My first experience with RPGs at all was actually Star Frontiers. I was ten so it must have been 81-82. I had a cousin who was playing D&D at the time, but I didn't have any of the materials to play. D&D sounded like so much fun that I tried to make up fantasy monsters using SF rules. Next thing I knew I was DMing my way through a module (I think my first was White Plume Mountain) using only a d10 and pretending that I understood the rules.
My first actual D&D experience was playing through Castle Amber. A friend helped me convert my fifth level wizard to match actual AD&D standards (never mind the fact that it was a module for D&D Expert, not AD&D). He died in the banquet hall after eating a poison mushroom. I could not believe it. I almost wanted to quit right then and there.
Eventually I got better at it.
Oh man, I remember Star Frontiers. And I DMed Castle Amber atop an apartment building when I was 14 during the summer. It remains my most favorite day to remember. A golden moment of true keiros.
|
In 8th grade ('81), someone tried to introduce me to Basic DnD via the Keep on the Borderlands, but when the guard at the front gate asked me my business there, I felt like the answer would be too important, and I felt like it was too much of a roleplaying game. Much of this had to do with what I thought of the guy introducing me to the game, anyway. I'm more of a number cruncher, he was more drama.
In 9th grade, someone else I hung out with said he played, and I picked up the Basic set. Finally I saw what the game was more about and was better prepared. I rolled up a halfling, went through Keep on the Borderlands and died to a kobold spear.
Many of my PC's just didn't live at all. The PC that lasted the longest was Sparky, an elf, who was converted to a fighter/wizard in 1e.
As for the first campaign that really turned me into a gamer... I think I'd have to say Castle Amber. That one really felt like an adventure even though our characters were dropping like flies. We entered the cursed land, beat the four tasks, entered the final tomb (blue dragon! Aah!) and lifted the curse. It was an awesome adventure, especially since we were biting our nails all the way through it. The original Ravenloft also amazed me with what DnD could accomplish when done right. Before Castle Amber, I was still trying to figure out if it was really the game I liked, since until then it always just seemed to be a test for how many levels you could raise before losing your character.
Sadly, Sparky met his end at the bottom of a spiral stair trap that ended with a fire pit (along with his brother, Spanky - curse you Tomb of the Lizard King!). After that, I rolled up a full 1e party that survived to level 14 or so before being retired (they went through a few homebrews, Ravenloft, the giant modules, the Five Shall Be One series [we started the Greyhawk Wars, sorry everyone!!!], Rary the Traitor, and Throne of Bloodstone, among others).
|
Oh man, I remember Star Frontiers. And I DMed Castle Amber atop an apartment building when I was 14 during the summer. It remains my most favorite day to remember. A golden moment of true keiros.
Ahhh 'chateau de amberville' the fond memories ...
The 1 st module i played in was the 'Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth' (where i died right as my elf fighter/mage was about to grasp the Lanthorn).
And 'Chateau de Amberville" was the module i cut my dm'ing chops on, and almost got my table TPK'd.
Ahhhh youth
|
circa 1982, 83. I was nine or ten. My best friend, Patrick McManus had a module, I don't even remember what it was about. I went solo. A rogue. I climbed the walls of a cave and snuck passed the guards on the ceiling. Neither of us understood much about the rules but I was hooked. I went home and made a character for my brother (two years younger then me). We made it up as we went along using six sided dice.
For my birthday that year I used my birthday money to buy the Basic Set. Me and my brother played through Keep on the Borderland again and again, just making characters and dungeon crawling. When we worked outside in the yard, we made up games as we worked. I would sneak dice out with me to roll attacks.
At some point I bought the expert set as well and we added Isle of Dread to our gaming. As I grew older I added a few other modules to my collection, Ravenloft stands out. But it was Keep on the Borderland and Isle of Dread that I remember best.
|
|
Jeez... I first played D&D when I was in seventh grade. I was taught by my friend's stepdad, Jerry (he still DMs for us occasionally even though the original group is late-high school / early-college age). My first character was a complete disaster (a LE cleric of Hextor). He didn't last long (there was a lot of evil doings-on happening. Curiously, though, I didn't fall into the "chaotic crazy" trap--Jerry has confessed that my twelve-year-old self was one of the only people to come close to accurately RPing an evil character in one of his games.) After that, my friend Alex (Dirk Gently on the boards) took over the campaign with my next character (a bard). Good times, good times. I remember that in the first adventure he DMed for more than two people, he became swamped with initiative order and ended up forgetting to roll attacks for all of the skeletons we were supposed to be fighting. He's a lot better, now.
My first DMing experience was when I was thirteen. It was after my friend Pat's family reunion, and the three of us (myself, Pat, and Al - The Legend of the Sword and AWED on the boards) were up at about two in the morning in a hotel in Quebec City, Canada. I was running a homebrew adventure that involved lots of arachnid monsters. We only had a d12 and a pair of d6s, so we had to fudge a lot of rolls. It's still one of the best times I've ever had playing D&D. That could just be a result of the high Mountain Dew (the cheap Canadian kind) to blood ratio, though.
