34. Been playing since I was 11 with the red box set. Got three kids now which I am trying to convert to the dark side. Mwah-ha-ha-ha!!!
34. Been playing since I was 11 with the red box set. Got three kids now which I am trying to convert to the dark side. Mwah-ha-ha-ha!!!
Word. Also 34. Also 3 kids (if you count in utero).
I'm still impressed with how early my brother got me in to the game. Summer 1977. I was 5.
I started DMing for my oldest daughter when she was 6. She loves it, but still (at 7 years old) doesn't have the patience to sit and play for more than an hour or two.
I'm 28. Started playing in '89 with the red box set with the Elmore art on the cover. I remember those days fondly, when elves, dwarves and halflings were not only races but classes! Curse that evil Bargle for killing Alhanna the (hot) Cleric!!
We played pretty steadily from '89 to '95 (2nd ed), but I had a hard time getting a group together after high school. Finally started playing again about a year ago, and have been playing once a week since then. It's great to be back!
Guess I'm here to hold the average at 31 years of age. Like alot of readers I've noticed, the red box set got me started as well. Long Live D&D !
Age: 37
Started playing: 1981 (age 12)
We really gave the G-D-Q series a run for its money, with all of us 5-8th level characters carrying around Frost Brands and Flame Brand swords.
We even kicked the bejeezus out of Lolth, too.
After graduating high school (1986), the game pool was quite dry until 1998, when three of my buddies from school moved back into the area. We have been meeting once a month in the same campaign ever since (we're all married).
Thank God our games are more mature and believeable now.
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Ah, the RED BOX! Man, I hate myself for giving it away for free to a friend of mine! He still has it and keeps it safe like his eyeballs. Sometimes I am allowed to take the two books into my hands and browse them - GREAT.
I would LOVE to see a faxsimili (spelling) like the one which was done for ToH, of this famous of boxed sets!
Long live the BOXED SET (even if they seem to be nothing more than fading history today)...
And cool, that this thread's still alive!
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Age: 22
Started playing: 2001
It was only two sessions back in the first year of the new millenium, but once in college I found it much easier to get involved. I've since got my fiancee and younger brother playing the game, and Lord knows I'll be hoping for the same results in my own children (someday).
Word. Also 34. Also 3 kids (if you count in utero).
Congratulations, Robert.
I'm 47 - looks like the 3rd oldest on this thread (so far).
Started gaming early 1st ed AD&D when I was 18, or was it 17. The meory is the second thing to go, I forgot what the first was.
First character was a wizard with a whopping 8 Int. Second was a human figher, Boom-Boom Broomski 18 (09) Str, 17 Dex and 5 Int. Broke a thief's hand when he caught him picking his pocket. The DM said "You broke his hand, why." The reply was "What is outside the pocket is yours what is inside the pocket is mine."
Real fun character.
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I'm 34, 35 in December. I started playing in 6th grade, so ... '81? '82? I went straight for the AD&D books, though. Didn't really love the red box (Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic? Where were Good and Evil!). But we played Keep on the Boarderlands and anything we could get our hands on. Lots of fond memories of Decent into the Depths of the Earth and - wow! 3D maps! - Ravenloft. And spent hoursof drawing squiggly lines on graph paper and populatingour 'mazes' with random monsters that han no business being there. We played Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Boot HIll and anything else we could get our hands on, too!
By high school, I was buying Dragon Magazine and playing Dragonlance. Loved the epic-ness of those things. Then, in college, the only people I could find who played were a little too into it, talking in character during lectures and what not, so I stopped.
Then, about three years ago, my wife and I were doing Peace Corps in Asia. We lived in a tiny town with spotty electricity and a lot of time on our hands. I saw the 3.5 books at a mall in the capital and picked them up for old time sake. I've been hooked ever since, and I'm slowly drawing her in.
