What attracted you to D&D?

[Napftor]

Like the title says, what originally drew you (and perhaps continues to draw you) to D&D? Was it a piece of art or maybe the subject matter? Perhaps it's the game's storytelling ability. Everyone's tale is different and inspirational (or is it?). This question is part of some research I'm doing for my fledgling company so chime in folks!

 

[Aramax]

I'm 47 and in 1977 it was the only game in town....

 

[Oryan77]

All the dorks & nerds in school were doing nerdy things like dating girls, playing sports, going to parties, & being popular. I wasn't about to ruin my image, so me & my guy friends would hang out in the basement pretending to be female elven wizards & saving the world. Just then, D&D came out, so we figured we could roll dice while roleplaying too.

If those people only knew about the time I single handedly defeated the Evil Lich Lord with my +5 Rubber Chicken, I probably could have been Prom King.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Killing monsters & taking their stuff while pretending to be a dwarf, and elf, or a wizard in Middle Earth (or other IP-safe equivalent).

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm one of those new brats who saw how awesome videogame RPGs were, and then saw D&D as a way to create that awesomeness myself.

 

[Korgoth]

A friend had the 1981 Magenta box with that awesome Erol Otus cover. I guess it was that cover that really sparked my interest.

 

[3d6]

Remember that message you'd get in Baldur's Gate? "The mechanism that operates this door does not have a conventional lock, and may be warded against simple spells". That drove me nuts, and drove me to pen-and-paper RPGs. I ended up playing D&D because that's what the game used. Of course, by that time, most people were already playing 3rd edition, so my familiarity with Baldur's Gate didn't help much for rules comprehension, but it seemed logical at the time.

I got into Baldur's Gate and the other Black Isle/Bioware CRPGS through Diablo, so indirectly I got into P&P D&D via Diablo.

 

[demiurge1138]

It was the monsters. A bunch of guys were playing D&D on a Boy Scout camping trip, I managed to get my grubby little ten-year-old palms on the Monstrous Compendium, and I haven't looked back since.

Demiurge out.

 

[James Heard]

I was looking for things to ask for Christmas in the Sears catalog and picked it out based on practically nothing but the fact that I stood a better chance of getting D&D than a trampoline.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

It was the monsters. A bunch of guys were playing D&D on a Boy Scout camping trip, I managed to get my grubby little ten-year-old palms on the Monstrous Compendium, and I haven't looked back since.

Demiurge out.

I got into d&d through boy scouts too. Several guys in the troop played it so when we hung out outside of scouts is when I started playing. Sometimes we'd play on long camping trips but generally not on short ones.

That said the first RPG I played with any regularity and rules/plot consistency was Shadowrun which I was introduced to by people who were not in the boy scouts.

What kept me playing D&D was the switch to 3rd edition, if that hadn't happened I probably would've quit playing in favor of another system. I also like the semi-european middle ages fantasy feel of D&D.

I like the open endedness of RPGs. Unlike a computer game there is nothing you can't try to do to resolve a particular puzzle, problem or situation. I like the interaction between different characters. I like the tactical aspect.