Year: 1982 ( I was 12 )

Game: Red Box D&D, keep on the borderlands, over and over, but never quite as written.

Me: I GM'd

Notable Events: A neighbors little sister who played 'Barbie, the cleric of Ken'. Everybody was a cleric.

Highlight: We played for days on end. Incredible fun. Every once in a while I run into one of those kids that I haven't seen for years and they are all about the D&D.

Lowlight: Being told all about what we were doing wrong. Starting with the fact that all characters I had begin at level 0.

Edit: Forgot
Overall Perception: I was hooked. Deep mysteries I had to know. Endless possibilities.

-Year: 1984
-System/Setting: Red Box Basic Set Dungeons and Dragons
-What Character You Played (or if you GM'd): Some Fighter.
-Notable Events: Can't remember. I was eight.
-Highlight: Can't remember.
-Lowlight: The Goblin with the spear that wouldn't die.
-The overall perception you had afterwards: I was eight years old and discovered crack.

-=Grim=-

1983. Red box D&D. I GMed. Notable events? I ran my first game without a copy of the rules or any dice. Can't remember highlights or low points, but it obviously made quite an impression on me.

Seanchai

Year: 1980 or 1981

Game: Moldvay D&D, Palace of the Silver Princess

PC: 1st-level Cleric, his name is lost in the eons

Notable Events: Death by Stirge (on the 2nd floor?)

Highlight: Can't remember.

Lowlight: Can't remember.

Year: Appx 1988

Game: Redbox AD&D - Just a generic Dungeoncrawl, no plot...just rooms halls and monsters.

Character: A female Ninja(I wanted to play a Ninja, so my brother just used the rogue rules and told me I was a Ninja).

Notable Events: It was a solo campaign...I actually made it to something like 4th level before I died.

Higlights: Doing Backflips

Lowlights: Not having Ninja Magic

Perspective today: Well...it made me want to run a game. Now that's all I seem to be able to do

1980, played a "I heard a D&D game once so I made up my own" game a friend brought to school. 1981: Obtained Official Basic D&D. Played Happily until 6th grade where a friend (a fifth grader) introduced me to AD&D. Obtained books: 1 PHB (Toy Shop), 1 DMG (A place closing out all "business" but for its jewelry--formerly a high end store akin to Sears, but local. Cost me 1 dollar and 1 nickel--including tax), couldn't talk mom into giving me an allowance boost so had to wait till next month for Monster Manual (no copies at that store, had to go back to the Toy Shop)

Notable Events First game: I wandered around after a minotaur with an oddly named polearm (I think was a Glaive Guisarme), and a lantern (and a piece of rope.)


Notable Events Basic D&D: I ran the game as DM, I had the PC's hired by a very mad fighter to go kill a wizard named Bargle for him.

Lowlights: Gm didn't know what to do in first game when I wanted to fight AND have a lantern. (I hung it on a wall)

Lowlight: Me gming. Goblins ate the party with a few lucky rolls.

-Year: 1983

-System/Setting: BD&D (Mentzer basic set)

-What Character:  DM'd

-Notable Events: uh... the whole game was notable as it was my first time playing anything besides a mind numbing board game like Monopoly

-Highlight: The PCs clearing out one of the goblin lairs, establishing a base, and defending it against an attack from the Orcs

-Lowlight: I didn't really read the rules very carefully (too excited to get started, and I was 9 and couldn't be bothered - I mean, how hard could it be?)  so I granted "20s" for each stat of all the PCs.  I was feeling generous!

-The overall perception you had afterwards: My mind was pretty much blown.  Having only experienced the aforementioned mind numbing board games, this was a life altering experience.  24 years later...

The year was 1987, maybe '88. I'll be constructing from childhood memories. The system was AD&D, and the idea of setting didn't occur to me - though I now recognize the GM (my friend's 13 year old brother) was going to run Castle Amber. I played a human fighter, possibly named Batman, of indeterminate level - I suspect it was higher than 1st only because I remember I had a rod of lordly might starting out (I now think this was just because it made the GM snicker). The most notable event was when the mists killed our donkey, which was followed shortly after by the lowlight when I had to go like twenty minutes after we started playing. The highlight was the 20 minutes I got to look through the DMG while he helped my friend make his magic-user - it was a journey into a world I had always hoped existed.

I started making a "heard a D&D game once so I made my own" game that very night.

Quote from: Zachary The FirstSo, what was your first gaming experience like?  Around the lunch table in junior high or right after college?  D&D or TMNT?  Sheer awesomeness or pure lameness.  Was graph paper involved at any time?