Now that we're back in the States, I teach middle school in an urban, mostly Latino neighborhood and run a small, but growing after-school group. The kids borrow my books ($30 is out of their price range). I was thinking I might be able to get a hold of some 3.0 books for a little cheaper or use the SRD when they're ready for their own copies. But I'm having a blast now that I'm back into it and it's fun introducing it to a whole new generation.
First character was a wizard with a whopping 8 Int. Second was a human figher, Boom-Boom Broomski 18 (09) Str, 17 Dex and 5 Int. Broke a thief's hand when he caught him picking his pocket. The DM said "You broke his hand, why." The reply was "What is outside the pocket is yours what is inside the pocket is mine."
Real fun character.
Sad to say that was my mitt ya splintered, Boom-Boom. Don't worry, after you ended my short, unremarkable career as a rogue I became a master brewer. Things are so much nicer now...
Let's see... I'm 29 (for now) and I started playing in junior high school (probably '88 or '89). I've been a Dragon subscriber since, I think, 1992 or so. I started with 2nd Edition, went through TMNT, Robotech, Shadowrun, GURPS, Rifts (oh, the horror!), then DragonLance, Spelljammer, DragonLance, Ravenloft, DragonLance, Dark Sun(muls rule!), more DragonLance, Vampire, Werewolf, a brief foray into Dark Ages, 3rd Edition, and now 3.5e. Several stops along the way with various RTS and RPG computer games, and a couple of years spent minis gaming (Warhammer fantasy and 40K). Not too unusual, is it? I'd say my favorite module was I-6 Ravenloft, redone as House of Strahd. Spooky, tough, and very cool.
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 50 and first got the white box with three tan books in 77, first played in 79. Played steady with a few breaks, face to face, online etc. Met my wife and a future employer at a game of D&D! :) Now gaming with my wife (gamer since 85) and daughter who started when she was 10 and is now 16.
I've only had a subscription to Dungeon last year for a Christmas present; bought some in the past here and there now and then. I got the Dragon CDs a few years back and that was great!
This is a great thread. I'm sorry I cant briing myself to read it all, but it has gotten long!
I am 38, been playing off and on since those three little books were out, before the PHB and Monster manual.
I always loved writing my own adventures, even more than playing, but have got to say that the stuff in Dungeon Magazine is really great; much better than my adventures.
My wife is pregnant. God willing I will be playing with the kid in ten or twelve years, or maybe sooner, who knows.
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I'm 50 and first got the white box with three tan books in 77, first played in 79. Played steady with a few breaks, face to face, online etc. Met my wife and a future employer at a game of D&D! :) Now gaming with my wife (gamer since 85) and daughter who started when she was 10 and is now 16. ...
Templetroll, you are my hero! I always wondered how long I will be playing this game, and hearing that people still play it with 50 years of age is just great!!!
So many years to come...
I'm 14, and I started D&D with the Basic Game, which I got on my 13th b-day.
At 19 years old, I guess I share the position with Onrie as one of the youngest subscribers to Dungeon. Sadly, I've never had the opportunity to actually play Dungeons & Dragons - but I guess reading all the books and Dungeon is ALMOST as fun. :)
That is so sad, you have to find someone to play D&D with, it is soooo much better than just reading about it, which I shamelessly admit to doing in my spare time :) You should search the Wizards of the Coast Community Boards to find a game or use Paizo's message boards.
age .... 27 had to think about that :(
playing ... about 5 years started with star wars, then moved on to vampire, cyberpunk and D&D 3.0 and now I DM and play 3.5. Even managed to get my wife (of one year) to play on occassion.
Aged 33 - 34 in January.
I played D&D Basic with my brother many moons ago but it was more like Wargaming than role playing - twenty dwarves a marching go...
Got back in to it after reading novel that was free with the DragonLance Commodore 64 game and started read the whole set. Bought 2nd ed stuff and played for a while. Then moved on to 3.0, then 3.5, then back to 1st, and now back to 3.5.
