Was Dragon (or any RPG mag) your first exposure to gaming?

[MoogleEmpMog]

Nope. My parents introduced me, and a cousin introduced them.

Most of the people I know got started with a Basic set of some type - even the rather poor one put out now - if they weren't already miniatures wargames who got interested in the RPGs being played at their FLGSes.

 

[Imaro]

Considering how few newstands actually carry Dungeon or Dragon outside of hobby shops, the odds of the bored 11 year old finding a Dragon magazine is pretty damn slight.

I don't know about where you stay, but in Chicago Dragon and Dungeon are in every major bookstore here.

 

[Torm]

When I was in the 4th grade, my mom used to drag me to a lot of garage sales, and one of them had a box full of issues of the two magazines and some miscellaneous other roleplaying stuff, mostly FASA Star Trek stuff. I liked Star Trek, so we ended up getting the whole box, and for pretty darned cheap, too, if I remember correctly.

One of my school friends was over some time after this, and saw the magazines and assumed I played. At which point, he told me he and his brother and his parents played, and had to explain the whole thing to me - I hadn't really paid the magazines much attention, being more focused on the Star Trek books (which I thought were neat, but really hadn't figured out the game you were supposed to play with them yet - no "core" books). I ended up playing with them for a while until we moved away, but from that point, I was keeping an eye out for another game, running some for friends, and occasionally running some for my cousins when visiting my grandma's house.

I've never read an issue cover to cover, and I've never bought an issue new-off-the-shelf, but the magazines directly led to my playing D&D.

 

[Thurbane]

I should probably add that while Dragon didn't intoduce me to D&D, it DID introduce me to Marvel Superheroes, Gamma World, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Paranoia and others, through various articles and advertisements...

 

[Steel_Wind]

I don't know about where you stay, but in Chicago Dragon and Dungeon are in every major bookstore here.

Same in Toronto.

 

[Wombat]

My introduction to gaming came from AH/SPI board games and miniatures battles -- thank you Brookhurst Hobbies for alerting me to a "strange new game that apparently uses pencil and paper instead of miniatures"!

Heck, back then the only "game 'zine" I found was The Strategic Review, and a lot of that didn't have to do with the rpg...

Then came Alarums & Excursions...

So, no, magazines didn't pull me in; there were a very thin layer of frosting on my rpg cake

 

[Doctor DM]

I had allready started playing, but both Dragon and Dungeon had a huge effect on my first campaign.

Allthough I believe Rich Burlew says Dragon got him into gaming...

 

[Turjan]

Even if I can't really click on any of the options in the poll, I can say that none of the magazines played a roll in getting me interested in D&D. My entrance ticket were CRPG's .

 

[JoeGKushner]

I came into the hobby via Marvel Super Heroes which I picked up at the old comic book store over on Devon by Broadway (Was that Larry's Comics? Man, it's been years.)

Anyway, I didn't notice Dragon till I learned about 'The Marvel File', at which point I eagerly began to buy issues.

 

[afreed]

So far as I can recall, Dragon was my first exposure to RPGs, and it helped maintain my interest in the hobby for long periods when I wasn't actively playing.

That said... this was in the late 1980s, before Internet access was common. I can't imagine that if I were 8 years old today, I'd stumble across a magazine before I came across references to RPGs on line. I really don't think Dragon is serving as an initial introduction point for many young gamers.