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    Canonfire :: View topic - How did you start playing D&D?
    Canonfire Forum Index -> Welcome to Greyhawk!
    How did you start playing D&D?
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    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 23, 2011
    Posts: 79
    From: Texas

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    Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:32 am  
    Memories~

    Oh goodness.. I remember buying a D&D computer game with a sorceress and a dragon on the front and muddling through it on my PC. I then remember buying a much larger boxed computer game with a red dragon on the front, but my mom decided that the dragon on the front of that one was the devil (no joke) so she made me throw it away.

    I first learned there was a role playing game where you pretended to be characters or at least described their actions when I was at Girl Scout Camp. The two girls in my tent were Star Wars nerds and constantly quoted the scene where Luke is hiding from Darth and he's probing Luke's thoughts ("...so you have a twin sister...").

    Their parents played D&D and we got along pretty well so I actually got to hang out with them some after camp was over. Sadly they were only interested in role playing Star Wars stuff and I wasn't very into that (this must have been around 12 years old or so).

    Then I met some role players in high school (at around age 15), but they only liked White-Wolf, though one of them had family who played D&D. I felt like I was cursed. I joined them for Vampire: the Masquerade because I figured if I couldn't enjoy the fantasy genre I was craving I may as well have some fun.

    Around a year later one of the players from the White-Wolf group ran a small D&D 3.0 game for me and one other in which I played an Elven Druid named Mere Kahain who had a wolf for an animal companion. In the first and only session she picked up a scimitar they found in one of the dungeon rooms and was spoken to directly by the goddess Wee Jas, who gave her the choice to serve her or die. The scimitar grafted itself into the druid's arm.

    I was sorely disappointed when the game never happened again even though I didn't much like my druid being forced into serving Wee Jas.

    Eventually though (around age 19), the DM from that game got me in touch with Iressi, who is my favorite DM to play under so far (I openly admit I'm biased since we'll have been together for four years come September 1st) and who has given me much, much, much more opportunity to play the game than I ever had as a child.

    I'm quite content nowadays, though the vast majority of my D&D experience lies in the realm of 3.0/3.5/4e and Pathfinder. Iressi says I have to try AD&D and 1st edition someday, and I think I'm up for that.
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    Shadows and Dust; Just Another Soul.
    GreySage

    Joined: Sep 09, 2009
    Posts: 2470
    From: SW WA state (Highvale)

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    Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:54 pm  

    I'm back. Smile

    Many of you have discussed numerous other gaming systems, but it seems that most of us continue to return to the one that pretty much gave birth to them all (opinion or fact? not sure). I, too, have tried out other games, including WhiteWolf (namely Vampire and Werewolf), Star Frontiers (boy does that go back in time!), Star Trek (only briefly), Star Wars (original system), Mech Warrior/Battletech, and GURPS.

    There may be a few others that I've forgotten, but the point is that Gary Gygax really created an enduring legacy, and is the true (Grand?)Father of all Role Playing Games (does that make him a Greater Power to us gamers? Perhaps). Happy Greyhawk is the first generation of that, and though the world is, sadly, dead to the market, I think we help to keep that legacy alive with these forums, our games, stories, and memories. Although many others (Forgotten Realms, DarkSun, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, etc.) have spun off the game, Greyhawk's rightful place as a hallmark, detailed, and historic world is assured. I have tried many of those aforementioned spin-offs, but am never satisfied, and always return to Oerth. I think I'm here to stay.

    Thank you for hearing me out and letting me wax poetic...or is that prose (sorry, not an English major)?

    yours in Oerth,

    -Lanthorn
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 06, 2011
    Posts: 32
    From: Roanoke, VA

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    Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:43 pm  

    Two Words: Hero Quest. When I was in gradeschool my parents brought me a copy of the Milton Bradley board game. I can’t tell you how many times I played through the game with my friends and family. An older friend of mine at school who had heard of the game invited me over to play in his D&D game. He said if I liked Hero Quest I would love D&D. I’ve been hooked since that first game. I guess I was about 9 or so at the time back in 89 or 88. My first game was in the first printing of 2nd edition of AD&D. Virtually all of my Hero Quest playing friends followed me into D&D shortly after that. I still use my rapidly aging copy of Hero Quest to introduce people to the concepts of a fantasy roleplaying game. You would be surprised how many people who refused to play D&D now play because they would play a “kid’s board game.”
    Novice

    Joined: Dec 28, 2011
    Posts: 1


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    Wed Dec 28, 2011 1:55 pm  

    I use to play many medieval fantasy games like D&D. Because we didn't have access to any D&D books, we made our own rules. We had lots of fun.

