How did you get into D&D?

[Kid Charlemagne]

When I was 13, one of my best friends in middle school told me about this game called D&D. He explained it, but I didn't quite get the whole concept very clearly. I lived in France at the time, and the books weren't available in the Paris area, so my friend planned on buying the books that summer, and we'd try playing the next school year.

Unfortunately, I moved away that summer, and never got a chance to play. But when I saw one of the boxed sets in a bookstore window, I bought it, and got a couple kids to play. Never really stopped since then.

Living in France, with all the old castles and such around certainly had a big influence on me being into medieval things, and fantasy novels and games. That and those cool Playmobil knight toys...

 

[nyrfherdr]

Another long one... Bear with me.
I was an army brat. Moved every 3 years from my birth day until Junior High School. My best friends were my 3 brothers. 1 younger and 2 older.

We were all Fantasy and SciFi nuts. Watching any and all movie related to SciFi no matter how bad. Reading tons of books. So when I found the D&D Basic Set, I bought it in a heartbeat (1979). I cracked it open, used the crayon on the green dice and read the rules. My brothers were eager to play and made me be the DM
"But you're older"
"But it's you're game. Do you want us to play or not?"

They entered 'The Keep on the Borderlands' with Meatcleaver, the fighter; Jack, the thief; and Bonehead, the magic-user. Jack and Meatcleaver died in the Caves of Chaos and so Bonehead went up like 4 levels with all of the treasure. He threw himself at the ogre to kill himself because my brother didn't think 4 hit points was fair (we didn't realize that you could get more hitpoints when you went up in level).

D&D is still a major part of my life and I still play with friends locally, but my fondest memories are playing with my brothers. With Shadowjack, Meatcleaver, Skoal and Copenhagen and other memorable characters.

 

[Rel]

I was a junior high loan shark. One kid offered me a copy of Dragon Magazine as collateral.

For some reason, I find that incredibly funny. So did the kid ever get his Dragon Magazine back out of hock? Or did he default on the loan, starting your massive Dragon Magazine collection?

I have a picture in my mind of this still going on in the Junior High hallways today:

"Hey Guido, look man, I need some new mini's for our Forgotten Realms game. Can you spot me a $20 until the weekend?"

"I gotta have somethin' to hold onto there bud. You were late getting me the money I loaned you on those Chessex Battlemaps."

"How about my Sword and Fist?"

"Sword and Fist? Have you seen the errata for that thing? No way I'm gonna be able to unload an extra Sword and Fist if you skip town with the mini's. What else ya got?"

"Ok, what about a Defender's of the Faith?"

"Keep it comin'..."

"And my Dragon 300 with the vileness section still unopened..."

"And...?"

"And!? Geez man, you're killin' me here. Alright, I'll toss in a copy of (contact)'s RttToEE Story Hour that I pasted into a Word document. But that's my final offer, you vampire!"

"Deal. Pleasure doin' business..."

 

[Taloras]

Hmmm....ive been reading Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books for years......had been interested in D&D for a long time...but had noone to play w/. in college, they played, but always started the games when i couldnt play. finally, i found a group last February, and have been with them since......i own about 16-17 books now......

 

[RobNJ]

I had always been a big reader, and one of the things my mom got me into was mythology: Greek and Roman especially though I was also interested in Norse and Pharonic myth. Around this time (I was about 8 or so) one of my parents' friends, Jack, and his teenage daughter (who was our babysitter now and then), Jenny, and some other people they knew were playing D&D. I knew it was fantasy stuff and I wanted in but they wouldn't let me. I don't blame them .

Along the way I was getting into Choose Your Own Adventure books, where you'd read up to a certain point and be asked which way you want to go, then move to the indicated page.

One day my mom brought me home the first of the Dragonlance paperbacks, and I begged her to let me get the game it was based on. One Christmas (1983 or so, I was 10) I got the blue book boxed set and began running myself on the enclosed module (playing an elf) like it was a Choose Your Own Adventure book, rolling dice to see if I succeded and the like. I knew this wasn't how it was done, but I wanted to play. I have a vivid memory of sitting in the back seat--I think it was a minivan--on my way to my grandparents' house, playing away.

