So, how old are you ;) ???
I just stumbled onto this thread, and since it still seems to be active, thought I'd put in my two bits.
Age: 29 (well, will be this Thursday).
Started playing circa 1986 at age 10 when a 16 year old guy moved in down the street and got all the neighbourhood kids involved. Great times. Still have the 1983 Basic Set (red box) he sold me for $5 (oddly he had several copies -- don't know why...). Never got into 1st-Ed, missed the unveiling of 2nd-Ed (discovered girls), started my dice rolling again circa 1996 with 2nd printing 2nd-Ed black covers (girls discovered D&D), merely browsed through 3e; now going hardcore v.3.5.
As an adjunct, I remember when I registered here on Paizo that I gave my gender and birthdate. If all of us (okay, hopefully most of us) answered honestly, and there's some sort of database in place, Paizo should be able to compile anonymous age and gender demographics for their website w/o too much trouble. Erik? James?
32. Been at it since Hulk Hogan was still on WWF, since there WAS a WWF, since Black Sabbath was still a group, and since I had fights with my friends over which was better, GI Joe or Star Wars. God, I wish KB Toys still dumped old D&D Modules at $0.49 a piece. That would rock!
|
Well I'll kick off negatively and say the responses don't tell us the average age of a dungeon reader, but rather the average age of someone frequenting this site (or even someone who posts on this thread!). I suspect that the average age here is a bit lower than the age of the average Dungeon reader, and a bit higher than the average resident of the WotC boards.
My gut feel, backed up by very little, is that a lot of new blood has come into the hobby in general and D&D in particular over the last few years. 3ed is a lot easier to get into than 2ed, arguably even than basic was in many regards, and WotC brought plenty of MtGers with them (who in the mid-late 90s probably averaged 5-10 years younger than the average D&Der) when they came along.
I can barely bring myself to say it ;) but CCGs were probably the best thing to happen to RPing in a long time -- revitalising (indirectly perhaps) the hobby by attracting new people into the periphery of gaming. Obviously not saying that all the newbies come in via CCGs, but rather that gaming as a whole became more accessible to a broader, and to some extent younger, group by virtue of the association of CCGs with gaming, particularly once WotC took over TSR.
I'm a little below average at 30, been playing for about 20 years. Started with the red box basic set, bought if memory serves from Beatties in Solihull advised by a random passing lad a few years older that that was indeed the right box to start with.
I'm 31, and I started playing with the red boxed set.
I'm 33 and I have been playing since 1980. Dig if you will this picture...a group of six eight year olds trying to figure out the AD&D rules from some "borrowed" books. My friend purloined his older brother's DMG, PHB and MM and we all made up characters. I remember all of us getting tridents because they did 3d4 damage :). We also thought you rolled the four sided, then picked it up to look on the bottom to see your number. We all memorized the placement of the numbers in relation to each other so we never "picked up" a 1. Ahh, the good old days.
33, started playing with the red boxed set.
Well Met all! This is my first post. I'm 33 and have been playing since 1986 (the Red Box). I still play in Mystara but DM Forgotten Realms. I live in New Zealand and sometimes its hard to find new players but still have a solid core playing group.
|
37 years
I started playing with the Red Box in Germany in high school, but due to no players this went dormant until college. There I started in a Runequest and a Space 1889 campaign. After college things went insane, I started to job in a RPG store. RPG nearly every day for over a year (Ad&D, WOD, Runequest, Star Wars D6, Earthdawn, Space 1889). Then I moved 400 miles south. Long time no game... since the advent of Third Edition, at least one campaign.
Now I have 3 campaigns running: 2 weekly and one every fortnight - 1 FR Classic (weekly Ruins of Adventure = Pools of Radiance, pulling to a close in the next weeks, afterwards I pass on the DM's torch to another guy playing Call of Cthulhu's Horror on the Orient Express), 2 x Shackled City Adventure Path (the weekly one in Drakthar's Way, the bi-weekly one still in the Malachite Fortress).
|
24
You really start feeling old when you have to think to remember your age.
