How did you start?
- Thread starter Mercule
- Start date
Started playing when my sister's boyfriend at the time ran a game the summer between high school and college. Stuck with it thanks to a few of the crowd I was hanging out with at college deciding to start up a game. In college I bought books from a local comic store or a big box store by my parent's place (though not many; I had a PHB and a few complete handbooks and that's about it). Bought the 3.0 books not expecting to have much chance to use them (as I'd graduated and moved away from my gaming group). Found a new group when I moved out west; my (now much larger) gaming library has been purchased almost entirely from Amazon (and most of what wasn't was still purchased online).
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el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
I saw the TV movie "Mazes & Monsters" and could not wait to try out the game "it was based on", when I read a related article in the sunday NY Daily News that (I think) one of my older siblings pointed out to me.
Eventually I convinced my mom to "lend" me the money to go a local toy and game store (where I usually bought LEGO sets with birthday money) and I got the Red Boxed set.
I was 11 years old.
Eventually I convinced my mom to "lend" me the money to go a local toy and game store (where I usually bought LEGO sets with birthday money) and I got the Red Boxed set.
I was 11 years old.
I had no FLGS when I started, and D&D (at the time, the only other RPG was Traveller) was only sold in comic shops, hobby shops, and college bookstores...and not in any particular one. You really had to go looking.
I had heard of the game and wanted to learn how to play, but had to actively search for a place to buy anything. One store might have had a Monster Manual. Another would have the PHB. Someplace else would have the minis.
It was like a scavenger hunt.
Since then, however, I've been FLGS all the way.
I had heard of the game and wanted to learn how to play, but had to actively search for a place to buy anything. One store might have had a Monster Manual. Another would have the PHB. Someplace else would have the minis.
It was like a scavenger hunt.
Since then, however, I've been FLGS all the way.
Glyfair
Explorer
Tough call.
I first found out about D&D from an article in the local newspaper about the game, and a local group (who eventually became friends). That tweaked my interest.
I stumbled into a store that carried the game by accident. It was a local arts & crafts store (back when they used to be common) that had a corner devoted to RPGs and maybe some small amount of wargame stuff. I didn't get the game then, but it was close enough to ride my bike there, so I would go and look through the books and decide what I wanted to buy.
No FLGS, but that was only because there weren't any in the area at the time. Strategy and Fantasy World would come to Wilmington a year or two later. It would fold soon (Wilmington Inner City wasn't a good place to start a business in those days), but two would crop up about 1981 that are still in business. I would probably have stopped gaming if I didn't have one. I spent probably 4 nights a week there, and all day Saturday (noonish until late night, occasionally Sunday morning), through much of the 80's.
I first found out about D&D from an article in the local newspaper about the game, and a local group (who eventually became friends). That tweaked my interest.
I stumbled into a store that carried the game by accident. It was a local arts & crafts store (back when they used to be common) that had a corner devoted to RPGs and maybe some small amount of wargame stuff. I didn't get the game then, but it was close enough to ride my bike there, so I would go and look through the books and decide what I wanted to buy.
No FLGS, but that was only because there weren't any in the area at the time. Strategy and Fantasy World would come to Wilmington a year or two later. It would fold soon (Wilmington Inner City wasn't a good place to start a business in those days), but two would crop up about 1981 that are still in business. I would probably have stopped gaming if I didn't have one. I spent probably 4 nights a week there, and all day Saturday (noonish until late night, occasionally Sunday morning), through much of the 80's.
cybertalus
First Post
Gonna have to be Other, because it's more than one of the choices.
The first RPG I ever bought was the old FASA Doctor Who RPG. Wasn't looking for it, it was just shelved near the Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Waldenbooks and caught my eye, and eventually enough interest to spend my very limited allowance on it. I never found anyone else to play it though.
The first RPG I ever played was AD&D 1st Edition. A few years after buying the Doctor Who RPG, I picked up the first trilogy of Dragonlance novels and got interested in trying out AD&D. A friend who'd played AD&D was the prize coordinator for the astronomy club I was in, and knew I was interested in getting into the game. When I won the best attendance award for the year, he donated a 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook as my prize. Him and a few other people I knew who played a little AD&D and some Top Secret were my first gaming group.
That was the late 80's, and in all the years since, I've only ever found one gaming group as a result of being in a gaming store. Given the quality of that group, I won't complain if I never find any others that way.
The first RPG I ever bought was the old FASA Doctor Who RPG. Wasn't looking for it, it was just shelved near the Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Waldenbooks and caught my eye, and eventually enough interest to spend my very limited allowance on it. I never found anyone else to play it though.
The first RPG I ever played was AD&D 1st Edition. A few years after buying the Doctor Who RPG, I picked up the first trilogy of Dragonlance novels and got interested in trying out AD&D. A friend who'd played AD&D was the prize coordinator for the astronomy club I was in, and knew I was interested in getting into the game. When I won the best attendance award for the year, he donated a 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook as my prize. Him and a few other people I knew who played a little AD&D and some Top Secret were my first gaming group.
That was the late 80's, and in all the years since, I've only ever found one gaming group as a result of being in a gaming store. Given the quality of that group, I won't complain if I never find any others that way.
davidschwartznz
First Post
A FLGS didn't get me into gaming, but it did get me to buy stuff I might not otherwise have looked at. I'm for supporting FLGS: it's not just the product, it's the experience.
Aaron L
Hero
I was in 10th grade and at a program called Upward Bound that sent high school kids to Penn State for the summer to live in dorms and take special classes to encourage us to go to college. Some of the kids were playing D&D and I begged and begged to let me play too because Id wanted to ever since I had first heard of it. Eventually they let me in.
Altamont Ravenard
Explorer
I think I saw the cartoon, and really liked it, and then I saw the red box at a game store, and so bought said box. The rest, as they say, is history.
AR
AR
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