I saw an half-hour long documentary on TSR and D&D on the Sci-Fi channel years ago. I thought it was a board game at the time. Since I was already into fantasy and was a big fan of videogames and console RPGs, I decided to give it a go. A couple years later, I got a really late 2E box set that no one ever talks about called the Adventure Box for Christmas. A year later, I got the 3E rulebooks when they came out on their first run. My brother and I taught ourselves how to play, which was really easy since we were already familiar with all the basic concepts from playing tons of videogames.
Since then, all of my purchases have been based on information from messageboards and perusing books at bookstores.
Since then, all of my purchases have been based on information from messageboards and perusing books at bookstores.