33 - and how old do you think I feel when people almost a decade younger than me start to say how old they feel. Anyway, I was introduced to the game by a friend back in the late 80's. Played heavily back then and into college. Sadly, although I still collect most of the books and what not, I've yet to play a 3rd edition game. But that is what happens when you move 12oo miles from home and get caught up in that horrible game called reality. And as the saying goes, "Reality Bites."
|
|
Red Box- club all the way...
I'm 29 and started playing when i was seven or eight (must've been '83 or something...).
I played through all editions and never dropped the game. The longest time i didn't play must've been half a year or something due to leaving my hometown and moving to Hamburg in '95.
I wonder if there'll be nostalgic discussions on the 3rd edition-days in twenty years or something.
I have no doubt that i'll still be playing then but i guess nobody will believe me when i'll talk about the little red box...:)
35 since June. I started playing in my native Normandy in 1983 with the red box Basic set my best friend's older brother bought while he was a student in UCLA. We had to make the translation ourselves and my English grades skyrocketed after that.:)) My first character was a fighter called Lug who traveled the forest when he fell into a hole to discover an old temple full of skeletons. He got killed by a thoul in the last room and I was hooked forever... ;-)
In 1986, I started mastering Call of Cthulhu and many other games and I stopped playing AD&D circa 1989 when 2Ed arrived. I spent many years without playing AD&D until Baldur's Gate hit the shelves. One of my colleagues in Paris was crazy about this game and I started to explain him what a "REAL" RPG was. I gathered a few interested people, bought all the 2Ed Core Books plus Skills&Powers and I started to run a FR campaign since then. I currently run the SCAP since October 2004. My players age range from 22 to 33. (22, 26, 28, 29 and 33)
I'm reading Dungeon since 2002, because no French magazine can compete with the quality of the material proposed in these columns. I made a submission once but got no answer. I suppose my English is still too clumsy to make it.
Bran.
Thirty-two, but like twelve at heart. I started with ICE's Middle-Earth RPG and then made my way to D&D as no-one else I knew wasplaying MERP. I've been meaning to get my hands on Bargle the Imfamous since he killed that cute Elmore cleric in the big red box. Module B4 "The Lost City" is what truly hooked me. I played box-style, Known World D&D off and on with other games until the early 90's when the World of Darkness beckoned me elsewhere. 3.0 though brought me back although lately I have been longing for the less intensive rules set found in my D&D Cyclopeadia.
Ah memories,
GGG
The longest time i didn't play must've been half a year or something due to leaving my hometown and moving to Hamburg in '95.
I've recently moved out to Washington State from the Northeast. It took me all of a week to find a game (thanks to the local hobby gaming stores), though I must admit I'm still looking for the "right" game. I'm trying to teach some new gamers right now, but to reward myself for this community service, I'd like to play in a group with a bit more experience.
The moral? Moving sucks. Gamers are like mice, they're everywhere. You just have to know where to look.
Im 14... been playing since I was 12. I have a small group of friends who play in the sacremento area, although I live in Elk Grove.
|
|
The moral? Moving sucks. Gamers are like mice, they're everywhere. You just have to know where to look.
To true on all counts. Of course, it would probably be easier for me to find a group to game with if I actually liked people. I've thought about asking around my comic book shop, but there seems to be nothing but young kids in there. How can you game with someone who doesn't even remember when John Wayne died? Or has never seen the movie Dragonslayer? Not to mention that the little rats seem to prefer card games and miniatures. No offense, but I think those card games stink, and the only reason for me to use a miniature is so that I know where to drop a fireball so that I don't get scorched.
Mature sealed content? Not thanks. BoVD seems more like something WOTC would want to avoid than actually publish.
32 been playing since I was 11.
|
Im 14... been playing since I was 12. I have a small group of friends who play in the sacremento area, although I live in Elk Grove.
Justin, check under "Gamer Connection" under NoCal Gaming: Difonix.com if you'd like to network with some other Northern Californian (mostly Sacramento area) gamers. We don't bite and love to have some new blood full of questions. :) I hope your games have been as fun and memorable as mine were when I first started.
