Twenty Five Years

[jrients]

1980; the red box, along with L1, The Secret of Bone Hill, came home with me from the hobby store. My mom had read me an article in the paper about dnd and suggested we try it; ironically, she never did.

I don't think the red box was out in 1980. The purplish/pinkish/mauve box with the orange book was '81 (editor: Tom Moldvay, cover art: Erol Otus). The red box was '83 (editor: Frank Mentzer, cover artist: Larry Elmore, IIRC).

 

[Nine Hands]

For me, the weather is a major memory trigger. One that always resurfaces when the cooling breezes of fall turn up is the first time I played D&D. I'd been introduced to the general concept of dungeon-delving thanks to the board games "Melee" and "Wizard" and "Death Test", the programmed adventure for them, but hadn't really made the cognitive leap to something grander than pushing counters around a hex map. A buddy picked up D&D over the summer break (The original Basic D&D boxed set with the bluish-purple box), and we all decided to give it a go.

We met on the porch of the school cafeteria after classes let out on a Friday afternoon and played for about three hours.

It occurred to me the other day that was twenty five years ago.

In honor of the occasion, I decided to change my avatar to a picture of my original dice (which I still have).

- signing up for the Old Gamers' Home TB

I don't remember the first game I played by I am on my 25th year of gaming also and just wrote a long winded e-mail to my current GM who is having interpersonal problems with his gaming group (its the group I'm in), offering all of the advice I could think of. While I'm doing this, I'm thinking this guy is like 25-26 years old and I've been gaming for most of his life

Its nice to finally be considered an old timer, I really respect those who have come before and look with anticipation to those who have just started. Gaming with a group of younger people is very refreshing.

 

[Crothian]

1982 for me. I got that red box set for Christmas of all things but I had been playing since the summer with neibhors. 20+ years of gaming and it's only getting better!!

 

[Dark_Sun]

Well I remember being about 3 years old and being at my moms work where the owner and his sons and freinds would play, but they wouldnt let me cause I was so young, this was about 1980. I used to just listen and watch and play with mini's and some blocks that looked like lego's but were made to build castles...anyone remember these things because I have never seen or heard about them since.

A few years later one of the guys was cool enough to show me how to play.

 

[Loki3]

1977 on the way home from watching Stat Wars me and my buddies Lance and Mark stopped by the local hobby Shop and we all saw it, and we pooled our money to get it.

Went home played it totally wrong hehehehe for about 3 weeks when finally we actually read the rules in full. Man those were the days........... Mom pissed off because I havent mowed the lawn, yelling ya need to get th lawn mowed, and me yelling back,............ yeah mom give me 5 minutes.........

I can never forget the time that me Lance, Mark and 3 others went onto a job site on a Saturday night, and they had those HUGE concrete culverts sitting out waiting to be pu into the ground, we all stole some candles from our houses, some food also then climbed into one of those and had probually the best game and experience of all my years.

Even now I use candles when I play the game.

 

[Merova]

Into the Ghost Tower

Hi all!

My best friend's older brother needed players, after two members of his D&D group moved away. And he had a hot new module, "Ghost Tower of Inverness." Unfortunately, he was something of a geek, and couldn't find new players at school. So, in desperation, he bossed his sister and me into playing.

She got to play the Cleric. I got to play the Thief.

We started in the morning and ended really late, like around 9 pm, but it was actually kind of a fun way to spend the day. In spite of sticky plants and flashy gems, I was ready for more gaming next weekend on the "Isle of Dread."

That was almost 22 years ago.

Thanks for reading.

---Merova

 

[Sir Whiskers]

For me it was the winter of 1976 (OD&D white box). My first character was a 1st-level magic user who died when he fell in a pit.

I played constantly for 15 years, then stopped until 3E came out. Now I'm hooked all over again.

 

[Jeph]

Winter Break of 2000...

y'all fogies.

 

[JoeBlank]

Fall of '81 for me. Overheard guys talking about D&D at school, and asked about it. Played at a game club after school for while, then we gave up on that and just played at home.

And I still game with two of those guys, although it takes some effort and some help from the internet to keep us together. We too gave up on D&D for a while, migrating to Champions and a few other games. 3e brought us back, and has kept us.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Damn, this takes me way back. Thanks for the memory thread! I started in the spring of 84' under my cousin (who is about 4 years my elder). I had zero experience with RPGs but had just finished rereading the Lord of the Rings and was hungry for more fantasy adventure. We played the Red Box set IIRC and I was a thief named Strider (hmm, wonder where THAT came from???) since there were no rangers in the basic red box. With the weather turning cooler and this thread as a reminder, my nostalgia meter just hit the roof!