I think the answer to this question is going to revolve around when one started playing RPGs.
My first taste of roleplaying was via AD&D - all my friend had was the DMG and we had to call another friend to see if I had leveled. Cyrus the Fighter made 2nd level in that first solo adventure - I'm fairly sure we didn't accurately count the expo, but that didn't matter. The experience was magical and I was hooked for life.
So, what game brought you into the hobby?
Yep, AD&D for me. Still with it, 34 years later. Never moved on so never had to go back to it.
ReplyDeleteI commend you for your perseverance, sir! To stick with AD&D for all those years is a testament to your dedication, for sure! I think you should be proud of that accomplishment, of which I am jealous. My own roleplaying career has been a study in attention deficit disorder, and I've been that way across the entirety of my own decades-long gaming career.
DeleteAD&D for me too. Although the only rules we had comprised a few handwritten sheets that my friend's older brother copied from his friend's books. Took a few months before we got copies of the main rulebooks. We completely ignored Basic D&D, and even had some contempt for it - we were only 10 though so we didn't know any better.
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I had heard about Dungeons & Dragons and it sounded right up our alley, but we didn't have a copy. So we made up our own mazes on graph paper and made up our own rules.
ReplyDeleteThen I was at a shop that had the microgame Lords of Underearth. Not a role playing game, but it was the first game that was close that I ever owned.
That Christmas my folks got me the Basic and Expert sets. That was an awesome Christmas.
Easy. I picked up the Basic and Expert sets at Waldenbooks. Poured through them, rolled up PCs and made dungeons. Didn't even have a group yet, but I was already committing the rules and such to memory. However, I did not know of "AD&D", so I was horribly confused when I picked up the Monster Manual and found the monster entries were not nearly the same as the stats in the red book.
ReplyDeleteFighting Fantasy, like all British RPGers who turned 10 in 1983! After that, 1e AD&D.
ReplyDeleteFighting Fantasy, but I'm not British. ;]
DeleteMe neither, well my Mum is ;)
DeleteIn NZ and OZ it was the same
Oh, in between Fighting Fantasy RPG and actual AD&D, age 12 at boarding school I/we played a lot of a simple d6-based system I & a guy called Ross Martin made up, which turned out to be nearly identical to Warhammer. Roll d6 for init, roll d6 to hit, deduct Wounds, etc.
DeleteDragonquest - Saw D & D played by some college students I knew, but ended up getting Dragonquest that Christmas instead.
ReplyDeleteHolmes in '81, but I was still trying to grasp the game when I quickly got my hands on the 1e books and AD&D became my true introduction to RPGs. Holmes remains my sentimental favourite however.
ReplyDeleteI was into wargaming, but could only afford Metagaming's Microgames because they were $2.95 & $3.95.
ReplyDeleteso, I guess that means Melee/Wizard were my first RPGs, if you consider them on their own to be RPGs. I asked my mom for percentile dice (for a skirmish game of some sort-Bio-One?), but she bought a set of polyhedrals because there were FIVE dice in that set.
I then got the Holmes Rulebook-they sold it separately at the toy store. It was this amazing thing! But even at 11 (12?) I recognized that Melee had a better combat system. I tried to figure out a way to combine them. [If I had only stuck with that, I would have saved a ton of money over the years.] I somehow got a copy of AD&D PHB. Don't remember how.
Then my mom came home one day and told me she had found an AD&D game for me. A gaming group, to be precise. It had just started, they played in a restaurant in a smaller mall next to the main shopping mall we went to. She called, whoever and arranged for me to play the next weekend. So I showed up, with my Halfling Thief-Sam (original huh?) The Restaurant kicked us out after that-apparently they had thought we would be ordering food and drinks-but I didn't have any money, I was a kid. The game store that sponsored the group kept finding us places to play. Empty stores, the maintenance hallways and after the restaurant closed, some of the eating area was open so we used that.
Anyway that makes my answer either, Melee/Wizard, Holmes Basic or AD&D.
But more than anything it was my mom. [The woman who, upon seeing the nude artwork in some of the books said, "Now you know what those look like."]
I didn't appreciate her enough while she was alive.
Great story -- great mom!!
DeleteFirst Edition AD&D for me! I started roleplaying back in 1987-1988, and that was my first contact with RPGs. A couple years later, we switched to Second Edition.
ReplyDeleteI started with the LBBs, here. Thence to Holmes, and then settled into AD&D for most of my RPG life.
ReplyDeleteHolmes Ed Basic D&D. But it was AD&D that dragged me in deep.
ReplyDeleteExactly the same here. I don't even think I played expert, fooled around with basic and then went right to AD&D 1st Ed.