Of course, it would probably be easier for me to find a group to game with if I actually liked people.
Not really, especially if you're going to DM.
Hmm, still 32.
GGG
Just "found" this thread again and did a new calculation:
38 people gave their age.
The youngest being 13 years old and the oldest being 45!So the average age of a Dungeon reader is... 31.657 years!
My god, I am above average (at least once in life ;)
Wow! Strange.........I'm 31.45 years myself. Very close to average. Been playing since early 82' when my best friends older brother introduced us to the glorious red box and the enigmatic Keep on the Borderlands. I played an elf. Arguably the best box set class. What I remember most is a complete misinterpretation by our 14 year old DM of what a warhammer was and Brother Ray (named after Ray Charles of all things) who was our nearly blind npc cleric. Stranger still is the fact that my own uncle, author James Lowder, had already been playing for 5 years, went on to work for TSR, and we still have never delved dungeons together..............something I should rectify.
I'm 20 myself and just got into it this year, first time around as DM. Three of my high school (and now college) buddies are in the game as well, ages 21-23. Also in the game we have a couple of 17 year olds. So we've got a pretty below-average group for this thread. I'm fairly sure that when I snag a wife you'll be able to add her and my kids to the fold. Poor kids. . . .
I'm 20 myself and just got into it this year, first time around as DM. Three of my high school (and now college) buddies are in the game as well, ages 21-23. Also in the game we have a couple of 17 year olds. So we've got a pretty below-average group for this thread. I'm fairly sure that when I snag a wife you'll be able to add her and my kids to the fold. Poor kids. . . .
Wives aren't always easy to add to the fold.........trust me on this one. Kids aren't too bad if you have the patience. I'm not sure how someone didn't murder me when I was younger...
|
|
Mature sealed content? Not thanks. BoVD seems more like something WOTC would want to avoid than actually publish.
:)
I'll be a little cynical and suggest that if there were some mystical "protection vs under 18s" guarding actual access to the BoVD that its publication might not be quite so viable!But I basically concur -- official material should be PG or there abouts. If people want to evil-up their games they can do it, we don't need a rulebook telling us how to do it, crunchy bits (demon lords etc) could have gone into (for example) Fiend Folio.
Mature sealed content? Not thanks. BoVD seems more like something WOTC would want to avoid than actually publish.:)
I'll be a little cynical and suggest that if there were some mystical "protection vs under 18s" guarding actual access to the BoVD that its publication might not be quite so viable!But I basically concur -- official material should be PG or there abouts. If people want to evil-up their games they can do it, we don't need a rulebook telling us how to do it, crunchy bits (demon lords etc) could have gone into (for example) Fiend Folio.
Did anyone actually buy BoVD or the good version(I forget what it's called)? It seems like a waste of money to me.
|
|
Did anyone actually buy BoVD or the good version(I forget what it's called)? It seems like a waste of money to me.
Yep, they were for this consumer. I cannot even say the books made interesting reading since I remember little or nothing about them other than they take up shelf space. I'll have to revisit them if I'm ever laid out in the hospital for an extended stay. Otherwise...
Did anyone actually buy BoVD or the good version(I forget what it's called)? It seems like a waste of money to me.Yep, they were for this consumer. I cannot even say the books made interesting reading since I remember little or nothing about them other than they take up shelf space. I'll have to revisit them if I'm every laid out in the hospital for an extended stay. Otherwise...
Sounds fun. Heh. Heh.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
I am 41. Started with the Blackmoor beige colored booklet in the 70's age 13-14. Then found a friend with a basic set. Those first adventures really hooked me as a player.
The 80s and up to 91 were my dedicated years playing every weekend DMing mostly. Then slowed down. But I did keep up on the books and versions. Now I am attending local conventions once in awhile to play.
Recently started buying Dungeon at the local hobby store to check it out again. Trying to start a group for AOW at the local hobby store.
If we all started when we were munchkins and we're all now further along the age curve, what happened to those coming after us? What happened? Where are they? I would hope that there are younger generations playing and that they will push it further along. What are the ages of the magazine staff? Anyone know?
