How were you introduced to RPGs?

[Vyvyan Basterd]

My junior high librarian sponsored a D&D club.

 

[Hussar]

My brother got me hooked in. Caves of Chaos FTW. Heh, it was a major step up from bloody Yaquinto board games he kept making me play.

 

[Ysgarran]

In the summer of 1978 when I was ten years old I went to Chess Camp at Michigan State University (yes, I was that much of a nerd even at the age of ten).

While there I ran across these folks sitting around a table playing with some funny shaped dice. The rest is history. Sometimes folks are surprised that I'm still playing this game 31 years later.

 

[Xyxox]

Other. I walked into a hobby store in 1977 and saw this little white boxnamed "Dungeons & Dragons. Asked the store owner what it was and he said "a game" The box said it was for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns, and I was into miniature wargaming at the time, so I bought it (already ahd tried out Chainmail). I was 14 at the time.

I ended up having to be the DM because I was the one who bought the game. Played with my little brother and some friends.

I ended up with the Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, and Deities and Demigods supplements over the next couple of months. Then the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual showed up and I bought it, too. Then I saw the Holmes boxed set and bought it, but was very disappointed.

The rest is pretty much history.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Friends, and friends of friends, in primary school. At school, during lunchtime. Prior to that, I had played a few gamebooks, if that counts.

It was Basic D&D, going through Isle of Dread. Well, not very far through, as it turned out. I played an Elf, briefly. And the rest is history. . .

 

[noffham]

My brother and I had been into boardgames and historical miniatures for years. He spotted the woodgrain OD&D in a hobby shop and thought it was just another miniatures ruleset.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Other.

Summer. 1981. I was in the stamp and coin store in the mall (I thought I was a stamp collector at the time), and I saw the Moldvay basic set in the window. I thought it was bad ass and expressed as much to my dad.

Two weeks later, next time I'm visiting my dad on the weekend, he has the box set for me. I've been hooked ever since.

I quickly gave up stamp collecting.

 

[Greg K]

Other.

One Christmas/Hannukah, my best friend in junior high and his mother came over to share the holidays. He opened his gift and it was the Holmes basic set. We both, immediately, started trying to figure the game out*

I still recall us being confused, initially, by the hit die and thinking it was supposed to be rolled to hit.

Edit: Actually, my first encounter was some of the older kids a year prior inviting several of us to to try "this new game" that they discovered (it was OD&D). They began telling us about it and we all wanted to play. As we were about to create characters, I got called for dinner and told we were moving. After dinner, my parents took my brother and I to see the new house so I never got to actually play

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

During Thanksgiving when I was 9, my family went to my uncle's house for the big dinner. While there, I discovered my older cousin's 1e Monster Manual and was completely fascinated by it.

As fate would have it, Santa brought me a red box Basic Set for Christmas that year.

 

[Wombat]

I sorta fall between two categories...

I started off in the early 70s with board wargames and miniatures combat, many of which were slowly drifting towards roleplaying in that many units "developed personalities" and the like. Then the main company that provided me with my material advertised "a new sort of wargame played with paper and pencil" ... so I tried it.

For a fuller telling, here is my blog entry on the topic...

The New Republic of Chelemby - My Life in Gaming, Part 1