Game fantasy first or book/movie fantasy first?

[Varianor Abroad]

Where's the "both" option? I mean, I was reading Lord of the Rings by the time I was 9, but I was also reading Hardy Boys at that time. I just thought the red boxed set looked darn cool, so I asked for it for Christmas. After I got it I started getting heavily into fantasy novels because I was much more into Star Wars before.

 

[Haloq Jakar]

I was already playing Avalon Hill board games when a friend picked up D&D at the WinterWar Con in 1977. He got me hooked by stating it was like playing Lord of the Rings. So I would 100% have to say it was books first then gaming as far as role playing went, but I am pretty sure I was reading Andre Norton and E.G. Burroughs before I ever got Tactics 2 as well.

 

[Thanee]

Other. Got into both mostly independant of each other.

Bye
Thanee

 

[tek2way]

[*]Enjoyed those books and the rest of the series so much that I snapped up the Dragonlance Adventures hardback when I saw it on sale, then discovered that you needed the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide to actually play . . .

Oh yeah!! That's me alright!

I forget exactly how, but I began to develop a ravenous appetite for any mythology I could lay my hands on. (I'd seen the D&D cartoon, true, and loved it, but moved on without discovering D&D.) Anyway, I'd read anything: Greek/Roman, Norse, Arabic. I could not get enough mythology.

Perhaps that was why my aunt took me to a book store, and let me pick up a couple of novels to read. I wasn't really sure about any of the lines, and she didn't push me to LotR (thank goodness -- I find them dry, but generally well-written), so I decided to pick up Darkness & Light by Thompson and Cook (Dragonlance Preludes, Volume 1), and Waterdeep, by "Richard Awlinson" (that's the name that is on my copy of the Avatar Trilogy ).

On the way home, we discovered that I had picked up book three of the Avatar Trilogy, so she took that back to swap for Shadowdale. The time I had with the Dragonlance book was all it took, though. Forgotten Realms has since always played second fiddle to Dragonlance for me.

Then, in 1991, I was visiting my mother in California. I'd been devouring fantasy fiction as fast as I could get it (no, no classics yet as some put it, but I still love the Elven Nations Trilogy), and somehow or another, I realized that it was tied to a game. I was at a mall out there, and saw Dragonlance Adventures for sale. I picked it up, and realized I needed something else to use it. I grabbed the D&D Box Set they released in '90 (the BIG black box, with the Easley-drawn red dragon on the cover), and the Dragonlance Taladas box set.

I began to have an idea of how to play, but it wasn't until I got home, showed off my purchases, that one of my friends revealed that he'd played AD&D all through the 80's. Needless to say, it was from there that I was hooked on RPGs. To this day, I still have that DLA, though it is horribly worn. Unlike the quoted poster above, we used that book for material, even though we technically were playing 2nd Edition.

---

In a strange reversal, I believe that I can credit D&D for introducing me to authors like Lovecraft, Howard, Leiber, and Burroughs. (I *LOVE* Howard's Conan stories. In fact, I sneer at any Conan story written by another author, and John Carter is my hero. )

 

[The Lost Muse]

I started reading mythology, playing The Legend of Zelda, and Chess is what got me into D&D.

 

[FireLance]

Evolution of a gamer

Growing up as I did in Singapore, my earliest fantasy influences included wuxia television serials, japanese cartoons and shows like G-Force and Ultraman, as well as the standard diet of fairy tales and mythology. So, from an early age, I was already imagining myself using martial arts to fly around, shoot energy from my hands, and defeat big bad monsters.

As a slightly older child, I visited the library weekly, and read books like the Dr Doolittle series, the Wizard of Oz, the Chronicles of Prydain, the Lord of the Rings, the Sword of Shanarra, a Wizard of Earthsea, and many others. I wanted to talk to animals. I wanted to use magic. I wanted to save the world.

Then, I went to see Star Wars. I wanted to be Luke Skywalker. I wanted to use the Force. I wanted to defeat the BBEG, and make the galaxy a better place.

Next, I discovered game books: Choose Your Own Adventure, Interplanetary Spy, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf. Books that allowed me to control the plot and gave me the chance to be heroic? I was hooked.

Then, we got a computer and I discovered games like Wizardry and Ultima. They had sound effects, better visuals than books, and the rudimentary AI added a tactical dimension to combat. I was even more hooked.

Finally, in my early teens, a friend introduced me to D&D. And here I am.

 

[Aeric]

I saw E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in the theater with my dad, and when I saw the older brother playing D&D with his friends, I had to have that game. Dad bought me the Red Box shortly thereafter, and the rest is history.

It was mere coincidence that the game was derived from Tolkien's work, which were the first books I ever read.

 

[drakhe]

Needed a social outlet...

I was into fantasy books/movies first, but the reason I started to roleplay was simply the need to have a social outlet. Being an IT proffesional and very much into computer games (specificaly RPG's and FP-Shooter) I spent hours on end behind my computer. Table top RPG's were an excelent occasion to have fun AND meat people, to interact with human beings face-to-face.

 

[Ranes]

Like Diaglo, wargames first. But it did help that I'd just read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

 

[Darkness]

IIRC:

CRPGs --> novels --> RPGs --> wargames --> movies