I have the new D&D board game and I have introduced my ten year old nephew and my six year old son to it. My nephew has DMed us for an adventure and I was pleased as puch to tell my current gaming group that my son was actually 'bending down to help Jozan from the pit' and 'collecting skeleton bones as trophies'. Oh the poor, poor child - what have I created!
AGE: 34
Playing since the lates 70's/early 80's.
Gave it up for about 12 years and got dragged back in by some new friends. I love the new stuff, but we're actually running a classic AD&D camapaign (when the DM doesn't have enough time to prep the 3.5 game). It's a blast to be faced with "save against or die in two rounds" scenarios. You always have to have a back-up character on the bench.
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Thirty-five and counting...started with the red box at ten or so (wish I still had it) but unfortunately it's been awhile since I've had a regular game. PG13 is appropriate - reading through these posts it is evident that a lot of us started in the early early teens. Killing monsters for treasure was enough. We didn't need all the back story and psychology. Years latter I can now relish the depth of the SC and AoW but sometimes I wish I could run a game with my kids, nieces, and nephews that had a bit less edge...(like the Box of Flumph!)
35 here. My cousin showed me his boxed set in 78. I begged to play, but he didn't think I was old enough. Finally, I got him to say he would DM, but I had to read the whole rule book. I read it that night. I still remember my elf stepping into the dusty room where 4 skeletons suddenly sprang to life.
From there I got my own set then graduated to AD&D. Friends and I played every module we could get our hands on. After that, other games (Boot Hill, Gamma World, Top Secret, Shadow Run, Toon, Marvel Super Heros). No wonder we were poor.
Years latter I can now relish the depth of the SC and AoW but sometimes I wish I could run a game with my kids, nieces, and nephews that had a bit less edge...(like the Box of Flumph!)
This is a completely shameless plug, but "The Menagerie" (Dragon 126) written by your's truly (still 32) is a relatively carnage-free adventure (well, almost).
GGG
PS and yes, "Box of Flumph" was pretty cool, You might also try "Devil Box" by Richard Pett (Dungeon 109), which is pretty light in the carnage department - well, except for all the chickens.
I'm 40--started playing when a friend bought the old D&D boxed set in 1978 (I think, or was it '77?), and played/DM'd avidly through high school. Dropped out in college due to academics, rugby, and girlfriends (not necessarily in that order), and more or less forgot about it until finding myself on a two week vacation hanging out with a bunch of fellow grad student researchers in the small town of Lijiang, China about 5 years ago. Then my son came to visit with his PH and MM, and I got hooked again.
I think the Dungeon content is at the right level of PG-ness as presently edited. My son (now 15) DM'd several adventures out of it for me when he was 12-13--and he DMs for his friends now. I'm not especially squeamish about what he is exposed to, but I agree with above commentary to the effect that it's easier for DMs to add the R element if they want it than to subtract it. And it's nice that there are occaisional pieces that are a bit more low key--I'm DMing Valley of the Snails for a group of nieces and nephews, youngest of whom is nine (Says Angus, "I draw my sword and I charge them," to which his 14 year old sister, the party cleric who wants to negotiate with the goblins, responds, "Angus, why do you have to kill everything?")
Dungeon is a great resource, both for busy working DMs and for young aspiring DMs who need a model to help them learn how to create their own adventures (as we 30-40-somethings learned from the old T, B, and G-D-Q series modules). I avidly await my copy every month. Keep up the great work!
I’m 34, 35 next month and have been playing since perhaps 78 or maybe 79. I could barely afford the AD&D books as a youth, much less Dragon magazines, and as a teen Dungeon magazines were difficult to come by as well, but if I surf my shelf, I am able to find some older issues. I’ve subscribed to Dungeon at least twice and have over 40 issues on my shelf. I’m now DM’ing AOW for a group of 6 of us who have been playing together for over five years. I have recently had the immense pleasure of introducing my 7-year-old daughter to the game; she rides me weekly to play with her. We’ve only played twice, but so far, she loves the game, and I’ve bought a miniature for her elf wizard, which she has already painted. She loves to look through all my books, and have me explain the pictures to her and tell her about all the monsters, every one of which she hopes her little elf maiden will never run into, because she doesn’t want to die. Kids are sooooo cute.
