Playing a table top role playing game can take a long time. A lot of people will play in the same group for many years, if not decades and while a lot of people say they have less time for gaming as they get older, most players will spend their entire lives playing in one way or another. Despite this life long love affair with RPGs, many players will tell you that their favorite memory of gaming is from when they were very young or when they had just been introduced to the world of RPGs.
With that in mind, we asked our fans and followers for their favorite childhood memories of gaming and their early experiences with the hobby that we all love. Here are some of our favorite responses:
“My first D&D game when I was 10 years old at a Halloween party. My friend “borrowed” his older brother’s copy of the game and we played. We got it all wrong (of course) but it made such an impression that I shovelled snow all winter and spent every cent on D&D.”
“First game ever, running away from all the most powerful monsters in the book. It was the DM’s first game as well.”
“Picking up the “Little White Box,” Chainmail, and the Holmes edition of D&D with my cousin when the first hit the shelf and figuring out how to play with our friends.”
“Discovering Rolemaster and REAL roleplaying at around 17; after 7-years of D&D w/childhood friends, was awesome to really roleplay in a real system!”
“The best Rolemaster moment was when the party was resting from evading the people hunting them and camped for the night. When it came time for the Monk’s watch I rolled perception behind the screen and the roll was fumbled. He noticed something that was not there. As we progressed and he awakened everyone he wanted to make another perception check, so I had him roll behind my screen where he could not see it and fumbled it again. He then leapt attack the bush and he achieved an open ended attack roll and killed the bunny that was hiding under the bush. They had rabbit stew for breakfast…lol. Best fumble to critical attack ever!”
“My first experience with RPGs was the summer of grade 6. My Mom had bought my Dad the Star Trek RPG (by FASA). At the same time, he bought her MERP. We had quite the time figuring out how to play. The most fun were the ship to ship combats in Star Trek. But I remember sitting down and going through the sample adventure in the MERP boxed set with my Mom and battling the 9th level mage in the ruined castle just north-east of Bree. It got me hooked on MERP & RPGs in general. Then we moved to a new city and the kids I fell in with were all into RPGs. Marvel Superheros, GURPS and Rolemaster. I introduced them to MERP and after their characters got to Level 10, we converted them to RM2. I don’t think I ever looked back after that. I started buying every RM book I could get my hands on and went on to play Rolemaster with a number of different friends – both as a player and as a GM. The first group of friends & I started playing other games as well (Warhammer & WH40k mostly), but we always returned to RM2. We had lots of fun, and I miss those nights of gaming a lot.”
“I fell in love with the Uncanny X-men comic series in Grade 7, and soon started working for a local comic shop to help keep me in comics glory. I’d always pass the section we kept of MERP books and would gaze at the Angus McBride covers covetously. I’d hear stories of my Manager “killing” people but the stories always ended epically with battles against mythological beasts vs being IRL, thankfully, and asked to watch one day. Man, was it kewl! Later that year, ICE had its hooks into me as I had saved enough for the Red Box Set(RM2), its companions up to III, and was eyeballing Shadow World’s 1st Ed. boxed set for a setting. It wasn’t long before I enlisted my best friend, girlfriend, and Couz to play. First battle in the first adventure I wrote for 1st lvl PCs had the girlfriend try to rescue the buddy from being surrounded by a pack of Wolves. She made it to him, proceeded to fumble her Rapier and rolled a high 90+ ‘E’ Punc. which resulted in her ally dying of a brain hemorrhage! We ended the game session with close to a TPK and I made sure to read up on how to game balance encounters.”
“Seeing a Rolemaster critical chart for the first time. Bleeds, broken bones, nerve damage, stuns….mmmm mmm. That was the end of AD&D.”
“My friend Darren, who primarily liked the combat and roll-playing, who one night in our Rolemaster game rolled open-ended for an attack…then another, then another, then another. We were all cheering and shouting and by then he was so excited he was crying uncontrollably. I think he rolled 450 or so before mods hah. Darren was also responsible for the largest negative roll, -200 -300 ish for perception in a city. Some npc shouted ‘look out below!” and instead of moving away he looked down and got clocked by a large falling object.”
“I sat in on a session of Rolemaster one night and everyone was having a blast. Everyone was laughing and rolling on the floor. Literally. People were sitting on the floor because the dorm room was small and people were on the floor, the bed, the window ledge, but we were laughing so hard. THIS was what gaming was? It wasn’t nerds in the basement afraid to see the light of day? I knew these people! They were gaming and having a blast. One player in particular was Chris Elliot, one of the creators of HOL! We play-tested and helped make HOL in that dorm room! I was in on the creation of HOL with easily the best GM and most fantastic artists I have ever met.”
“My favorite childhood memories are Freshman year in college, getting to meet incredible gamers who became amazing friends, (one is the god father for my daughter), and having the fun and privilege of being invited to sit in one night.”
What are your favorite memories of gaming? Tell us your stories on the Iron Crown Forum.