Mark Hope
Hero
Long waffly story... 
Way back in 1976 or 1977, I was reading a hardback compilation of the Trigan Empire comic series. In one scene, the heroes are commanding a large army and have a wargame-style table laid out with little miniatures representing troops and units and stuff. At 7 years old, I was so taken with the concept that I made a big map of the Trigan world and played a proto-wargame using counters stuck to the board with blu-tack. This has nothing to do with D&D at all, but it set the stage for what came later.
A few years after this, when Empire Strikes Back was about to hit the cinema (ie. 1980) I picked up an sf/fantasy magazine with R2-D2 and C-3PO on the cover (Fantasia? Can't recall). On the back cover of the magazine was a full-page advert for the three AD&D core harbacks - that was my first encounter with D&D proper. Of course, I had no idea whatsoever what these books were - completely baffled, although they looked kinda cool. In addition to the Star Wars articles, the magazine also had other stuff of a more salacious nature (amazon hotties flashing their boobies!) that I wasn't sure was targeted at readers of my age. For some reason I presumed that those books with titles like "Dungeon Master's Guide" (for the adult roleplayer, wink wink) fell into that slightly naughty category. From time to time I would look at the advert and try to puzzle out just what the hell kind of game was this?
I also used to get the Star Wars weekly comic. After a while, adverts started appearing in the comic for the Dungeon board game. The idea of adventuring around a labyrinth, fighting monsters and collecting loot seemed incredibly cool and (like with the Trigan wargame from years before) I made a couple of boardgames of my own (set on pirate islands, iirc) in a similar vein.
In 1982 I saw E.T. and read the novelisation of the film. Although the movie only briefly features gaming, the book refers to D&D, characters, stats, DMs and the like in some detail. Suddenly it fell into place - so that's what those books on the back of the Fantasia magazine were about! It had nothing to do with naked bondage amazon chicks at all! Well, whaddya know!!
Just after this, a couple of friends at school asked me "Do you know what Dungeons and Dragons is?" "Yes," I replied smugly. "It's a game played by Americans." They snorted in derision. "Ha! Well, that's where you're wrong. Because we play it, and we're not American". "Oh, cool!" I replied. "Can I play too?" More derision. "No," they replied. "We only play with experienced players and it would take too long to explain it to you". In other words, you're a noob, Hope, so get lost.
Not in the slightest bit discouraged by this display of gamer snobbery, I bugged them relentlessly for weeks thereafter, pumping them for information about the game, how it worked, how it was played, just what a Dungeon Master was and how things like combat and the like were resolved. And then (like with the Trigan wargame and the Dungeon/pirates boardgames) I went home and wrote my own crude RPG called... Castle. It had two stats (Strength and Power!!), a sprawling map that players (ie. my sister, parents and neighbour) moved around taking turns like a boardgame, and any combat was resolved by rolling 5d6 (all the dice I owned!) and subtracting the result from Power. I can't remember what Strength was for...
This kept me happily amused for months on end until our next trip to the UK (I lived in Holland at the time and had no idea where to find gaming supplies). We stopped by Beatties model shop in Newcastle and I spotted the magenta Basic D&D box on the shelf. I bought it on the spot and haven't looked back since. Someday I intend to release Castle as a 672-page deluxe hardback with accompanying vinyl map - but I need to figure out what the Strength stat did first, though...
Way back in 1976 or 1977, I was reading a hardback compilation of the Trigan Empire comic series. In one scene, the heroes are commanding a large army and have a wargame-style table laid out with little miniatures representing troops and units and stuff. At 7 years old, I was so taken with the concept that I made a big map of the Trigan world and played a proto-wargame using counters stuck to the board with blu-tack. This has nothing to do with D&D at all, but it set the stage for what came later.
A few years after this, when Empire Strikes Back was about to hit the cinema (ie. 1980) I picked up an sf/fantasy magazine with R2-D2 and C-3PO on the cover (Fantasia? Can't recall). On the back cover of the magazine was a full-page advert for the three AD&D core harbacks - that was my first encounter with D&D proper. Of course, I had no idea whatsoever what these books were - completely baffled, although they looked kinda cool. In addition to the Star Wars articles, the magazine also had other stuff of a more salacious nature (amazon hotties flashing their boobies!) that I wasn't sure was targeted at readers of my age. For some reason I presumed that those books with titles like "Dungeon Master's Guide" (for the adult roleplayer, wink wink) fell into that slightly naughty category. From time to time I would look at the advert and try to puzzle out just what the hell kind of game was this?
I also used to get the Star Wars weekly comic. After a while, adverts started appearing in the comic for the Dungeon board game. The idea of adventuring around a labyrinth, fighting monsters and collecting loot seemed incredibly cool and (like with the Trigan wargame from years before) I made a couple of boardgames of my own (set on pirate islands, iirc) in a similar vein.
In 1982 I saw E.T. and read the novelisation of the film. Although the movie only briefly features gaming, the book refers to D&D, characters, stats, DMs and the like in some detail. Suddenly it fell into place - so that's what those books on the back of the Fantasia magazine were about! It had nothing to do with naked bondage amazon chicks at all! Well, whaddya know!!
Just after this, a couple of friends at school asked me "Do you know what Dungeons and Dragons is?" "Yes," I replied smugly. "It's a game played by Americans." They snorted in derision. "Ha! Well, that's where you're wrong. Because we play it, and we're not American". "Oh, cool!" I replied. "Can I play too?" More derision. "No," they replied. "We only play with experienced players and it would take too long to explain it to you". In other words, you're a noob, Hope, so get lost.
Not in the slightest bit discouraged by this display of gamer snobbery, I bugged them relentlessly for weeks thereafter, pumping them for information about the game, how it worked, how it was played, just what a Dungeon Master was and how things like combat and the like were resolved. And then (like with the Trigan wargame and the Dungeon/pirates boardgames) I went home and wrote my own crude RPG called... Castle. It had two stats (Strength and Power!!), a sprawling map that players (ie. my sister, parents and neighbour) moved around taking turns like a boardgame, and any combat was resolved by rolling 5d6 (all the dice I owned!) and subtracting the result from Power. I can't remember what Strength was for...
This kept me happily amused for months on end until our next trip to the UK (I lived in Holland at the time and had no idea where to find gaming supplies). We stopped by Beatties model shop in Newcastle and I spotted the magenta Basic D&D box on the shelf. I bought it on the spot and haven't looked back since. Someday I intend to release Castle as a 672-page deluxe hardback with accompanying vinyl map - but I need to figure out what the Strength stat did first, though...
