Most of us started with D&D / AD&D in one of it's various flavors, although I have seen a significant number that started with other RPGs, which is pretty cool.
This is not a question asking about the RPG that was your gateway into the hobby.
Instead, it's a question about the game that you were drawn to AFTER being introduced to the hobby.
For me, that game was Gamma World. It's not the second RPG that I played (that might have been Gangbusters), but it was the second RPG that I owned and the first one that I bought with my own money. It was also my introduction to the World of TSR "Waxy Dice". What memories. ;)
So, what is the second RPG that you owned?
As with many in the late '70s, D&D was the first RPG I played and owned.
ReplyDeleteBut Traveller was the second, and Traveller was the one that everyone associated with me. I'm pretty sure that for the first 3 years after I bought it, I was the only one who refereed Traveller in my group of friends.
Then again, I didn't run my first game of D&D until the early 90's. Basically, everyone else was a GM, and I ran all the non-D&D. It's still pretty much the same.
I think it was CoC but I'm not 100% sure...
ReplyDeleteBoot Hill
ReplyDeleteDepends. I went from the LBB's to Holmes Basic, so if different versions of D&D count, then that's my answer.
ReplyDeleteIf not, I want to say Traveller was my second purchase, but it might well have been Metamorphosis Alpha. It's all fuzzy, trying to remember that far back.
Gangbusters, cause mom had a problem with D&D (most notably the half-naked woman on the one book and the demon on the other, IIRC).
ReplyDeleteI can't recall the order - either it was the Top Secret boxed set (which I never played) or the Villains & Vigilantes boxed set (which I played the hell out of).
ReplyDeleteA different, but tangential question: What was your first non-class based RPG you've owned?
ReplyDeleteWas Star Frontiers class based? Seems like it had skill trees. If Star Frontiers is eliminated, then I would say GURPS.
DeleteTraveller was my second rpg. Probably Top Secret after that.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember if it was Gamma World 2nd edition, Star Frontiers, or Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer (I bought the latter two at the same time at my first Gen Con).
ReplyDeleteThe second I bought was probably Metamorphosis Alpha, but the second I really played significantly was Traveller.
ReplyDeleteRunequest. Games Workshops hard back edition, an introduction to percentile based games which continues to this day through the agency of Call of Cthulhu.
ReplyDeleteMy second rpg was AD&D 2nd Edition (1989). And my first non-class based - and third - rpg was Star Wars 1st Edition (WEG). It's got templates, but they are only suggestions.
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG after Holmes Basic was Top Secret, 1st ed.
ReplyDeleteRifts! Followed closely by Heroes Unlimited
ReplyDeleteHmm. Either Traveller or Chill. I am inclined to say Chill since it fits with my memories better, but I would not be surprised if it was Traveller.
ReplyDeleteThat of course is not counting that I started with Holmes Basic, then moved to Moldvay Basic (and Cook Expert) and then AD&D 1st ed.
My second RPG was the original Top Secret.
ReplyDeleteTraveller.
ReplyDeleteThe third was Runequest II. After that the order gets a little muddled. T&T maybe?
And Traveller5 should be mailed out to we Kickstater backers in a week or two.
I think my next two after D&D3e were Traveller d20 (which was awful, but got me interested in other Traveller versions) and Vampire, which we played in a "mirrorshades, trenchcoats, assault rifles, and battle axes" fashion, but I don't remember the order... I think Traveller came first?
ReplyDeleteMy first three gaming purchases were Car Wars, Moldvay Basic D&D, and then Palladium's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness.
ReplyDeleteMost people would say that TMNT was my second rpg, but I consider it to be my third.
Traveller was my second, Gamma World was my third.
ReplyDeleteGamma World was my second RPG (I think).
ReplyDeleteGamma World was the second RPG I ever played, but I didn't own it. That would be Top Secret (the original edition not SI) and then Traveller. This was followed promptly by Champions (the boxed set 3rd ed?) and Timemaster by Pacesetter games.
ReplyDeleteThe original MERP boxed set. Never did play it though.
ReplyDeleteTraveller.
ReplyDeleteThe second RPG I owned was the Batman RPG--the little stripped down version of DC Heroes that Mayfair sold everywhere when the Tim Burton movie came out.
ReplyDeleteI am not proud of this.
Champions was quickly my third.
Star Frontiers was my second game. I think Marvel Super Heroes was my third.
