How were you first introduced to D&D?

[BluSponge]

Ditto.

Tom

 

[Imaro]

Me at age 9, my younger brother and my younger sister. Boy did they come to hate Bargle that weekend. This was hands down the best "basic" set produced.

 

[Asmor]

I'd known about it for a long time.

In 7th grade, I used to do freeform roleplaying with some friends. No rules, we just said what we did. Same year I also found a 2nd edition PHB in the school library. I checked it out, never did anything with it. All I remember is copying the list of wizard spells, for something unrelated to D&D, and I can't for the life of me remember what.

Then when 3rd edition came out, I was in 10th grade and I picked up the books and basically got other people and we started playing.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Some time around the turn of the millenium, I made "contact" with a few friends at my school that had a Shadowrun group. I already remembered Shadowrun from a book, and I think I even heard of the term "role-playing game" (or "Rollenspiel" before), and so I decided to try it out.

My first character was a copy of "Leon, the Professional". I didn't really understand all the rules implications, so the character was hardly optimized (I should have taken at least one of my firearms skills at 6 - but there were so many interesting skills that Leon needed!), but it was interesting and fun.
Unfortunately, it didn't really work out that well with the group, for reasons I can't really narrow down. One of the GMs was a bit too much "story-telling" (as in: 'I describe this awesome magic light show that you all visit' - it sounded awesome and was well told, but where was the action? I've read a lot of books, you know, you don't need to read yours to me...), but a fellow player that started RPGs with me found a different group.
I am still a member of that group, and it was the time when D&D 3E also hit Germany - and it was a lot of fun. Even if I really found the notion of hit points silly and Vancian magic terrible obscure and unsatisfying, compared to Shadowruns magic system. Funny how things can change or not change...

Sometimes I wonder how things could have been different, if I stayed with the Shadowrun group, or had met a WoD/Storyteller group. But as it is, I am now strong on the powergaming, tactical site, and less well versed in storytelling and "social dynamics". And I love it.

 

[Boregar]

My brother received the red box as a Christmas gift when he was ten and I was five. I was press-ganged into playing once he had read the rules, and although I probably didn't know much about what was actually going on, twenty-five years later I'm still really glad I was.

 

[Delta]

After reading Chris Pramas' review of 4e's ability acquire new players. I wondered how many current players actually learned how to play D&D by picking up some of the published product at the time? Without someone else showing the basics, that includes sitting and watching others play. It seems that Chris believes that D&D (or role playing ) can be taught simply by reading an introductory manual. I just can't see 5 people assume 1 DM and 4 players learning D&D simply by reading the books if they have no previous RP experience. It's just the nature of the type of game. Maybe I'm wrong.

That's exactly how I learned D&D: Saw gushing reviews in Games magazine --> requested it for a birthday --> read the boxed set --> taught all my friends and always DM'd since day one.

Of course, D&D was a different game at the time (~1979). I agree that you basically can't do that today. And that's Pramas' point.

 

[Pinotage]

Yip. Learnt through the Basic Red Box D&D. It has to be said that the first 'solo' adventure went a long way to teaching a 10 year old how to play the game. Who could forget Bargle and that hot cleric (What was her name again? ) And things were a lot easier to learn back then.

Pinotage

Me at age 9, my younger brother and my younger sister. Boy did they come to hate Bargle that weekend. This was hands down the best "basic" set produced.

 

[Jabba Von Hutt]

I bought the 3.5 Draconomicon because it was about dragons. Found out it was a game. Bought some more books because I thought they might be cool. Started picking up on the mechanics as I read.

I learned to play this game by reading the instructions. On my own.

It's possible.

Let me ask you this, were the rest of the players in your first group like you? I mean did they also just pick up the book(s) and learn it that way?

I believe its possible but just a small minority of the players learn that way without any previous exposure. And I would guess that WotC's marketing plan is more geared to acquisition through exposure (other players) as opposed to assuming new players will simply pickup a new box (book) cold off a shelf somewhere. Again maybe I'm wrong, but just about everyone I know picked up RP through someone else.

 

[Cirex]

I was still kinda new at DMing. I was DMing a Lord of the Rings (simple RoleMaster) campaign and I keep hearing and reading about D&D and how it was THE table-RPG, but I checked many stores, including book stores that sold used books, but I just couldn't find any D&D book.

So one classmate heared I was interested and gave me his AD&D handbook. Some other guy gave me his AD&D dungeon master guide, and I read both cover to cover and I discovered that I had learned close to nothing doing that.

I had nobody to aid me with the rules, so I mixed several RPG rules with those ones I had, and slowly discovering new stuff. Since AD&D was very "light" on rules, especially for skills, I had to make up many things on the run, including all kind of monsters (I had nothing similar to a monster guide or even a NPC guide) but that kind of things forged me as a Dungeon Master.

Baldur's Gate helped a bit too, especially to be able to explain my friends the THAC0.

 

[Grazzt]

It seems that Chris believes that D&D (or role playing ) can be taught simply by reading an introductory manual. I just can't see 5 people assume 1 DM and 4 players learning D&D simply by reading the books if they have no previous RP experience. It's just the nature of the type of game. Maybe I'm wrong.

I think Chris is on to something actually.

My dad bought me the red box set back in 1981 (for my 11th b-day). I learned to play D&D from there.

Friend of my mom's (went to college together) let me borrow the 1e PHB and 1e DMG in about 1983. I learned to play from the books.

Most of my group back then (some whom I still game with) learned the same way. They either got the boxed set, books, or borrowed them from someone. Other friends of mine in other groups learned the same way.