I get my fix for the old stuff mainly by doing conversions of older adventures to the newer editions.A-MEN
This is me.
I love going through the old 1E and 2E adventures and redesigning/ rewriting them for today's game.
About a year ago I joined a group that was doing this with the old A series. I entered about 3/4 through A2 and it was really fun going all the way to A4. (The DM didn't use the Scourge compilation or Reynold's Slavers -- just the original A series.)
That campaign began at 1st level, with a Pathfinderized B2-Keep on the Borderlands. That was alot of fun, and once the PCs finished clearing out the Caves of Chaos, they were about 6th level, and we started in with Pathfinderized A-series. Glad to play with ya, Ray! I'm especially digging the current campaign (details of which are posted under The Wizard of Witchfire Mountain in the Campaign Journal forums).
I used the old slavers modules a few years back for D&D3 (I think 3.5), and had downloaded a stat update somewhere which I modified heavily. I think it was the same group I played through Castle Amber, one of my all-time crazy favorites, a haunted house module.
Stefan
I get my fix for the old stuff mainly by doing conversions of older adventures to the newer editions.A-MEN
This is me.
I love going through the old 1E and 2E adventures and redesigning/ rewriting them for today's game.
About a year ago I joined a group that was doing this with the old A series. I entered about 3/4 through A2 and it was really fun going all the way to A4. (The DM didn't use the Scourge compilation or Reynold's Slavers -- just the original A series.)
I've got a pack of Newbs that have no idea what I6: Ravanloft is - I'm positively drooling about the idea of running them through that classic. Especially because I've never had a chance to run it - every gamer I've pretty much ever met has either played through it or read it.
We've talked about White Plume Mountain earlier on this thread. I mentioned that there was a 3.0/3.5 version of it on an old defunct WoTC webpage. Well, I saw the original at the local game store last weekend. I almost picked it up but it was 10 bucks! It's worth more than it's original coverprice now!
Well, the stuff is 30 years old by now, so inflation, increasing demand and lessening supply raise the price. Noble knight games charges 10 to 12 bucks for VG copies, Very Good meaning perfectly usable, but with notable signs of usage. So, for 10 bucks, it seems like a price a store would charge for this.
Stefan
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It's funny you mention "Ravenloft," the best adventure ever written. It's the one classic adventure that I much prefer to run when my Players Know Ravenloft very well. I'd like my Players to have read at least Vampire of the Mists and I, Strahd, among maybe a few other things.
Then I'd start the adventure WITHOUT telling them that it's "Ravenloft." The shock and fear of the Player -- not the PC -- when he realizes where this adventure takes place is a great tool.
It's really something special when a Player has made a PC for a new campaign and then, halfway through the first session, abruptly realizes the shiny new PC he made is in frickin Ravenloft.
It's funny you mention "Ravenloft," the best adventure ever written. It's the one classic adventure that I much prefer to run when my Players Know Ravenloft very well. I'd like my Players to have read at least Vampire of the Mists and I, Strahd, among maybe a few other things.
Then I'd start the adventure WITHOUT telling them that it's "Ravenloft." The shock and fear of the Player -- not the PC -- when he realizes where this adventure takes place is a great tool.
It's really something special when a Player has made a PC for a new campaign and then, halfway through the first session, abruptly realizes the shiny new PC he made is in frickin Ravenloft.
Your lucky to have players that have read such fiction but have not actually already been through the original or at least read it.
In any case I think the adventure works on many levels - I'm aiming to show how table top gaming can evoke classic gothic horror but its certianly possible to use the adventures reputation to scare the players. I usually use Tomb of Horrors for that particular gig myself - so few have actually lived through all of it that it often works even on on players that have played it.
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The group I'm currently in has one Player who's familiar with Ravenloft as a whole; but we as a group have talked about it quite a bit so it's out for this group.
Moreso -- I'm running PCs with this group -- I don't have to DM at all and I'm loving it. It's been a really long time since I've gotten to exclucively run PCs and I'm really having a blast.
