When were you hooked?

[Ashtal]

I was hooked the moment I made my first character and walked it through the OD&D first adventure in the red boxed set.

Games have come and gone, as have groups, and players, and genres, but nothing beats sitting down and making that character, and taking them someplace interesting.

And the dice. I loooooooooooooove the dice!

 

[rounser]

I was hooked the moment I made my first character and walked it through the OD&D first adventure in the red boxed set.

Was that the solo one where you save the cleric, or the ruins near Threshold where you fight the carrion crawlers near the entrance and there's a dining room with mold and stuff?

I really liked Elmore's ink wash drawings from those books. In fact, I think I prefer them to most of his paintings in terms of capturing atmosphere...

 

[Ashtal]

OOooh, I loved those drawings!!!! They were spellbinding to me back then.

I believe I played both the solo game, and then had my father act as GM for me, my brother and my mother for the ruins. I was so angry when the cleric died, though!!!

 

[rounser]

The cleric died????>?

It's been too long since I've seen a copy. I forgot that the cleric died...

How sad.

Oh dear, I think that describes me at the moment too, getting vaguely emotional over a half-forgotten game from long ago. Time for bed. Good night all.

 

[Jarval]

13th July '95. I got the Introduction to AD&D boxed set (the one with the minis and the CD of sound effects) that day, and I sat in the car reading my way though it all, entirely ignoring my uncle and aunt who had come from Scotland to see us. I was 12 at the time, so I was right in the middle of my "being obsessive" stage.

 

[ninthcouncil]

In 1979 when I was 15, I was at a traditional English public school(that "public" means "private", for all those not acquainted with the peculiarities of British education - though I was not, thank God, a boarding pupil) where, on a Thursday afternoon, you were meant to either join in with the Cadet Force, or do some other school-sanctioned organised activity. Not wanting to spend half a day a week being shouted at by some ex-Army halfwit while falling off climbing ropes, I ended up doing "Board Games" with the other math nerds. Aside from the Chess, Go etc. which was probably what the authorities had in mind, one of the maths teachers (a very nice guy called Mr Rook - public school teachers have to surrender their Christian names to the headmaster on arrival) was running this odd game where you pretended to be wizards and warriors running round killing things....

I might have enjoyed it - I still seem to be doing something similar 20+ years later

 

[kengar]

I was 11 years old (over 20 years ago). I had played DUNGEON (a board game) before that but wasn't "hooked" by it. Later we started on the "Blue Box" and 1e. It's been on & off a little over the years, but my interest in FRP never waned.

I still play with 2 of the same guys as when I was 11 (one is my brother).

 

[Gospog]

It was 1982. I was seven, and my older brother was 11.

He and his friends needed another body for a D&D game, and I was deemed bright enough to tag along.

The memories are a little fuzzy. I played a cleric. I was killed by a lizard man.

Hooked for life.

20 years later, and I play at least once a week. I even infected my wife (ahem) and she's my best player and a damn good GM in her own right.

Heh. Thanks for asking.

 

[Desdichado]

Mine is perhaps a bit longer and more convoluted story than most.

I first played D&D at age 8 or so (OD&D in the red box) although I was much more interested in my friend's mammoth collection of Star Wars toys (this was before Empire came out, but he had everything from A New Hope by Kenner) so I didn't pay too much attention at the time.

A few years later, I was in fifth grade and I had some friends who lent me the red box books, and that's when I really got into and understood the concept of roleplaying games. But I still wasn't hooked yet. I migrated out of D&D for a little while spending more time reading fantasy than playing it.

The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks by Steve Jackson (no relation) and Ian Livingston kinda brought me back into the RPG orbit, though, and in junior high I played with some other friends. These guys were real losers by today's standards (at least the way they played D&D) and even at the time I didn't particularly like playing with them but I finally saw the potential of RPGs. However, I was an outside observer for a number of years, following but not really participating in the hobby.

Through the years I'd pick stuff up, mostly at Half-Price Books, and I actually developed quite a collection of games I've (mostly) never played. I finally found some friends in college that I really enjoyed playing with, although we never played D&D: we mostly played Top Secret SI actually. I also got big-time into Werewolf, although again, I was mostly buying and reading the books rather than playing them. During this phase, I actually had little interest in D&D itself, as the 2nd edition books I thumbed through at the store didn't really excite me much.

The release of 3e coincided fairly closely with a major move of almost 1400 miles. I was excited enough about the new game to get motivated to go find a group or two to play with. I'm still kinda off and on as far as being able to play, but I think I can safely say that I'm good and hooked as far as interest goes.

 

[Zappo]

Hmm... I was walking in downtown, heading to the cinema, when I passed in front of what, back then, was the only RPG shop in my city. They had an OD&D box on display, and I was playing one of the Eye of the Beholder CRPGs at the time (on an Amiga ), so I thought 'cool, the tabletop game they got my favorite computer game from!' and got my parents to buy it. The rest is history.