Well I am 26, and have been playing since 1998. However, now my gaming group has taken a 3 year hiatus from D&D(so sad). But we still play Warhammer fantasy pretty regularly, at least while I was home. But, lately there has been talk of a new campaign in the works...but those can take forever to come into being. My wife just makes fun of me, but is still pretty cool about the whole idea of this game. So for now all I do is read about it and make characters up in my spare time.. man do I have alot of characters made up.... RPG games on a computer are nice but definitely not the same, not nearly! Hope my friends are going to have that campaign ready when I get back...if not more writing and reading in my future. Well time to go teach some chinese students how to speak english... Oh yeah, I am now trying to use D&D as a way of teaching them English. Who knows? Later
D&D forever!
I'm 35...36 at the end of next month. Been playing regularly since 1988. First thing I played was an AD&D 1E adaptation of WFRP1's Night of Blood in which my (first-ever) character died somewhat appalling when, one dark and stormy night, he went skulking around on a wet roof and fell off!
Ran a couple of WFRP1 games then switched to AD&D 2E (was sucked in by the cool preview booklets that came out with Dragon at the time) and ran games in the Forgotten Realms.
Before D&D 3E came out, I alternated between running (though somehow never completing) the fantastic The Enemy Within campaign for WFRP1 and various AD&D 2E adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
Then D&D 3E came out and I returned to the Forgotten Realms whole-heartedly.
Then WFRP2 came out. I'm hoping to run that sometime in the next millennium. But in the meantime, I'll carry on running D&D 3E games in the Forgotten Realms.
As a player, I rarely get to play either of my favourite settings (sob!)...my group favours other games like Call of Cthulhu and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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32. Been playing since I was 12. Started by playing 1st edition AD&D set in Greyhawk at a club but also played with the Red basic box set with B2 Keep on the Borderlands (followed closely by B4 The Lost City) at home afterwards. Kept playing 1st edition AD&D at the club but played through the blue (Expert), Green (Companion) and Black (Master) boxed sets at home games. Never made gold (Immortal), getting to level 36 was not something I ever had time for :) Then played 2nd edition AD&D (mostly FR) with forays into Shadowrun, Vampire: The Masquerade, MERP, Rolemaster, various other games that escape me at the moment before solely playing 2nd editon AD&D (FR) until 3rd edition arrived when we went back to Greyhawk. Two decades, doesn't seem that long :)
33 here, started playing in 82'. Red Box set for me as well. One of my friends had it. I played a thief, got killed by green slime if I recall correctly. I didn't get serious about the game until the early 90's though. Once my boys are old enough I will teach them to play as well. My groups age average is 35.
36 - started in '82
32 - Started in 1980 at Age 7.
I'm turning 35 this year and have been playing for 24 years.
My wife is turning 34 and has been playing for 13 years (I introduced her to gaming when were dating in university)
And my son is 8 and he's just started gaming.
(waiting for the day my 1.5 year old daughter can join in the game)
Hey! I was born in 1977!
Any way, I have been playing since I was 10, my brother was 9. My Mom DMed the red box set for us. Been Dming since I was 11 (my mom got tired of the bickering between my brother and I).
I am 28 now. Will be 29 in March.
My 5 year old really wants to play "DvD" with me and is always after my minitures and mis-matched dice. I told him he has to learn to read and then he can play with me.
Incidentally, we have 2 players in our group that are 13 (sons of other players), but they started playing with us when they were 11... So Onrie's not alone. New blood is out there.
This is a great thread. I'm sorry I cant briing myself to read it all, but it has gotten long!
I am 38, been playing off and on since those three little books were out, before the PHB and Monster manual.
I always loved writing my own adventures, even more than playing, but have got to say that the stuff in Dungeon Magazine is really great; much better than my adventures.