But in the past I have run Ravenloft adventures with Players who knew about the setting and/ or I6. Always successful.
To keep this thread moving, here's a new question. For those of you who played D&D in the 70s, how much of an influence do you think the first "Star Wars" movie was? Did it's blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements attract new players to the game? Did your current players now all want jedi powers and lightsabers?
None on gaming mechanics, but it did lead to many years of one-liners during the campaign.
GM: the Ice Devil turns to you and says, "I'm your father Aroleto!"
In service,
Rich
www.drgames.org
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Here's the story on Judges Guild, as I understand it.
In 1976, which was very early in the D&D process, probably before Supplement II: Blackmoor came out, Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owens traveled to Lake Geneva and asked permission to publish D&D adventures. Either Gary or Dave Arnesson, having difficulty imagining why anyone would want to do anything like that, agreed.
And Judges Guild started publishing all manner of adventures for D&D: their campaign world, a major setting, and lots of really cruddy adventures featuring bad puns and implausible "puzzles" and "traps".
When AD&D came about, and TSR became a powerhouse game company, they tried to rescind permission, but the courts backed Judges Guild, which was itself making a substantial profit on TSR's coat-tails.
Sometime around 1985, the company went under, a victim of their own low production values, and TSR thought that would be the end of that. What they didn't realize is that the original contract -- either just an oral agreement or a loosely written document -- was so ill-worded that the permission to publish "Approved for use with D&D" game supplements was transferable, that is, it could be sold to a third party; it didn't lapse with the closing of Judges Guild.
Mayfair bought the rights to the permission, and produced somewhat better quality products, all carrying the "approved for use with Dungeons and Dragons" stamp on the cover.
I can speak to how much this was driving TSR nuts, because I started freelancing for AD&D in 1987, and there was a problem: I had already written a couple of modules for Mayfair's "DC Heroes" game, and TSR had been operating under a strict policy for some time, that they would never hire anybody who'd done any work for Mayfair. My editor wanted to use me, and we were discussing the options of sneaking me in under a pseudonym (God knows how that would have worked with tax records) when upper management relented.
Bob Bledsaw died of cancer, less than a month after Gary Gygax passed away.
Thanks for sharing this story. Terribly sorry to hear that Bledsaw passed away.
The group I'm currently in has one Player who's familiar with Ravenloft as a whole; but we as a group have talked about it quite a bit so it's out for this group.
Moreso -- I'm running PCs with this group -- I don't have to DM at all and I'm loving it. It's been a really long time since I've gotten to exclucively run PCs and I'm really having a blast.
But in the past I have run Ravenloft adventures with Players who knew about the setting and/ or I6. Always successful.
I think I may have played a little bit of the original module one time, but I was in elementary school then! I vaguely remember trying to get a spear made out of silver. I do have the 2nd Edition box set and read it religiously but never ran a anything with it.
To keep this thread moving, here's a new question. For those of you who played D&D in the 70s, how much of an influence do you think the first "Star Wars" movie was? Did it's blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements attract new players to the game? Did your current players now all want jedi powers and lightsabers?None on gaming mechanics, but it did lead to many years of one-liners during the campaign.
GM: the Ice Devil turns to you and says, "I'm your father Aroleto!"
In service,
Rich
www.drgames.org
Now it's pretty common fact that Vader is Luke's father but kids today don't know how dramatic and sometimes traumatic that was when it was first revealed. I hadn't seen Empire yet and Jedi was just come out and my mother told me that Vader was Luke's father. I refused to believe and got so mad I threw my Vader figure and it went under the stove!
Its been interesting to scan through these memories. Over here in the UK I was introduced to 1st Ed AD&D in 1979 at the grand age of 10. I didn't buy my own copy for a while but there was a group at secondary school who were playing and it peeked my interest and joined in, for some reason I played a Monk. My first purchase was a pack of Citadel minatures Adventurer set 1. I can't remember what it cost me but I do recall refusing to pay over £0.95p for a giant model which now cost over £15!
