How Did You Start Playing?

[Doctor DM]

I have a long tale of how I got into all this. So: I was a jock for a long time. (still am actually) and I played a lot of hockey. So when I was playing one season, whenever we won our coach would take everyone for ice cream (his mom owned the candy store.) We went like 23-2 that year, so we were going there a lot. It was right next to a comic/hobby store. I was a big comic fan, and wandered in there to buy comics. Then I saw HeroClix and started buying those, because, dude, super hero minis! Then the guy told me they ran tournaments for that and if I actually wanted to learn how to play to come in for those. So I did. Then I started playing more games and became a regular, then they asked me if I wanted to try roleplaying and I gave it a shot, and it just took off from there. BESM, Champions, and of course, D&D.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Where "friend" = "father"

Yup, my dad introduced me to the game around 3rd grade.

Me, too. I'd heard about it at school, mentioned it at the dinner table, and then looked on in surprise as Dad raised his eyebrows, got up, and produced the "blue book" from his briefcase. He'd heard about it at work (he was an officer in the Army) and bought the basic set a few days, before.

He DM'd me through my first adventure (the dungeon of the mad wizard, Kraylor), where I ran three characters (a dwarf named Mochu, an elf named Tahi, and a human thief that I can't recall the name of.) Tahi died when he failed his saving throw against a giant spider. I was hooked, and hooked hard. It never really caught on with Dad, so I ended up taking over the basic set and carrying on from there.

 

[Flynn]

I owe my wondrous memories of over two decades of gaming to a friend back in high school. Jason Todd Colette (1969-1987) introduced me to Traveller, and from there, I got into D&D. He passed away during our senior year due to a condition known as athlete's heart, leaving much sadness behind...

My dad (1947-2005) got me the AD&D 1st Edition on my 16th birthday, and then he fell in love with the concept of the game, so I ended up with a TON of books and minis by the time Christmas rolled around later that year. He played in a number of campaigns with me since then, before giving up gaming because he felt self-conscious about his age. Those were some good memories...

Now, I'm passing the torch on to my son, through the Basic D&D boxed set and now an adventure released on Free RPG Day.

Let's Make Some Good Memories,
Flynn

 

[TerraDave]

Back in the day it was just in the air, all mashed up with LotR, pulpish fantasy, and if you poked around enough, miniture gaming. And, and again this is way back, it was seen as beeing a cool thing.

Going from just sort of knowing about it to say seeing a copy, owning, or actually playing it. Thats another story. And getting the DM with the discipline to run anything like a real campaing, something else entirely.

But I DO remember my first few trips to game/hobby stores. Just incredible. All those minis, all that stuff for D&D, all those other games. Definately pulled my further into the hobby. And still gives a big nostalgia rush.

 

[kensanata]

I voted "Introduced by a friend" but in fact I got introduced to it by my mom, who had been introduced to it by one of her friends...

 

[Odhanan]

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.

They're not as critical as fans of RPGs who are willing to introduce people completely new to RPGs to their games with some regularity. This is really, really critical to the survival of tabletop gaming.

This implies that as a gamer you don't always try to find refuge with other gamers for playing new games, but just make the step every once in a while with your friends outside of RPGs to play a game to see what it's about and have a good time.

You'd be surprised how successful it becomes after a while. Suddenly, you're never lacking any new gaming group to play. You just create new ones as you go. That's what I do.

For the record, I was introduced to RPGs by a cousin of mine.

 

[Riley]

I voted "Introduced by a friend" but in fact I got introduced to it by my mom, who had been introduced to it by one of her friends...

[threadjack]
All these young(?) people who learned D&D on their parents' knee... it brings a gentle tear to my eye. My dear mom is an extremely concrete person who only reads nonfiction. My dad's a bit better, but the one time I tried to play D&D with them, they were careful to pack sandwiches before their day trip to the Caves of Chaos.

Nice to know that D&D can actually cross generations. Gives me hope for my still non-existent progeny.
[/threadjack]

 

[SavageRobby]

They're not as critical as fans of RPGs who are willing to introduce people completely new to RPGs to their games with some regularity. This is really, really critical to the survival of tabletop gaming.

This implies that as a gamer you don't always try to find refuge with other gamers for playing new games, but just make the step every once in a while with your friends outside of RPGs to play a game to see what it's about and have a good time.

You'd be surprised how successful it becomes after a while. Suddenly, you're never lacking any new gaming group to play. You just create new ones as you go. That's what I do.

Agreed. From our current group, one was recruited from the local yahoo group. One is my wife (who had played in college). One is a high school friend who played a bit back in the day. The four others were culled from friends that weren't previously RPGers, but enjoyed board games and such. So, fully half of our group were non-RPGers before I bullied convinced them to try gaming.

 

[Harmon]

"Introduced by a friend"

Well he was my brother and at the time not much of a friend. He quit a few years back, and started Play Testing MMOs and such (EverQuest, Star Trek, WOW, and a few others). Me, I have played more then a dozen systems, have Play Test credits in a few adventures and at least one credit in a GURPs book (which one I don't recall).

Much to the disdain of so many people I will more then likely game on my death bed (if I have anything to say about it, with my great grand children).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Harmon's last words:

"But I saved for half damaaaaa..."