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Message: <blockquote data-quote="khantroll" data-source="post: 5635363" data-attributes="member: 95652">I was 7 years old, and my Aunt had just gotten married. Her husband, Tim, was one of those guys that most kids like; he was always around play video games or board games with, and he always wanted to be your friend. I wasn't terribly keen on him though. He was different then most of the adults I knew; he listened to Heavy Metal, wore his hair long, and talked fast. For a kid living in a remote part of Arkansas, that was weird. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />At any rate, one day that summer my Aunt was babysitting myself and two cousins when the adults decided that they needed to go shopping. The loaded us up in their van and took us into town. We were told to stay in the van while they ran into this particular store, and after a few minutes I got bored. I convinced my cousins that it would be alright to get out of the van, and it only took few minutes of walking around the parking lot of this mini-mall to spy this bright blue sign at the end of the complex. It was obviously hand-made, and it had a picture of knight and sword on it with blue on white lettering that read "Mystic Domain". I took off for it, and I once inside I was honestly stupefied. The building, which wasn't very big (today, I'd say it couldn't have been more then 450sq), was filled to the brim with books and boxes. What floor space was not covered by shelves was taken up with two tables covered with green felt and little figures, and these were being attended to by the two employees. As I looked around this example of controlled clutter, my eyes were drawn to this large game box on the top shelf against the back wall. The box showed demon overlaying a picture of the game board and some kind of cards. And scrawled across the top in blue letters it said "Dungeons and Dragons". I was so caught up in this box that I didn't hear the door open and my new uncle come in behind me. He told me I was in trouble, but I didn't care. I asked him if he could get that game down for me. He followed my pointing arm and we walked to the back. He got the game down for me, and I turned it every which way I could, until I saw the price tag. 59.95. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I was a poor kid in Arkansas. My face fell, and I know Tim saw it. "You know, I used to play this game. My stuff should be in storage. Want go find it? Then we can go home and play it." I nodded yes, and he put it back on the shelf. We didn't get to look for his stuff then, but a couple days later after my Aunt cooled over my ignoring her instructions, we went to his storage locker and he started digging through boxes of records and comic books. A little while later, he comes to me with this  book with what looks like tuskan raider riding a lizard on the cover."I couldn't find my D&D books, but this is a lot like it. We need to go to the library to copy some stuff, and then we can go home and play."I wasn't terribly enthused, but I had after all told him that I'd play. We went to the library and ran off some character sheets on a 1970s copy machine, and then we went back to their house. That night, I played my first game of Gamma World, played with nothing but one set of dice, that ratty, faded and stained rule book, and our imaginations. I was hooked. We eventually got our hands on used AD&D books,and I dug that just as well. We added two of my cousins, and two of his friends to our gaming group, and as we transitioned into WoD and later 3E, Gama World got left behind. But it did a lot. It forged a friendship with Tim that has lasted longer then his marriage to my Aunt, as well as friendships with those that have come and gone from first his table and now mine. Also, years later, I found out that the boxed set I had seen was a board game made by TSR intended to entice kids into D&D. I don't think it would have worked as well, or been as worthwhile, as that ratty old copy of Gamma World.</blockquote>

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