Pass me my wheelchair.
Maruc
Its been interesting to scan through these memories. Over here in the UK I was introduced to 1st Ed AD&D in 1979 at the grand age of 10. I didn't buy my own copy for a while but there was a group at secondary school who were playing and it peeked my interest and joined in, for some reason I played a Monk. My first purchase was a pack of Citadel minatures Adventurer set 1. I can't remember what it cost me but I do recall refusing to pay over £0.95p for a giant model which now cost over £15!
Pass me my wheelchair.
Maruc
Do you know when D&D first appeared in the UK? So far, I've been surprised to see how fast it spread in its early days.
"Do you know when D&D first appeared in the UK? So far, I've been surprised to see how fast it spread in its early days."
Sorry John I don't, however we were using the original cover version. To be honest I haven't seen the guy how introduced me to D&D for best part of 25 years... so I can't ask him either!
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Do you know when D&D first appeared in the UK? So far, I've been surprised to see how fast it spread in its early days.
Gygax granted exclusive rights to Games Workshop to distribute TSR products in the UK, after meeting with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. Games Workshop printed some original material and also printed their own versions of various D&D and AD&D titles, in order to avoid high import costs. When TSR could not reach an agreement with Games Workshop regarding a possible merger, TSR created a subsidiary operation in the UK. To meet growing international demand, the company TSR, Ltd. was formed in England in 1980. Gygax hired Don Turnbull to head up the operation, which would also extend into continental Europe during the 1980s. TSR, UK. produced and the U and UK series of AD&D modules and B/X1 and X8 for basic D&D, as well as the original Fiend Folio. TSR, UK also produced Imagine magazine for 31 issues...
It obviously got there prior to 1980, but this is when TSR UK was created...
Interesting. Some Australian players at the beginning of the thread also talked about playing it late 70s/early 80s. As most of you know, the game came out in 1974 and the original copies were put together by hand. 1977 I think is when basic and AD&D were formalized. So in just a few short years, D&D became a global phenomenon.
What music from the 70s do you think captures the mood of D&D back then. Led Zeppelin is pretty obvious, but what about other bands like "Rainbow" with Ronnie Dio and Ritchie Blackmore? Other bands that evoked a feeling of fantasy?
Rush!
What music from the 70s do you think captures the mood of D&D back then. Led Zeppelin is pretty obvious, but what about other bands like "Rainbow" with Ronnie Dio and Ritchie Blackmore? Other bands that evoked a feeling of fantasy?
D&D and Black Sabbath will always be totally intertwined, for me. People told me that playing this new game would make you kill your parents and commit suicide. Ditto for listening to this group. Needless to say, we immediately decided to play the game while listening the group. Somehow, we all lived through the experience.
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I will say this: it was actually more fun for me than now. It was cool not really knowing everything, and not playing with people who could quote every obscure stupid little rule constantly. I think I started noticing that attitude when people started writing Dragon Mag when they had the "forums" column.
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I will say this: it was actually more fun for me than now. It was cool not really knowing everything, and not playing with people who could quote every obscure stupid little rule constantly. I think I started noticing that attitude when people started writing Dragon Mag when they had the "forums" column.
Really? I've never been that interested in playing games that I don't understand the nuances of, I'll spend hours and hours studying and pouring over a new game's sourcebooks cover to cover before I sit down to make a character.
Different cultures I guess. A good GM may have been able to make it work out well, but when I started the GM was a rookie who had a tendency to pull random crappy content out of his ass (rather than pulling cool stuff out of thin air) and it just completely turned me off from wanting to play without understanding the game well enough that, if I were to play with another GM of such caliber, that I would know when he was screwing us.
I suppose. I just like running a "fantastic" world, and modern players can't seem to be able to deal with anything that exists outside of the math of the system.
Rush!/plays "Kiss Me Deadly" and gives Urizen the finger.
Bonus points for getting that reference.
