Attn: Users under the age of 20 (or thereabouts)

[der_kluge]

Once you can plug in your VR Goggles and actually play a free-form, immersive version of Against the Giants with Henry, regardless of the fact that he's in South Carolina and you're in Virginia then you won't care about books and dice anymore and D&D as we know it will become a thing of the past. But don't sweat it because that will be the least of your worries as the very fabric of our society comes apart around us.

If you thought the Everquest addiction was bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) predicts that the holographic chamber (ala Star Trek) will be man's *last* invention.

 

[Narfellus]

If you thought the Everquest addiction was bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

thank God I never got into that game. It would have sucked away any creative time available. I admit though, once they get those VR goggles perfected with Icewind Dale 4 or 5, i might have to break down and join the illusion...

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) predicts that the holographic chamber (ala Star Trek) will be man's *last* invention.

And I agree

For the record, I'm 23. I started gaming at the age of 18 or so. I originally got into the game through Baldur's Gate/NWN (and I got myself BG because it thought it was something like Diablo. Turned out it was so much better). Actually, it was about the time when BG/BG2 was the hot sh.. and other games were started - Icewind Dale on the one side, and NWN on the other. I liked how in NWN, they said there would be no silly racial restrictions any more (something I never liked about AD&D/BG), because of the new rules system. So one day I finally decided to get that rules system book - the PHB 3.0. I liked what I read there. I hooked up with someone I knew played AD&D at some time to ask whether he played. He did play, but only AD&D. So I started playing in his group.

Later, I use a gamers' database to hook up with another guy, a couple of years younger than me (he wasn't 18 yet, and so he didn't have a car yet). He was completely new, but nonetheless wanted to be the DM of a session. So he found a couple of other guys from his school (class-mates) and we started playing. I never regretted that, he's a great DM.

These guys were minors when they started playing, and for a couple of years after that, too. They're still below the age of 20 and have played several years and a couple of campaigns now.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Check out page 13 of the packet for GENCON Exhibitors:

http://www.gencon.com/files/Indy05/EXH-Exhibitor-Packet.pdf

 

[Bryan898]

-what brought you into D&D/d20/P&P role-playing?

- Do you find it difficult to find gamers your age? Do you game with people typically 10 years (or more) older than you, or is it easy to find gamers your age?

- what are your peers into?

I'm 21, i got into the game after moving to a smaller town at about 14 and meeting a new group of friends whom had just started playing. The father of one of the players introduced him to the game, then him to us. It also helps that there's not much to do in a small town without a car.

I do occasionally find it hard to find gamers around my age. My group's age goes from 22 to 20, but it's hard to find other gamers our age like us. I think this has more to do with our hobbies and what we do than lack of gamers. I can always find gamers at the local comic book/ hobby store, but most of them don't fit too well with our group. I also haven't find many players at my college.

We're a very diverse group that probably wouldn't have met if we weren't in such a small town. We're all into video games to one extent or another, but very few of us play the RPG types, and most of us play different games. On a side note, we did lose one friend to Evercrack. Occasionally we'll get together and play Goldeneye, Gauntlet, Wrestling, and other games. We also enjoy partying together, and are friends before a gaming group. I myself am an advent boxer, runner, artist, writer, video gamer, and reader. Another one of my gamers is big into juijitsu, playing the guitar, and very good at magic tricks using cards and escapism (you should see him get out of a strait-jacket ). One guy enjoys boxing, playing the guitar, and occasionally plays video games. We have a girl who's pretty big into video games, dancing, bowling, computers, etc. And the last two guys are pretty much hardcore partiers.

 

[ElvishBard]

I am 17, and I have been playing around the age of 13. My dad and his siblings played when he was young, and he passed it onto me. I played video game RPGs like Zelda when I was like 6 on the regular NES, atari, and even Intellivision. I know at least 10 people in my "group" of friends that are my age and all enjoy playing, and I have gotten 3 of my younger (age 12ish) cousins into it.

 

[pdkoning]

I am 21, I played the game for 2,5 years now. I got into the game by people who were 1 to 2 years older than me. I actually started playing after playing NeverWinter Nights, I really like(d) the rules and the d20 system. I created several different characters in NWN and tested them against several encounters in my homebrew module So I knew a lot about the rules of the game when I started playing.
In our current game group everyone is between 20-30, we play at the local game store, the shopkeeper is out DM.
When I started playing the group was aging between 18-23, some of them were already playing several years.
Our group however, does not attract young players, just other people of the same age category. Some players (19 to 25 years old) that used to play when I started playing, quit gaming at all. -> too busy with work and other things.

 

[diaglo]

And for the record, I'm 32, which pretty much seems to be the median age around here.

[Logan's Run]You'd be dead already[/Logan's Run]

as would most of us.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I am 17, 18 in May. I got into DnD when a friend introduced me to it; we'd have long talks about our respective fantasy obsessions (the Silmarillion for me, Eddings for him). Eventually I played a couple of one-shot games with him. I recall that my cleric was triple-critted by a kobold...right after being critted twice by said kobold. Stupid kobolds. Then my youngest brother looked through the MM in a store, and wanted to buy it because it looked cool, so I told him that if he really wanted to, I'd buy the other books and we could play. After a short convincing-parents period, we did so. I DMed because I understood the rules best. Eventually two friends from down the street joined us, and we ended up playing from 1st to 11th level.

That campaign sort of fell apart. Eventually the same friends and my brothers and I started an IK campaign; we played that 1st-8th with a 3-level jump. I played a really fun AU-rules game in a homebrew world with some other good friends of mine; that got to 3rd or 4th level before school and work intervened. Right now I'm playing a game you might have seen me refer to as my siblings campaign, with my youngest two siblings. We're using a heavily house-ruled system, with EoM[R] spellcasting, rituals and things from Mystic Secrets, DanMcS' weapons system, defense bonuses, and sundry other bits.

Most of the people I game with are my age, but my youngest siblings are 11 (or 12) and 13. My youngest brother is 6 foot 2 and weighs 280 lb! At 13!!! Madness...

My friends from the first game are interested in "normal" teenager things, like sports and music. My youngest brother is interested in fantasy and things, and also in politics. My other brother is a "normal" teenage-interests guy. My youngest sister likes fantasy and such. Of my other two friends (that I played the AU-rules game with); one's an anime-fan otaku elitist (she manages to rant about "mall n00bs." They walk the wrong way in corridors and crowd up the stores. Madness!). The other likes anime, too, but is more into music and metal.

 

[SuperFlyTNT]

I was playing at about 16 in high school with my friends. Our DM graduated three years before us and joined the navy. Fastfoward to age 21 I started playing with an aquaintance and a friend from my old group. We bought 3e books and I ran a campaign with just those two and it grew into something completeley out of my control. I killed everyone and let my buddy DM. The thing was we've gotten about six other people into it who had never played before. Most of them have started picking up the books, only one or two heads in the group.