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View Full Version : Your 1st experience with D&D (or RP in general)



ALOR
2007-08-02, 10:23 AM
so what was everyones 1st experience with D&D like.

I was about 13 and I was introduced by a freind who had learned it in boy scouts. What ever we were playing was not D&D but it was alot of fun and thats what he called it. We didn't know the real rules till i got the old D&D rules cyclopedia for my birthday.

anyone else remember thier 1st days of dice slinging

Nevar
2007-08-02, 10:30 AM
I was into MtG back in the day, saw a bunch of guys rolling dice and looking up charts and describing really awsome scenes. It was rolemaster I started playing and was hooked.

Exil3dbyrd
2007-08-02, 10:59 AM
My first experience with d&d was baldur's gate for the PC. that was an awesome game. My first experience with PnP D&D, was with a group of military friends who had never played before but wanted to give it a try. We had a slightly experienced DM and one other guy who used to play second edition regularly. We ended the campaign without ever fighting the BBEG because we had accidently worked around him.

PlatinumJester
2007-08-02, 02:03 PM
I was about 8 and we found a 2.0 edition in a shop. So my older brother allowed me to crash round his house where we played DnD till about 12.00. The best thing was that all his mates used to play DnD and started playing too. Then we had steak, waffles and onions. Good times.

Quietus
2007-08-02, 02:14 PM
I'd wanted to try playing D&D for years, and I finally managed to find and buy that giant orange boxed starter set, along with the core books. It didn't take long to realize the orange boxed starter set was borked for rules, but I managed to put together a group consisting of one of my friends, plus my brother and sister, and we ended up playing a thing I made up that involved a bard stealing from people and then running off to a secret hideout in the sewers. There was a wacky mismash of monsters down there, far too much loot, and no sense of balance... but we had a blast.

AKA_Bait
2007-08-02, 02:24 PM
I started doing RP when I was in grade school and kept going through middle school. We had access to D&D stuff, but as a kid I was always the DM and didn't have the patience for sitting around rolling dice when we could be running about in the woods and just talking through the story. So, I guess my first exp with it was P&D (Patrick and Dragons - what my friends took to calling my game).

Behold_the_Void
2007-08-02, 02:25 PM
I used to invent roleplaying games (even though I had no idea that's what I was making) all the time from about... middle-school on. Played a game with some friends in high school that I'd invented, and from there started picking up the D&D books, and had moderate success at getting into games.

Never really got into a real game until college, and have had to DM most of the games I wanted to play myself.

nagora
2007-08-02, 02:25 PM
so what was everyones 1st experiance with D&D like.


My brother got the brown books in 1978 and didn't really get it so he gave them to me since I read fantasy books. I managed to get Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor and DM'ed it for a friend. Made loads of mistakes but had a great time. When AD&D came out I got the MM, DMG, and PHB as they were printed. Much hilarity ensued.

"Nagora" was my first character to make it to name level, back in the 80s.

Roderick_BR
2007-08-02, 02:29 PM
Mine come from around AD&D 2nd edition (I heard there had two editions of AD&D)
First I had bought a magazine that had something about games and Jedis.
When I started reading, I found out it was about RPGs that you could play without videogames (I was already familiar with eletronic RPGs, so that helped a lot)
Then I started buying more of that magazine, and got one that gave a free simple system based on animes and video game characters. Then while talking about games with some friends at school, I found out one of them played RPGs, and he invited me to his group.
At first we played that free system, one of the most fun games I ever had, with "unknown hero #1" trying to defeat the villain aboard an air carrier loaded with explosives.
After a while I had played some book games, and we used that system to play medieval stories. My more memorable character, a rogue being hunted down by a small army of Death Knights because of a sacred relic was darned fun to play.
After that another friend of mine introduced me to another group that was already playing AD&D, and I entered the group as a Kobold-Hero (special class from a magazine). The interaction among the characters is still among my favorite game sessions to this day.
From then on, I got more into D&D, learned others systems (Storyteller, Gurps, Shadowrun), and got the 3.0 books when they came out.

As a DM, I DMed a session using that free system for some friends, in a "free for all" battle, based in games like StreetFighter and MortalKombat. It took some years playing AD&D before I started DMing, and since then I've been the main DM for almost all games.

And now I'm preparing a campaign to some kids friends of my cousin, and giving some hints on how to DM a game to one of them. The torch must be passed forward.