I can only think of the movie or the Lita Ford song.
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How are the math and the 'fantastic-ness' in any way related to one another? From where I'm standing the math is buried so deep under the fantasy (or lack thereof) that the two almost never interact.I suppose. I just like running a "fantastic" world, and modern players can't seem to be able to deal with anything that exists outside of the math of the system.I will say this: it was actually more fun for me than now. It was cool not really knowing everything, and not playing with people who could quote every obscure stupid little rule constantly. I think I started noticing that attitude when people started writing Dragon Mag when they had the "forums" column.
Really? I've never been that interested in playing games that I don't understand the nuances of, I'll spend hours and hours studying and pouring over a new game's sourcebooks cover to cover before I sit down to make a character.
Different cultures I guess. A good GM may have been able to make it work out well, but when I started the GM was a rookie who had a tendency to pull random crappy content out of his ass (rather than pulling cool stuff out of thin air) and it just completely turned me off from wanting to play without understanding the game well enough that, if I were to play with another GM of such caliber, that I would know when he was screwing us.
Back before 3x's "unified mechanic", I could just "make s#$# up" as to why a critter could do something*, or why a certain area reacted to certain things the way it did.
If I wanted to let, say, a kobold have some weird ability for whatever reason (like, it fit the plot, or I just thought it would be cool), I just did it, no rules justification needed.
Now, if I do something like that, a lot of players will "flip out" if it is something not possible under the rules. Rule Zero is an insult to a lot of players, they don't think the DM should be allowed to do anything outside of the book. A quick perusal of these board should reveal the truth of this.
Edit: as an example, look at all of the FR players who freak if anything happens "outside of Canon".
*I never did it to be a dick, I'm just a slave to the "rule of cool" over the RAW.
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I can only think of the movie or the Lita Ford song.Rush!/plays "Kiss Me Deadly" and gives Urizen the finger.
Bonus points for getting that reference.
The only difference between me and these guys is I kept playing after I discovered punk and women.
Skip ahead to 2:25 or so if you don't need the background.
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How are the math and the 'fantastic-ness' of a game in any way related to one another? From where I'm standing the math is buried so deep under the fantasy (or lack thereof) that the two almost never interact.
Back before 3x's "unified mechanic", I could just "make s~*& up" as to why a critter could do something*, or why a certain area reacted to certain things the way it did.
If I wanted to let, say, a kobold have some weird ability for whatever reason (like, it fit the plot, or I just thought it would be cool), I just did it, no rules justification needed.Now, if I do something like that, a lot of players will "flip out" if it is something not possible under the rules. Rule Zero is an insult to a lot of players, they don't think the DM should be allowed to do anything outside of the book. A quick perusal of these board should reveal the truth of this.
Edit: as an example, look at all of the FR players who freak if anything happens "outside of Canon".
*I never did it to be a dick, I'm just a slave to the "rule of cool" over the RAW.
I believe the key to making 'modern players' accept that kind of thing is to make a note that you're planning to freely 'homebrew' stuff for your game, and things may or may not always fall into alignment with the written rules.
Personally speaking, I like rules, I like understanding how the game works, knowing what does this and that, and how mechanics intertwine.
However, I've got no problem with a GM making stuff up as long as he takes care to do so fairly and make it fun. After the game is over I expect to be explained exactly what he did and how he did it, but that's just how I am about new things lol.
That's the thing. Back then, I didn't have to explain. It being cool and fun was enough.
Matter of personal style, too. When I play and houstonderek is DM, I have no problem with him just making stuff up -- that works for him, and his style, and the game is still fun. When I DM, I make sure I do everything by the rules, as do all the NPCs (never mind that I wrote those rules; I still follow them). That's just a personal quirk for me when I DM, and it hasn't seemed to have sent Derek off to find another game yet.
Some dudes look cool when they wax their heads. I look like a cancer patient. It's idiosyncratic, not universal.
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Times change man. Half the regular player base that you can actually rely on are also GM's now.
