How did you start?

[wingsandsword]

I voted for Club, but it was a long and mixed road to becoming a gamer.

Circa 1991 or so, I was in Junior High and getting kind of interested in the sci-fi and fantasy genres and saw this D&D game I'd heard mentioned from place to place.

Within a few months, I'd picked up the big black Basic D&D box (the one with the big red dragon on the cover), the NES version of Pool of Radiance, and handful of D&D books. I had one other friend in my class who was also interested, but we hadn't exactly figured out how it all worked (since we had a melange of Basic and Advanced D&D materials from several editions and thought they all worked together somehow), why the books we could buy at the store didn't work with the box set we bought, and they both had different rules than the computer games we saw.

However, before too long my dad realized what my new budding hobby was, and he strongly disapproved. The preacher had told him it was satanic and lead kids to commit suicide, so I wasn't allowed to have anything to do with it. My mom didn't care though, and I just put all my D&D things away and dropped it for a few years, wanting to play but not having a chance.

Then I went to college, and my first year I met somebody who played D&D, and we talked about it, and he always talked about the games he was in, but he never invited me to a game, even when I said I was interested and wanted to start playing D&D.

Out of the blue, my sophomore year of college I saw a flyer for the campus gaming club and went there to a meeting, and met a big club of gamers, and it was only weeks before I was running my first campaign (d6 Star Wars), and a month or two before I was playing in my first campaign (2e AD&D, heavily houseruled), that was 9 years ago and I've been gaming ever since.

So, while I came close by buying things in a store, and finding friends who were interested, I'd give the actual credit for me starting as a gamer, by actually gaming, to a club.

 

[sniffles]

I voted 'something else' because I started gaming with my then-boyfriend (now fiancee). He gamed semi-regularly when we started dating, and one day I asked if I could come along and see what it was like. I was already over 30 at the time; I didn't know anyone who gamed when I was younger.

12 years later I have a severe case of figmentia (mini addiction), my own copy of the PHB with sticky tags on all the important pages, and a collection of character sheet binders and dice in matching colors.

 

[Baron Opal]

A friend of my father's was heavy into the SCA and played D&D. One day while visiting him he talked about it and said it was a fun pastime. A few months later I attended Comic-Con in Albany, NY, and one of the retailers there had the blue box for sale. I pointed it out, they bought it for me, and my obession began. I was 13.

So, for me, the gateway was a comic/sci-fi convention.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

My best bet is "Club/Organization" since I game with most of the Stellarcon con staff (some have retired recently) who liked to game and started with on-campus games, then to someone's apt. and then to a couple's (the webmaster and his wife's) house where we game now. It's the only house where he can game since he's allergic to cats and the rest of us have cats.

 

[rebarton2]

Like Wombat, Col Hardisson, Umbran, and others, I got into D&D before there were FLGs. I was in the local hobby shop (Tamiya tank models, RR stuff, wargames), with money to burn on a new Avalon Hill Wargame. My buddy and I saw this cool blue box with a dragon on it and decided to go with it instead of Squad Leader (or something). It probably helped that I'd just read LOTR. So I voted "other" - I had never heard of the thing until I saw the blue box, beckoning, beckoning, beckoning ....

Geleg

 

[JoeyD473]

Stupid Questions. What is a FLGS?

 

[wingsandsword]

Stupid Questions. What is a FLGS?

Friendly Local Gaming Store

The typical FLGS is a small, local Mom & Pop type store that sells roleplaying games, collectable card games, miniatures, and related stuff (a lot are also comic book stores). There aren't any chains of them, and they often don't advertise too much, relying largely on word of mouth.

They are a traditional lifeblood of the gaming community, as a place where gamers can buy books, since they are either not carried by mainstream bookstores, or mainstream bookstores only carry major books by the major companies, and a place that sells pretty much everything you need to play RPG's. Most typically have a bulletin board or other way of getting ahold of other gamers to meet people to play, and have flyers for local gaming conventions or other gamer get-togethers.

 

[Jdvn1]

Friend (without gift) invited me to play, and I did. I didn't have any clue what to expect, really, and I hadn't heard the satanic stereotype... I didn't take it seriously when I did hear the stereotype. I still don't take it seriously. It was a fun game, it's still a fun game, and that's all there is to it.

 

[JoeyD473]

Friendly Local Gaming Store

All you had to say. And thanks

 

[Gentlegamer]

I watched the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as a kid, and found the Endless Quest gamebooks at my local library. In 6th grade, a new student told me about the D&D RPG he had played at private school (with the smart kids). When he described the basic premise of the game, that the DM had maps and described what the player could see, I thought to myself, "That is the coolest thing I've ever heard!"

We began playing very primative D&D. It was completely free-form as we had no rules. We would draw maps and populate it with challanges like those we were familiar with from the Endless Quest books, the D&D cartoon, Choose Your Own Adventure books, etc.

I found Dragon magazine at the library, then found the AD&D Player's Handbook at Waldenbooks. I saved up, bought it, and over the course of the next year taught myself and my friends how to play.