How Did You Start Playing?

[JustinA]

How did you get introduced to RPGs? This came up in another thread talking about how essential (or not essential) brick-and-mortar stores were to introducing new customers to the industry.

 

[Gothic_Demon]

Back when...

I was wandering around a Games Workshop store in the late eighties' in York here in the UK. I was about 10 and I had taken my mum in there because I was a fan of fantasy novels and I liked the look of the miniatures. The red box caught my eye with the big dragon on the front and she bought it for me.

Here I am, 18 years later...

 

[Umbran]

Introduced to Tunnels and Trolls, and later to D&D, by my older brother.

 

[Wombat]

First heard about D&D through a miniatures gaming catalong (thank you, Brookhurst Hobbies!). They made the game (on a very vague description) sound like the answer to the problems I was having with wargaming -- too many arguements about rules and sighting, winners vs. losers, no "personal involvement" with the units, etc.

That was over 30 years ago now...

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Hmm. Sort of 'introduced by a friend', but sort of not. One of the first friends I made as a kid when the family moved to a new state was already seriously into wargames, but not so much on the RPGs. He got me into the wargaming aspect, and then my dad saw the basic D&D set at the store and thought it would make a good Christmas present. I would have to say that was the best present ever Once my friend and I got into the RPG side of gaming, we met other people at school (one of whom I still game with 27 years later). The only LGS wasn't very friendly -- the guy that ran it was often overtly hostile to the gamer crowd, so it wasn't a source of information or other players.

I don't think the brick and mortar stores are essential to recruiting new players, anymore than a sporting goods store is for recruiting new football players. A good FLGS can nurture players once they've dipped their toes, but a bad one can be detrimental. I will concede that if one considers the CCGs and CMGs to be 'gateway drugs' for RPGs, then the stores might have a greater impact, but I'm still skeptical. I think with most hobbies, people are introduced by someone they know, and that personal contacts beat commercial ones.

 

[Halivar]

I was 8, and my friend Thomas and I would go skulk around his brother's friends playing D&D. I just remember being fascinated by the idea of different people helping to write the story. The first thing I heard was something along the lines of "You see the damsel lying on the floor, and the red dragon snarling over her. What do you do?"

Me and Thomas would then go off and do our own roleplaying, taking turns laying out scenarios and saying "What do you do?" No dice. No books. Just imagination. His brother caught us on the playground, and he and his gamer friends started making fun of us. "Hey, look! They're pretending like they're roleplaying!"

Only now does the delicious irony of this statement hit me. Ah, how I miss 1987.

 

[kenobi65]

Well, see, my answer to this question, and the importance of a brick-and-mortar game store, are two different questions.

My answer to the poll question is "a friend introduced me to the game". That said, being able to then go to the FLGS and buy books, ask questions, buy my first Dragon Magazine (issue #60 :sob: ), etc., I think was very important to really getting me into the hobby.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

That said, being able to then go to the FLGS and buy books, ask questions, buy my first Dragon Magazine (issue #60 :sob: ), etc., I think was very important to really getting me into the hobby.

There is that, at least back when I started. As unfriendly as the local store could be, the stuff sold well and he kept it very well stocked. Anymore, though, with stuff so readily available from other sources, I'm not sure that aspect of the LGS is as important.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Learned at a picnic table at National Wildlife Camp in North Carolina in the summer of '79. We played through the adventure on the cover of the then-new Players Handbook. It was a TPK, with my ... character of uncertain race and class ending his days cowering on the lower level of an elevator platform, waiting for the orcs to come finish him off.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

"Introduced by a friend" in late 1988. Mentzer Red Box. Played a fighter, played the usual Bargle intro. Bought into the game in early 1989.