D&D General Fifty Years

[FitzTheRuke]

I turn 50 today.

On the one hand, it doesn't bother me at all, but on the other hand, I'm being reflective on the subject.

For example, not that I believe in destiny, but I enjoy serendipity: Maybe I was destined to play D&D?

One of the history books on the subject - I think it was Game Wizards - said that Gary packaged up D&D to send it to the printers TODAY (50 years ago!)

The same day I was born!

Me & D&D grew up together, though I was 12 before I played it. My fighter had green slime dumped on his head. That's pretty much all I remember from that first game. What's your first D&D memory?

 

[The Soloist]

Receiving D&D Basic for Christmas in 1980. I went into my room and underlined all the important rules with a yellow Crayola which resulted in having a lot of yellow wax smeared on the opposing pages.

(50 is fine, the 50s are a great decade. I'm turning 59 in February. 60 is approaching fast. I'll adapt)

 

[Zardnaar]

Depends on what counts. Cartoon in 80s, reading about Joe Dever in Lone Wolf Books, Eye of the Beholder game, reading 1E hardcovers, or playing B3/4 late 93.

 

[Quickleaf]

Happy birthday!!!

My first D&D memory was ~8 or 9 years old in the basement of my friend Mike in Boston, his brother was running for us, and my elf fighter (Quickleaf) tried to talk to an orc to disastrous results, got life drained by an undead, and found a necklace of fireballs.

 

[jdrakeh]

My first D&D memory is playing Holmes Basic D&D In the Gifted Education class at my grade school (1st grade, I think). My first RPG memory is playing through The Riddling Reaver for the Fighting Fantasy RPG.

 

[schneeland]

First of all: happy birthday!

Regarding my own D&D history: the first thing I can remember off the cuff is killing Mind Flayers in Eye of the Beholders by throwing everything I had left in my inventory at them (times were desparate ). Also the adamantium long swords I took from the Drow. I'm not sure how well the game would hold up by today's standards, but I have fond memories

 

[GrimCo]

First exposure to D&D as a game was through the Black Isle/Bioware crpgs- Baldurs Gate, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale. Loved those games. Then, in high school, friend of a friend brought than brand new 3.5E PHB to coffe and said he knew a guy who DMed and is looking for players. Couple of days later i made my first character. Level 1 human Paladin. We played maybe 3 sessions. Friend of a friend who first suggested to play dropped out. New group formed, and it was our first longer campaign. That DM guy was great DM, he was in applied arts high school and had awesome world home brewed. Dude made menus for inns. My second ever character was Half Elf Barbarian that wielded the scythe. That was 20 years ago. How time flies.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1977: in East Middle School, Aurora, CO, someone put up a sign advertising an intro to AD&D ”club”. Sessions would be in the school library after school hours. I had heard of the game, but had never played. I asked my folks if I could join, and was given permission.

I bought the PHB & MM, a set of purple dice, and 2 minis- a human warrior in heavy armor with a 2Hd sword, and an elf warrior with a spear. I made characters based on the 2 minis i bought, and i
ultimately ran the human.

My character made it to the penultimate room of the dungeon, along with the party’s wizard. There, we faced a purple worm. We lost in an epic battle that concluded when the worm and I- both down to 4HP- got simultaneous initiative. He hit; I missed, end of story.

But just the beginning of a lifelong hobby!

 

[el-remmen]

I turn 50

Welcome to this side of the centennial. It has its benefits.

(I’ll come back with a memory when I have more time).

 

[Oofta]

My first memory? Sheesh, that was a long, long time ago. I started playing as a teen when a friend brought home this weird book in a brown box, back when dwarves were fighting men and Hobbits (no mamby-pamby halflings!) were thieves. Everyone did D6 damage and we liked it! You also had to color in half the numbers on your D20 because for some reason the numbers only went from 1 to 10.

I think the first distinct memory of playing was getting these funny glowing swords and hearing heavy breathing behind us as we had to face down Monsieur Vader himself.

Fun times.