First Exposure

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I noticed today that my Geek calendar at work marks the date of Gary Gygax's death (RIP). The got me thinking about my introduction to gaming. It was something that I discovered on my own, to an extent.

The first gaming product I ever purchased was the hardcover Traveller rulebook. I remember it because I found it in the bargain bin of a discount store. The spaceships and laser guns struck me as very cool, as was the picture on the slipcover. My first exposure, however, was about a year earlier. We were visiting relatives, and my second cousin was in the back room with his friends, playing a game of D&D. They asked me if I wanted to join, but I was too intimidated to play with the bigger kids. I just watched in facination until it was time to go.

For me, it definitely had an air of discovery. Did anybody else feel this way, or was it something that just seemed natural? I grew up an only child, so I never had an older sibling to introduce me to things...that might have been part of it.

 

[Desert Hare]

I started gaming in 1993. I was living in Arizona at the time.

My mom had (and still has) the 2E core rules and the World of Greyhawk boxed set. I found the books and set and read them over. I saw my moms name on the inside front covers and after reading them I begged her to run a game. She told me she would if I could convince four of my friends to give it a whirl.

She ran a game for me and my brother and a four friends. I was hooked. I would buy 2E material with my hard earned allowance. My love for gaming began.

In August of 2000, 3E came out. I was 13 (almost 14 at the time. After 7 years of playing AD&D I graduated to 3E without so much of a whimper.

Been playing 3E since and plan to keep playing it until the day I die.

 

[darjr]

In 6th grade I saw kids during indoor recess playing some cool game. I vividly remember a picture of goblins with a standard marching through a hedge maze. I was hooked. I was a real bug to my parents until they bought me the first RedBox set. I played that with family and a few neighbor hood kids. I ran the games at first. Then I finally asked the kid at school if I could play and he invited me to his house where his brother ran AD&D games.

Later I learned that his older brother had given him his old Holmes basic set. I would really like to find a copy of that picture of the goblins in the hedge maze. I think it's in the Holmes edition, but I could just be misremembering.

 

[possum]

In 2001, I believe, I was invited by a friend of mine who knew I had expressed interest in the game at a Boy Scout Camp earlier to join them. The group was undertaking their conversion to 3rd Edition, if I remember correctly. My first character was a half-elven fighter.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Back when attending university, I already was an avid boardgamer (Eurogames) and reading the "spielbox" a boardgaming magazine. In 1982 the had run ran a an article about a very weird game call "Dungeons&Dragons" which had me scratching my head.

The first edition of '83 had a note that Parker would stop selling the boardgame "Verlies" a game I was very fond of. So I visitied all toy shops in the area to secure a copy of "Verlies", but without success. The note in the magazine also gave me the information that the original, American version of the game called "Dungeon" would still be available.

Frantically I scanned the ads in the magazine and found a mail-order shop offering "Dungeons&Dragons". Not realizing that this was not what I wanted to have, I ordered it. A few days later I noted my error but was to shy to cancel my order. Finalle, the D&D Basic Set arrive, I read through it and the rest is, well, history...

 

[Aus_Snow]

B/X D&D, Isle of Dread, me = one of four players, at school, in grade 4.

 

[SiderisAnon]

For me, it was holidays 1983. I had bought a comic book of some kind that had an ad in the back where you could sell holiday cards. One of the things you could earn was the Basic D&D red box. I signed up to receive a catalog for selling (which probably cost me a couple of bucks), and sold just enough cards to get the red box.

I fondly remember pouring over the material and coloring in the numbers on my dice.

I played once near the end of 1983 or beginning of 1984, and then tried running my own game. Looking back, it was horrid, but I loved it. I've been hooked ever since. I plan on gaming as long as I can still remember how to play.

And I have no recollection whatsoever of what comic book that ad was in...

 

[Wombat]

In the late 60's I discovered Avalon Hill boardgames. In the early 70's I primarily switched to miniaature wargames ... but got really, really tired with all the arguments about line of sight and whatnot, the horrid competitiveness.

In the summer of 1976 I saw an ad in my Brookhurst Hobbies catalog: "New set of wargame rules played mainly with pen and paper where you play warriors investigating dungeons -- Dungeons & Dragons" (okay, not a direct quote, but pretty close and about as ambiguous as the original ad) So I plunked down by $10 and on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, just before I headed off for a Boy Scout camping trip, I got my Three Little Books. While everyone else was talking about CB radios and the latest stadium rock bands, I was trying to get people interested in ochre jellies and hit dice.

Since then, I have gamed, never dropping my favourite hobby -- even during "dry times" when I had no group (very rare), I have created campaigns and systems on my own. I have not been system-loyal at any point in my history -- I dropped D&D when it became AD&D, I have run Traveller, RuneQuest, Paranoia, Ars Magica, Flashing Blades!, Chivalry & Sorcery, Over the Edge, and probably about another dozen or so systems. I came back to D&D with 3e, never made the full leap to 3.5, and, after trying it, dropped 4e like a hot potato in favour of Ars Magica 5th ed and Changeling (NWoD).

Gaming is in my blood.

 

[greatamericanfolkher]

I had a friend in a high school freshman science class ask me if I had ever heard about D&D before, I told him yes. He then asked if I had ever played before, I said no. He asked if I would like to learn, I said sure. He loaned me his three core 3.0 rulebooks and said that I was going to be the game master for the group.

Yes, I game mastered before I had ever played.

I studied those three books front and back for two weeks, and then ran my first game. Ask anyone about “O’ little town of Pibbshire” and you will either get a grin or a groan.

 

[jcayer]

I think I might be one of the youngest starters. I think it was between 2nd and 3rd grade. I was visiting some of the older kids in the neighborhood, they were playing and got me to roll up a fighter.

To this day, I have the most vivid memory of exploring the castle level of B1 but fighting a hydra and purple worm. For the hydra I quaffed a potion of invisibility and unfortunately, became visible when I was standing in front of it wailing on it with my battle axe.

And lets not forget the good old wandering cleric who resurrected me.