14. I was brought into AD&D 2nd Edition by the awesome monster books, and tried my hand at DMing proper after I got the Player's Handbook (the version with the black cover, which had just been released). First campaign kicked into gear properly after I also got the DMG. (I don't actually remember the games before I got the DMG - I only know they happened at all because I read it in a journal from the period - but I definitely remember that first "real" game.)
How old were you when your first GMed an RPG?
DragonLancer
Adventurer
I was 14. Started with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay before moving over to D&D.
The one I remember, I was 10 or 11 I think. I was on a summer archaeology dig with my mum. I DM'd Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan for three university students. They all died in a fireball trap corridor after a few hours play, and one guy was none too pleased about it! His friend said "C'mon he's just a kid" and they let it go. Muahahahahahaha.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
For those of you who started as a child, did a parent or other adult relative who was already a gamer introduce you or was it from a peer or older sibling?
My parents never played and I didn't know any adults who played. I remember a guy at McDonald's who heard me and some friends talk about it mentioning that he used to play and he asked us about our characters and I remember finding that rather weird.
In hindsight, I'm glad that I learned it with friends. I'm glad that I'm able to introduce my boys to the game but I really hope they can find some friends to play with. I think that getting together with friends and running your own games without adult supervision is a powerful thing.
It is not just gaming of course. It seems that the "need" for adult supervision is pervading all aspects of our kids lives these days (at least in the suburban USA). It is not all bad. Parental involvement has many benefits over neglectful parenting. But there is also benign neglect. Kids need not just alone time, but unstructured time with peers to socialize and experiment with who they are.
My parents never played and I didn't know any adults who played. I remember a guy at McDonald's who heard me and some friends talk about it mentioning that he used to play and he asked us about our characters and I remember finding that rather weird.
In hindsight, I'm glad that I learned it with friends. I'm glad that I'm able to introduce my boys to the game but I really hope they can find some friends to play with. I think that getting together with friends and running your own games without adult supervision is a powerful thing.
It is not just gaming of course. It seems that the "need" for adult supervision is pervading all aspects of our kids lives these days (at least in the suburban USA). It is not all bad. Parental involvement has many benefits over neglectful parenting. But there is also benign neglect. Kids need not just alone time, but unstructured time with peers to socialize and experiment with who they are.
Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
I taught myself (and my friends) how to play with no adult interference.
When I was a youth, we (my parents and I) would sometimes venture into the city to visit my maternal grandmother. Often on these trips, my father would go to a nearby hobby store to look at model railroad stuff. It was during one of these visits that I saw the red (pink? magenta?) Basic D&D box (this was in July of 1981). I was immediately enthralled.
Having some gift or chore / allowance money, I purchased it. I am sure that my parents looked at it, but I don't recall that they had any strong reaction to it one way or another. I know that I did not get to look at it in depth until the next day, due to the aforementioned visiting of the grandmother.
Before the next weekend, I had devoured the contents and wrangled the only other kids within a few miles (I lived in a very rural area) into playing. I have no idea as to how much we were actually following the rules, but I do recall that character deaths came early and often, and we we always found them super-amusing. A party wipe by Owlbear is one early incident that still stands out to me.
I answered an open call for an intro game of AD&D being played in the library of East Middle School in Aurora Colorado. It was run by students for students, and the only adult present was the librarian, who was largely doing paperwork for the couple of hours we spent in there after official closing.
But for his foot size, the DM could have been cast as a hobbit.
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