How did you learn how to play?

[hagor]

This brings back some memories...
Some 15 years ago, a friend was telling all the adventures his character had. This got me interested. Pretty soon, I joined the group, learned the rules and was hooked.
I started out as a first level wizard running around in the Forgotten Realms. Unfortunately, that campaign never ended (the DM had some sort of writer's block).

Hagor

 

[Li Shenron]

I have a theory that very few people ever learned how to play D&D by reading those "what is an RPG" sections that one finds at the beginning of most RPG books. Instead, I believe that most people learned by being taught by someone who already knew how to play the game, or by at least seeing it played.

How did you learn how to play?

I was about to vote "by the books" because that's how I learned the rules of old D&D and 3ed. But if you meant learning how to play a RPG in general, then it was from earlier discussions with friends who had played before and they explained the general concepts to me; then I immidiately borrowed their OD&D books and learned the rules before playing.