DeleteB/X: A friend of mine brought it to school one day and got me playing during our lunch periods. Eventually we started using AD&D classes, monsters and magic items, but really we were still playing B/X with fancy stuff added.
ReplyDeleteAD&D, followed quickly by Traveller.
ReplyDeleteMoldvay Basic D&D. My buddy got the Basic and Expert sets for Christmas '81. I got the Basic book then the Expert set shortly after
ReplyDeleteB1 - we had no books. Just B1 and dice we stole from the Yatzee game.
ReplyDeleteNow that is hard core!
DeleteMoldvay Basic D&D. It was a Christmas present from my mother who heard about it from an English teacher at the local high school. I was reading fantasy literature and she thought I'd be into this unusual game thing.
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ReplyDelete^Blogger is being weird with my name!
ReplyDeleteI said:
BECMI Basic, run by my best mates older brother. Then a gap until playing it with a group.
But really what got me into it was Fighting Fantasy books, they rocked. Before we played against Bargle we also played the FF books Clash of the Princes, a choose your own adventure book that you played together, with 2 dif books
http://fightingfantasy.com/index.php?%20option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=37
I played a lot of other FF books before DnD/RPGs
Basic D&D for me.. the Holmes version We jumped from Basic to AD&D.. well more like melded..
ReplyDeleteThe Moldvay Basic Set.
ReplyDeleteI even wrote up what I remember about the first time I played as my introductory post when i started my blog.
"My first D&D session -1982"
https://almostoldschool.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/hello-world/
Mentzer Expert
ReplyDeleteMine was AD&D 1st edition. My Dad had the books from when he was in College and I stumbled upon them. He DM'ed a couple games for my brothers and I. Good times.
ReplyDeleteMoldvay Basic D&D was the first I owned, but for the longest time, I couldn't find anyone to play it with in the rural area of PA I grew up in. The first rpg like game I played with other people were The Fantasy Trip books, Melee and Wizard; however, the first proper role playing experience I had was AD&D first edition. I played it for many years, despite the fact that I only owned the Monster Manual for the longest time, so I ran games using a hodge podged house rule system steeped mostly in Moldvay Basic.
ReplyDeleteStreet Fighter the RPG or Basic D&D. I knew about D&D and even read about it. But Street Fighter was the first game I owned. I didn't know the two were the same at time.
ReplyDeleteBeing swedish, i started with 'Drakar & Demoner' ('Dragons & Demons' in english, nothing familiar with that alliteration, right?). It had no levels as such, your pcs progressed in their skills. And you could play as a duck. With hands. Had a long road of rpgs before i actually played the big doubleD.
ReplyDeleteBX dnd but fighting fantasy books brobably a year before and even choose your own adventure was hot the same years 81-84
ReplyDeleteWEG's d6 Star Wars rpg in 1989. Then we played a lot of the swedish brp-fantasy Drakar och Demoner. So when we tried D&D (mentzer) we thought it was primitive and dumb. It took many years before I understood how old school games where supposed to be played, but now I'm really enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteThe first two and a half years of gaming were done with the Hebrew version of AD&D 2E, back in the late 1990's. We only had the three core books but we had LOADS OF FUN with them and with a lot of improvization. Then we ordered The Babylon Project from AMAZON.COM (me and my friends were heavily into Babylon 5 back then), and in 2000 we got the three 3E core books as well as Shadowrun 2E.
ReplyDeleteWhite Box original D&D three booklets. purchased at a Lincoln City, Oregon (Lands End) hobby shop in 1981 or 2 give or take. Played with my sister then with some high school friends later. Eventually bought some Judges Guild supplements that added a world and a lot of dimension.
ReplyDeleteThose early years of D&D were great. Required a lot of imagination and invention.
Melee/Wizard and Holmes for me as well, bought at the Point Of Conflict in Fairport, NY in 1977, after playing a LG fighter in a OD&D game there. Picked up the AD&D hardcovers as they came out; bought the LBB whitebox from Kay-Bee Toys in 1981 or thereabouts. ALMOST bought Tunnels & Trolls, but the book was so thin I thought there wasn't much to it (I've since made up for that mistake! :) ).
ReplyDeleteTraveller 1977 edition (although I didn't play until 1979 or 1980. I was amazed and wanted my own copy so the ref sent me to a gaming store (Simulations) where I discovered: Traveller wasn't the only RPG out there. First edition Dragon Quest (SPI) was my next purchase (which baffled me, I made up most of the rules as we played) followed by Moldvay basic; I couldn't afford AD&D which was THE game at school.
ReplyDelete