If ya'll are wondering who the younger generation is.... I'm 21 (and a half!), and have been playing ever since my 5th grade teacher taught my friends and I how during our lunch hour. (If only he could see me now! Working for Dungeon and Dragon, writing adventures, no longer eating the paste....)
And yes, one does take a certain amount of ribbing from working in these offices and being born after things like Greyhawk and Dragonlance were released. :P
-James
25. Started playing 3 years ago begrudingly. Just to make sure my friend was safe (that he wasn't going to hang out with some wackos.) Turns out D&D is totally fun.
Module B4 "The Lost City" is what truly hooked me. I played box-style, Known World D&D off and on with other games until the early 90's when the World of Darkness beckoned me elsewhere. 3.0 though brought me back although lately I have been longing for the less intensive rules set found in my D&D Cyclopeadia.
Ah memories,
GGG
B4 has always been one of my favorites... I think it was actually the first module I ever purchased, back when you could buy them at Kmart. My brother got Palace of the Silver Princess (the green cover).
I still think I got the better side of the bargain, though my copy is pretty beat up.
- Ashavan
B4 has always been one of my favorites...
- Ashavan
I don't think you get the same sense of discovery you got back in those older modules in most of today's scenarios. Keep on the Boarderlands, The Lost City, Drums on Fire Mountain, Isle of Dread, Master of the Desert Nomads, Temple of Death, Into the Maelstrom and others where all great in my opinion because there was a real sense of discovery and a real fear of the unknown. Perhaps there in lies the appeal of Eberron. I think we might be missing some of that today. We as more experienced gamers and we as contributers to our hobby.
Many published encounters seem to be outright fights where character builds (like collectable card game deck construction) and combos (also like card games) become more important than actual tactics, personality, luck or practically anything else. What happened to the fun discovery aspect? Has everyone been playing with the RPGA? Note: I give props to the organization for keeping gaming going over the years but there is a rampant munchkin factor within the organization that has thus far prevented me from ever wanting to join it. And yes, I have played in their games, as well as know people who have.
Back in the days of yore no one knew the Monsters better than the DM. Now I can barely get the words "hyena-headed humanoid" out before everyone at the table is mentally thinking (or worse still saying out loud) gnoll, humanoid, strong Fort, weak Will, darkvision 60 ft., 2 HD or more with class-levels (which would most-likely be in ranger or barbarian). Given that there are 4 of them and we are a party of four 4th-level characters I doubt that they have class levels which makes them an EL 4 or so. At this level that should expend about 1/4 of our resourses and we've had three average encounters so far, that means we'll probably need to rest after this fight...etc....
Does anyone else have this problem? Have we perhaps become a bit jaded? Or is it just me?
So let's hear it for the new blood. Viva la revolution! Here's to the folks that have yet to discover their first tittering, salivating, hyena-headed humanoids that tower over us hapless PC the way wolves do over lambs.
Carpe DM and break the rules,
GGG
31 years old, have been playing since . . . 1987 when I stole my sisters old maroon basic set . . . within the year I upgraded to the PHB, DMG, and MM and went all "advanced."
Unfortunately I went on about a five year hiatus when I got married, and subsequently divorced. Now that I am back in the hobby, I have started teaching my daughter and step children, just to make sure the hobby lives on.
Oh yeah . . . I remember when the local Children's Palace (you know, kinda like Toys R Us) had coppies of the Fiend Folio and the DragonLance modules on an endcap.
Ok well I'm 17, hope that lowers the average slightly. Up until nearly last christmas I actually thought D&D was something from the past, something dead and gone. Then I saw a Dungeon magazine in a newsagents. And boy are my glad. Though I'll admit I was caught at first by the picture of the deva in
issue #116. I bought the magazine, now I Dm. But I'm frighteningly new to the game.
Ok well I'm 17, hope that lowers the average slightly. Up until nearly last christmas I actually thought D&D was something from the past, something dead and gone. Then I saw a Dungeon magazine in a newsagents. And boy are my glad. Though I'll admit I was caught at first by the picture of the deva in
issue #116. I bought the magazine, now I Dm. But I'm frighteningly new to the game.