Yeah. I know. I used to be able to whip up an adventure, plot, hook, statting up, maps, the whole deal, in a couple of hours. Now DMing is like a full time job without pay, catering to people who don't give a s##! how long it took to prep if everything doesn't fit in a neat little box.
I haven't ran a game in two years because of that, and only now thing we have a group cool enough for me to run a game the way I want.
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The other thing i'm not big on in the modern RPG way of thinking: leaving the farm, or your dad's shop, and picking up a sword and going out for an adventure is a dangerous undertaking. Modern players seem to want the illusion of a challenge instead of an actual challenge.
I don't go out of my way to kill characters, but I sure as hell am going to make your character occasionally wish they had just stayed home and stocked shelves.
I threw three ogres and a wizard (4th level) at a party of 2st level characters once. Only one character death, and that was only because he deviated from the plan and tried to go toe to toe with an ogre. Silly half-orc. The rest of the party won the encounter through smart play and teamwork.
I've been told by players who don't play with me they would have left my game for doing that. I was being "unfair" or something.
But, it wasn't me putting them on rails, I threw out the hook and they bit.
Edit: Kirth played that day, he can give his opinion of how I ran it.
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Heh, sorry to hear you've run into that kind of people. For myself as long as it's fun, and it makes some sense, it's relatively fair, and the GM doesn't railroad and restricts my character concepts as little as possible I'm happy.Times change man. Half the regular player base that you can actually rely on are also GM's now.Yeah. I know. I used to be able to whip up an adventure, plot, hook, statting up, maps, the whole deal, in a couple of hours. Now DMing is like a full time job without pay, catering to people who don't give a s@~~ how long it took to prep if everything doesn't fit in a neat little box.
I haven't ran a game in two years because of that, and only now thing we have a group cool enough for me to run a game the way I want.
Based on our conversations here, and reading your posts, I think you'd be a good fit with us. There are still people who "get it" (imo), which is why I'm even here, but I'm finding them to be fewer and farther between.
Based on our conversations here, and reading your posts, I think you'd be a good fit with us. There are still people who "get it" (imo), which is why I'm even here, but I'm finding them to be fewer and farther between.Heh, sorry to hear you've run into that kind of people. For myself as long as it's fun, and it makes some sense, it's relatively fair, and the GM doesn't railroad and restricts my character concepts as little as possible I'm happy.Times change man. Half the regular player base that you can actually rely on are also GM's now.Yeah. I know. I used to be able to whip up an adventure, plot, hook, statting up, maps, the whole deal, in a couple of hours. Now DMing is like a full time job without pay, catering to people who don't give a s@~~ how long it took to prep if everything doesn't fit in a neat little box.
I haven't ran a game in two years because of that, and only now thing we have a group cool enough for me to run a game the way I want.
If you ever happen to run into a pack of young 4E players you might want get them to try a game of 1E with you. The look and feel of the game will be different then what they are used to but they should be totally in line with the underlying philosophy of 'S@$+ happens because the DM says it happens'.
I recognize that a DM can do this sort of thing in 3.5 as well but much of this is simply far less codified in 4E - hence the players are used to the DM saying 'and now X happens, here is how it works', because thats how it always goes down.
You'll have to teach them how to roll percentile dice though.
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Based on our conversations here, and reading your posts, I think you'd be a good fit with us. There are still people who "get it" (imo), which is why I'm even here, but I'm finding them to be fewer and farther between.Heh, sorry to hear you've run into that kind of people. For myself as long as it's fun, and it makes some sense, it's relatively fair, and the GM doesn't railroad and restricts my character concepts as little as possible I'm happy.Times change man. Half the regular player base that you can actually rely on are also GM's now.Yeah. I know. I used to be able to whip up an adventure, plot, hook, statting up, maps, the whole deal, in a couple of hours. Now DMing is like a full time job without pay, catering to people who don't give a s@~~ how long it took to prep if everything doesn't fit in a neat little box.