    I'll always remember that my first D&D game was disastreous though.

    When I got into my own first DMing session, it was great. I had to look at the rules from time to time for enemies stats and I didn't really planned anything. Though with the descriptions and all, I made those 1st levels look like epics.

    I'm really into D&D since my first game though. And I like the wolrd of Greyhawk, the original campaign setting.
    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Oct 10, 2001
    Posts: 225
    From: NC

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    Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:50 pm  

    I was around 14 or 15 when I was pilfering through my oldest brothers closet (youngest kids will do that, you know). He was known to go from one hobby to another in rapid succession, so one never knew what might be in there. That was when I came across a particular box, still wrapped in plastic. I opened the box and what did I find inside?

    Meanwhile, my best friend was wandering the aisles of the local toy store, when he came across the same Basic D&D boxed set. Within days, we shared our discoveries. We played Basic, Expert, and Advanced (1e) D&D for years, before college took us into separate directions.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 31, 2006
    Posts: 49
    From: Reno, Nevada

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    Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:49 pm  

    Ah the days of yore when there was such a thing as a payphone, skate rinks, Bazooka gum, rotary phones, record players, casette decks, and the microwave. There was no PG-13, and the only fantasy we had was the Lord of the Rings....

    My cousin, the bully, and conniver intoduced me to the Basic Set and proceeded to run me on many games of which he killed every one of my characters. I hated D&D!!! ...But the seed was planted and a couple of years later I picked up the notorious 'Red Box'. I didn't have any friends that played D&D and I sure didn't know how to DM at a young age but I tried and ran myself thru many games...well and my sister helped a bit too. After that I grew up and thought D&D had gone the way of the Dodo.

    Then in the early 90's fresh out of high school I found a group of players that played D&D, but it was 2nd edition. ..Ah, heck...well I took what I could get and spent many years playing 2nd edition. We would start a game in my backroom in the evening, say maybe around 7 or 8pm and we'd play till 3, 4 or 5am. We played Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Planescape, and mostly Forgotten Realms. We did this for years!!! Even though D&D waxed and waned thru the years, many of us made the jump to 3rd edition and we spent years playing that as well. Some of us are still together, though many have left. Some of us still play 3rd edition, where as I still play OD&D, 1st, 3rd, and even some 4th.

    Over the years I've gone back and collected the old modules and obtained many modules online. I have modules for all editions; OD&D, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I both run and play D&D as I think it's important to not get burned out and a good balance is in order.

    Thanks for reading,
    -Mouse
    Paladin

    Joined: Sep 07, 2011
    Posts: 833
    From: Houston Texas

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    Sat Feb 11, 2012 4:33 pm  

    Shafiq wrote:

    I'm really into D&D since my first game though. And I like the wolrd of Greyhawk, the original campaign setting.

    Shafiq,
    glad to have you here!
    You might slide over to http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4891 and introduce yourself! You get more spotlight and mingle with many of the key players that are a wealth of info.
    Again Welcome to CF
    DLG
    Novice

    Joined: Mar 06, 2012
    Posts: 3


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    Tue Mar 06, 2012 6:15 pm  

    In fall of 1979 I was in 8th Grade and one day in the lunch hall the guy that sat across from me had the original Blue book and let me look at it for a few minutes during our lunch break. I was in AWE.

    I got my parents to buy me the original blue book and dragon magazine the following weekend and I have been a fan ever since.

    Brought the book to school on monday and became friends for several years with the guy you let me see his book

    Greatest game ever !!!

    Played a lot of 1st and 2nd edition. I like 3.5 and pathfinder but prefer 2nd ed. The edition does not really matter, its the group of people that you game with that make or break campaigns.