No one is "frighteningly new" Ty. However you can be "frightening" the other way. ;) Welcome onboard.
Yep, still 32. You would think that it would have rubbed off by now,
GGG
|
|
I remember playing a halfling thief when I was 18 years old. My DM was 24 and I thought:"Man, how cool, he is sooooo old and still plays D&D!"
I think I was afraid that I have to stop it somehow, when I was growing up - silly me!
I am pretty sure I will still play with 65 or more years, if I manage to remember the rules than ;)
And I wonder how my shelves with all those books in 31 years will look like?!
If ya'll are wondering who the younger generation is.... I'm 21 (and a half!), and have been playing ever since my 5th grade teacher taught my friends and I how during our lunch hour. (If only he could see me now! Working for Dungeon and Dragon, writing adventures, no longer eating the paste....)
And yes, one does take a certain amount of ribbing from working in these offices and being born after things like Greyhawk and Dragonlance were released. :P
-James
Thanks for that James. How about all those Editors on High that you work with/for? I know they are well beyond their years in Wisdom but what do the birth certificates say?
Thanks for that James. How about all those Editors on High that you work with/for? I know they are well beyond their years in Wisdom but what do the birth certificates say?If ya'll are wondering who the younger generation is.... I'm 21 (and a half!), and have been playing ever since my 5th grade teacher taught my friends and I how during our lunch hour. (If only he could see me now! Working for Dungeon and Dragon, writing adventures, no longer eating the paste....)
And yes, one does take a certain amount of ribbing from working in these offices and being born after things like Greyhawk and Dragonlance were released. :P
-James
I'll let them date themselves, but I know that everyone in Editorial and Art is under 40, most hover around 30, and the next youngest member is something like 24....
-James
37. Started playing when I was 11. First adventure was that little one in the blue book of the D&D basic set. My elf (that meant fighter / magic user in the day), going solo, made it past the skeletons and died in battle with the goblins. I was hooked. ;-)
--Eric
|
|
I'll let them date themselves, but I know that everyone in Editorial and Art is under 40, most hover around 30, and the next youngest member is something like 24....
-James
Yep, because they are so "young" Dungeon is getting better and better.
As I told one of my older colleagues once:"Experience is nothing. You could do something wrong 30 years long!"
Young blood, for new ideas to be played by the 40something guys! ;)
Oh yeah . . . I remember when the local Children's Palace (you know, kinda like Toys R Us) had coppies of the Fiend Folio and the DragonLance modules on an endcap.
KB Toys used to have a similar section, usually by the register (where you now find the console games).
- Ashavan
I had been avoiding this thread because I didn't want to admit to being 37 going on 10! I started with the Frank Mentzer red box Basic Rules in about 1983 or so.
The classic rules are still my favorite but my current group wants to play 3e. Nobody was willing to DM so I took the chair and we're running a series of modules in the World of Mystara that lead into a converted/rewritten Master of the Desert Nomads. I've beening running MotDN for about a year now. My Players like to do alot of site-seeing which has meant alot of side-treks which gave me the luxury to slowly convert the Classic NPC stats to my Wizards and Warriors rules (D20). WnW is basically just the four core classes and a trimmed down skill and feats list but a beefed up spell list for gamming in Mystara. The idea is to get the feel for the red box DnD game rules.
Hmmmmm.....I've been gaming for 22 years. Does that mean my rules are allow to have a drink?
--Ray.
33.25 yrs old. Started 13 (red box) as a DM for 7 to 9 yr-olds. Here in the far east:Philippines.
36, and have been playing since the mid-80's. I got the red boxed set in the early 80's, but it was a bit hard finding players around where I lived, so I had to wait until I moved to a bigger town before I got the chance to try playing.
|
|
Hi there!
A friend of mine and I are just wondering what the average age of a Dungeon reader is.
I said between 28 and 31. I am 34 years old and play D&D since the age of 14!
So, how old are you ;) ???
I'm 30, and I play since I was 13 years old. My players are also that age, and a couple of them are from the original gaming group of about 17 years ago!