Topic: How and when did the RPG bug bite

[Zhaleskra]

I had seen some of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. There was a bookstore in a nearby mall. On my first run of their RPG section, they had both the D&D Cyclopedia and the AD&D 2E books. I don't remember why I chose AD&D 2E over the Cyclopedia exactly. Still didn't actually play for several years after that.

Joined a RPG club at my first college, their flyer was the very first piece of mail in my dorm mailbox. Through them, I was exposed to many different RPGs and cured of being a D&D supremacist.

[pyrotech]

Hmmm.  For me is was more of a slow progression.

I started with twist-a-plot and choose your own adventure books in grade school, and by '85 I had progressed into the adventure game books (the first one I barely remember being Sagar or something like that, then Lone Wolf and even some of the Middle Earth Quest books).  Late in '85 while on a fundraiser with the boyscouts we went to a local mall where the older scouts I was with bought "the new Dungeons and Dragons book".  The idea intrigued me so early '86 I bought the red box basic D&D and read it a dozen times but didn't have anyone to play it with.

Finally in junior high I met someone who had played it before and he invited me over to try it.  One dungeon crawl later I was hooked.  I took my newfound knowlegde and recruited my best friend to try it.  We played a single player 3 main character BECMI campaign for about 5 years. 

It snowballed from there.

[Allen]

the first time I played I was in... I think the 4th grade, so 9 years old or so. I had no idea what I was doing, and neither did my GM. HA! it was just the two of us so I was running 4 characters.
Stopped for a few years when he moved away, his father was in the Air Force. A few years later, end of Junior High, found out 2 guys I knew played and invited me into the game. Just after I got out of the Marines I was introduced to ICE. that was 1990. I've had a love affair with RM and SM and CS ever since.

[Thom @ ICE]

Guys
D&D boxed came out in 1977
1974 was the original softcover that was barely released for sale.   1975 was Blackmoor.
Players Handbook was later. 

[tulgurth]

It was late '79, early '80 and I was sitting in my friend's kitchen.  He gets a phone call then turns to me and asks about what I would do about this .fire giant problem he was having.  So I bite wand ask what I had abvailable to use.  Not knowing what I was doing I solved his problem.  Feb 10th, 1980 I bought my first ad&d module, rolled up a character and my friend dm'd me through, the Sinister Secret of Salt marsh.  Still one of my favorite modules to this day 34 years later.

First exposure to RM was their crit tables adapted for ad&d.  This was in '87 I believe.  The full system intro happened in '94 when I was in college.  Had a 1/2Troll fighter named Brulle who loved to use the group's mage as a bullet boy.  Those were fun times.

[Alwyn]

1978.....D&D of course.

[Turbs]

started in 8th grade with some fighting fantasy / lone wolf chose your own adventures when the guys who had lent them to me asked me if I was interested in playing this thing called D&D..

....


25 years later Im posting on ICE forums..

[Peter R]

I'm a 1979 veteran as well. We were on a coach trip to France with the school and the guy sat next to me on the coach for the whole trip was reading the blue book. He started talking to me about it and when we stopped overnight at some youth hostel he showed me how it all worked. That was it. I think that was in the September and for Christmas my parents bought me the D&D box set which was the red one. We have been gaming every since.

There was (is?) a gaming shop in Bristol called Forever People and I was in there and the guy behindthe counter told me about this brand new game they had in called MERP. I bought it and soon after got Arms Law and Claw Law. Our regular DM at the time then bought Character Law and he started the first full on RM game.