    Still love Greyhawk because I feel Gary Gygax had the most imaginative and creative materials for any and all editions of DnD. I like Forgotten realms just not as much as greyhawk.
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 10, 2003
    Posts: 1234
    From: New Jersey

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    Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:05 pm  

    Gordin,

    Welcome aboard!

    You found one of the most popular threads on this forum. Feel free to ask any questions and introduce yourself in your own thread on this forum like what brings you to canonfire. If your interested the link to your left will allow you to join in on the greytalk chats hosted on Thursday nights. (Greytalk Chat Now! with Java). As you can tell we have over 40,000 fan created articles here to peruse. Looking forward to seeing more of you on the boards.

    Later

    Argon
    Paladin

    Joined: Sep 07, 2011
    Posts: 833
    From: Houston Texas

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    Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:41 am  

    Gordin wrote:

    The edition does not really matter, its the group of people that you game with that make or break campaigns.

    For a Novice he already speaks with the wisdom of the Mystic Scholar Evil Grin
    Welcome Gordin and as Argon the Barbarian has already said, you have found a Greyhawk Wellspring. Drink, be merry, and don't be shy to add your own perspectives and opinions.

    The Dark Prevails
    Adept Greytalker

    Joined: Apr 21, 2013
    Posts: 378
    From: Minnesota

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    Tue May 28, 2013 5:31 pm  

    Just found this thread. I was about 10 (so 1982) and my friend introduced me to it. Was basic D&D and my friend DMed. I remember having a halfling and he had an NPC to help me. We got into one heck of a missile fight with a small band of orcs, us firing down stairs and them firing up. Seemed like it went on forever as I couldn't hit any of them (bad dice roller I guess). I think it went south for my character in the end.

    Either way, I was hooked bad. I bothered my buddy to DM every waking moment until he finally got pretty sick of me asking. Not wanting to give up, I bought the books and started DMing other friends. They got hooked. We played all through high school and college.

    After a 15 year break, we are back at it again.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: May 26, 2013
    Posts: 36
    From: San Antonio TX

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    Tue May 28, 2013 9:33 pm  

    I actually started playing a different system before DnD. When I was 9 years old my cousin introduced me to G.U.R.P.S and ran me through a solo module, with a pre-built character. The goal was to sneak into a mansion and make out with as much treasure as possible.

    It was a very fun adventure, I had to play it a few times cause I kept getting caught and thrown in jail :P I did manage to finish it three times over the next year, each time getting a different amount of treasure. I then played a game with him and two of our other cousins where I took my character from the module and started play with all that money he got from the fence. I really had a great time and they were pretty patient with me.

    I found out about DnD in the sixth grade and played some second edition games with some friends. That group continued to play various campaigns all through highschool and a little while after, in fact the campaign I am currently in has one of our core group's players in it. Ah goodtimes.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 10, 2011
    Posts: 43
    From: Minnesota, USA

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    Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:30 pm  

    I was eight years old and just finishing up 2nd grade (about 1979) when a new kid moved on the block, let's call him... Tim. (OK his name was Tim.) We struck up a conversation on the bus home and he was asking me about things to do when he mentioned a friend up the street from us who was going to teach him how to play D&D, and would I want to join? Having no idea what it was, but since there weren't a lot of kids in the area, I said sure. Well, the kid down the block, can't remember his name, has both the MM and PHB, had created a massive multi-panel dungeon and went on and on, we were blown away. We were psyched, here we were ready to enter an entire world of heroes, dungeons and... dragons. As luck would have it, the kid and his family, the next week, announced they were moving away, so we never started. Actually, we did start, we attempted to take everything we had seen and attempted to recreate everything we could, up to creating new monsters (with names taken from the back of a Lysol spray bottle). As you can guess we never got far.
    Cut to a year later, Tim and I still had the itch to play D&D in any format, yeah we wanted AD&D but $12.00 for a book was crazy expensive to a 9 year old. So, since Tim and I had birthdays a month apart we would ask our parents for the Basic (Tim) D&D Set, and I would ask for the Expert Set. Bad part, my b-day was a month before Tim's so we had to sit around with the Expert Set until his b-day. That is how it began for me.
    **So, we really wanted to get into AD&D, we were smart kids and like the idea of being advanced Wink so the next summer we collected golf balls from a near-by golf course (balls were not in play) and cleaned them up and sold them back to the golfers, made enough to get the PHB from the local toy/hobby store and collected the rest of the books from there.**
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    Chris Morris
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 10, 2011
    Posts: 43
    From: Minnesota, USA

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    Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:37 pm  

    One last note, I have now roped my son into playing at 14, he has wanted to for a few years (like 12), and Tim is getting his boy into it at 10.

