What is your earliest and most impressionable childhood memory of reading the original D&D or other games

[guachi]

Red Box Basic and Aleena dying. 1e AD&D DMG Ages table. It was at the beginning because the DMG had sections in largely alphabetical order.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My first exposure was seeing my brother and his friends playing keep on the borderlands. But shortly thereafter I saw Moldvays basic and fell in love with the art. Every single piece. It was like a door to my imagination just opened up.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Reading through the magic items in a borrowed copy of the original DMG, in the middle of the night, in the 8th grade. Especially Deck of Many Things.

 

[Yora]

Also the Moldvay basic art for me too. I think the Kobold stood out most. They were the centerpiece creature to the first "module" I wrote myself.

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That kobold is pretty interesting. But what about this?

When I first read the Basic rules seven years ago, it was this image on the first page that had me hooked way more than the more famous cover art. Most of the illustration in the B/X rules are really good.

 

[Cadence]

That kobold is pretty interesting. But what about this?

When I first read the Basic rules seven years ago, it was this image on the first page that had me hooked way more than the more famous cover art. Most of the illustration in the B/X rules are really good.

I think that's the one that stands out most when I'm looking at the book (it is spectacular!)... but for some reason it doesn't stick in my memory.

 

[Jack Daniel]

 

[Jd Smith1]

I first read the Blue cover basic rules in 1979; I was in college at the time. As a long-time wargamer, I had a great deal of trouble getting past 'what are the victory conditions'.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

My first WOW!!! moment with D&D was actually having D&D described and being told about the Cavalier class, must have been 1989 - I even remember where I was, on a particular bit of lawn outside St. Paul's Cathedral in bright sunlight, and who told me. I was just blown away by the concept and it sounded incredibly exciting.

A few weeks or months later we got AD&D 2E.

Then I wasn't actually blown away by of the writing or description in the PHB/DMG or ring-binder MC, but Forgotten Realm Adventures. The book which outlined the FR for new players, and updated it for old ones. That was amazing, and hypnotic, especially the incredibly evocative cover (a woman in bronze-looking armour on a unicorn in front of a mysterious tower).

And what got me even harder was, as people here can probably guess because I go on about it to this, Taladas - the Time of the Dragon boxed set. I was absolutely obsessed with everything in Time of the Dragon.

A lot of RPG stuff just burned itself into my soul in the next few years after that, but those are the earliest ones.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Let me put it like this. The art in the B/X books, specifically Willingham's had such an enduring impact to me, that when I started experimenting with digital coloring, it was his work I started practicing with out of everything else I could have chosen.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Thought the Moldvay Basic set isn't my Basic, the art is great. It feels more in-continuity with the interior art of 1e, for example. And text-wise, it's such a perfectly concise distillation of the rules.

Also the Moldvay basic art for me too. I think the Kobold stood out most. They were the centerpiece creature to the first "module" I wrote myself.

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