Your first RPG purchase, in pictures

[Staffan]

Can't remember which one was first, but either this:

or this:

The first is the Swedish translation of Lone Wolf book 6. I skipped books 1 through 5, because this one said "Magnakai" on it so it of course had to be cooler. The second is issue 5 of the Swedish RPG magazine Sinkadus, which had articles about all the RPGs the Swedish publisher Äventyrsspel were publishing. I probably didn't understand much about what they were saying, but it was definitely super fascinating.

 

[MGibster]

My first purchase was the original B2 module The Keep on the Borderlands circa 1986 from the bargain bin of Kaybee Toy Stores at the Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I honestly don't remember how much I paid for it, but since I didn't have a lot of money it couldn't have been much. I did not actually play my first game of AD&D until 1988 or 1989.

 

[dragoner]

I purchased this bad boy at my local Waldenbooks (and by local I mean 20 miles from home).
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Can this be me too? I bought mine at a hobby store around 78 or 79 and it looks exactly the same now.

 

[Sacrosanct]

View attachment 428576

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 1e, softcover

My mother at the time was very much fallen into the "Satanic Panic" hysteria, so she refused to allow me to get into D&D.

My friends and I were playing Warhammer at the time, and found out about this. I insisted to her that it wasn't D&D at all. Somehow I got permission to spend my saved-up allowance and birthday cash on it (thanks Grandma!).

I had a bit of a panic attack though, when I first read the Daemonology and Necromancy spell descriptions. Couldn't leave this book out for her perusal, that's for sure.

I had to chuckle. "D&D is too satanic, so here's a book that's even more occultish and dark."

 

[Bae'zel]

I had to chuckle. "D&D is too satanic, so here's a book that's even more occultish and dark."

YEP. I mean, I did a double take when she saw the cover but wasn't bothered.

I guess that she connected it with Hero Quest, which we regularly played as a family.

 

[Mannahnin]

1983 red Box. Stand-in picture (mine is buried in storage).

View attachment 428559

Same.

Though it was actually a gift from an older relative (I could swear it was my parents for my 10th birthday, but my Mom claims it was her sister; whom I remember giving us some plastic fantasy figures). I didn't really have an allowance as a kid, but I did get credit for certain chores, so our folks would buy us stuff. Got most of my early books and games from my parents this way, and I can't actually recall now when exactly I started having my own cash to buy stuff.

Mine had the solid pale blue color in the numbers dice though.

Same.

 

[cbwjm]

So, ignoring the original pick a path fighting fantasy books, my first rpg purchase, I think, was this (though the english version):

I guess there might have been a couple that were for group play that came out before AFF but I can't remember the name. Probably atill at my mum's house, she keeps telling me I have books to sort out.

 

[Gradine]

I almost always played with my brother's and then friends' books. My first purchase of my own though:

 

[kronovan]

I purchased this bad boy at my local Waldenbooks (and by local I mean 20 miles from home).
View attachment 428555

Ditto this.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I almost always played with my brother's and then friends' books.

Same. That's why my first actual purchase was a mini. Funny enough, I can remember my first exposure to RPGs vividly. It was almost exactly like this ad. My older brother and I were at his friends house and they had KotBL up on the kitchen counter exactly as the ad