I haven't ran a game in two years because of that, and only now thing we have a group cool enough for me to run a game the way I want.
If you ever happen to run into a pack of young 4E players you might want get them to try a game of 1E with you. The look and feel of the game will be different then what they are used to but they should be totally in line with the underlying philosophy of 's@!@ happens because the DM says it happens'.
I recognize that a DM can do this sort of thing in 3.5 as well but much of this is simply far less codified in 4E - hence the players are used to the DM saying 'and now X happens, here is how it works', because thats how it always goes down.
You'll have to teach them how to roll percentile dice though.
And play without a grid. I never used minis in 1e :)
I can only think of the movie or the Lita Ford song.Rush!/plays "Kiss Me Deadly" and gives Urizen the finger.
Bonus points for getting that reference.
The only difference between me and these guys is I kept playing after I discovered punk and women.
Skip ahead to 2:25 or so if you don't need the background.
I own that movie. Every time I get to that scene in the movie, I get misty eyed. Has to be on my top 10 favorites of all-time.
Times change man. Half the regular player base that you can actually rely on are also GM's now.Yeah. I know. I used to be able to whip up an adventure, plot, hook, statting up, maps, the whole deal, in a couple of hours. Now DMing is like a full time job without pay, catering to people who don't give a s!#! how long it took to prep if everything doesn't fit in a neat little box.
I haven't ran a game in two years because of that, and only now thing we have a group cool enough for me to run a game the way I want.
Didn't you GM a game at OwlCon last year?
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Didn't you GM a game at OwlCon last year?Times change man. Half the regular player base that you can actually rely on are also GM's now.Yeah. I know. I used to be able to whip up an adventure, plot, hook, statting up, maps, the whole deal, in a couple of hours. Now DMing is like a full time job without pay, catering to people who don't give a s!#! how long it took to prep if everything doesn't fit in a neat little box.
I haven't ran a game in two years because of that, and only now thing we have a group cool enough for me to run a game the way I want.
PFS doesn't count. It's a canned adventure, and I was just doing it to help drum up interest.
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I own that movie. Every time I get to that scene in the movie, I get misty eyed. Has to be on my top 10 favorites of all-time.I can only think of the movie or the Lita Ford song.Rush!/plays "Kiss Me Deadly" and gives Urizen the finger.
Bonus points for getting that reference.
The only difference between me and these guys is I kept playing after I discovered punk and women.
Skip ahead to 2:25 or so if you don't need the background.
You lose MAD points for missing the reference then. The song is Generation X "Kiss Me Deadly", and the irony of that song being the last before the credits is...
Of course, the movie redeems its "cred" by going out with the DKs over the credits...
My old AD&D DM got into it when the game first debuted in the mid-1970s. Apparently a lot of recreational pharmaceuticals were involved... ;-)
Myself, I got into AD&D around 1980 or 1981 as I recall. For a lot of the time, I didn't have anyone to play AD&D with aside from a close-to-my-age nephew and some friends of his, or a friend I made by chance when we both happened to be in a library at the same time and he was making photocopies of the Players' Handbook.
I don't know if current players -- or players who are only used to 3.5 Edition Rules -- can imagine this, but back in the 1st Edition days, the "magic-user" (as the wizard was then known) only had 1d4 hit points per level, and at first level could only cast *one* spell! =8-o
Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
I don't know if current players -- or players who are only used to 3.5 Edition Rules -- can imagine this, but back in the 1st Edition days, the "magic-user" (as the wizard was then known) only had 1d4 hit points per level, and at first level could only cast *one* spell! =8-o
On the bright side, he could throw three darts per round. :-)
You lose MAD points for missing the reference then. The song is Generation X "Kiss Me Deadly", and the irony of that song being the last before the credits is...** spoiler omitted **
Of course, the movie redeems its "cred" by going out with the DKs over the credits...
A band of poseurs, maybe, but a pretty damn good first album.
