40 years...

[DRF]

Been playing (mostly DM'ing) almost a full year soon! #proud

 

[Zardnaar]

Newb here only about 25 years of gaming, First Quest and D&D cartoon 84-88.

 

[Lady Silverthorn]

40 years ago, I started playing AD&D. I got to play because I cried to my dad that my older brother wasn’t being nice and allowing me to play with him and his friends. They gave me the cleric to play, naturally.

The first character I actually made was my ranger. His name was Silver Arrow because – wait for it – he shot silver arrows. I recovered a +1 dagger from the Caverns of Quasqueton (In Search of the Unknown). It was my precious.

Around 1980 my brother got a copy of Greyhawk. I used tracing paper to copy sections of the map, so I could run a game for my friends. The maps I drew were “my” world because I drew them…and there may be some odd truth in that. I was the Dungeon Master and I was all powerful. I scrawled dungeon maps onto graph paper making sure to create as many rooms as I could to hold all the monsters just sitting there waiting to be encountered by any that were brave enough to open their door. We had endless amounts of fun.

It’s fair to say that this hobby has been a foundational part of my life. Some might say that’s not a good thing, but I’ve got no complaints. My closest friends are those I’ve roleplayed with over the years. I count most friendships in decades at this point. We’re a tight-knit group.

These days, I’m playing 5e two – sometimes three – times per week. Life is grand.

I’m not exactly sure what the point of this post is other than maybe that I feel a need to thank the community for keeping these silly pen and paper games going.

What’s your story?

I was first exposed to the game when I was a kid and my brother got some D&D stuff and wanted to play from the kits. We only played a little back then but I remembered it. I then met someone years later that had the passion for the game which was infectious. I have played the various games over the years with him and all his friend and have grown deeply attached to some of my characters during this time. I love the creativity that I just don't seem to have within and appreciate all the complexity of creating a world and setting. Hobbies are a wonderful passion and keep the bonding with friends alive. You should do more with your craft and publish something with all your background and knowledge.

 

[David Howery]

I first got into the game when I was in college back in 1980, when it was really starting to take off and there wasn't a lot of official product out there. It was a lot of fun over the next ten years, but sadly, the last group I was in disbanded in 1990, when graduation and jobs forced it on us. Even though I haven't been an active gamer since then, I have a lot of fond memories of gaming and friends back in the days, and nostalgia keeps me hanging around on sites like this...

 

[Richards]

I was introduced to AD&D 1st edition by my cousins in 1978 or thereabouts. We only got to see them a couple times a year, and one time when they came to visit us they brought along a homemade dungeon and some pregenerated PCs. That Christmas, my brothers and I asked for (and received) the three core rule books for Christmas and we got to start playing the game all the time, not just when our cousins came to visit. That lasted until 1982, when I went away to college.

I didn't do much gaming in college and then went into the Air Force in 1987. Two years into my Air Force career, my missile combat crew partner brought a Dragon magazine on alert and let me read it while he was on his sleep shift. That brought back a lot of fond memories for me, and I soon thereafter subscribed to both Dragon and Dungeon, living vicariously through those magazines without actually getting to play. But I was married with kids by then, and when my kids were old enough I introduced them to RPGs through the gateway drug of HeroQuest, then started up an AD&D 2E game for them, initially using adventures from the pages of Dungeon before I started crafting my own. Those campaigns lasted until my sons both went to college, and then it was a dry spell again.

But D&D gave me a creative outlet, eventually even gaining me some money on the side as a freelance writer during the 2E and early 3.0/3.5 days. And then, some 14 or 15 years ago, a friend of mine from work found out I had played D&D (as had he) and asked me to DM a campaign to teach his 8-year-old son the game. (It was 3.5 by then - that was the current edition.) That campaign lasted 9 years, and eventually included his wife and other son, and my now-grown sons (one fairly regularly, one somewhat sporadically). But then there was a 5-year follow-on campaign after that, and when that one ended earlier this year I started up my current campaign, which is currently on COVID hold. But by youngest son has also taken up the DM reins and runs a 3.5 campaign (also currently on COVID hold) in which I'm a player, and both our campaigns now include my 13-year-old nephew, who's been gaming with us since he was 10.

Johnathan

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Come this December, so 2 months, it will be 39 years for me.

This hobby has been very good for me. I've been DM'ing primarily (I'd guess...36 of those 39 years), and I KNOW it's taught me and let me develop my own critical thinking, forethought, and all that other stuff that comes from being the "Master of the Game". I spent countless hours at school, after school, on the weekends, and all summer vacations hunched over the magical tome's that made up my D&D and AD&D collection (and later, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, and all the others). Doing this expanded my vocabulary to "confusing levels" for my non-D&D classmates and teachers. I mean, when you're 13 and write an essay that uses words like "milieu", "nomenclature", "obfuscation" and "incorporeal preternatural forms of ethereal entities"....and your teacher accuses you of having someone else write it for you because they, themselves, don't know what you're talking about. Seriously; had teachers ask "Ok, what does 'nomenclature' even mean? And what's a 'milieu'?". It's even MORE disheartening when your teacher doesn't know what the word "melee" means. sigh

Oh, and, obviously, D&D has nurtured and enhanced my ability to be creative in virtually all forms; 2d art, 3d art, animation, model building, sculpting, music, etc. I guess when you use your creative 'brain' almost constantly over decades...you get "really big brain creative".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Eltab]

Began playing in Fall 1980, discovered Gamma World but D&D is/was much more popular. Played the Classic Magic-User with 1 HP, 1 spell per day, 1 Dagger for a weapon and 1 Robe for armor. Upon character death, created an Elf (a class not a race) so I could wear armor, contribute to fights, and have some magic too.

My original GW character rolled Heightened CON for one Physical Mutation and somehow started out on Day One with 100 HP. I miss being that tough against damage...

 

[THEMNGMNT]

In 3rd grade I was introduced to roleplaying by a neighborhood teenager with Top Secret. That was almost 40 years ago. I've been obsessed ever since.