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

[Emirikol]

We were on a WEBELOS scout trip in 1982 touring historical sites when a friend broke out the Moldvay red boxed set. I was hooked.

 

[TarionzCousin]

We were on a WEBELOS scout trip in 1982 touring historical sites when a friend broke out the Moldvay red boxed set. I was hooked.

Boy Scouts can now earn a badge in D&D. Link: Scouts can soon earn a Dungeons & Dragons activity badge

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Lets see, Earliest memory of reading.... so that's not going to count my mother telling me to avoid it, it's evil.

So in 7th grade I had read a magazine article about the Minotaur and Labyrinth legend, and the article had art of a maze from above. It was a terrible maze, lots of chambers that were impossible to get into, really easy to solve, etc. So one day in class some guys saw me drawing a maze. They complimented it, And they asked if it was for D&D, I told them no, it's just to make a maze. They then loaded me a Forgotten Realms boxed set, I poured over every word of that loving it! Didn't play for almost a decade later though.

 

[Eric V]

Reading the description of play from the 1e DMG...where did those ghouls drag him off to? And where's the thief?

 

[TarionzCousin]

Reading the description of play from the 1e DMG...where did those ghouls drag him off to? And where's the thief?

Yeah. That description was fantastic! Emulating it probably elevated my DM'ing skills more than anything else in that book.

 

[Haffrung]

Bought the Holmes set after reading an article in my mom’s People magazine about Gary Gygax and Dungeons and Dragons. It absolutely blew my 9-year-old mind, but I couldn’t make head or tails of it as a game.

My most powerful memory of the books (aside from the classic Holmes box cover) is the list of characters in the back of B1. I still use those names for PCs and NPCs to this day.

The pool room illustration also left a lasting impression.