My wife is pregnant. God willing I will be playing with the kid in ten or twelve years, or maybe sooner, who knows.
I should be more careful about which reply link I hit. This is the one I meant to tag.
Sigh, never mind. I keep trying to reply to Templetroll saying he started in 77. I give up.
46. Been playing since 1979.
Just found the time to read this amazing thread :-)
I am 35 (36 in March), and started gaming in 1984, with the near-legendary red box. Still have my battered copy I got as christmas present 1984 from my parents (after pestering them for it), who never understood what all the fuss was about.
In the first years I played mainly The Dark Eye, a popular german RPG just now available in english for a few years in its latest edition, as it was of course much easier to get in germany, as well as cheaper. (in the 80es, the $-DM exchange rates were unfavorable for german gamers, and translations slow in coming - and the 1st Ed. DMG had a terrible translation)
I never completely stopped gaming, branching out to LARP as well several years ago.
Stefan
I'm 33 Canadian years old (which amounts to about 25 U.S.!)...
I've been playing since I was eight (so around 1980). I started with a single Dungeons & Dragons adventure module (B1 - In Search of the Unknown), a d4 and a d10. I had ABSOLUTELY NO idea how to play but, sure enough, found a way. Been playing (mostly DMing) ever since.
Sometimes I wonder what the heck I'd do if I hadn't stumbled upon this game.
Ultradan
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I'm 36 and I will turn 37 at the end of this month. I started playing when I was 12 with the old red box basic set. I didn't play much when I was in college but I picked it up again after I graduated. I have been playing longer than some of the people that game with have been alive. Man, I feel old.
35...been playing since I was 9 when my older brothers group looked at me and said, "He can play the cleric."
I've hated clerics ever since.
Sometimes I wonder what the heck I'd do if I hadn't stumbled upon this game.
...I wonder the same thing myself. RPGs in general have affected just about every aspect of my life, so I can't imagine what I'd be like without it.
I'm 36 and I will turn 37 at the end of this month. I started playing when I was 12 with the old red box basic set. I didn't play much when I was in college but I picked it up again after I graduated. I have been playing longer than some of the people that game with have been alive. Man, I feel old.
Just turned 37 yesterday (Jan 4). I started when I was 14 or 15 when I was invited to play with some friends in high school. In my last group in Korea, I had a player who was 19, and she pointed out that her parents were only a couple of years older than me. (Her parents were *quite* young when she was born, but it still made me feel old.)
My 4 year-old daughter likes to stage fights with the miniatures, and my 16 month-old daughter recently discovered the joy of rolling (throwing across the table) dice.
39. Last Saturday I took my 6-year-old to her first gaming session. She played a fighter who couldn't miss with her longbow. My cleric, on the other hand ...
I cut my teeth on the red book Basic game, back when elves were elves, dwarves were dwarves, and fighters and magic users were human. Oh, and an "npc stat block" were two lines of type, tops.
Those were the days ...
Hey all you rebels! I'm 16, and I've been playing for...about three years, officially (I played off and on before then). I would just like to say that I am so glad that there are still people who play D&D, and it wasn't totally wiped out back in the eighties and ninetys. I think that being a D&D "geek" is one of the most awesome things, just because it is so looked down upon. People should know how fun and cool every different tabletop roleplaying game is. They teach teamwork and courage, and don't contain the mindpoison that many videogames contain (though don't get me wrong, I play my fair share of videogames). As for the presence of mature content in the game, I believe it should only be used to make a more defined contrast between goo and evil (usually in the promotion of good).
Alright, well, thanks for reading my rantings, and keep playing, every one of you. I wish you all many more years of happy D&D-ing.
It always gladdens this old geezer's heart when a young person chimes in on this thread. Ah, to be 16 again. The only videogames I played back then were on my friend's Calicovision.
I'm 14, and I started D&D with the Basic Game, which I got on my 13th b-day.
Not, I think, the Basic Game which some of us, hrm, more "chronologically advanced" players might have alluded to.