"Gateway Drug"

corwyn77

Adventurer
I started with AD&D 1e. My immediate reaction was, what a cool concept, why does it have to be so restrictive?

My second system was Call of Cthulhu in '86 but I was looking for another system for fantasy.

So early on I latched on to a group that introduced me to Champions and Fantasy Hero which I loved for the freedom of its character creation. Shortly thereafter I discovered GURPS 3e and it was nothing but that and Champs for about 15 years. Now my time is much more limited and it's Savage Worlds, Mutants & Masterminds or Trail of Cthulhu if I'm running. I'll play DnD if needs be (I've played every edition since 1e), but I only ran 1e (though I dabbled a bit with 4e). I just find all of it too dense and restrictive.

Along the way I've run or played Feng Shui, Paranioa, Shadowrun, Marvel Superheroes, DC Heroes, Harnmaster, Silver Age Sentinels, Rolemaster, Iron Heroes and d6 Star Wars.
 

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Relique du Madde

Adventurer
I think a flowchart is in order, but I'm too lasy so I'll reduce it to the start point and end points: Teenage Mutant ninja turtles RPG ---> . . . . ---> Mutants and Masterminds 2e.
 

What I am wondering here is what was it that made people stumble upon other RPGs, and made them want to keep playing them. To me, having played many non-D&D RPGs is what marks someone as a "hard core gamer." So, what was your first non-D&D RPG and what made you start playing it?

My first RPG experience was reading the 1e Monster Manual. I actually first played Advanced Fighting Fantasy in grade 9, which was fun while it lasted, before moving into AD&D 2e.

I was introduced to other games by DMs who wanted to run Vampire or other such games. All of these DMs were either DMing DnD or were playing in games I was in when they made their suggestions.
 
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Argyle King

Legend
I would say that my first steps toward becoming someone who played rpgs were when I was pretty young. I didn't know that things such as rpgs were out there, but I vaguely remember using a deck of cards to play some sort of game I invented which included a castle, monsters, and nights. I don't remember much, but I remember that certain cards meant different things, and the color of the card was important as well. IIRC, I would have been in early elementary school around this time.

As I got older, I became an avid reading of fantasy and mythology. I was a huge fan of choose-your-own-adventure books. I also did a little bit of freeform roleplaying via AOL chat rooms. I had knowledge of the D&D name due to reading the Dragonlance books, but I really had no concept of what it was.

I had a very very brief experience with D&D 2nd Edition; not enough to really remember anything, but it was enough to expose me to the realization that other people were out there who enjoy the activities I did. (I grew up in a small rural community.) As a result of the "D&D = Satan Worship" phase, the game was pulled off the shelves of Toys'R'Us before I had a chance to get more into the game.

I then fast forward to 3rd Edition where I was surprised to find that a local gaming shop had opened and that they had D&D. I bought the 3.0 books, but didn't have much of a chance to use them before being shipped out with the military. During my first tour overseas, I was introduced to Rifts. I loved the fluff of Rifts, but I did not always love the mechanics of Rifts. The game was not hard to learn, it just had a few mechanical quirks which could at times create unbalancing results... especially with me being a new player and playing with people who knew the rules far better than I did. Somewhere along the line I also bought a GURPS 3E book, but I have no idea why or when; I found it when going through some of my old stuff a few days ago.

Returning to the states for a little while, I found that D&D 3.0 was now D&D 3.5 and the local gaming store had flourished and was doing well. I actually found a group to game with for a little while. I highly enjoyed D&D. There were a few house rules which the group I gamed with used that I didn't particularly like, but, overall, I was glad to play. The game had some issues, but not as many as Rifts. After a brief stint home, I was again shipped away.

A few tours later, I returned home to play D&D 3.5 again until it died and was replaced by Pathfinder and D&D 4th Edition. My group was unsure about switching to 4th Edition, but I used some preview material I had obtained from helping out at the local gaming store's preview event to convince them (at the time, I thought I would love it) and the group switched. At first I very highly enjoyed 4th Edition, but I seemed to get burnt out very quickly. It was fun, but, for some reason, I didn't feel like I was getting the experience I wanted, so I went on a search for a different game; this would be the first time I was actively looking outside of D&D.

