Instead of the first #TTRPG you played or bought, how did you find out about them?
My dad used to go to a bookstore called The Magic Door and would take me with him. They had the OG D&D books, and later Runequest, Traveller, and the first basic set. /1
My dad used to go to a bookstore called The Magic Door and would take me with him. They had the OG D&D books, and later Runequest, Traveller, and the first basic set. /1
Comments
Solely on the basis that the artwork on the cover looked like a Gothic assassin version of Darkwing Duck
Ironically it was only the lore book not the player guide so while I devoured the world-building and adored things having stats, I didn't get to actually get to play for *years*.
That was it for me, been at this ever since.
During one I was asked whether I played DnD. I said no, was asked me if I wanted to, and figured it might be fun.
Still playing with them 6 years later :D
#d&d #rpg #ttrpg #rpg
That game went for about three years, iirc
Her plan didn't work. The first kids I met in High School had AD&D books and that's where it started.
In 1982 I met someone at school who'd played it with his older brother. I saved up my pocket money and went to Games Workshop
First *actual* one?:Shadowrun 5th Edition. Convinced my dad to get me the quick start for my 17th birthday, cause I thought it looked cool.
One of the teachers played D&D, and we played after school sessions with him, once a week.
We learned a lot of our play culture from how he and his friends played in his home group.
Later, I questioned some of their readings. Not in a rules lawyerly fashion, but in a genuine “surely it works like this way”.
He wasn't available all that often, so we spent many months rolling new characters and trying our best to play.
I got the bug.
We played Traveller in our mid-teens. The sci-fi role-play game?
Dungeons and Dragons with space ships? I loved it.
We played D&D, too, but I like Traveller more: shotguns instead of magic.
Which is a bit funny because I played a lot of Mechwarrior before then and that is based on a TTRPG of the same name which is based off the battletech wargame.
She was 10, her little brother was 9, I was 7, my sister was 5. We played almost daily for the next 5 years.
I coveted them with all my heart...
The ironic thing is I still play TTRPGs, he's a computer gamer (and Bridge).
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2021/05/fantasy-gaming-goes-underground.html
Had a dungeon and and example of play in that dungeon.
A copy of the whole article should be in a museum somewhere!
Here’s the dungeon: 1/2
But it set my imagination on fire
Not every monster you meet can be defeated. Encounters don’t need to be balanced.
Not a 5thEd dungeon.
I didn't have a clue what was going on until I snuck a look at the back of the GM screen and saw the dungeon map, then it all clicked.
Needless to say, I was quite surprised when I heard about the Satanic Panic in the US…
Even then I initially stuck to reading through settings/sourcebooks/adventure modules and letting my imagination run around
(Yes Pete Haines wrote the example of play but the article, the idea and the contact with Marvel was all me.)
'95, post war, older (college age) brother of a friend of mine had to babysit us at a birthday party, he busted out a half faxed half hand written copy of the AD&D 2nd edition revision and we played.
Same friend bought me the 3e starter set in 2000.
Fantask is still there and remains one of my favorite shops.
Pictures are from their website: https://www.fantask.dk/history.asp
I didn't get a chance to buy any books for a couple years until I discovered some in a store about 45 minutes away.
The cover caught my eye. There were no game stores near my small hometown.
He lent it to me. I was hooked.
Next time we went to Quebec City, I found a game store & got the PHB & GM Guide, and started GMing.
As Phil says - The Eton boys did it years after.
https://archive.org/details/whatisdungeonsdr0000butt
"mayday, Mayday...Free Trader Beowulf"
Quick trip inside, emerged with a Basic box set for the Dragon game.
I happened across a book in a hobby shop that I thought was D&D but wasn't the full rules. It was Deities and Demigods.
1/
The rest, as they say, is history.
Anyway, sometime thereafter I discovered the Red Box in a closet full of some leftover inventory. I was 11…
It took a whole decade later but I have finally played a TTRPG
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3XZNMGhpynMRseqItX2p310Alck5Vsj6&si=N3MCvixtFh15_n_C
The "TITAN!" world book for it ignited my imagination, and I'd keep going back for it.
My parents let me go as it meant I was someone else's problem, and soon I was making my first AD&D character.
A few months later I bought my first sourcebook:
Proper 'window into another world' vibes.
Heavy on the prose, light on the game info, but it was a decent primer in what you might expect as players. It taught me some lessons about campaigns that I... did not heed for ages. 😹
Not only does it live rent free in my head, the handheld paperback lives permanently on my sofa and bedside table.
But I really got into them when I was 11 or 12 & starting to write. My dad introduced TTRPGs to me as a tool for improving my writing.
in order I got... dragonlance adventures, 2e PHB, runequest box set, cyberpunk 2020, world of greyhawk box set, rolemaster standard edition, time of the dragon box set
D&D was a solo hobby for me for several years. I suspect that had a lot of impact.