception of a few rulebooks that have come out recently.

I have been the DM most of the time and my problem right now is that I don't know how to find a good group to adventure with.

Good Luck,
Dennis Przybyla

 

[JediSoth]

I started when I was in second grade back in 1982. It was the D&D Basic Set, the red one with the Erol Otus cover and B2: Keep on the Borderlands in it. Ah, good times.

JediSoth

 

[drakhe]

Late start but going strong!

I did start a a late(r) age (28, 29) but had a very good reason.

With a degree in IT, a job in IT and hobby...anything to do with computers... I quickly turned into a bit of a recluse. People = job = generaly not the kind of people you hang with and all my spare time was spent behind my computer. I did play computer based games but I don't think of that period as being agamer, I would consider myself a computer geek. But then bit by bit, through a couple of rare colleagues that did not fit in the job folk = boring folk I got into more social activities. If first started playing the guitar and was later introduced to Magic the gathering (you know thát cardgame). Later on I started meeting more and more gamers (playin in tournaments and starting to go to con's) and quit by accident I stumble into then rpg arena. Now, at age 39 I still spend considerable time with computers (both proffesionaly and recreative) but my secondary passion definetly is RPG's, as DM, as player and even in a passive sense, collecting and reading rpg books outside what I need for the running games.

In closing, two remarks:
- I'm exceptionaly happy about discovering and (passionatly) enjoying RPG's as they definetly brought social interaction back into my life
- I'm probably very lucky in a different sense as I've never personaly had to contend with the aforementioned prejudices concerning gaming and rpg'ing

 

[Alnag]

I was 11 when I started to play RPG. It was because I have entered a second level school (kind of prolonged high-school) and two of my classmates played Draci Doupe which is czech variant of Dungeons of Dragons (quite poor made, btw). Since than I played Draci doupe for seven years, than switched to Dungeons and Dragons and continued till today.

 

[Desdichado]

I picked 14-16 although that's only sorta true. I gamed back when I was 8-9 or so, but I didn't really game until junior high, when I was about 13 or so. Before that, I was kinda drug into it by a few of my friends, but it didn't "take".

Of course, by then 1e was in full swing, Unearthed Arcana was coming out, and all that. I was more interested in the older Basic stuff that I had looked at when I was 11-12, but which seemed to be passe with my crowd.

Later on, as a young adult 2e was coming out and I had no interest in it. I migrated to Werewolf around that time, but did a lot more reading of the books than playing the game, unfortunately. I was essentially an archair gamer for most of this time, but I was in grad school, having my first kids, and all that entails, so I probably wouldn't have really had the time to play much anyway.

When I left Texas to come work out here in Detroit in June 2000, I had more time to stumble around on the web and such, and I came fairly quickly upon Eric Noah's Third Edition News spot, and realized that it was only a few months away from release. I picked up 3rd edition on the spot, found some gaming groups, and have been gaming more or less regularly ever since.

I started getting turned off by the obvious D&Disms in 3rd edition, and the fast rate of levelling, and then was even further put-off by the "Revised" edition that came out, what, a year or so ago? I haven't bothered picking up 3.5 yet, except for the Monster Manual. So I've come full circle, with a few differences: I am actually gaming rather than armchair gaming; I've been part of several campaigns, and I'm running one as well right now. And, although I've moved away from D&D again, I haven't moved nearly so far afield; everything I've played and/or ran in the last four years has been d20 at least, when it's not D&D specifically.

 

[Gospog]

Age 7.

22 years ago.

 

[diaglo]

i got caught playing doctor at age 2 and a half