When and how did you learn to play D&D?

[Iosue]

Just a goofy little poll I thought of while reading the recent thread on Holmes in another forum.

Basically, choose the decade you started playing D&D and the option for how you learned the game. Please choose "by the product" if that mostly the way you learned the rules, even if you first played a game before reading the book(s). Likewise, even if you bought the rules first and read through them before playing, choose "by my group/osmosis" if it was through actual play that you learned the rules. Basically, no matter what your first contact with the game was, what was it that made you say, "Okay, I got this down."?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

By group/osmosis. At first I couldn't afford a rulebook, so I literally had no choice. (I didn't have internet back in those days.)

 

[TerraDave]

I played a little bit early on, but it was much more the case of getting products and then figuring out a way to play this awesome game.

And yes, Moldvay basic was a key gateway product.

As for "getting this down", I hope to do so shortly.

 

[the Jester]

Please revert your text formatting to default, right now it's light grey on a dark grey background and hard to read.

For me it was the 80s and I voted by group/osmosis, but really, I played with another guy (who knew how) a couple of times, then bought the old Basic Set and taught myself more formally along with some friends.

EDIT: Also, your poll left out the 2010s as an option.

 

[saskganesh]

I had two older brothers. We were playing wargames from AH and SPI already, and playing games with our toy soldiers with Little Wars, Featherstone rules, WRG. Got to play a T&T knock off/homebrew, and got hooked. We got Holmes shortly after that. I was all of 10 years old.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I accidently ordered the Moldvay Basic Set from a mail order store when I wanted to get the Dungeon boardgame. I had practically no idea what an RPG was.

 

[Piston Honda]

Checked it out with a group of friends, we were all into console RPGs and decided to check out where that all stemmed from. Went in on the 2nd Edition Core Books, had no idea what we were doing really, but we had fun, even though only me and one other person really kept gaming.

 

[Mercurius]

I honestly can't fully remember, but what I do remember is that in early 1982 my family was attending a Buddhist festival and while my parents were meditating or doing other Adult Stuff, I was pulled into a van and handed a character sheet. What a magical moment.

Anyhow, the next early D&D memory is that some older kids who were friends of the family were getting into video games and lost interest in D&D, so I inherited their AD&D hardcovers. Their loss my main. At that point I believe that I basically taught myself the game through endless hours reading over the Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Deities & Demigods (I still have the old tattered remnants of at least a couple of them, have since re-bought newer copies).

Anyhow, I voted "80s, by product" because while my first experience was playing, I mainly taught myself through reading.

As an aside, what I wonder about--and am hoping WotC is thinking about--is whether an 8-12 year old would get the same kind of pleasure I got through hours of immersion into a book that I did. I wasn't raised on video games, on virtual environments, and have always preferred the palette of the imagination to that of the screen. Now certainly there are some kids today that are similar, but they are growing up in a completely different as "Digital Natives."

So while perhaps 30-50 year old parents might want to give a new Red Box to their kids to try to get them hooked, will many of them find the experience as enjoyable as we did?

But here's a further problem: If WotC veers too much into the "digital domain" for D&D Next, they run the risk of alienated us older folks that prefer our densely texted tomes of lore to hyperlinked PDFs and java/silverlight programs. Ideally there would be both, but the trick will be how to create a starter product that appeals to both.

Anyhow, some of my students don't call me Captain Tangent! for nothing...

 

[MJS]

Just a goofy little poll I thought of while reading the recent thread on Holmes in another forum.

Basically, choose the decade you started playing D&D and the option for how you learned the game. Please choose "by the product" if that mostly the way you learned the rules, even if you first played a game before reading the book(s). Likewise, even if you bought the rules first and read through them before playing, choose "by my group/osmosis" if it was through actual play that you learned the rules. Basically, no matter what your first contact with the game was, what was it that made you say, "Okay, I got this down."?

Your text is unreadable, dark grey on black.

I first heard of D&D via friends/osmosis, but wasn't allowed to play due to the Satanic Scare, until a year later. That was a WHOLE CHILDHOOD YEAR of seeing Moldvay, then Mentzer sets, in the toy store, and denied their arcane secrets. After that long year, my parents saw the Satanic Scare for what it was (and is), and I finally got my hands on the new Red Box.
I think it might have been 1984.

 

[howandwhy99]

I learned by reading Unearthed Arcana in 7th grade. It was completely confusing.