How did you start?

[ShinHakkaider]

Intro Games @ Gen-Con

In reading most of these responses and having never been to Gen Con, are there intro beginner friendly games that are organized and run there? Or does it strictly cater to people who are already gamers. It seems like the answer would be obvious but I just thought that I'd ask.

And has anyone ever thought of organizing mini-cons for the SOLE PURPOSE of introducing new and potentially interested people to gaming? I mean something inherently user friendly with pre generated characters and people to walk new players through the rules and the game as it goes. I hear so much talk about needing to introduce new blood to the hobby and to be honest my best games were either with my close friends or people who I introduced to the game.

So is there anything like this? anywhere?

 

[JoeyD473]

I got my start in Dya camp at 7 yrs old. they had activity choices and Karate was my first chocie, but I didn't get in, but I locved fantasy and games so I put D&D as my 2nd. I played there for 3 yrs then I stopped going to day camp. I stopped playing till I started working at the boy scout camp at 14yrs old. Some of the staff from the previous year had a group and played every night so I joined them remembering how much I loved and I have been playign it ever since

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't attend Cons in general. The only time I did, I was scheduled to run an adventure and only one person showed up.

So I can't say if there are any intro games at Cons, but I'd doubt it- they seem to be for current, not future, gamers.

In my case, after finding the game (I bought a PHB and a MM), I found a group to teach me run by a hobbitlike kid who was starting a n00bs only game after school (East Middle School, Aurora, CO) in 1978.

Since then, I've returned the favor a few times, introducing maybe...15-20 utter newbies to gaming.

 

[kenobi65]

And has anyone ever thought of organizing mini-cons for the SOLE PURPOSE of introducing new and potentially interested people to gaming? I mean something inherently user friendly with pre generated characters and people to walk new players through the rules and the game as it goes. I hear so much talk about needing to introduce new blood to the hobby and to be honest my best games were either with my close friends or people who I introduced to the game.

I think that's what WotC and the RPGA try to do with the "Worldwide D&D Day" in November. They make some sort of bundled adventure, with pregenerated characters, that they distribute to FLGSs, to make it easy to introduce new players.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

I said "a friend." Actually it was a friend of my brother's. We'd taken him to church with us and on the way back, he and my brother were talking in the back seat of the car. My attention was caught by what he was saying and I asked questions. It was Dungeons and Dragons that he was playing. This was probably in 1976. I got him to tell me more, and then joined their group. We played a lot of other games too, like MERPS and Metamorphosis: Alpha.

 

[loki44]

Something Else
Forced by my mother to play with the son of one of her friends. I was in trouble and she wanted to introduce me to a different crowd. Thanks Mom!

No FLGS for me either. The local hardware store sold a few books and minis. That was it.

 

[Panthanas]

Since I chose 'something else" I figured I would explain:

After my 16th birthday (in October of 1989 for anyone interested) a 'friend' from school asked my sister (14 at the time) if she would be interested in accompanying him to a birthday party for a friend of his (I didn't know this other person). Anyway, my sister agreed on the condition that I could go too.

Anyway, they were playing D&D at this party, and if I remember correctly, 2nd Edition had just been released. Another party attendee was the DM and he's the only person who was at that party (other than my sister, of course!) that I'm still in regular contact with today.

So, in a round about way a friend introduced me to the game

 

[kenobi65]

if I remember correctly, 2nd Edition had just been released.

That'd be about right. 2E came out in the early part of '89 -- I recall killing time in a boring statistics class I had during my final semester of grad school reading the brand-new PHB, and that would have been the spring of '89.

 

[Henry]

Moldvay Purple Box edition at a Circus World toy store, circa 1981.

Later, I lucked into a group of guys at high school looking for new players, and that was how I began playing "seriously." Prior to that, I ran these pseudo-D&D Storyteller-style games that used a mix of the basic/expert/AD&D books and my imagination, with only one or two friends who eventually quit playing, leaving me reading D&D books but not playing for about 5 years (late 1980's).

 

[howandwhy99]

Strange story really.

7th grade Science class. A big jerk with the same name as the 39th US president sold me the Unearthed Arcana book. This was the guy who stole my eraser and ate my 64 color box of Crayolas back in kindergarten. He sold me the book for 5$ during the middle of class (which is something I normally never did). I sensed at the time it wasn't on the up and up, but I was too interested in reading one of the few things my parents forbid owning. In retrospect he probably stole the book from his brother.

I can tell you... trying to learn D&D with no dice, no experience, and only the 1E UA is nearly impossible. I actually cheered when a friend told me a year later that a 2nd edition had come out.