How were you introduced to RPGs?

[Voadam]

My parents got me the Basic Set when I was a kid (~10 years old?). I then began playing with friends.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

A family friend was my 7th grade school bus driver. One day he found a coverless copy of the Expert Set rulebook. Reading through it, he immediately saw that it was something I'd be interested in, and passed it along to me.

It took me a week or so to fill in the gaps enough -- remember, all I had was the Expert rulebook -- to start building my own dungeons, but it was awesome. Even if those early dungeons had lots of stuff like vampires and giant scorpions and no, you know, dragons. Or, for that matter, orcs.

I got the Basic Set and the full Expert Set that year at Christmas. The first adventure I ran for my friends was Palace of the Silver Princess. I clearly remember thinking how utterly genius boxed text was.

 

[Pseudonym]

I'm asking how you began playing RPGs in general, not the system/edition you're currently using.

My father ran a game at our house for his Army buddies when I was a kid. I started by hanging around them and "helping" by rolling the occasional die. I finally was able to create a character and join in when I was a little older. That was when I was eight, and I've been gaming off and on ever since.

 

[Woas]

I friend of mine, who has since past away, told me about "a game that you play completely with your imagination. There are no limits." Whenever I sit down to play I hear his remind me that.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Back in '76 it was, when I was a high school freshman and Scott Anderson, a sophmore who I really barely knew at the time, stopped me in the hallway and said he had this new game and would I want to go to his house that afternoon to try it out. He ran the game for perhaps a year or so for 4 or 5 players. He overheard some guys talking about D&D at a table while he was working at Pizza Hut and wound up joining their campaign as a player. Then I joined their campaign as a player because I just couldn't get enough D&D (still can't really). Then they just merged campaigns and we had a huge group. Typically there'd be 8 of us at the table but on occasion we'd have as many as 10 or even 12 - and most of us ran two PC's. Eventually I took over as DM and started a new campaign, probably mid to late '80's and with a few exceptions I've been Screen Monkey ever since. Last time he and I gamed together was probably 2002 when I moved to California.

 

[Jools]

I was introduced to this fine hobby around the age of nine when the Fighting Fantasy books that I adored at the time released an adventure book that was a full RPG for multiple players. Ran it and had a blast.

 

[Flobby]

Mom

My mom bought the basic set and was DM for me and some other kids on the block. Cant remember how old I was though...

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Computers, I bought my first computer back around 82/83 and came across an article on a text adventure games in a computer magasine. It mentioned D&D and some time later i spotted the red box basic set in a shop window.

Ran my brother and some friends though the example dungeon, TPK'ed the party 3 time with the carrion crawler at the gate before I started fudging the dice to allow them through.

As a post grad the college I was in had a game club and I joined and discovered historical wargaming. Played quite a few other rpgs also. So spent time with WHFRP, TFT and Palladium before coming back to D&D with 3rd edition.

 

[Phaezen]

Voted through family, specifically my parents buying me a strange red box for my 10th birthday (23 years ago this coming Sunday infact)

Ye gods, I have players who were not yet alive when I started playing *wombles off to apply for zimmerframe*

 

[The Green Adam]

Ah the memories...

Already a big fan of science fiction and comic books, I jumped at the chance to play this hero creating, adventure story telling game my friend introduced to a bunch of us. I was 8, he was 7. His older brother (mid-to-late teens) had been playing for a while and taught him to play.

August 25th, 1977.