Wolf_Shade
2007-08-02, 02:38 PM
I read some Dragonlance Novels 10 or so years ago. First actual D&D experience was probably 3-4 years ago. A coworker was a GM and would share tales of what his group had done, sounded cool, so I sat in on a couple games.

nerulean
2007-08-02, 02:48 PM
Star Wars d20 in high school. I'd wanted to try D&D for a while, and happened upon a fellow geek in the computer lab who was buying the core rulebook off e-bay. We then proceeded to round up everyone in our year group with the vaguest interest in Star Wars and got a group together. We spent more time mucking about than actually playing, and I'm still finding the results of the Great M&Ms Fight now, years down the line.

Nahal
2007-08-02, 03:08 PM
I played a couple sessions of 2e back in middle school, right about the time I got into MtG. Didn't touch the one again till college and gave the other up entirely after high school, though I still have a bunch of cards. It was a hombrew campaign as far as I knew, and I played a half-orc fighter.

The first campaign worth mentioning was in college, and was a hombrew campaign of the same size and attention to detail as anything Wizards has put out, only far more wacky. I was a wizard in a campaign setting that discouraged wizardry, so I was basically the party brain who'd use magic as a last resort.

Zincorium
2007-08-02, 03:25 PM
When I was 9 my brother and his friends found a bunch of old 1st edition books and miniatures. Of course, seeing as the oldest player was 13 it got fairly silly most of the time, but my reading comprehension skills skyrocketed.

Swordguy
2007-08-02, 03:30 PM
Jon Pickens (then-editor for TSR and my uncle) gave me a shedload of D&D products for Christmas in 1985, and we spent the next two days learning how to play.

Pure awesome.

psychoticbarber
2007-08-02, 03:38 PM
Jon Pickens (then-editor for TSR and my uncle)

You lucky bastard! :smalltongue:

Of course, I hadn't been BORN in 1985...:smallbiggrin:

Belteshazzar
2007-08-02, 03:43 PM
My first taste of DnD was playing the rougelike Angband on an old Macintosh for hours on end (I especially loved the ToME mod and CthAngband.) My first tabletop game was only in college this year but I DM'd for a sometimes and played as a Half-Giant Cleric the rest.

Lemur
2007-08-02, 04:00 PM
My older brother started playing D&D with his friends when I was 12. It sounded interesting, and I was invited to join, since the group needed a cleric (go figure- this was 2nd edition, and clerics didn't quite have the same reputation back then).

I decided to make him a halfling, but I couldn't decide what to name him. The player of our party's fireball-happy mage dubbed me Ralph Singlefloppermmq (the mmq was silent). There was an alternation between me being criticized for doing something stupid accidently, and me doing stupid things on purpose to annoy the other players. Most of the time I didn't have a clear idea of what to actually do, but I had fun with it.

I read a fair amount of the Player's Handbook, and gained a pretty solid understanding of the game. However, this served to confuse me at times, since the other players didn't necessarily play completely by the rules as written. However things turned out, though, I was definitely hooked on the game.

ndragonsbane
2007-08-02, 04:35 PM
My first experience with PnP RPG's was when a good friend asked me to join in his new Star Wars 3rd edition group just after the book came out. This was about 6 or 7 years ago I guess. I rolled awesome stats and made a Jedi Counsilar/Soldier who was an Imperial Security Officer (yeah, it doesn't make much sense). Unfortunately, the GM decided to make the highest level soldier in our group the leader...this was me, so my first role-playing experience was leading a group of long-time gamers on a backwater planet in the outer rim as basically a bunch of terrorists trying to undermine the local Rebels.

The guy started with a blaster carbine which I didn't know I needed a permit for and so I was immediately stopped by customs at the gates. I tried to bluff my way past the guard and rolled a nat 20 on my bluff check; at this time, the GM had us roll for social checks first and we used 1's and 20's as auto-failures and successes. I, however, can't think of a bluff, so I said, "uh, it's in the corner," and the tired/drunk guard let it go at that.

Our first encounter was a bar fight where I gave my reasons for being on the planet (a backwater rim mining colony completely underground) as, verbatim, "I'm on vacation," why, "visiting my mother."

FoE
2007-08-02, 04:47 PM
My older brothers (I have four) used to play AD&D, and I used to sit and watch them now and then (I was like six at the time). I actually played some quests with of my two older brothers when I was in Grade 2 or 3. My first quest involved some orcs occupying a mine or something. I remember spearing their shaman and being pretty proud of it. :smallbiggrin:

That first time was probably the most fun I had; I was really too young to play and I spent most of my time screwing up. I actually came to tears a few times because my character got killed or I accidentally caused another character to get killed.

