Your First Gaming Book?

[Pinotage]

Red Box Basic Set. Got it as a Christmas present from my older cousin at the age of 10 or 11. I actually still own some of my 'gaming material' (apart from the box set which is packed away somewhere) from back them. Large quantities of A4 sheets filled with maps and dragons crammed into every 10 ft x 10 ft room. Certainly brings back memories.

 

[Ormazd]

My first game book was the Blue DnD Expert book, which my grandmother (of all people, the least hip lady ever) somehow figured I would enjoy. Of course, I had to go out and get the Red Basic Book to get things started and played that week with my dad and some of his friends.

It's been all downhill from there.

Interestingly, I still have the Blue Book (as well as all of the other basic DnD books, except for the red ones, which i loaned to a friend about 8 years ago). Every once in a while i consider breaking them back out and running another campaign in which everyone wanted to be an elf (who could fight AND cast spells). It reminds me a lot of the cartoon...sigh.

O

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Easy.

In 8th grade (1989) read Tolkein's The Hobbit and fell in love with the fantasy genre. Found the AD&D 2e Players Handbook (the printing w/o the broadsword stats) at a Waldenbooks, picked it up. As I was self-teaching, I honestly did not understand it at first, but found a group using the Red Box (Mentzer I believe) to run games.

Sooo, I bought the 2e PHB first, but first understood the D&D Red Box.

 

[Pramas]

Hi Chris,

I thought Jason was the one that bought that box, he always took credit.

If you want to get technical, it was my parents who bought it for my brother and I. I didn't have a job when I was 10.

 

[Arnwyn]

I was about 12 years old, with the old Fighting Fantasy books. (I got the Red Box around that time as well from my grandfather as a complete surprise, but I didn't really know what Dungeons & Dragons was at the time, and didn't really look deeply into it for another 2 years or so. Whoops!)

 

[rogueattorney]

'81 or '82. I was 8 or 9 years old. My dad got me the Basic and Expert box sets after he saw me starting at the D&D stuff on the comic rack of the local grocery store. The cover of Expedition to Barrier Peaks just grabbed my eye, and I was hooked.

We were living in Decatur, IL, and my dad wargamed with a lot of the guys from Judges Guild. (He also gamed with some of the guys from GDW, who went to school in Champaign and founded the company in Bloomington, but unfortunately, no Classic Traveller stuff for me.) So I got a nice haul of JG stuff as well. Still have it, too.

R.A.

 

[d4]

1982. 11 years old. Moldvay Red Box Basic Set.

 

[replicant2]

The original D&D white boxed set. Got it at a store called Eric Fuchs in Salem, MA when I was 10 years old.

There was an Eric Fuchs in Salem? I used to go to the one in the Burlington Mall. Though a hobby shop in the Woburn mall (whose name I can't remember) was the site of my first RPG purchase -- the 1981 D&D boxed set, warrior with spear and a sorcereress battling a green dragon, drawn by Erol Otus.

 

[Zuoken]

At age 13, I got my Star Wars: Revised Edition Core Rulebook.

I was at first surprised to see how much it cost, but I bought it anyways and never looked back. I later got hooked on D&D, and haven't looked back on that since either...

Heh, funny thing is, I've never run a Star Wars campaign. That hopefully may change soon, I've gotten a few of my buddies hooked on the DVD Set and Star Wars: Battlefront.

 

[JoeBlank]

I was twelve. I still have the book and when I look at it I am twelve again.