D&D General Which edition of D&D did you grow up with?

[5ekyu]

I'm likely with the minority in that I didn't "grow up" with D&D. In my first 25 years of roleplaying, I played a single AD&D campaign (Al Quadim) that lasted maybe 3-6 months. I've played dozens of other RPGs during that time, instead.

And then when 5E came out, we tried it out, and found it much more comfortable to work with than earlier editions. And one friend who was part of that, a brand new player and thus getting his first experience in RPGs with D&D 5E, decided that D&D was everything, and has used it to run several years' worth of games since then. So in that sense, 5E is the version of D&D that I've spent the most time playing.

He's still in the baby GM stage, though, where he's trying to modify D&D to be something different, but hasn't really grokked that other games exist (aside from Pathfinder), and that many are better suited to what he wants to do.

If I may ask, what were your other RPG starters and your early formative? Not D&D is just as interesting to me. I started with AD&D but black book Traveller was as big for us early.

 

[akr71]

The Basic D&D rules were the first ones in my home and my father, older brother and I dabbled with it. That would have been the late 70's. We bought the AD&D core books shortly after and I never looked back. I started playing AD&D with my friends in the 80's.

 

[Voadam]

Mention of Bargle in the iconic villians thread got me thinking about how back in the 80s, there were really two streams of D&D players: those who played BECMI and those who played AD&D; I was the latter, and thus had to look up Bargle. I had heard the name before, but didn't know who it was. It was curious to me that such an iconic figure (for BECMI) folks would barely register on my radar, despite playing since the early 80s.

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One final note: I am less interested in your very first game, and more in which game you grew up with. Meaning, which was your "imprinting" phase? I'll take myself as an example: my very first session (in which I was ushered into the back of a VW bus by a group of kids at a Buddhist festival and handed a character sheet) was probably either Holmes or Moldvay--I can't remember as I was 8 or 9 years old--but then when I got into D&D (some family friends gave me their AD&D books, as they got into early video games - their loss, my gain), it was AD&D all the way. I bought a few BECMI modules over the years, but I was very much indoctrinated into AD&D.

Feel free to share any specifics or your "origin story" in the comments.

I have the reverse of your experience.

My first game was an AD&D 1e game but then my parents got me the Moldvay Basic set which I devoured and played. Later I came back to AD&D but the games were mostly Moldvay with lots of bits of AD&D added on.

 

[Blue]

I started with Red Box Basic. But barely played it - no group. The first version I played more than a little was AD&D. But the formative years of play were AD&D 2nd - we played so much and that's where I matured as a roleplayer.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I am less interested in your very first game, and more in which game you grew up with.

I asked my friend to ask his friend if his older brother could make a character for me. A week or so later a character sheet came back through the supply chain with my first (and maybe still most beloved) character: Eärrámë. My friends played AD&D, and it took me a while to figure out that the character was kind of a weird hybrid of BECMI and AD&D. It was a BECMI character sheet, and his class was "elf", but he had 18/33 strength. It was months before I figured out why things didn't make sense. I finally converted him to elven fighter/magic-user and was good from there.

 

[Ancalagon]

Based on the edition most chosen, I feel this is a bit of a demographic test...

2nd ed is what I grew up with, but my first rpg wasn't d&d, it was advanced fighting fantasy.

 

[Blackrat]

I started with 2e in ’99, but when 3e came along we switched to it. 3/3.5 is the one I grew up with.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

While AD&D 1e is my formative edition for the most part, we actually started with the Elmore redbox basic. For the first year or so we used B/X and 1e together in the same games. However we then dropped the B/X stuff for pure AD&D 1e. So Bargle and poor Aleena are well known to me.

 

[Agamon]

I started with B/X, but I don't think I'm grown up yet. So, all of the above?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Started with the classic Basic Red Box. Followed the BECMI series from there on out, or rather BECM, since we switched to AD&D 1e after the Masters Black Box. For whatever reason, we passed on the Immortals level of play.