Its been interesting to scan through these memories. Over here in the UK I was introduced to 1st Ed AD&D in 1979 at the grand age of 10. I didn't buy my own copy for a while but there was a group at secondary school who were playing and it peeked my interest and joined in, for some reason I played a Monk. My first purchase was a pack of Citadel minatures Adventurer set 1. I can't remember what it cost me but I do recall refusing to pay over £0.95p for a giant model which now cost over £15!
Pass me my wheelchair.
Maruc
I also started in 1979 at the age of 10 - though in Australia. My older brother was introduced to it by some classmates - one of whose brothers was a good friend of mine. We played it quite a lot after school - no computer games around then - in between doing lots of playing cricket and footie outside in the park. We also planned lots of sleepover sessions where we intended to play all night long. We never did manage a full night of gaming.
I loved the Against the Giants series and spent plenty of time working out how to wipe out the giants in the Hill Giant hall :) One summer a friend and I worked through the entire Dragonlance series of modules, taking turns to DM modules. I even once went through the entire Against the Giants and Descent into the Depths series just to calculate the total loot and XP in the campaign.
My most vivid memory is once rolling up a fighter with 18(00) strength (without any fudging of dice!) only to have him get bitten by a spider in his very first round of combat and failing his save-or-die saving throw. I recall low level characters were a lot squishier back then.
I still have some of the orginal dice set - including one d20 that survived multiple trips through our Great Dane's digestive tract! And lots of very early miniatures which I still use occasionally.
I don't know if current players -- or players who are only used to 3.5 Edition Rules -- can imagine this, but back in the 1st Edition days, the "magic-user" (as the wizard was then known) only had 1d4 hit points per level, and at first level could only cast *one* spell! =8-oOn the bright side, he could throw three darts per round. :-)
I remember Dragon magazine had a short column that kind of poked fun of the rules a little bit. They determined that a 1st level wizard had a 50% chance of getting killed by a house cat.
Its been interesting to scan through these memories. Over here in the UK I was introduced to 1st Ed AD&D in 1979 at the grand age of 10. I didn't buy my own copy for a while but there was a group at secondary school who were playing and it peeked my interest and joined in, for some reason I played a Monk. My first purchase was a pack of Citadel minatures Adventurer set 1. I can't remember what it cost me but I do recall refusing to pay over £0.95p for a giant model which now cost over £15!
Pass me my wheelchair.
Maruc
I also started in 1979 at the age of 10 - though in Australia. My older brother was introduced to it by some classmates - one of whose brothers was a good friend of mine. We played it quite a lot after school - no computer games around then - in between doing lots of playing cricket and footie outside in the park. We also planned lots of sleepover sessions where we intended to play all night long. We never did manage a full night of gaming.
I loved the Against the Giants series and spent plenty of time working out how to wipe out the giants in the Hill Giant hall :) One summer a friend and I worked through the entire Dragonlance series of modules, taking turns to DM modules. I even once went through the entire Against the Giants and Descent into the Depths series just to calculate the total loot and XP in the campaign.
My most vivid memory is once rolling up a fighter with 18(00) strength (without any fudging of dice!) only to have him get bitten by a spider in his very first round of combat and failing his save-or-die saving throw. I recall low level characters were a lot squishier back then.
I still have some of the orginal dice set - including one d20 that survived multiple trips through our Great Dane's digestive tract! And lots of very early miniatures which I still use occasionally.
I think 18(00) fighters were cursed! The one time I rolled an 18(00) my fighter failed his dex check jumping over a chasm and plummeted to his death. It's like they are too perfect for this world so the gods take them to the next.
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including one d20 that survived multiple trips through our Great Dane's digestive tract!
I had a friend that left his favorite set of dice at my place, and my cat managed to get a hold of and eat the d10...
He got it back, and that die became his "lucky 10-sider"...
Totally unrelated (and sorry in advance for the thread jacking)...
Not quite the post I imagined to make for my 1000th post, but I'll take it... :-)
1000 posts! WOOHOO...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-