Years later, I find I have no patience for being a PC and most people can't play with me. (My friends want to start fights and hang around the bar; I want to get the quest going and start killing people.) As a DM, I have slightly more patience, though I have a bad habit of making linear quests (kill guy A, proceed to point B, etc.) and monologuing. :smallredface:

"You sly dog, you caught me monologuing!"
-Syndrome, The Incredibles

Mad Wizard
2007-08-02, 07:00 PM
The first time I played D&D was when I was maybe 7. My dad introduced me to it, and I played with him, my friend, and my friend's dad. We used pregenerated characters, and killed a few orcs, saving a unicorn. It was great fun.

Nnanji
2007-08-02, 07:12 PM
My first time playing was on the schoolbus, in first grade. One of the older kids was telling some kid he was going to be the elf, and the kid was complaining about it. I volunteered, and the guy says "Great! Elves are four inches tall and have wings." So I spent a lot of time peeking under doorways and scouting for the group. I even helped save the day when I flew up an orc king and grabbed his magical crown and flew away with it. We never rolled a single die.

About a year later I found the Red Box, colored in my first set of dice, and tried, and failed, to defeat Bargle. All during a picnic with fireworks going off overhead, so it must have been around Labor Day. Good times.

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-02, 10:31 PM
When I was really young (I don't know, 8 maybe?) I found a copy of what I think was the 3rd edition of D&D. Not AD&D either.

Read it through a few times, never got a chance to play. Wasn't until years later with another friend. Mind you, this was after we had been playing Shadowrun for awhile, and that probably coloured the game. I also stole his brothers treasure :P Go evil!

MrNexx
2007-08-02, 10:48 PM
Discounting computer games (Rogue for us started in 1986 or so; Quest for Glory came soon thereafter), my first experience was in 1989 or so, playing a 1st/2nd edition hybrid in Andy Nuxoll's dining room. Andy was my senior patrol leader; my older brother, the troop quartermaster, was also there. We had to hide our character sheets from my mom, because she considered D&D satanic (still does, to the best of my knowledge).

Matthew
2007-08-02, 10:51 PM
I was about twelve years old and it went Heroquest > Advanced Heroquest > War Hammer Fantasy Roleplay > Dungeons & Dragons > Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, though I had played Fighting Fantasy Books before that. My first D&D Character was a Halfling, who died on his first adventure with 'Tanis Half Elven' (an Elf), victim of the paralysation effect of a Carrion Crawler.

Creeps
2007-08-02, 11:13 PM
7th grade. Mr. Wolf's science class. In the back of the class, next to one of our many class computers that had such fare as dissecting a frog, drilling for oil and the friggan Opium Wars, sat huddled together my friends Joey (a tiny, skinny bespectacled nerd with a hatchet face and freckles), Brandon (a tall blond lad and my first experience with munchkins. He'd later be a high school drop out and join a cult) and myself (who wert and art fat).

My first experience with DnD was us having a 2nd ed. Monster Manual , having random creatures appear and then pomptly slaying them with what would have to be one of the most egregious misinterpretation of DnD rules, ever. We rolled our dice inside of the desk, away from the prying eyes of man.

I remember distinctly the phrase, "A copper dragon appears. What do you do?" We all must have been playing Dragon Warrior at the time. Good, stupid times.

skywalker
2007-08-03, 12:32 AM
My first time was Call of Cthulhu d20, run by a keeper who had played the crappy D&D intro set a couple of times, played real D&D once or twice, and had played half of the only d20 CofC adventure, Nocturnum.

We started at about 10, my fellow virgin investigators and I. We had characters by 11, and by 12 I had seduced the female NPC with an awesome charisma check. We broke for pizza at 1am, and then played until 6:30 that morning. Our shining moment was when my colleagues were able to carry loads of demon fighting gear through a theater to the basement because my character was snogging the manager in the projector booth. To this day, I have never put a number less than 10 in charisma(see sig).

My first D&D experience was a year later, when another 1st-time DM offered to drop me into a campaign he had only just started. Since fighters seemed boring, I chose to play a Paladin. I poofed in just as the first combat started, won initiative, critically struck the first mook I saw with my bastard sword, cleaved to his buddy, and was hooked on D&D. Since that day I have never played a character that wasn't good in alignment.

Kiero
2007-08-03, 04:42 AM
I got Red Box OD&D as a birthday gift from an aunt in 1991. I read it, was intrigued, and recruited a bunch of friends from school (who were also new to the whole thing) to try it out. Me and another guy were the main GMs. We quickly moved onto Rules Cyclopedia, and then AD&D2e, which we stuck with for about three years of weekly games.

