Does Anyone Come Into D&D 'Cold'?

[Committed Hero]

My wife did in the early 80s, bought the basic set & made some characters, but didn't actually play until 2000 or so.

 

[der_kluge]

My oldest sister bought the red boxed set (at Kaybee toy store IIRC) without any idea of what it was. She couldn't make much sense out of it, and gave it me. I loved reading it, but didn't really know anything about "the game". I even invited some friends over to "play" it, but having never seen it played, the concept eluded us.

 

[kenobi65]

I'd be surprised if there's a large number of people who bought a D&D book "absolutely cold" -- that is, having heard *nothing* about the game, found it on the shelf, and were intrigued enough to buy it. (Then again, I could be wrong...)

But, I don't think that's different from any other hobby. I doubt many people get into coin collecting, needlework, model rocketry, etc. just by stumbling onto it on a store shelf. Reading about it, seeing a demo, word of mouth, are all going to be much stronger, more reliable ways into the hobby. (That, and low cost-of-entry starter materials....)

 

[Ulrick]

One thing that I would love to do is run D&D for players who've all never played D&D or any other RPG before but have a rich background in literature that inspired the game. I've noticed that over the years, most players that I've encountered have played the game first before reading the literature that inspired the game. They play the game and then get inspired to read the literature--but they read through "D&D" eyes. (example: Why didn't Gandalf cast more spells? He was a powerful wizard, right? Did he lose his spellbook? Because in D&D wizards need a spell book. Or maybe he was a sorcerer variant.)

I've also noticed that players who've played video game RPGs before playing paper and pencil RPGs have different taste in how the game is played. They do have a knack for tactics and assembling various modifiers for the best possible outcome, but they lack storytelling techniques.

I think players with a well-read background would play their characters as "characters" not as a bunch of stats. For them, the character would represent the stats, not the stats representing the character.

I apologize if I've over-simplified things. I know that players come in all shapes and sizes. But I've noticed these generalizations. Has anybody else?

 

[alsih2o]

Late 70's, my grandmother bought me the red boxed set thinking it was an instructional book on how to draw dragons. My cousins got the same set from their parents who thought it was a boardgame.

Thus began my wasting of the summers.

 

[barsoomcore]

I did. I saw an article on it in a magazine (no idea what magazine) and my folks noticed how excited I was and my birthday was coming up and they got the old box set for me (9th printing, I think it was).

And I figured it all out and taught my family and my buddies and we played D&D happily ever after.

 

[Laurel]

No one I know has simply walked into a store seen one of the books and stated they needed to play. I have had some friends who saw a book some else was carrying around or flipping through and wanted to know more, but that may count.

Personally I came through others talking about it.

 

[Henry]

I did this, but it was 1981, and it was the Tom Moldvay-Edited Basic Dungeons and Dragons. I even served as first DM for a group of relatives for that first seminal game. I don't think I actually PLAYED until 1988!

 

[Darkness]

CRPGs and other RPGs (Das Schwarze Auge, a German RPG that's around as common as D&D around here).

 

[tylerthehobo]

I voted "other", because I'm not sure that the question makes all that much sense to me. I came into it through other pen-and-paper rpg-ers, not through finding the book "cold" or from folks who got into it through Computer RPGs. Man, that question just makes me feel old - there really weren't computer RPGs when I started out...