First D&D/RPG Experience

[Chainsaw]

Can't quite remember the age of first D&D exposure, but pretty sure it was ~7th grade, so maybe 13? My grandmother bought me a black rectangular boxed set with a big red dragon on it (~1991). Quickly moved on to 2E. My friends and I wanted more race/class combo options and more spells.

Prior to that, read alot of choose-your-own-adventure books, which inspired me to make up make my own games using d6s. They TOTALLY sucked design-wise, but I was only 8-9 years old. We didn't care.

 

[Stormonu]

I was 9 and got the Holmes game (and two boxes of minis - one heroes, one monsters) for Christmas after seeing it on the news and asking for it.

Unfortunately, I lost the rulebook and had only B2 to puzzle through. My dad was taking some drafting classes at the time, so he drew up the maps of B2 on vellum paper for my brother and I to play with the miniatures. We pretty much made up our own rules, and we played using a purely narrative style. I don't remember much of anything of those games, other than the genie mini I had was one bad-ass dude.

I played that way with my other friends (despite picking up the rulebooks a few years down the road and a bunch of modules) until I got into high school, when I finally sat down and memorized the 1E rules - and started using dice.

 

[Rechan]

Am I the only one who didn't start with 1e here?

 

[Chainsaw]

Am I the only one who didn't start with 1e here?

No.. I started with the 1991 boardgame style box set, which was sort of a "basic" type game that got me interested in buying the 2E books. I didn't know jack squat about 1E at that point. It wasn't being sold at the bookstores in the mall or advertised in the Marvel comics I read, so it wasn't on my radar.

 

[Henry]

My very first experience was buying the Moldvay Basic D&D set at a Circus World Toy Store in 1981. I roped my cousins into it during a sleep-over, could not understand the rules, so we just played it fast and loose and had a ball. I did not play again until about two years later with a good friend of mine. After he moved away, I sat on the books, kept collecting for quite a few years until invited into a game in high schoool, played a few times, was asked to DM once, and the rest was history - until the past few years, I was the primary DM of every group I ever got together for almost fifteen years running.

 

[WizarDru]

Am I the only one who didn't start with 1e here?

Actually, a good chunk of us started with Basic D&D and then moved on to AD&D (i.e. 1e, now). But that's because we're OLD.

 

[Oryan77]

I was 18 and started hanging out with a new group of friends that I met from a local BBS (mid 90's). One day one of them asked if I wanted to roll a character and play in his D&D game. I've always been fascinated by fantasy movies, cartoons, and video games, so I said yes.

It was a Dark Sun game and I made a human Fighter/Thief. He started me out in a tavern and said, "Ok, what do you do?"

I had no idea what he was talking about. All I had was my character sheet, a pencil, and some dice. There was no gameboard or anything, so what was I supposed to do? Just to be a smartass, I said, "Uh, I jump up and down."

So he says, "Ok, so you start jumping up and down and everyone in the tavern starts looking at you weird."

Then it dawned on me; I'm supposed to be imagining that this is happening. No wonder there was no board on the table. Shortly after that I became addicted to the game. Now I know more about D&D than any of those guys (I still keep in contact with most of them). It's kinda weird when that DM comes to me now to ask me questions about D&D

 

[Wombat]

I'll just link my LJ article on this topic:

The New Republic of Chelemby - My Life in Gaming, Part 1

That should cover most of the points

 

[Mentat55]

It was the summer before 6th grade (1989), when a friend of mine invited me over to his house, where I met another friend of his (and someone I would later befriend that year in middle school). We played the Mentzer version of Basic D&D -- I played a dwarf. Soon thereafter, I started a one on one game where I played a fighter and progressed all the way through to level 36.

As a group, we were soon playing AD&D 1st edition, both a homebrew game, as well as DL1. By 7th grade we were playing 2nd edition.

 

[Garmorn]

Am I the only one who didn't start with 1e here?

I started with Fantasy Trip, D&D stuff was not in the stores I could find until 81, after I started.

Actually, a good chunk of us started with Basic D&D and then moved on to AD&D (i.e. 1e, now). But that's because we're OLD.

I was 22 when I started. I was a board gamer who had bought Wizards and Melee. Found Fantasy trip and ran a game for my Girl friend and one other.