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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 6569031" data-attributes="member: 3400"><p>I started with the Holmes basic edition. A friend got it for Xmas about 1980 and talked it up with me on the bus to and from school. Played my first D&D game summer 1981 running 6 PCs in a game with just me and my friend as DM. Shortly thereafter, I was recruited to DM for other friends, one of whom had the Red Box Basic. </p><p></p><p>Shifted to 1st Edition AD&D piecemeal. I first got the Players Handbook at Waldenbooks at the mall. Grabbed mother's car keys and went to sit out in the car with it, starting to read it cover to cover. Incorporated it into the game I was running. Until I got the DMG, however, I would crib the tables on scrap paper from copies in bookstores so we could have the PCs keep advancing. Eventually ended up DMing a lot, though trading off duties from adventure to adventure, with friends in middle school and high school.</p><p></p><p>About halfway through college, 2e appeared. Picked up a copy for the gaming club at the college (I was an officer in it and had part of its budget). Liked it so I bought myself one. Ran a hybrid 1e/2e game (mainly because the 2e ranger kind of stunk). Played that right through to 3e's release.</p><p></p><p>I was skeptical of 3e as news of it started circulating on gaming listservs. I was grateful for WotC saving TSR and having a progressive online policy, but I didn't like the Player's Option changes and was concerned that a new full edition wasn't where the game should go. But Eric Noah's news site turned me around and my friends and I largely embraced 3e. Picked up 3.5 when it came out largely because we were unsatisfied with the ranger (again, what is WITH that class and its redesigns?).</p><p></p><p>When 4e was announced, I was optimistic because 3e had won me over. I didn't think most of the complaints aimed at 3e and its math were anything close to an insurmountable problem and, as more news about 4e came out, I came to realize that its cure was worse than 3e's disease. Two friends in the main group I was in were enthusiastic so we gave it a try with one of them running. After 9 months or so we dropped it for the grind and fiddlyness of play with powers and statuses. By this point, I had shifted to Pathfinder for the D&D version I preferred to run and otherwise interact with and, once WotC declined to renew the Star Wars license, I thought I was done with WotC.</p><p></p><p>Then came the announcement that a new edition was in the offing and they were heavily consulting the customer base about all sorts of issues of D&D and what it means to play D&D. And WotC ultimately won me back as a customer with 5e serving as a rules-lighter form of D&D to complement my rules-heavier Pathfinder group.</p><p></p><p>All along the way, of course, other RPGs came up. We went from Champions to V&V, dabbled with FASERIP Marvel (before deciding it kind of sucked), and back to V&V. Have also mixed some more Champions and M&M in more recent years. Played Classic Traveller (before it was called "Classic") then MegaTraveller before dumping it when TNE radically changed its direction and lost Digest Group Publications' support. Played Chill, Call of Cthulhu, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, James Bond 007, Gamma World (bizarre), a little Talislanta, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, It Came from the Late Late Late Show, Recon, Feng Shui, Legend of the Five Rings, and others I am no doubt forgetting. But, though we would revisit a number of these games (particularly the superhero ones), D&D of some variety was (and is) always the primary game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="billd91, post: 6569031, member: 3400"] I started with the Holmes basic edition. A friend got it for Xmas about 1980 and talked it up with me on the bus to and from school. Played my first D&D game summer 1981 running 6 PCs in a game with just me and my friend as DM. Shortly thereafter, I was recruited to DM for other friends, one of whom had the Red Box Basic. Shifted to 1st Edition AD&D piecemeal. I first got the Players Handbook at Waldenbooks at the mall. Grabbed mother's car keys and went to sit out in the car with it, starting to read it cover to cover. Incorporated it into the game I was running. Until I got the DMG, however, I would crib the tables on scrap paper from copies in bookstores so we could have the PCs keep advancing. Eventually ended up DMing a lot, though trading off duties from adventure to adventure, with friends in middle school and high school. About halfway through college, 2e appeared. Picked up a copy for the gaming club at the college (I was an officer in it and had part of its budget). Liked it so I bought myself one. Ran a hybrid 1e/2e game (mainly because the 2e ranger kind of stunk). Played that right through to 3e's release. I was skeptical of 3e as news of it started circulating on gaming listservs. I was grateful for WotC saving TSR and having a progressive online policy, but I didn't like the Player's Option changes and was concerned that a new full edition wasn't where the game should go. But Eric Noah's news site turned me around and my friends and I largely embraced 3e. Picked up 3.5 when it came out largely because we were unsatisfied with the ranger (again, what is WITH that class and its redesigns?). When 4e was announced, I was optimistic because 3e had won me over. I didn't think most of the complaints aimed at 3e and its math were anything close to an insurmountable problem and, as more news about 4e came out, I came to realize that its cure was worse than 3e's disease. Two friends in the main group I was in were enthusiastic so we gave it a try with one of them running. After 9 months or so we dropped it for the grind and fiddlyness of play with powers and statuses. By this point, I had shifted to Pathfinder for the D&D version I preferred to run and otherwise interact with and, once WotC declined to renew the Star Wars license, I thought I was done with WotC. Then came the announcement that a new edition was in the offing and they were heavily consulting the customer base about all sorts of issues of D&D and what it means to play D&D. And WotC ultimately won me back as a customer with 5e serving as a rules-lighter form of D&D to complement my rules-heavier Pathfinder group. All along the way, of course, other RPGs came up. We went from Champions to V&V, dabbled with FASERIP Marvel (before deciding it kind of sucked), and back to V&V. Have also mixed some more Champions and M&M in more recent years. Played Classic Traveller (before it was called "Classic") then MegaTraveller before dumping it when TNE radically changed its direction and lost Digest Group Publications' support. Played Chill, Call of Cthulhu, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, James Bond 007, Gamma World (bizarre), a little Talislanta, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, It Came from the Late Late Late Show, Recon, Feng Shui, Legend of the Five Rings, and others I am no doubt forgetting. But, though we would revisit a number of these games (particularly the superhero ones), D&D of some variety was (and is) always the primary game. [/QUOTE]
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