How were you first introduced to D&D?

[spades1013]

It was something of a long and rambling road, that led me to D&D (much like this post, I'm afraid).

In the mid '70s, the games of Army men that my friends and I played became more complicated with arguments. We started making up rules for movement and whether or not something was hit or destroyed. Basically turning it into a proto-wargame. Of course, we had no Idea such things already existed. We were around 6 or seven at the time.

At the same time, I always liked knights and so forth. I happened upon the D&D comic ads of the late '70s and, inspired by them, made "dungeons" to play with action figures in. Mostly Clash of the Titans and some Star Wars aliens for monsters. But still had no knowledge of the game itself.

Flash forward to '83. While visiting my great aunt's house while my cousin from out of state was also visiting, he asked me if I "did D&D".

I can't say I learned much from him except the basic premise that reminded me a lot of the Army men days. We were young, he was a lousy DM and we only had a few hours. But he did give me UK1 because, in his words "it sucks and there's no good treasure in it".

Soon thereafter I got the Moldvay boxed set and proceeded to teach myself how the game was REALLY played. A few friends and I eventually and with much trial and error figured things out. And by 7th grade had branched out into Star Frontiers Ad&D and Gamma World. Even going so far as to design an entire starship combat game (since none of us could afford Knight Hawks). I still have the hand written rules and It's really not bad. Even had a race of cybernetic zombies flying around in cube-shaped ships (in '84, long before TNG). If only they taught copyright law in the 7th grade.

So, if someone has the interest and the willpower, I think it's entirely reasonable to learn just from reading the books. Even easier if the future group learns the rules together

I should also point out that while learning D&D in 6th grade, my friends and I attended a small grade school in rural Kentucky at the time of the "Satanic Panic". However, because the teachers saw students who had no interest in reading or math pull their grades up sometimes two or more letter grades, we became the first "official" student formed club in the schools history, that still exists to this very day. And the son of one of my first players is the current club president (I run 3.5 for my friend and his sons and my friend runs BECMI/RC for all of us). 25 years of gaming and my first gaming group is still together (after a fashion).

 

[dontpunkme]

I was an avid reader as a kid and had tackled the Hobbit and the LoTR trilogy by second grade and was getting really into Greek and Norse mythology when my parents decided to buy me Pools of Radiance for Christmas one year. I was immediately hooked but didn't know about the table top version quite yet. A kid in one of my classes brought in his older brother's MM and I read the thing cover-to-cover over the course of the day. At that time I still didn't really know anything about the game. My interest in gaming grew once they released Heroquest and after playing through the modules, my friends and I simply created more modules.

But one summer afternoon on a bike ride we discovered the FLGS, "The Gamer's Realm." Well being curious kids we simply had to know what this place was all about. Although the layout of the store has changed over the years, I still remember seeing the shelves of D&D books right when you first walked in. I think I sat there "browsing" for at least a good 3-4 hours just enamored with the game. Soon after, we were all hooked and started playing. Even though our command of the rules sucked (wait, a lower ac is better than a high one?!?) we started playing and making up things as we went along. Wasn't until a few years later that I played with some adults that actually understood the rules that we really learned what we were doing.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

My little sister's baby sitter taught my brother and I to play.

It was her first time to DM. She learned from her DM in the group where she played.

This was in the early to middle '90s with 2E.

She left for college a few sessions into it and I tried to learn how to DM from the books. Wasn't too successful. My brother still won't play.

Ended up running WoD games, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, or Star Wars pretty soon after that.

I was shocked and appalled to find that people were sill playing DnD when I went to college. I was also shocked and appalled to find that the gender ration in my games began skewing male for the first time.

 

[Lilaxe]

I saw the 1978 blue book on a friends kitchen table. I had always loved board games, risk, yatzee etc (I was around 12 at the time) and was intriqued when he told me that you move around the map and fight things. I didnt understand why you didnt have to roll a dice to see how far you could move!

he took me to a regular game and I was hooked.

the gaming group had picked the game up by already being a wargaming group.

 

[outsider]

I bought myself a 2nd edition phb when I was about 12 years old. I read it, and figured out how to play on my own(eg, making characters, running sample encounters). I started dming my cousin(we actually alternated the dm position) about a year later. I joined my first experienced group of players about a year and a half after that.

So, basically I just read the book and figured out how to play it. When I started playing with the experienced group, I found out that there was very few things I was doing wrong. So yes, it is possible to learn D&D just by picking up a phb and reading it.