Eventually, I tried GURPS 4E. I loved everything about it. It had the level of depth I enjoy from D&D 3.5, but it also had the few elements of D&D 4th that I liked (lesser power curve between levels - there aren't levels in GURPS; better balance than D&D 3.5; etc,) and also had merits of its own that I wanted (combat & noncombat being given equal treatment; increased realism; etc.) Perhaps what I enjoyed the most was the ability to build what I wanted; I found that I could even take those old Rifts books I have and convert the fluff I loved into mechanics I enjoyed. Likewise, I could do that with the D&D books I have.

Honestly, as silly as it may sound, I was at first afraid to show GURPS to the group I normally game with. I was afraid because there was so much negativity on websites like this one and over at the WoTC boards about how complicated the game was and various other things. I didn't find the game to be overly complicated at all, but the negativity still made me nervous about trying to actually run a game for my friends. Though, one day, one of my friends asked me what book I was reading, and this prompted the first group trial of GURPS. It went exceptionally well, and the group now trades back and forth between the two games.

One of the guys DMs D&D 4th Edition when it is his turn; one of the others runs GURPS 4E when he has a chance. As for me, I feel like I can't run a D&D game anymore. I recently tried; got to paragon level with the group, and they asked if they could covert their characters to GURPS for the rest of the story. I assume that means I've done well with the system when I run it. I was extremely surprised, but, it's ok with me because I've been enjoying the system ever since that first day with it. Anywho, that's my story.
 


Zhaleskra

Adventurer
I think mine was Heroes Unlimited, which I believe became Champions by the time I was a freshman in high school (unless I'm mixing up Super Hero games).
 

Smoss

First Post
Surprisingly my first true tabletop RP experience was actually a fun one shot game of Paranoia... Though I did once make a ranger called "Commando" when I was very, very young. He totally had an 18 strength! :)

Got into AD&D 2e in college. And was introduced to Shadowrun 1e. Then Heros Unlimited. Then White Wolf's WoD. Then WEG's SW d6. All by friends who knew of those games from somewhere.

After that I was on my own - Discovering games - But mostly house ruling and creating my own systems. Till 3e. Played a lot of that. And 3.5e. And SW Saga. Read a bunch of systems that I never really played (Savage Worlds, Conan d20, Serenity RPG, Aces and Eights, etc)

Now I am back to doing my own thing. My rules. Made me jaded about other systems. So when Pathfinder and 4e came out, I looked at them and felt unimpressed. I was past 3e style gaming and 4e did not appeal to what I wanted in a game. As I said - Jaded.

And it all started with Paranoia. When I was the last person in the group to have a clone die. And I totally did it to myself. Remember when you tell the GM that you "pull the tree down" that you are not under said tree... :)
------------------------------
Smoss
Doulairen
 
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Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
I think mine was Heroes Unlimited, which I believe became Champions by the time I was a freshman in high school (unless I'm mixing up Super Hero games).

Yeah, just a bit- Heroes Unlimited is the supers game from Palladium which uses kind of an "archetype" system, whereas Champions became HERO, which is one of the premiere "toolbox" systems.
 

nai_cha

First Post
To this day I have no clue what the game was called. I played this before I played d&d. It was in college (2000, 2001 thereabouts), there was no dice, we didn't have character sheets, I don't remember anyone sitting me down and going over any rules, basically some dude just gathered a bunch of us together and said, okay let's give you (meaning me) a taste of what roleplaying is like (because the others apparently rp'd regularly)...and basically he told us, okay, you're in a forest/cave/whatever and we told him well, we climb a tree/explore the cave/whatever. Was this even a real roleplaying game? I have no idea.

Didn't sit down to play an actual game with a name and rules and structure until eight or nine years later.
 

Boregar

First Post
I can't be certain about this, as it would be *gulp* about twenty five years ago now, but I think that my first non-D&D game was Marvel Super Heroes. If it wasn't, then it was either MERP or the Judge Dread RPG that Games Workshop put out.
 

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