How did you get into D&D?

[Ulrick]

I remember that. Debbie kept in touch with me for some reason. Seems soon after her joyous conversion Mike turned out to be a repressed homosexual. They tried living the good married Christian life, but poor Mike was already HIV positive when the two met. Inside a year Debbie was HIV positive herself. It progressed to AIDS dementia just months later. Debbie spent the last few months of her life living under the delusion that if she could only progress a cleric character to high enough level she'd be able to cast Cure Diseaseon herself and get rid of the virus.

BTW, Ms. Frost now runs a V:TM campaign where the players take a sip of V8 every time their PC "drink from the herd". Hear tell she tried real blood at first, but the stuff kept clotting on her.

I ALWAYS wanted to play in Ms. Frost's group but she wouldn't let me. I mean, there was a lack of gamer girls back then and your group had a lot of'em. I was single at that age and available. I even cast a spell on my parents to get them to buy me a bunch of D&D books. But I never got to use them because she wouldn't let me play!

Not even after there was an opening when Blackleaf 'left' the group.



Ulrick

 

[ladyofdragons]

shortly after my purple unicorn phase (I think it's something that all young geeky girls go through, I was about 12) with a hefty helping of fantasy novels, I saw the D&D basic boxed set & dice in my local department store. I wanted to play it more than anything. So, I bought it and a set of basic dice (the ones with the rough edges you had to crayon in the numbers to see), and tried to find someone to play it WITH me.

After two failed attempts at learning the game with friends, I gave it up. In high school, I met a friend who's older brother had played and given it up, she gave me the AD&D 1st edition books (that I still have). But other than some basic 1-on-1, no games.

Then, my second year in college my boyfriends roommate offered to DM a campaign for a group of us. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[johnsemlak]

Back before the war my buddy Clive introduced me to a group that met regularly at a pub in Oxford. My first adventure was quite simple, a party of adventurers got together and went and killed a dragon and took the treasure. Usual party--a wizard, bunch of dwarves, a halfling thief. The DM was this bloke named John.

Later, John ran this epic campaign. We had a new party--Halflings, an elf, a dwarf, a fighter, a ranger, and a wizard. We went off on this quest. I forgot what it was about. Something about a ring....

Come to think of it, we called halflings something different back then.

 

[Gryphon]

Loosing my DnD Cherry

One of my friends at senior school, I was 12 I think, had heard about this game from his big brother, we used to play wargames, I made models and loved tanks but this was different. It was the old blue book game, we played about for a bit but it wasn't much fun because the rules were a little wishy washy there wasn't the same detail as my wargames. Then we heard about the new red box basic set just coming out. I got that for my 13th birhtday from a toy shop called Beatties in manchester (uk)

The rest as they say is history 23 later I am still playing.

Fist Basic character was an elf

Favoured character has been elvish ever since.

 

[DaemonBolo]

I loved to read science fiction and fantasy. I had heard about the game, but never met anyone who played. Finally, I was 16 and I had my first job. Another person worked there for a summer job and we liked some of the same books.

She and I hit it off and I started gaming with her group.

 

[ashockney]

Great thread!

I love threads like this that show both the immense diversity and stark similarities among all the members of the EN World Boards.

I started by hunting Killer Bunnies with a shotgun. Regrettably, I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn that day.

I was about 11 or 12, playing Gamma World with my older cousins on vacation in Florida. This combined with a voracious reading habit, and a love for comics fed the monster...

-Andy

 

[Thorntangle]

The following summer, there were D&D classes eek: ) offered at the Jr. High School.

D&D classes in Jr. High School? What's that all about? Consider yourself the luckiest boy on the face of the planet.

 

[Tiberius]

I, too, found my way into the game in a very roundabout manner. As a kid, I loved reading, especially the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I was also a fan of the D&D cartoon. Imagine how pleased I was when I found those AD&D Adventure Gamebooks, with the character sheet/bookmark in the front. I read/played through them all, one of my favorites being the one based off of "The Ghost Tower of Inverness." My neighbor played AD&D, and I asked him about it one day when I was 5 or so. He brought his stuff over, and pulled out a module. Specifically, "The Ghost Tower of Inverness." Yay me. I remember being rather upset that my cleric didn't have enough gold to buy both magical armor and a magical longsword, so I had to settle for the +1 mace. Armed with my book, we had a great time.

I was hooked. I got my folks to get me the Basic set, which I loved to read on our weekend sailing trips. Eventually, my neighbor gave up D&D, and gave his stuff to me. Rock on. I remember my folks getting me the Manual of the Planes and Unearthed Arcana, but I never got around to picking up the Monster Manuals from the local Toys 'R' Us.

I look back at my first game 18 years ago or so with absolutely no regrets about the money and time this hobby would eventually cost me. I just wish I had kept the stuff that was given to me in better condition. My neighbor had the GDQ series, which is now buried somewhere in my room.

-Tiberius

 

[Arnwyn]

Longer story... (surprise! A long story told by a gamer!)

Many, many years ago, back in grade 7, my friend and I are sitting in art class. He comes up to me with a maze drawn on a sheet of paper, and says "it's not just any maze - you don't get to see it and just choose directions that I give you". There was also a "location" in the maze where some "voice" gave you hints. It was kind of cool. Things are added to this maze: What if it's underground? What if there are things (monsters) that try to stop you?

The concept grows. We read these "Fighting Fantasy" books and come up with a terribly crude combat system. We've read The Hobbit, LotR, and related books, and add monsters. All games are one-on-one.

5 years pass, as we continue to wildly draw maps, "enhance" the game with "innovations" (you find somebody in this level, and he actually *comes along with you*! Absolutely mind boggling).

We were finishing high school. My friend (same guy from grade 7 who drew the maze) comes over, and hands me this book he just found and bought: "Uh, this book has everything we've done in the last 5 years, but better." (It was the AD&D 2nd Edition PHB.)

Ack.

10 years later, and we're still going strong!

[Edit: changed to past tense. We're way beyond high school now...]

 

[Greatwyrm]

I was a junior high loan shark. One kid offered me a copy of Dragon Magazine as collateral. I was already predisposed toward fantasy from choose-your-own-adventure books and the influence of my mother (a librarian). The magazine looked neat, so I accepted it.

I wasn't sure what all the rules stuff meant, but the rest of the magazine had me completely hooked. I wasn't sure why the Cavaleir (sp?) needed correction or just what a Deck of Many Things was, but they sounded really cool. I've been a dyed in the wool gamer for around 13 years now.