AslanCross
2007-08-03, 06:31 AM
First exposure was a long time ago, when my uncle was a teenager and he had friends over to play. That was in the mid 80s. I didn't really understand it back then so I didn't care.

Then another uncle gave me his copy of Baldur's Gate II since he was done with it. Of course, I played and enjoyed. I took a lot of time trying to understand the rules since I wanted to know how the whole thing worked.

Then came boredom mixed with a need for a new and innovative activity for my students in English class. I came up with a very rudimentary dice-based combat system from what I remembered from Baldur's Gate II's D&D rules and used it as a motivator to help students earn bonus points and review concepts. They enjoyed it a lot, but I found the system very messy because of the large values and endless die rolling ("This attack deals 10d20 damage"). I looked up some D&D rules to help streamline the system. This coincided with my purchase of Neverwinter Nights 2. I wanted to understand the rules more so I wouldn't be so stumped when I played. Thus I acquired some copies of the rulebooks to help me understand.

I'm running my very first campaign (The Black and the Purple) right now as an activity for our Creative Writing Club. You might have seen my thread in the Arts and Crafts section.

ALOR
2007-08-03, 07:14 AM
Then came boredom mixed with a need for a new and innovative activity for my students in English class. I came up with a very rudimentary dice-based combat system from what I remembered from Baldur's Gate II's D&D rules and used it as a motivator to help students earn bonus points and review concepts. They enjoyed it a lot, but I found the system very messy because of the large values and endless die rolling ("This attack deals 10d20 damage"). I looked up some D&D rules to help streamline the system. This coincided with my purchase of Neverwinter Nights 2. I wanted to understand the rules more so I wouldn't be so stumped when I played. Thus I acquired some copies of the rulebooks to help me understand.

I'm running my very first campaign (The Black and the Purple) right now as an activity for our Creative Writing Club. You might have seen my thread in the Arts and Crafts section.

this is a really cool idea. I'm just surprised that some nosey parent hasn't complained to the principal yet. Great way to teach kids though IMO

AslanCross
2007-08-03, 07:37 AM
Well for the most part the parents are happy that their students at least look forward to class. ^_^; The system I use isn't RP-heavy at all, it's mostly just spaceships shooting each other (and the occasional boss). It's very much unlike D&D, though the revision I'm using this year is more similar, mechanics-wise.

Thanks for the appreciation. I really wish I could say it was my idea, but I borrowed heavily from my friends who also teach in our school. They're more experienced teachers and if they hadn't been around I probably wouldn't have thought of this.

ALOR
2007-08-03, 07:51 AM
Well for the most part the parents are happy that their students at least look forward to class. ^_^; The system I use isn't RP-heavy at all, it's mostly just spaceships shooting each other (and the occasional boss). It's very much unlike D&D, though the revision I'm using this year is more similar, mechanics-wise.

Thanks for the appreciation. I really wish I could say it was my idea, but I borrowed heavily from my friends who also teach in our school. They're more experienced teachers and if they hadn't been around I probably wouldn't have thought of this.

okay now i understand, thier would be a much bigger fuss over D&D rather than a sci-fi type world
still kudos to all of you teachers for a great idea

Dragor
2007-08-03, 08:11 AM
It all started when a new person came to our school. I was tasked with taking him around and introducing him to everyone, which I did. He was a nice guy. Also turned out he had been playing D&D since 2nd Ed- and he'd brought in the Players Handbook to read. Me and two friends, geeks in-hiding, all peered over his shoulder. I was entranced by the pictures (it's artwork which usually gets me interested in things- its the pictures which got me playing Warhammer 40,000), one was entranced by the rules and the other was a sort of mix. We all spontaneously asked him what he was reading.

"It's a rulebook for a game called Dungeons and Dragons," he said. We'd never heard of this game before. I did, however, remember Gary Gygax's appearance on Futurama...

"Ah! That game with the dice!" I cried. He started laughing. We all began drawing up characters (we had a free lesson). I made a Dwarf Fighter, one made an Elven Monk and one made a Half-Elf Paladin.

It also happened that our Biology teacher (a very nice bloke) was also a D&D veteran in hiding. So he made a Warmage. And so our adventures began..... good times.

Bosh
2007-08-03, 08:51 AM
We were going to play some D&D in the school library. We spent a few hours rolling up characters and getting an idea of the game then the DM plunked us down in front of a Dungeon door and told us that that was the adventure. The fighter opened the door and got one hit killed by an arrow trap. The campaign ended there.