Why did you start the hobby?

[Afrodyte]

Strangely enough, I was browsing through the bookstore and thought that one of the books looked interesting, and it happened to be a roleplaying book. I believe I may have thought that it was one of those "choose your own adventure" things. I've been a collector ever since.

 

[WizarDru]

A combination, to be sure, of both literature and movies...or more specifically, A movie: Rankin & Bass's "The Hobbit". I was too young to see Bakshi's version of LotR when it came out (and frankly, I'm glad for that), but "The Hobbit" was on TV...and it was enchanting. Dwarves, elves, magic swords, trolls, goblins, a city built on a lake, an ancient treasure horde and the ICONIC dragon himself, Smaug. I actaully came to the rest of Tolkien well after I was on my way playing D&D. I know many guys who were my age seeing 'The Hobbit' as something of a landmark in their interest into D&D. Having it on DVD, I can attest that it holds up well (albeit with some obvious poor foley work and some odd editing which is obvious to me as an adult, but that I missed as an 8 year-old).

I remember saving up my allowance to get the Red Box set from the local bookstore, and the excitement of opening and reading it. I remember my first dungeon. Good Times.

 

[diaglo]

Unitarians?!?

*shudders*

They burnt an equal sign in my lawn once...

Once...

hey, i said i was sorry about that.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I bought soem of the old lead Ral Partha & Rafm miniatures and wondered about the game that was connected to them. I convinced my mom to get me my first D&D Red Box in 1980 (I was 10) and I've been playing and collecting ever since then.

 

[fusangite]

Back in 1981 I was injured and had to miss sports. I got chatting with a guy in my class who I'd never really talked to before, and he mentioned this thing called 'Dungeons and Dragons' which he gamed from time to time. Now I read fantasy and SF, so it seemed kinda interesting. Then the following week I bugged him about 'what do you do in this game?'. Hunting mythical monsters, overcoming evil priests, finding magical stuff... this sounded intriguing! But I couldn't afford the game at the time, and it might have ended there.

However, on the bus home I mentioned D&D to a friend of mine from the class in the year below. This guy I used to spend Saturdays visiting, playing games on a really old computer (TRS-80?). Well, the next Saturday I turn up and there's this red-boxed set; I'd intrigued him enough that his mum bought him the game that week. We read through it and created characters, and over the next two weekends he DMed 'Keep on the Borderlands'.

Hey! I joined the hobby in 1981 too. From people's stories, it looks like that was the popular year to join.

Did anyone else who got the boxed set with B2 in it at a young age mistakenly identify "keep" in Keep on the Borderlands as a verb? My longest-term gaming associate and I both made the same mistake. In fact, the mistake inspired him to produce a Neverwinter Nights (sp.?) adaptation of it called Keep Off the Borderlands.

 

[Deadguy]

Hey! I joined the hobby in 1981 too. From people's stories, it looks like that was the popular year to join.

When did the red box set come out? Quite a few have mentioned it, and I wonder if that was the impetus?

Did anyone else who got the boxed set with B2 in it at a young age mistakenly identify "keep" in Keep on the Borderlands as a verb? My longest-term gaming associate and I both made the same mistake. In fact, the mistake inspired him to produce a Neverwinter Nights (sp.?) adaptation of it called Keep Off the Borderlands.

LOL!!

I knew what a Keep was but I recall treating it as 'just another dungeon' to be defeated and robbed! I suspect I wasn't alone in that.

 

[Mystery Man]

When did the red box set come out? Quite a few have mentioned it, and I wonder if that was the impetus?
LOL!!

I went searching for your answer and discovered that I had my dates wrong or I must have.

This boxed set was the one I got for x-mas so many years ago. And doing the math (remembering how old I was) it does come out at around 81-82. I still have a d8 that I use from that box! The box is long gone though.

The Red box came out around 83 or so. I think.

 

[Friadoc]

'Other'

It was Jan. 1980, I was six years old and had just moved from Klamath Falls Oregon to Gresham Oregon and my placement in school was in question. My mother had recently married and my step-father was from Gresham, although most of my life was with just her as a parent.

I was skipped to the third grade, then bounced back to the first as some 'individuals' within the previous school's staff and faculty felt I was hyper-active and not 'mature' enough for the skipping in grades.

A pair of teachers at the knew school noticed a few things and took my mother aside, they told her I wasn't hyper (which was good, I hated the meds), but a smart kid who needed a challenging hobby.

After some thought, which included ignoring a lot of negative hype of the time, my mother choose Dungeons and Dragons for my new hobby - she liked the problem solving, role-playing, and creative nature of it all.

I started out playing with, of all things, a Roman Catholic Priest as my DM - although neither my mother nor I are Catholics.

So, yeah, other fits mine a lot better.

 

[MarauderX]

Older sisters

My sisters are 10 & 12 years older than I am, and they both received the OD&D red box set for christmas one year. Naturally, one liked it and the other didn't, so I got access to it at a very tender age. I think I learned to read from it...

 

[der_kluge]

Other.

Sounds like my story is not unlike the rest here.

My oldest sister purchased the Red Boxed set at a Kay Bee toy store (I think) at a mall in Little Rock. She had it for a while, and didn't really know what to do with it, so she gave it to me (I was probably 10 at the time), but I didn't know what to do with it, either, except look at all the cool art.

It wasn't until 5th grade ('82-'83) that I was invited to a birthday party and they were playing some D&D there. They asked me beforehand what I wanted to play (based on the pictures), and I chose the thief. I don't really remember much about that game (blocked out most of my 5th grade year), other than my character found a secret door in his room at the Inn, and we did something on the dock outside. (That ring a bell for anyone? I think it was a published module they'd purchased)

Anyway, a couple of years later, I invited some friends over (a girl-friend, and her younger sister, and some others) to try to figure out how to play the game. We were unsuccesful. The concept of "DM" didn't really sink in for us.

It wasn't until my sophomore year when I was invited to join a 1E game with some friends. We started out playing Dragonlance (didn't know what that was), and then we switched to Forgotten Realms (taking a Kender, and a minotaur with us), but I didn't know what FR was, either. I wasn't into reading any of the books, but I did enjoy the cartoon, and I liked playing lots of video games, so I'm sure that all contributed.

By the time I was a senior, I pretty much only DM'd (even though I totally sucked). Not much has changed.