How Old Were You When You Played Your First TTRPG?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I remember when Dragon Magazine came out with the Dragon classes for both the Chromatic and Metallic dragons for 3e. The classes covered the dragons' wyrmling to young adult categories by spreading them across 20 levels.

Updating that feels like a license to print money. Probably a nightmare to do right, though, from a design standpoint.

 

[Kannik]

12 years old for me for my first 'official' RPG. Bought the Top Secret boxed set and ran it with friends. Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle -- such great times (and the start of many, many, many, and ongoingly many more great times! )

 

[Corinnguard]

Updating that feels like a license to print money. Probably a nightmare to do right, though, from a design standpoint.

You mean updating the 3e Dragon classes to 5e, right? I would have to agree with you since 5e doesn't provide stats for all 12 dragon age categories for a given dragon nowadays. But back in 3e, I would have to say it was possible to create a new Dragon class. I tried my hand at creating an Amethyst Dragon class by using one of the Dragon classes from Dragon Magazine and tweaking it for the Gem Dragon. It's not something you can create in a matter of minutes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You mean updating the 3e Dragon classes to 5e, right? I would have to agree with you since 5e doesn't provide stats for all 12 dragon age categories for a given dragon nowadays. But back in 3e, I would have to say it was possible to create a new Dragon class. I tried my hand at creating an Amethyst Dragon class by using one of the Dragon classes from Dragon Magazine and tweaking it for the Gem Dragon. It's not something you can create in a matter of minutes.

It'd probably have to be a race-as-class situation in 5E, too, otherwise one would end up with something that never felt like a dragon, or with something that there'd be no way to even remotely balance compared to everyone else at the table.

 

[Lanefan]

Over 20, by just a few months.

 

[Cadence]

Eleven (sixth grade). Moldvay basic in late 81 or early 82. Saw ads on the back of comics and heard some rumblings talking about it, and got the boxed set. A sitter ran the first session I played in.

My not-so-little-anymore one first played at age 9 in 4th grade (iirc - also Moldvay Basic at first, but then to 5e).

 

[aramis erak]

Summer of 81. Moldvay wasn't available yet in Anchorage; and Andrew was running from his older brother's AD&D books. I was 11 ¾, not that the ¾ really mattered. It was the summer between 6th and 7th, just after summer camp (I came home and we'd moved - all of about 3 blocks as the raven¹ flies, but about a mile by road...)

In 6th grade, my friend group at school consisted of John W., Jon A., and Ralph O. Plus, Aaron G, in the year below. Sam A. & Paul A. were at a different school. Jon A was a computer geek, as was I - he had a TRS-80, I had a TS-1000 and a lot of carts for the 2600.
John W.'s friend Brian W was not unkind to me at school...

So, I get back from camp, and John W invites me over... we then cross the street to Andrew F's home. And Andrew is running AD&D, with Brice and Brian W. (brothers, a year apart), John W. Aaron G., and me. Somehow, I doubt that any of them continued through high school, but I did. But, through Jr. High, we played a lot of D&D. 3-4 hours during the school year, more like 10 during the summer, per week.

I had a couple other friends, not from school, and I introduced them to D&D - Justin & Casey (Bro/SIs), James B., in about summer 82, using Moldvay-Cook.

Haven't run into any of them since 1990, except James B.. I had his kid as a student in 2008. And I've subbed for his mother, multiple times. When I was still subbing, I was usually the second call... Fond memories, many, many years of them. I've also subbed for Justin and Casey's mom... odd, that.

I'd probably have dropped gaming in high school, had it not been for Tyler N., Mike S., and Rick S. Last I heard from Rick was High School, Senior Year for me - his junior year in college - he invited me to the university gaming night for some SFB. Mike S, last I heard from was a collect international call from a German prison. Tyler N. was at the 10 year HS reunion. (Yeah, my high school was new enough that it was doing 10 year reunions.)
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¹: Anchorage has no crows, only ravens, so no crow would have flown that way.

 

[Fifth Element]

I was 11. One day in school a kid who sat beside me (we sat at the back of the class) was playing Blizzard Pass behind a screen he made with his textbook. This was during class. It was captivating, and I went to the local hobby shop soon after and found a used copy of the Mentzer basic set, and the rest is history.

 

[Parmandur]

19 or 20, in College.

I played Bard's Tale when I was like 8?

 

[Umbran]

or were you introduced to it a much younger age because you had super-cool older siblings?

This. I have a brother several years my senior, and he introduced us to Tunnels and Trolls, probably as a way to have quality time with us without tearing his hair out.

I do not, however, remember what year that was. I suspect I was in the upper single-digits of age.