How old were you when your first GMed an RPG?

How old were you when your first GMed an RPG?

  • 1-10

    Votes: 17 13.0%
  • 11-13

    Votes: 59 45.0%
  • 14-16

    Votes: 34 26.0%
  • 17-19

    Votes: 5 3.8%
  • 20-24

    Votes: 9 6.9%
  • 25-29

    Votes: 4 3.1%
  • 30-35

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 36-40

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • 41-50

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • 51+

    Votes: 0 0.0%


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Shiroiken

Legend
Officially 15, but I actually wrote my own RPG and adventure when I was 13 because my brother wouldn't let me play D&D with his friends. I never actually got to run the game, because my brother's DM found it, and allowed me to join his game anyway. I brought my two friends I was going to run it for into the D&D game shortly afterwards.
 

Mercule

Adventurer
I was 10. Learned the game at summer camp. Came home and taught friends. Logical extension of that is that I was the GM. I'd definitely played less than a half dozen sessions, maybe as few as two, before turning into a nearly full-time GM. Over the last 45 years, I've probably GMed 80% of my gaming time.
 

Eltab

Lord of the Hidden Layer
HS Freshman, beginning of the school year, so 13. I had discovered D&D and Gamma World at school, and talked my parents into letting me buy GWvol1. My cousins came over for a weekend and we tried playing a completely-random Gamma World scenario. We found out that none of us were that good at on-the-fly descriptions.

As a player, same time frame, I created a Brontosaurus character that I never decided if he was man-sized or Brontosaurus-sized. To get away from some raiders, I stepped into the river and submerged briefly, then came up next round and used Radiated Eyes on the lead bandit. (Microwaves were a new invention back then.) The DM then noticed the entry for the Herkel ('piranha') and said to me "Guess what you stepped into?"

My first D&D session, I borrowed a friend's character as we explored some ruined temple. We found an altar to Thor; my character made a reverence but he threw his hammer at me - a hit - down to 2HP! The other fellow in the group says "I disbelieve in you" and Thor disappears. I wasn't sure the group would invite me back...
 


Ath-kethin

Elder Thing
I was 15 when I ran my first game, but I had started playing at 14. A friend had bought the original Earthdawn book and started a campaign - he wasn't a great GM, but nobody is on their first go.

A year or so later I was in a different school and a bunch of people were playing D&D. That's when I discovered that the Dragonlance books I loved so much were based on D&D, and I was running a game based in Krynn within a month.

If I were to describe the campaign in a word, it would be "memorable." And I don't necessarily mean it as a compliment.
 

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
My youngest son ran a game of Hero Kids when he was 6. I helped him create the dungeon in Dungeonographer and print to paper, but he populated it on his own and tied it together with a story. Both of my son's inherited the DM gene from me I think. Now at 8 and 12 they are each running their own campaigns and I can finally play instead of DM. The other benefit of having your young kids DMs is that it is the most effective way to get your non-gamer spouse to play!
 

Scottius

Adventurer
I was in the 6th grade when I first discovered roleplaying. So around 11 or 12 depending on what month it was. I began my gaming career by GMing right out the gate. I had discovered a trove of RPG books at the local library (a little D&D and a bunch of TMNT & Other Strangeness books). I recruited friends from school to be my first gaming group after I was able to track down the odd dice required at a local comic book store.
 

BaytAlAzif

First Post
Under 10 for sure. I remember my first RPG (a fatal run with my brother into the Caves of Chaos under a genius babysitter DM) but I have no idea what I DMed first! It must have pretty soon after that, but I can't remember. Huh. I'll ask my brother and see if he has any memories of it!
 


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