Hmm. I began in 7th grade (maybe 6th) with the D&D Basic set. I played a few adventures with my friend who introduced me to the game. The first module I remember playing through was the Blades of Vengeance solo adventure, which hooked me on elves. But the real hook was the Temple of Elemental Evil. All that depth and detail, monsters galore, assassins, and a demon lord and a demigod too! That made me want to DM, and that was the 1st thing I remember running in my 20+ years as a gamer. Alas, I haven't run a game in 7 years, playing exclusively and happier for it, though our current DM wants me to replace him. Maybe in another few years . . . .
Glad to see a few other people appear to have cut their teeth on Basic DnD. For some reason we never played any AD&D products, not did anyone have any until late high school.
Anyways, B2 Keep on the Borderlands, B4 the lost city, and X1 Isle of Dread will always be fond early memories of learning DnD, aged 12, in 83. Castle amber was fun to read but never played. My all time faves though are X4 master of the desert nomads and the follow up X5 the temple of death.
|
|
My first D&D experience was with a basic set that had a swooping red dragon on it, or something (though this was far after it probably first came out; I think it was 97 or 98). It came with a yellow TSR dice bag, and had all these awesome little sheets in there (at least I thought so at the time). It didn't really pick up at the beginning, seeing as the first reason I bought it was because my mom told me not to (I was at that age). Eventually, though, after my mom read through it, and understood what it was about, we tried playing.
Unfortunately, I sucked as a DM, so we didn't really get anywhere. It still plucked at something in my head though. I used the random dungeon generator in the DM book to create a dungeon for 3E after it came out, though it never got run. After that, 3E Forgotten Realms came out, and I used the free mini adventures on the Wizards site to run my brother and me through some of them. It wasn't until we co-DM'd Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil for each other, though, that I was really hooked. Roleplaying is now my favorite hobby besides reading, and writing.
Long live D&D!
|
|
I think the first module I ran was B2, then B3 and L1.
I ran U1 The sinister Secret of Saltmarsh at least 4 or 5 times, and played in it once.
I ran L1 about two or three times.
B2; I have no idea how many times I ran it. It was a staple back then. But B3, man that was a fave. Big old abandoned Palace.
My mom taught my brother and I after reading the rules for the basic set herself--she DMed Keep. I think I was 9 years old.
After that my brother DMed quite a bit and by the time I was 11 or 12 I started Dming, too. I think my first gig as DM was Against the Giants or White Plume(ED: now that I think about it maybe it was Castle Amber). After that I DMed for about 7 or 8 years, starting up an actual campaign (GH) with context when I was about 14, in 1984.
A fond memory was the last time my brother DMed: Tomb of Horrors. It took us a couple of weekends, 15 or so hirelings, some beers we stole from my father, and three PC resurrections to finish it. That was '84 I think.
I gave up D&D for other games in 1990, especially Champions and Rolemaster, and just started up with the D&D again last year.
Summer of 89. My brother taught me to play and I felt inmediately in love with the game. First module was "The Lost Stone of Balaforce", a homebrew. My first official was Isle of Dread. I lost three characters in that damned central plateau :D
daedel, el azote.
The 1983 Basic Set (Red Box) with the included B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Everything else followed: the rest of the boxed sets (including Immortals), Star Frontiers (both Alpha Dawn and Knight Hawks), AD&D 1st Ed (all of the hardcovers, including OA and Dragonlance), AD&D 2nd Ed, MERPS, Campions/HERO, Shadowrun, Ars Magica, Warhammer FRP, Alternity, 3.0/3.5; and that's just the systems that I own. I've played in other systems and own material for several settings, also. I think I own more SF/fantasy novels by weight, but it's close.
I had already been playing for a few years when I received the original Ravenloft adventure from my best friend for my eighth birthday. I might have eventually lost interest in D&D and found different hobbies if not for that adventure. Even with all the hoopla that came after, nothing Ravenloft-related can even begin to compare to that module. Even the recent hardcover lacks something that the original had, although I can't quite put my finger on what. And so, at the age of eight, I6 captured my imagination forever.
Some guy (Kikai13) :) had long 80s rock star hair and a room full of sweet ass Iron Maiden and Megadeth posters and invited me over to play. He was a harsh DM and I remember my first ever character was a half-elf named Falen Drakwood.
I had to fight a bunch of hobgoblins and I remember a room with a mirror that made you just stare back at yourself. I didnt understand that in those days my fighter/mage couldnt wear armor and cast so he was a bit gimped because I think I put him in platemail. Oh well it was fun even in Kikai was a merciless DM. I think his DM style stuck with me even into my 30s because if people do stupid crap I still dont hesitate to kill them off...I just dont take as much pleasure in it as he did..thanks -j for getting me into this stupid hobby :)