Where did you find your first groups?

[James Heard]

The very first people I ever gamed with were the other kids stuck at the YMCA each day to keep us from becoming ruffians. Not that it helped.

Since then though, I've pretty much decided that "hordes of players" usually means being proactive and just asking a lot of people and letting a lot of people into your house to watch you play. FLGS's are ok, but I've found that a lot of that depends on the flavor of the store - some stores really cater to younger CCG players these days, and hanging out with a bunch of little kids younger than my daughter doesn't do much for me. On the other hand I've been into stores where I wouldn't let my daughter hang out, because they were definitely more "adult" hangouts - if you can call the average 20-something gamer adult, that is. I'd let them roll dice though

 

[Li Shenron]

I started reading the 1E Core books, and by the age of six had them effectively memorised...

...by the age of SIX??? What a disappointment Hyp :\ I thought you were born with all the rules inside you

 

[DragonLancer]

My original group was my school friends and myself. The next group came together because I saw an ad in a local (non-gaming) store. After that when the group split into two groups new members were brought in as friends and work mates who were interested in the game. Some stayed for a while, others were not interested.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

They found me. In 1985 I was 21 and sitting in a friend's dorm room when these two guys I'd never met walked in wanting to finish "the game we started last night." One guy couldn't be there, so they asked me to play his character. I'd heard of D&D and seen it played, but had never participated in a game. They told me what the dice were for, and I was off. I ended up being the party leader because the other two guys were complete boneheads.

After that game, I was given the player's character sheet as he was no longer able to play, one guy quit playing because of his class schedule, and I rolled up my very first "original" character--a anti-paladin. I was hooked after that.

 

[KenSeg]

My first group was in High School back in 1978, three friends and I played together every week. I still remember Tegal Manor, City State, Wilderlands, etc. Have all of my original books and such.

Finally I got married early and was moving to Florida and another of the group was joining the Marines. We had one last 24 hour game and moved on. Great times! I salute Ernie Smith, James Hedrick and Kyle Marshkie. I hope that they game still.

Ran into a few people to game with down in Florida the first couple of years, then did a one-time game from an ad at the local gaming store. Met another couple at the game and we have been gaming together for almost 20 years.

-KenSeg
Gaming since 1978

 

[MonsterMash]

I started at school when I was 11 with my older brother and some of his friends - initally all we had were D6 so we had to have house rules for to-hit (luckily the rules were OD&D(1974) which largely meant using d6 anyway).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

When I first got ye olde red box basic set, I just pulled in friends from elementary school, plus my twin brother. We'd been drawing up our own stories as well (Not very well, I might add) and imagining ourselves as knights and wizards, so this wasn't very far of a stretch for us at all.

A few years later, we started a short-lived AD&D club in school, and that drew in a few more people. A few of them became very good friends. I definitely prefer to game with friends.

 

[Gold Roger]

Re

I was allways a nerd and had contact with Roleplaying early through my brother. I wouldn't play my first P&P game for many years though. I was a Warhammer Tabletop Fan at the age of 9 and continued to be for quite some time. A total computer gamer at that time and total Baldours Gate 2 fanatic I was fiercely awaiting NWN, when I and a friend of mine had the plan: Let's play that game BG and NWN are based on.
I ordered the 3.0 PHB, later DMG and MM and was into it. We gathered up a weirdo I met shortly before from tabletop and a friend of my friend (also a weirdo and person that can be amazig at being an idiot) for our first group, which I mastered.
It was chaotic back in the days and alot happened. I was a terrible DM. I heard that some girls from our class played in a group with their elder friends and one of them joined us. I kicked out the idiot. The tabletop weirdo brought a long time friend of his to the table. People developed and lost interst in joining. People would not show up or not bother remembering any rules (some up to this day ) etc. In short it was fun.
Later classes where merged and eventually we where too many gamers for only one group and one player volunteered to master a second group and I still play with both groups and we sometimes meet up for special one shot sessions with various people.
I've made nearly all of my, today, many friends at the gaming table.

 

[Ranes]

University. It was fun, because I was still at school. Two school friends introduced me to D&D and Traveller by lending me the books. Unfortunately, they lived a couple of hours from me and none of us were old enough to drive (being only 13-14). When a local games shop opened, I bought my own Traveller boxed set and a PHB and asked where I might find a group. The manager directed me to the D&D society of the local university.

Those folks were great. My age was never an issue and 7-10:30pm every Tuesday became the high point of my week. (It wasn't enough, though; I was soon running daily lunchtime game sesions for school friends as well.)

 

[The_Universe]

High School!

Debate coach was an OD&Der (he shared stories about the "old days" of his own college group), and a bunch of the guys and gals in debate were playing Star Wars (d6). I had been interested since I saw an add in Omni magazine and/or in a comic book...and I finally knew people who were playing the game I had always wondered about!

So, I wrote up a Star Wars character with a friend of mine, and we've been having a grand-old time (though the roster has changed significantly) ever since!