Forked Thread: Started playing D&D without being introduced by someone else?

[Glyfair]

I wonder if this should have been a poll. The results might give us an idea on how to grow our hobby.

Polls have been done here on "how did you start roleplaying" topics. A search should turn them up. I didn't want to tread on well trod ground, and wanted to stay on the narrow "I got into gaming without another playing introducing me to it" topic.

Edit: Found one.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I read alot when I was little. My parents bought me the red Basic D&D set for Christmas because of how much I liked to read fantasy books like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit. I was 8 years old I think. So I started playing then with some friends this strange game that I received for Christmas. You know how much kids love make believe games when they are little. So I was off to the races. I liked it so much I kept playing and have been playing for nearly thirty years now.

 

[Serendipity]

Bit of both - I saw an ad* in a really REALLY crappy Star Trek comic and viola, wound up with the Holmes Basic set.
But if I didn't turn out to know people already into gaming I doubt it would have stuck (or at least not until many years later).


* one of a series of ads done as single page comics; IIRC they were hyping the Expert set at that point. Anyone else remember these?

 

[Mr. Wilson]

My response from the other thread:

My friends and I had been playing HeroQuest when we were in sixth grade. Friend A found this book titled Rifts when we were out book shopping and showed it to us. We agreed the concept was cool (like HeroQuest but with Robots!!!) and tried it out.

That's how I came to Roleplaying.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

A mix of reading a whole lot as a kid and the FLGS being the only thing near my school and house with an arcade machine with Metal Slug in it led me to learning of D&D.

 

[frankthedm]

loved books on monsters since i was a child. Wound up reading the monster books and Rules Cyclopedia at waldenbooks a lot. Eventualy started checking out D&D books from the local library and got a general feel for the ruleset.

 

[Weregrognard]

I discovered D&D on my own. I already loved Nintendo fantasy games like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, and Legend of Zelda. I got the 1990's Basic Game at Toys R Us and devoured it at home that evening. I later introduced my friends to it, kind of like Moses with the Ten Commandments: "THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS D&D!!!"

 

[WhatGravitas]

I picked up D&D (together with some friends) due to NWN1.

Cheers, LT.

 

[garyh]

I already loved Nintendo fantasy games like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, and Legend of Zelda.

I'd also played all those classic NES RPG's growing up. Then in 7th grade my dad finally convinced me to read The Hobbit, after which I devoured Lord of the Rings. Soon thereafter, I picked up a Middle Earth Role Playing boxed set from ICE at a game store in the local mall (walking past many D&D books to do so, I'm sure ). In 9th grade I was introduced to D&D proper by another kid at my high school. So yeah, I got into D&D because of someone else, but I got into RPG's through MERP (and that because of Tolkien and the NES).

 

[EATherrian]

I was really interested in mythology as a kid, and I found the Monster Manual fascinating. We had a store nearby (Waldorf, MD) called Book-Ends which had a display case full of modules, and it really pulled me in, but I actually ended up with the Red Box which caused some strife since I was only allowed to get the Monster Manual for research purposes to avoid the taint of Satanism (not kidding). That was all she wrote. After that, in 4th Grade, I found some others who played and finally got to game, about a year after owning the game.