Your intro to RPGs

SnowleopardVK

First Post
This thread is simply to reminisce. Tell the tale of your intro to whichever RPG was your first. From what I've seen among the players in my area, almost none had a story as simple as "I saw the rulebook in the store and decided to buy it". There's always been an at least mildly interesting story behind it; I've had a friend who began with World of Darkness because he was enthralled by werewolves and jumped at the idea that he could play a game where he was one. Another, my best friend is among the third generation of D&D players in her family on the other hand. Her grandparents played back at the beginning of D&D, her parents continued the tradition, and they in turn passed it on to her and her brother, and the whole family and friends of the family frequently play together.

In my case; I wanted to try D&D or something similar after some attempts at roleplay online, which failed mostly due to a lack of rules, order, and DMs. So I set out looking for a group that'd be willing to accept a new player.

During that time I dealt with a lot of jerks and was nearly turned off RPGs before I ever got started. I was insulted for being a girl, told that D&D doesn't need any new players, and told that "noobs" like me are deliberately trying to ruin the game for the "real" players by wanting to join.

I had essentially given up when I learned that my best friend was a D&D player and I hadn't even known it! As it turns out, she was the 3rd generation of the D&D-playing family I mentioned earlier. I hadn't mentioned to her that I wanted to get into RPGs because I didn't know she played, and she hadn't offered to help me because she didn't know I wanted to play because I hadn't told her (it's a vicious circle huh?).

Even then we still had trouble getting started because she had only ever played before and was reluctant to do a solo campaign as her first time being a DM. She managed to find someone in her physics class that was willing to run a game for the two of us, but after creating our characters and a month of waiting to hear back from him it seemed a lost cause.

And then when I came back to our residence building (I still lived on campus at university at the time) late one night after teaching some spell-writing exercises for the local paranormal group I bumped into another friend of mine with a Pathfinder character sheet in hand.

Her boyfriend was planning to take his first shot at being a DM soon, but their game had been delayed because two of the players (who had been dating) had a falling out. There was a lot of fighting, and both were asked to leave the game (so as not to play favourites), meaning the group was two players short. I jumped at the opportunity and the DM was more than happy to bring in both me and my best friend as the replacements for the other two (in the end my barbarian and her rogue were the only two to make it out alive). I've tried out both 3.5 and 4e, as well as a few of the different WoD games since then, but Pathfinder has been my favourite RPG system ever since I started with it.

...And that's the story of how I first entered the world of tabletop RPGs.

I'm looking forward to hearing about others' experiences.
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

I'd have to say it was late elementary or early Jr High. A friend introduced me to GURPS. Shortly after, i'd had my dad buy me the 3e Basic set. Over the next couple years, i'd bought cyberpunk, space and a couple planets books. Hurricane Andrew ruined the planets books sadly. I prefered modern x-men style or what would now be considered MIB style or some sort of futuristic sci-fi in the vein of colonial space marines. Fantasy and elves was for icky girls and thier cooties back then.

By high school, I'd met some ppl that played WoD, but never got a chance to play. During college, I played a little Rifts with some co-workers, and decided I'd avoided DnD/fantasy for too long got the core set for 3.5. Shortly after, Eberron came out and I was hooked. Now my book case is filled with stacks of Gurps 3/4 books, several books from d20 Star Wars, all of SWSE, Pathfinder, most of the 3.x product line, and most of the 4e product line.

Still treasured, sitting on the bottom shelf of the RPG bookcase, fourth from the left, is my original GURPS basic set third edition hard cover, with it's binding coming apart at the top and bottom from a childhood spent flipping through it's pages, making all kinds of cool mad geniuses, super spies, and space marines. I refer to it as my Scrooge McDuck "Lucky Dime" book.
 

Attachments

  • photo.JPG
    photo.JPG
    172 KB · Views: 224

In started playing role-playing games back in high school, circa 1985, with 1st edition AD&D, followed soon after by the likes of Champions, Palladium (TMNT & Hero's Unlimited), and LBB Traveller.

I remember those "campaigns" being stupid, rip-roaring messes; the high points were things like (intentionally) killing half of the Ninja Turtles by tossing a grenade into their car, (unintentionally) destroying whatever magical doodad we were supposed to recover, digressions into televised cooking competitions --years before Iron Chef, and starring super-intelligent monkeys-- and beating the hell out of each others PC's with fireballs and Staves of Striking.

I miss them dearly.
 



In early middle school I had a couple of friends who were starting up a group and came to me. I had a pretty negative impression of what the phrase "Dungeons & Dragons" meant, but eventually they talked me into it.

We played in a friend's basement, initially in some secrecy. Eventually, I realized that the game could be different than the stereotype and there was no reason to hide it from family and friends.

In truth, I played for a while, but I think my career really got started when 3e came out and I got my first D&D book, a Monster Manual, as a gift. That's when I actually learned the rules and started DMing. Still haven't explored all the possibilities that book opened up, but goodness knows I've tried...
 

I was introduced to RPGs through the old Gold Box computer games, in particular Secret of the Silver Blades. I saw it at the store and bought it because it looked fun, and got into the series. My cousin saw it and told me about his experiences with tabletop, which prompted me to get the 2e basic books and the d&d rules cyclopedia. I started running games for friends, and have been a gamer ever since.
 

I was initially introduced to RPGs through the CRPG Baldur's Gate because I started looking into the rules and system behind the game. That started my interest in RPGs. Mostly that bug has been fed through CRPGs as I've only managed to find myself in a few actual games (mostly D&D but a few other systems) via online games for the most part. But they, and my very limited table top experience, have tended to fizzle out quickly once started.
 

For me, it all started with the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. Warlock of Firetop Mountain started the whole ball rolling but I suppose it was the Iain McCaig art and fun in City of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon that started bringing this whole fantasy world to life. The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings flowed into the Red Box that was then quickly followed by the AD&D books and their magnificent Jeff Easley art. I think it is the art that really fires me up; to imagine these fantastical places. Mix in a little Talisman, and Dark Castle on my MacPlus and I was and have always been over the whole fantasy genre since.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
 

My friend group had one guy through which all our new fads were introduced. He had a set of "really cool" cousins that he visited each year and so upon his return he came with new ideas. He came back one year with D&D and presented it so awfully that we wondered how it would ever compare to the awesomeness of Dragon Strike. Eventually we succumbed and gave it a try.

By the time we got enough bread away from Axel, we knew we had to defeat Zanzer Tem. Been killing him or his ilk ever since.
 

Remove ads

Top