ReplyDeleteGamma World. I remember this because I purchased this with my own money from chores rather than getting it as a gift. I loved Gamma World, we played it a lot but never really as a big campaign. More like one or two offs between D&D dungeon crawls. James Bond, Space Master, and the Autoduel supplements for GURPS were the other big ones outside of D&D for my Jr. / High School gamer group.
ReplyDelete@Joshua Burnett I bet that Batman RPG would go for a bit of $ now on e-bay to collectors.
My second RPG was Rolemaster, 2nd edition, and my first was the first edition MERP boxed set. I didnt play D&D (except for a handful of sessions of AD&D 2nd) until Pathfinder! - and then only afterwards did i play AD&D 1st and B/X! :)
ReplyDeleteTraveler, I'm pretty sure. Then I really got into GDW and tried to buy everything they made. Twilight 2000 being a fave.
ReplyDeleteMy memory is hazy, it *could* have been either Traveller (the 3LBBs) or Gamma World.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers was the 2nd, borrowed Gamma World and Boot Hill, bought Gangbusters, borrowed Champions, then Mechwarrior. You only asked for the 2nd, but hey those were the RPG's between 81 & 87 that I played.
ReplyDeleteSpace Opera was my second (Traveller was my first). Played it once. Gamma World was third, and played it a few times.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers closely followed by Traveler
ReplyDeleteMetamorphosis Alpha, from which I quickly borrowed all sorts of technology to inject into my D&D campaign.
ReplyDeleteTwilight:2000. The first one I bought (I split the cost with my brother) was Star Frontiers.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers was my second RPG, and also the first class-less RPG I bought/played. Mentzer D&D being the first.
ReplyDeleteDidn't actually buy another RPG until Gamma World 4th came out in the early 90's, but played or at least made characters for quite a few that friends had bought.
Traveler or Cyberpunk (not sure which version)
ReplyDeleteMy first 2 RPGS were a weird little feedback loop between TFT and Holmes Basic. Melee got me into gaming, then I played Holmes Basic then I got Melee and Wizard and made up "Melee D&D" which we played until I got my own Holmes Basic book.
ReplyDeleteWell . . . I actually started with MERP and went quickly to AD&D 2nd from there.
ReplyDeleteSo not counting that I'm 90% sure it was Rifts. Yup. Not sure what that says about me.
Traveller.
ReplyDeleteTraveller was my second. As for third, hmm, I think it might have been the original three Mechanoid Invasion books from Palladium.
ReplyDeleteTraveller
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers was skill based. It had three skill groups and you'd pick one for your primary. Subsets from that primary group were cheaper to improve.
ReplyDeleteSo you could pick tech skills as your primary and then take the robotics and the computer subsets, or focus in on just robotics, or whatnot.
Traveller
ReplyDeleteFor D&D it was Moldvay Basic first, then AD&D 1st Ed. I think the second RPG was after AD&D, but it might even have been earlier.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers.
Traveller, I'm pretty sure. It might have been Metamorphosis Alpha, though. Things get fuzzy from nearly 35 years ago. I do know that I got my boxed set of Traveller (6th printing, before they went fully metric) for Christmas 1979.
ReplyDeleteI still have my original 3LBBs of Traveller (though they are much the worse for wear), but I gave my original copy of Metamorphosis Alpha to a good friend of mine.
gammaworld 2nd ed which i have been playing again of late
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was The Babylon Project by Chameleon Eclectic (the first Babylon 5 RPG).
ReplyDeleteAlthough technically I owned BD&D (Otus cover) first, Gamma World was the first RPG I bought and then played. My dad had, in his great wisdom, sought to find something that my sister and I could play and stay engaged with so be bought us the basic D&D set, but we tried hard to get him to teach it to us and he was at a complete loss as to what it was all about, so it sat around ignored for a month. Then, on a trip to Santa Fe, I found a copy of Gamma World in a local toy shop and bought it. GW for whatever reason managed to convey what it was all about and I promptly ran a game for my sister and her friends (which as was the case back then ended in a TPK). As soon as we got home I grabbed up BD&D and figured it out as well....rotated between those two for a few months before I then found AD&D and other RPGs.
ReplyDeleteMarvel Super Heroes
ReplyDeleteI think it was Marvel Super Heroes, although I seem to have gotten a bunch of others right about that period like Star Frontiers, Top Secret, & MERP. I actually think I played MSH more in the 1980's than D&D!
ReplyDeleteI believe my 2nd was 1e Gamma World as well, if not it was 1e AD&D. It was 1982, memory clouds!
ReplyDeleteGamma World or Bushido, can't remember which. Probably Gamma World. Still love that game.
ReplyDelete