Forked Thread: Started playing D&D without being introduced by someone else?

[Glyfair]

Forked from: Necromancer Games NOT going with current GSL.

To help clairify my point, is there anybody in this forum or on this site that started playing D&D and had not been introduced to it by someone that already played it?

I count. I picked up the rules without ever having played it. I had read a newspaper article about a local group who was playing (about '77/'78 or so). Most of the group later became friends, but I didn't know them from Adam at the time.

D&D was exactly what I was looking for in a game. I was tired of the limited "rules" of most games and something that allowed you to improvise really was attractive to me.

 

[Rechan]

Same here. Looked at the books in stores since I was 10-12. Got my first PHB 2e before I was in HS, but never could find a group that would teach me. Finally got to HS, had a friend introduce me to fantasy books and RPGs in general (But he wasn't allowed to play D&D).

I managed to play a single session or two, then 3e came out, and I just threw caution to the wind and started DMing my first real game online.

 

[briezee]

My brother came home with the books one day and gave them to me saying he wanted to learn how to play. He was in middle school, I was in high school, he just didn't feel like reading the books. So I learned character creation and attempted to take him through a module. Things got better after a while, but the first module was a bit hard, as I hadn't thought to preread it, so he would do something and I'd give away info I wasn't supposed to.

 

[Adrift]

I and most of my original gaming group of 5 buddies were self-taught as kids ages 10-11. We literally had no idea what we were doing to start, and I can't even remember back as to how we got some of the 1e books to start off with. I remember how excited we were when (as kids) we had finally put the rules together and understood how all the dice worked.

 

[HellHound]

I'm one.

My parents heard about the game. They bought the Erol Otus Red Box edition, flipped through it, and I read it and got obsessed. They never played it.

I did.

A little bit.

When I launched my B/X campaign three months ago... it was with that same copy of the Basic Rules.

 

[RFisher]

Yes and no for me.

Having read an article about D&D that my mom had shown me, I bought a Basic Set (Moldvay) and the Expert rulebook. A few friends and I (and once recruiting my dad to DM) tried a few sessions. I don’t really count that as a start so much as just becoming familiar with the idea.

I consider my real start when I joined an existing Traveller group.

 

[Jasperak]

I have to admit that I am surprised at how fast people have replied in both threads that they found the game without being introduced to it by another player. I was introduced to it by a player that was about 5 years older than me. I think he originally found the red box sex at the local hobby shop, but I'm not sure of the circumstances. I have gone on since to introduce maybe a couple dozen people of which about 3 or 4 might still play.

I wonder if this should have been a poll. The results might give us an idea on how to grow our hobby.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I bought the old red box when I was at Toys R Us because I'd heard a lot about the game and I wanted to check it out. At that age though.... I got past coloring in the numbers on the dice and then gave the rules a read over, didn't get it, and put the game away. Two years later someone who remains one of my closest friends today visited me for about a week after not seeing him for a few years, was ecstatic that I had a copy of the rules, and promptly introduced me to it. I warmed up to the game and I went looking for players soon after he left.

I probably would have never gotten into the hobby to the degree that I have if not for my buddy who gave me a proper introduction to it.

 

[Midnight Dawns]

I spent many years growing up looking at the 2nd ed books at the local Half-Price. I finally started playing when a group of friends and I decided to use some books we had bought. (It was new for all of us.)

 

[Victim]

My brother and I started playing from the first quest box without having played before.