How did you learn how to play?

[der_kluge]

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?

 

[Gentlegamer]

A friend in 6th grade who had been previously enrolled in private school described the basic premise of Dungeons & Dragons (the "smart kids" had played it at his school), which I only knew of at the time as a cartoon. I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books, so I had a pretty good idea of the concept already. He and I played with no rules for a few months. After he moved away, I found Dragon Magazine and the Endless Quest books at my public library, and then saved up enough for the AD&D Player's Handbook [Zeb the Destroyer edition]. I taught myself the rules, aided by the gift of the black box Dungeons & Dragons Basic set later that year. I also taught my friends how to play, including the whole concept of role-playing and the specific (A)D&D rules.

 

[Brund the Decrepit]

I voted for option #1 but it was really more of a combination of #1 & #2.
One of our wargaming group saw that if he purchased 5 games he would get a 6th one for free and him being the strange person he was couldn't resist that 'free' game. One of the games he bought was the D&D basic set.

Well after a few months they decided to try this D&D game. The thing they did wrong was they thought it was a competative game and fought each other all through the adventure.. After a while they all sat down and went over the rule book and found that they had been doing it all wrong.

 

[FreeXenon]

I selected 'Learned By Self' as I really did learn the game by reading the books. I was introduced to the game by a 'Killer DM'. We played twice and then he left for the summer for the East Cost to visit familiy. I bought the bboks that summer then read and read and read. I started to play on my own, met my best friend (who had never played) and we learned the game together.

 

[MaxKaladin]

I'm the "other" person. I learned by a combination of being taught and learning. In a nutshell, I had some friends teach me to play "D&D" one day during the summer and that weekend I talked my stepmother into taking me to the mall (some 23 miles away) to get my own D&D books. That night, I stayed up late into the night reading the red-box Basic Set version of D&D (this was 1984). That was when I learned that so many of the rules my friends taught me were so very, very wrong.

That's why I say "other". I learned to play something that was pretty much D&D in name only then learned to play it by the given rules from reading the books.

 

[Napftor]

Oddly enough, I learned how to play during my stint in the Boy Scouts. I still say it's the only valuable thing I learned from that organization.

 

[suburbaknght]

I was initially taught by someone else but not very thoroughly. When, after the second session, he canceled the campaign I decided to run one of my own, borrowed the PHB, and taught myself how the game actually /works/. Still, I consider myself to have been taught by another, just as my first aikido sensei will always be the person who taught me aikido no matter how many other senseis I have.

 

[der_kluge]

I selected 'Learned By Self' as I really did learn the game by reading the books. I was introduced to the game by a 'Killer DM'. We played twice and then he left for the summer for the East Cost to visit familiy. I bought the bboks that summer then read and read and read. I started to play on my own, met my best friend (who had never played) and we learned the game together.

Yes, but isn't that technically learning from someone else? I mean, you learned the *rules* from the books, but the concept from someone else. It's the concept that I'm interested in.

 

[Akrasia]

My parents bought me the Holmes edited Basic set for my birthday (9th iirc). I read the book, and tried to run the game with my parents. I treated it as a board game -- with graph paper as the board! Needless to say, I got pretty much everything wrong.

I later met some friends who played the game, and we slowly learned together. My first semi-successful adventure was B1.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Self Taught

I was 10 years old . . . Summer 1981 . . . parents recently divorced. Spent every other weekend with Dad. One weekend while at a collectibles shop (stamps and coins) in the mall I saw the DnD Red (really it was pink) box. Thought it was cool.

Two weeks later go to Dad's house and there is the box . . . cool! He bought it for me during the intervening two weeks. Spent the whole weekend reading the books and drawing dungeons and crap. Begged Dad and sister to play . . . sort of played off and on all summer. It was mainly me telling them what to do and them rolling some dice.

Later introduced a few friends to the game and eventually we actually started playing for real. B2: Keep on the Borderlands holds some very fond memories for me; never looked back.