Discussion topic: at what age did you start playing RPGs and what was your first game?
Mine: 5th grade, Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP).
Discussion topic: at what age did you start playing RPGs and what was your first game?
Discussion topic: at what age did you start playing RPGs and what was your first game?
5th grade (hmm around 10 or 11 I think), and it was a mashup of 1st Edition AD&D and Holmes Blue Box Basic Edition D&D. Gah, back in 1978.
5th grade (hmm around 10 or 11 I think), and it was a mashup of 1st Edition AD&D and Holmes Blue Box Basic Edition D&D. Gah, back in 1978.
I was 9 when I bought my friend’s AD&D 2’d Edition PHB off him and stumbled through running some aimless scenes that I think involved his thief pick pocketing random people. Ran and played some “made up as we go” games based on books and video games through 4th-6th grade, and I think ran my first ongoing “serious” D&D game in 7th grade.
I was 9 when I bought my friend’s AD&D 2’d Edition PHB off him and stumbled through running some aimless scenes that I think involved his thief pick pocketing random people. Ran and played some “made up as we go” games based on books and video games through 4th-6th grade, and I think ran my first ongoing “serious” D&D game in 7th grade.
Jeff Russell Our experiences are pretty similar. I toyed around with Marvel for a little bit, got ahold of the 2nd Ed AD&D books in the sixth or seventh grade and never looked back, haha.
Jeff Russell Our experiences are pretty similar. I toyed around with Marvel for a little bit, got ahold of the 2nd Ed AD&D books in the sixth or seventh grade and never looked back, haha.
I was about 12 and I played D & D and two years later, got into 1st ed AD&D.
I was about 12 and I played D & D and two years later, got into 1st ed AD&D.
16. D&D 1st ed.
16. D&D 1st ed.
Wow, you guys started young! 2nd Edition AD&D here. ~14 years old.
Wow, you guys started young! 2nd Edition AD&D here. ~14 years old.
I believe that anyone who played anything before D&D 3.0 can fully appreciate the death knell of the THAC0 =)
I believe that anyone who played anything before D&D 3.0 can fully appreciate the death knell of the THAC0 =)
I was in the sixth grade. My best friend and I would show up to school 45 minutes early and hang out in the cafeteria with some of our friends. One day they started playing Advanced D & D and handed me a dwarf fighter character sheet. I had no idea how to play and they just told me when to roll. 😀
I was in the sixth grade. My best friend and I would show up to school 45 minutes early and hang out in the cafeteria with some of our friends. One day they started playing Advanced D & D and handed me a dwarf fighter character sheet. I had no idea how to play and they just told me when to roll. 😀
Fourteen or fifteen (’78), depending on your definition of playing RPGs. I got into wargaming when I was 13 and, freshman year of high school discovered Melee and Wizard from Metagaming. They were 1:1 scale tactical minigames; Melee was man-to-man combat with medieval weapons and Wizard added magic to the mix. You could knock out two combats in Study Hall, and the whole game fit into a little plastic envelope.
(Also, your combatants could earn experience which got them better stats, which also allowed for better equipment, spells, etc., so there was a proto-RPG element at play. The two games would later see advanced editions which were explicitly an RPG, and the whole thing was a direct forebearer of GURPS. But I digress…)
Metagaming also released a programmed adventure called Death Test, which was a dungeon crawl using the Melee/Wizard rules. Your heroes traveled from room to room (all with the dimensions of the Melee board, though with varying terrain) fighting monsters and picking up gold (and the occasional healing potion to keep you going).
We played Death Test until we’d memorized it, then grabbed the sequel (Death Test II, which had more Wizard support). Eventually, we played it out and started making up our own. So, in a way, we kind of developed our own FRPG experience minus D&D.
One morning at church, a kid in my youth group overheard me telling a friend about our Death Tests and asked if I’d heard of Dungeons & Dragons. At the time, I’d conflated it with some fantasy boardgame from SPI (SPI and TSR both having three letter names) and probably sounded completely disinterested. Over the summer, my best friend got the Holmes Blue Box and brought it to school on day one of tenth grade. He lent me the rules and within a week, he ran a dungeon for me and another friend on the food court patio after school on a Friday.
So, like I said, it depends.
Fourteen or fifteen (’78), depending on your definition of playing RPGs. I got into wargaming when I was 13 and, freshman year of high school discovered Melee and Wizard from Metagaming. They were 1:1 scale tactical minigames; Melee was man-to-man combat with medieval weapons and Wizard added magic to the mix. You could knock out two combats in Study Hall, and the whole game fit into a little plastic envelope.
(Also, your combatants could earn experience which got them better stats, which also allowed for better equipment, spells, etc., so there was a proto-RPG element at play. The two games would later see advanced editions which were explicitly an RPG, and the whole thing was a direct forebearer of GURPS. But I digress…)
Metagaming also released a programmed adventure called Death Test, which was a dungeon crawl using the Melee/Wizard rules. Your heroes traveled from room to room (all with the dimensions of the Melee board, though with varying terrain) fighting monsters and picking up gold (and the occasional healing potion to keep you going).
We played Death Test until we’d memorized it, then grabbed the sequel (Death Test II, which had more Wizard support). Eventually, we played it out and started making up our own. So, in a way, we kind of developed our own FRPG experience minus D&D.
One morning at church, a kid in my youth group overheard me telling a friend about our Death Tests and asked if I’d heard of Dungeons & Dragons. At the time, I’d conflated it with some fantasy boardgame from SPI (SPI and TSR both having three letter names) and probably sounded completely disinterested. Over the summer, my best friend got the Holmes Blue Box and brought it to school on day one of tenth grade. He lent me the rules and within a week, he ran a dungeon for me and another friend on the food court patio after school on a Friday.
So, like I said, it depends.
Holmes Blue Box in 1979. I was 13, i believe.
Holmes Blue Box in 1979. I was 13, i believe.
Red box D&D back in grade school. I can’t remember whether it was 5th or 6th grade.
Red box D&D back in grade school. I can’t remember whether it was 5th or 6th grade.
My first game was age 8 or 9. A friend’s older brother ran a game for us. I still remember the plot very vividly to this day. We were asked to rid a local shop keeper of something in his basement.
Plot Twist: he turned out to be a doppelganger who had killed the shopkeeper.
Several years later I picked up the red box and eventually got heavily into 2e, specifically Forgotten Realms which I still use as a campaign setting for my weekly Pathfinder game.
My first game was age 8 or 9. A friend’s older brother ran a game for us. I still remember the plot very vividly to this day. We were asked to rid a local shop keeper of something in his basement.
Plot Twist: he turned out to be a doppelganger who had killed the shopkeeper.
Several years later I picked up the red box and eventually got heavily into 2e, specifically Forgotten Realms which I still use as a campaign setting for my weekly Pathfinder game.
I was about 9. A friend of my oldest sister, who was in high school at the time, babysat me during the day for a week during the summer.
I was interested in playing D&D because I had gotten ahold of a Moldvay box. It just so happened that he DMed AD&D. So, we played AD&D 1E everyday. It was awesome and I was hooked.
I was about 9. A friend of my oldest sister, who was in high school at the time, babysat me during the day for a week during the summer.
I was interested in playing D&D because I had gotten ahold of a Moldvay box. It just so happened that he DMed AD&D. So, we played AD&D 1E everyday. It was awesome and I was hooked.