    And I love it.
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    Chris Morris
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 10, 2011
    Posts: 43
    From: Minnesota, USA

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    Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:38 pm  

    Lanthorn wrote:
    I'm back. Smile

    Many of you have discussed numerous other gaming systems, but it seems that most of us continue to return to the one that pretty much gave birth to them all (opinion or fact? not sure). I, too, have tried out other games, including WhiteWolf (namely Vampire and Werewolf), Star Frontiers (boy does that go back in time!), Star Trek (only briefly), Star Wars (original system), Mech Warrior/Battletech, and GURPS.

    There may be a few others that I've forgotten, but the point is that Gary Gygax really created an enduring legacy, and is the true (Grand?)Father of all Role Playing Games (does that make him a Greater Power to us gamers? Perhaps). Happy Greyhawk is the first generation of that, and though the world is, sadly, dead to the market, I think we help to keep that legacy alive with these forums, our games, stories, and memories. Although many others (Forgotten Realms, DarkSun, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, etc.) have spun off the game, Greyhawk's rightful place as a hallmark, detailed, and historic world is assured. I have tried many of those aforementioned spin-offs, but am never satisfied, and always return to Oerth. I think I'm here to stay.

    Thank you for hearing me out and letting me wax poetic...or is that prose (sorry, not an English major)?

    yours in Oerth,

    -Lanthorn


    Which Star trek can I ask? Was it the old FASA one? That was a hellava game.
    _________________
    Chris Morris
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: May 26, 2013
    Posts: 36
    From: San Antonio TX

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    Sun Aug 18, 2013 9:58 pm  

    cawdmorris wrote:
    so the next summer we collected golf balls from a near-by golf course (balls were not in play) and cleaned them up and sold them back to the golfers, made enough to get the PHB from the local toy/hobby store and collected the rest of the books from there.**


    My friends and I did that as kids too (selling golf balls to their owners :P ), but for me it was before DnD but we did spend our money of a game called weapons and warriors and had a lot of fun with that, and Battlemasters, we played the heck out of those growing up.
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 09, 2003
    Posts: 1358
    From: Tennessee, between Ft. Campbell & APSU

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    Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:30 am  

    A lot of new people may have missed this one:


    BUMP!
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Dec 16, 2014
    Posts: 55
    From: Sacramento, CA

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    Sun May 31, 2015 8:01 am  
    ca. 1981

    As I recall, our parents gave my brother and me a copy of the Players Handbook (or maybe one of us got it for a birthday). Partly thanks to Gary's distinctive writing style and those classy illustrations, we were hooked. Of course, our early ideas of how the game worked were very misguided since we didn't have the Dungeon Masters Guide. (Did Gary have a problem with using apostrophes in book titles?) Once we started playing with our friend who had a DMG (and was a much better DM than either of us) we did much better.
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 09, 2003
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    From: Tennessee, between Ft. Campbell & APSU

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    Sun May 31, 2015 8:22 am  
    Re: ca. 1981

    peyre wrote:
    ...Of course, our early ideas of how the game worked were very misguided since we didn't have the Dungeon Masters Guide...


    -AD&D1? Uh, the AD&D1 DMG has the attack and saving throw tables. Not having those must have made the game, uh... creative... Laughing
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Dec 16, 2014
    Posts: 55
    From: Sacramento, CA

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    Sun May 31, 2015 9:00 am  

    Yeah, we had no idea about saves, and our ideas of armor class and how to hit were all messed up. Did I mention we didn't have any polyhedral dice, just d6s? I eventually made a pair of percentile dice from paper. I don't know how I did it exactly, but I still have them around here.
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