One Christmas a few years later, my grandmother brought me into a mall near her house and got me the 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, and a set of dice. I eventually made friends (Billy & Billy) who were willing to play with me, and the rest is history.

 

[buzz]

Yadda yadda old timer yadda yadda...

When I was a little kid, I would always check out books on Medieval arms and armor from my local library. I was also a big comic book fan and budding artist, so I would draw what I saw in the books.

While I was at summer camp, some guys started playing AD&D during lunch breaks. I listened in on what they were doing, and then started drawing some pictures of knights.

"Dude! Can you draw a picture of my character?"

I asked them a bit about the game, and then later prodded my mom to buy me a copy. We managed to find the Basic set (the original, which was a new product at the time) at a local department store. It came with everything you needed... except dice. There was a card of cut-out "chits" that you were supposed to draw from a cup. Thankfully, I got some real dice not too long after.

My first game was with just me and one friend. We went through "Keep on the Borderlands", each (!) playing an elven fighter/magic user. I didn't know that you couldn't do that in Basic, but I figured there were only two of us, so we needed to "multi-class." The game went great, and I think that at some point I managed to figure out what Hit Points were.

Additional facts:

1. My junior high had a D&D class (a "minicourse") as well. Basically, it was just time during school where you could play.

2. I gave up on D&D when 2e came out, instead playing Rolemaster (for a short time), Cthulhu, and Champions. My involvement in the hobby waned for a few years... and then 3e came out. Since then I've gotten back into the hobby witha vengeance.

The rest is history... as is my checking account.

 

[Zarthon]

I was sitting next to a guy at school and he was rolling some funny shaped dice ( ), anyway I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was writing an adventure for his D&D group. To which I replyied "Whats D&D?".
That was 14 years ago and this guy is now one of my best friends.

 

[DrSkull]

Back in the 70's I played the old Avalon Hill board game"Gettysburg" at school (5th grade or so). I really enjoyed it and so got a few more of them, Kingmaker, Starship Troopers, ALexander the Great etc.

I also wanted to get some sort of rules to use with my toy soldiers, of which I had a nice pile. So I got a few copies of "wargamer's Digest" magazine and saw the advertisement for Dungeons and Dragons (white box) in the back.

A guy I knew at school described his sessions of "Empire of the Petal Throne" which I fiugred was sort of the same thing as D&D, and that sounded neat.

So, once at a hobby shop I saw the Orignal D&D basic set (blue box) and bought it. (I must have been in the 7th grade, late 70's). I read through it, became the local DM and away we went.

 

[mythusmage]

I ALWAYS wanted to play in Ms. Frost's group but she wouldn't let me. I mean, there was a lack of gamer girls back then and your group had a lot of'em. I was single at that age and available. I even cast a spell on my parents to get them to buy me a bunch of D&D books. But I never got to use them because she wouldn't let me play!

Not even after there was an opening when Blackleaf 'left' the group.



Ulrick

Marcie? Oh God. She's not as bad as she used to be, but she's still a raving drama queen. I swear, that girl has used up more theatrical blood than the entire production run of Friday the Thirteenth. She used to fake suicides on a monthly basis. (Hasn't for the last three years, BTW.)

Now, considering that Debbie was a borderline schizophrenic at the time -prone to delusions- her taking the "hanging" for real becomes understandable. Given her condition when that Byrd fellow (I think that was the name) interviewed her, it's no wonder she came up with all that occult crap and what not.

You know, calling Ms. Frost the leader of a witches coven is utterly ridiculous to those of us who know her. She is as hard core a Christian as you can get and not be a Fundie. If anybody's thinking of trying to join her V:TM game, be aware that she runs one quite unlike the game in the book. (Golconda is not a permanent state for one thing, since it lets you stay a vampire.)

 

[nopantsyet]

Christmas, 1981. Parents got me the red box basic set. Best gift they ever got me. I carried that around with me everywhere I went until it disintegrated.

That's not even getting into the time a couple years later when I copied the aqua expert rulebook by hand because I was a kid and didn't have the cash to buy it.

The local library carried a bunch of modules, and I'd copy all the monsters and other crunchy bits from them too.