How was your first time?

[Oryan77]

I didn't start playing D&D until I was about 18 year old. Oddly enough, me & a friend created an adventure game when I was about 11 that consisted of drawings on sheets of paper & the player tells the "DM" what he does on the "screen". When I was about 14, I added dice rules (6-sided dice) to make it more random. I didn't know what D&D was, but I must have been destined to become the crappy DM I am today.

When I graduated high school, my new (now best) friend asked if I wanted to play D&D. He helped me roll up a Fighter/Thief for his Dark Sun campaign.

Since he didn't explain to me at all how to play, I was really confused when he said, "You're standing in a bar, what are you doing?" There was no board or game pieces on the table (he didn't use minis or mats), and all I had were some dice and my PC sheet. I thought it was going to be a board game, so being the smart-ass, I said, "Well, I start jumping up and down." Really I just wanted to see what he would say to that so I could maybe figure out why he's asking me what I'm doing.

When he looked at me like I'm an idiot and said, "Uh, ok, you start jumping up and down in the middle of the tavern and everyone starts looking at you weird." I realized that this was an imaginary game. Which was nice because he isn't anything pretty to look at, so it gave me an excuse to pretend I was in the presence of a beautiful woman.

 

[The Shaman]

I had no idea if I was doing it right and it was over way too quickly, but I knew I wanted to do it again soon.

 

[Gilladian]

My first character was a human cleric, solo. I was 11. It was original DnD, loosely interpreted by my brother, the DM, since we didn't actually OWN a copy of the rules, yet.

I remember only wandering in the dungeon after venturing down the stairs, hearing a loud "buzzing" noise from behind a stone wall. I searched the wall for a way in, and eventually released a secret catch. The hive of giant bees came out and promptly stung me to death...

I was hooked, and we played for days after that until Mom finally drove us 30 miles to the nearest gamestore to buy a set of the original basic rules. I remember the little cardboard chits for dice, and the blue dungeon geomorphs so clearly!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1977.

I don't remember my first DM's name- some short, curly haired white kid with glasses (yes, a human hobbit), but I remember his game. He was iron fisted- players only got to use the PHB, and demonstration of knowledge from the MM or DMG got you an XP penalty.

That game of D&D was held in the school library of East Middle School in Aurora, CO. I played a human fighter with a 2hd swd. My PC and a Wizard down to his last MM spell were the longest lived PCs in the game, felled by a Purple Worm in the next-to-last room of the dungeon. The mage was engulfed after a few rounds of combat (he hit it with his MM and was whacking the Worm with his staff).

My fighter knocked the Worm down to its last 4HP, just as he got knocked down to 4 himself. The last round, we had simultaneous initiative. I missed, he hit, end of game.

...and I LIKED it that way. That was so awesome that I've been hooked ever since.

 

[fba827]

my first time .... ?

let's see ...

• it was a dimly lit room
• there was a lot of pent up anticipation and excitement for the moment
• more than one person was present
• we were experimenting with this new form of "game" that we heard a friend's older sibling was playing with his friends
• we tried to reenact some positions we read about/saw in diagrams
• there was some blood involved
• someone got poked
• we used "rubbers"
• there were shouts of excitement during climax
• someone got lucky

take all that as you will

 

[Merkuri]

I was in high school. I had bought a couple of box sets (I think I actually had one D&D of indeterminate edition and one 2e AD&D) and convinced my sister to play with me. I DM'd and she played three pre-genned characters that came with the module. It consisted of a lot of, "Uh, I'm not sure how to do this," and "Oh, I wasn't supposed to read you that part."

 

[Chrono22]

A half elf ranger with a hot air balloon. He used his survival and navigation skills to explore the world, visit exotic locations, and acquire rare and valuable cargo. His social skills allowed him to mingle with just about any civilization he came across.
I played him with some friends in middle school. I wast about 13 or 14.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That sounds like a cool game, Chrono!

 

[steeldragons]

Apparently I need to "spread some XP around" before hitting DannyAlcatraz again. (Didn't realize I've given you all that much. *shrugs*). But just wanted to let you know I liked your starting story. How many of us have fallen in those last moments? "Nooooo! I just needed to hit it ONE more TIME!"...and to the classic purple worm, to boot. Nice.

Everyone's, actually. Sounds like a lot of common beginnings (even those unremembered, but still immediately hooked, recall of the exhilaration and lovinigit right away.)

and Chrono: ditto on the cool character/game concept.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I was in high school and a friend ran a pre-made adventure for myself and another friend to get us into D&D. It was 2E. My friend picked some big burly paladin, I could swear it was a half-orc, even though I don't think that was possible in 2E. I chose a female elf fighter/mage, mostly because the character image for her was rather appealing...

The DM had us roll a d20 for all our stats, and mistakenly thought we did the same for AC and THAC0. So I ended up being a level 1 character with THAC0 5, without even realizing how stupidly broken that was at the time. My poor friend rolled "only" a 19 and as a result couldn't hit very well. It was a short lived game, because the paladin player was basically just treating it as a game, ie, "Whatever, whatever, I'll do what I want!"

He nearly died rushing forward in what the DM hinted was a trapped area after falling in a pit. And then needed my help to get out because he couldn't climb out on his own with all his heavy armor. Then we reached an underground town, I think it was Xorn, but I can't be sure. The DM intended for us to befriend them and get some aid from them for our upcoming battles. Instead, my friend, recoiling in disgust at their appearance, shouted insults at them. The DM refused to let me try to muzzle him with my hands before he could say anything. So...the two of us were now fleeing as fast as possible from a whole town of angry Xorn(?) who weren't even the enemies the DM had planned to throw at us. DM basically decided to just end the game there, since we had FUBARed to such an insane, un-survivable extent.

I never tried D&D again until 1.5-2 years later, a little while after 3E had come out.