Just how popular was DnD? Did kids really play it during lunch? (red box nostalgia)

[GRStrayton]

Started playing with the Holmes Basic set in 1979, but quickly moved onto AD&D. We played at sleepovers, on Boy Scout camp-outs, and at lunch every day at my Catholic elementary school from 6th through 8th grade (which would've been 1981 to 1984). And everyone played, from the geekiest kid in the class to the coolest kid in the class. There were so many campaigns going that a friend of mine and I created a Magic Item store. Our characters bought magic items from people who didn't want what they found in their campaigns, and sold them to other people at a mark-up. My father showed me how to do a general ledger so we could keep track of our income and expenses. Great days!

My brother's friend's son who's 12 started a D&D club at school last year with 6 kids and now they're up to 30. Things seem to be moving in the right direction.

 

[Nytmare]

I was introduced to the game in 1980, but fears of Satanism swept through the PTA shortly there, and most of my collection of books and miniatures were relegated to the trash. The books that survived, and the few that I was able to pick up surreptitiously over the years were hidden underneath the Playboys I had stashed in the back of my closet.

It was strange though, the only problems our parents seemed to have were with the books, not with any of the games we were playing even after they threw all of our stuff away.

In high school, the only D&D I really saw actually in the school were a handful of band geeks who would make characters and have fights with each other during lunch with the old d20 table of unarmed fighting maneuvers.

Most of the rpg related activities I partook in when I was in high school were just reading through books and making characters with friends. Lots of people seemed interested in the idea, or talking about old games they had played in, but no one seemed interested in picking up the gauntlet and running a game.

My senior year in high school, I ended up hooking into a group of gamers outside of my school and was introduced to Paranoia, Traveller, Mechwarrior, and the rainbow of Palladium titles.

When I hit college in 92, there was a different game, if not two, scheduled for every night of the week.

Thanks for all the memories shared so far...it's amazing to think that a game that's now so niche used to sold in (even grocery) stores, in the same class as Monopoly or Uno.

I don't remember it ever being nearly as main stream as it is now. It had it's flashes, mostly through collegiate circuits, but it was nowhere near as popular or easy to find as it is today.

We didn't have megachain bookstores or Walmarts. You'd find the game in weird places every once in a while, I stumbled into a rack of adventures (which were absolutely impossible to find in any of the stores that had D&D stuff that I knew of) in a corner store in Peddler's Village, but in general you'd find the game in hobby stores, or comic book shops, or Toys R Us. I know there were a handful of them out there, only because I saw their ads in Dragon, but I didn't see an actual, nothing-but-games, game store till Magic got big and it made a bunch of comic and hobby shops rethink their product line.

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

(This was brought up by someone in an earlier thread I posted, when I was soliciting nostalgia over the red box)

For anyone who remembers, how popular was DnD? Were kids really pulling out character sheets and dice, and playing during lunch?

Would like...multiple kids in a group bring the manuals? Or did they just need 1 set of B/X hole-punched books?

I'd love any details, like how old you guys were (jr high, high school, maybe even grade school), about what year it was, what edition, I'll appreciate whatever details you'd like to share.

When I was in (mid-sized) jr high and high school, mid 90s, the DnD group was pretty small: 2 small sets of kids who everyone knew as the rpg guys. It wasn't a bad rep at my school, it was just a rare hobby. They always played all the newest hobby games during lunch, magic, netrunner, AD&D when the new editions came.

I guess it'd be pretty hard to play AD&D 2e (revised?) during lunch...seems like there'd be a lot of manuals needed.

That's how I started, Grade 7 lunch with my friends (though we also played Star Frontiers).

That said, as far as I know, we were the only D&D group at school.

 

[enigma5915]

In 1984 I started playing D&D during lunch in 5th grade with the red boxed set. My first dungeon i drew was on the back of a paper plate! Then we played AD&D During Jr high and moved to 2nd edition in high school. Ahh the good ole days. Those were a blast!

 

[GRStrayton]

Oh, yes, we also played STAR FRONTIERS, TRAVELLER, GAMMA WORLD (1st edition), and TOP SECRET (the original edition). I played RUNEQUEST once, and at Scout camp one year I played a session or two of TWILIGHT 2000.

 

[Mistwell]

We played at school in Jr. High (1982-1983), and again in High School (1984-1986).

My recollection is we would bring character sheets, and only the DM brought any books. We also brought dice, though I do recall one day when everyone left their dice at home and we were asking people around us to name random numbers as our means of rolling.

 

[occam]

Never D&D; that was for weekends (usually all-nighters), as it took too long. But I played quite a bit of Marvel Super Heroes during lunch in high school.

 

[badmojojojo]

(This was brought up by someone in an earlier thread I posted, when I was soliciting nostalgia over the red box)

For anyone who remembers, how popular was DnD? Were kids really pulling out character sheets and dice, and playing during lunch?

I didnt play until I was 18. I remember all-nighters of D&D pretty much the whole 4 years I was in the Air Force. During deployment in Japan I ran 7-8 members of my squadron through all of Temple of Elemental Evil on 3 nights (with just 4-5 hrs of sleep total).

Ah the good old days...

 

[Nytmare]

though I do recall one day when everyone left their dice at home and we were asking people around us to name random numbers as our means of rolling.

Ah! And you didn't have any SHERPA players with you? The last two digits on your stopwatch modded to whatever die you're rolling for the win!

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Well, speaking for "Back in the day.." (Early 80s)

I was in 3rd grade when I asked my brother if I could have his two DnD sets (Basic and Expert boxes) gathering dust in his closet.

Over the next few years I am my friends played a version of DnD that used maybe 10% of the rules and the rest our imagination.

I also remember playing with our DnD action figures and toys (man was the hook horror SWEET) on the playground, as well as watching the cartoon on Saturday mornings.

Oh, and you could find something DnD branded in any book or toy store.

So yea, in the early 80s it was kind of a big deal.

DS