Please provide:

-Year (if you're brave)
-System/Setting
-What Character You Played (or if you GM'd)
-Notable Events
-Highlight
-Lowlight
-The overall perception you had afterwards

Hey, can an admin fix the title, by the way?  I fat-fingered "survey" in the original title there. :deflated:

Year: Late 1976 or '77
System:  OD&D but with Greyhawk, Blackmoor & Eldricth Wizardry I think.
Setting:  Hombrew, sorta JG inspired I think
Character:  I really can't recall, but a magic-user for certain.
Highlight: Figthing monsters and casting spells, and no -2 for Open Ground!
Lowlight: (still sort of fun)  Being accousted by elves in the forest for telling bad puns around the table.  This was really a brother-brother thing between the DM and another player his younger brother.
Perception:  This was the coolest game ever.  Give me more!

Quote from: Zachary The First-Year (if you're brave)

fall of 1978

Quote from: Zachary The First-System/Setting

Holmes Blue Book Edition

Quote from: Zachary The First-What Character You Played (or if you GM'd)

A Magic User

Quote from: Zachary The First-Notable Events

I went down the stairs in the blue book dungeon. Turned left (?) and ran into the room of skeletion. Threw my magic missile and did not kill the skeleton. The all of the skeleton missed, I tried to hit with my staff and missed. One of the skeletons hit taking me to 1 hp. I then parried. Skeletons missed. I realized I needed to get the hell out of there. But the parry rule allowed for a free attack when you stopped parrying. Parried another round and then another round. Then a skeleton hit and I died.

Quote from: Zachary The First-Highlight

It was like being there, you could do fantastic stuff, and you didn't have the problem of "Bang! your dead. No I am not!" Plus it was a lot easier to setup than one of the hex and counter wargames, a lot quicker to play, it had continuity where your character grew, and you got to do a lot more than a wargame scenario.

Quote from: Zachary The First-Lowlight

We quickly thought the three level limitation sucked. Since we didn't know about the original D&D brown books we were stuck until AD&D was released.

Quote from: Zachary The First-The overall perception you had afterwards

Its was the realization that the game was a toolkit to building your own world. This really jazzed me.

---Final note ----

My friend John and I split the $15 cost of the Player's Handbook. He took it home first and called me and said that while the book beyond 3rd level  there was no combat charts for higher levels. When I got the book, I verified that. It wasn't until the summer of 79 that D&D really kicked in high gear when we got the DM Guide. I remember pestering my parents to stop at the store everytime we drove past until I was able to get it.

Year and system: '84, GURPS medieval homebrew. I was in 4th grade at the time, and we used graph paper for our character sheets. It was just me and and another fourth grader.

Character: I rolled up a character using the GURPS random character generation rules. I ended up with a middle aged human female swimmer (swimming was her only tallent of note). One of her eyes was blue the other was ice blue. She started with basic clothing and a purse of starting wealth, which I promptly exchanged for armor, a shield and a spear.

Plot: While shopping for a backpack, I was ambushed by a teleport trap and found myself fighting fourty goblins on an empty hex mat. When I ran out of spears I argued that I should be able to grab and chuck the goblin's spears. They got scared and ran away. I looted the corpses but they had no treasure... although I did net a goblin backpack and all the torches, ropes and other equipment I would have otherwise paid retail for. :haw:

After the battle, the GM suggested that since I needed money for healing AND I had a good appearance, a point in the seduction skill and an amazing Health (i.e. the characteristic governing seduction) I should turn tricks to earn some more coin. This lead directly to the lowlight...

Lowlight: His insistence that men would pay to sleep with my heavily wounded character, EVEN THOUGH she botched her healing roll (No first aid skill!) causing her wounds to become smelly, infected and filled with sand! That made the whole experience turn wierd. So wierd that I stopped speaking in character. I mean honestly! She lost fifteen hitpoints in a land where most people only had ten!
 
Highlights: The moment when I knew that the goblins were gonna lose. Being able to pay for healing with my leftover starting wealth.

Overall:
+GURPS would be so much cooler if there was some way to buy your attributes and skills instead of just getting them randomly.
+It totally sucked to have a freakishly awesome swimming skill in a waterless desert campaign.
+I'd like to play GURPS again, but I could probably make a better campaign myself for free than the adventure he shelled out $20 bucks for.

Epilogue: Right before his pot habit raged out of control he sold me all his GURPS stuff for 10 bucks. I did not buy the adventure.

Year: 1991
System/Setting: Rules Cyclopedia D&D
Character: Kadush Wesash (yes, I know horrific name), 1st level theif
-Notable Events: The fighter walking through the door of the dungeon (backstory: you're adventurers, there's a door, go open it!) and getting one hit killed by an arrow trap.
-Highlight: None
-Lowlight: After three hours of character creation the game lasted five minutes.
-Overal perception: this sucks!

Year: 1979 (I was nine)

System/Setting: Holmes edition Dungeons & Dragons

What Character You Played: Glendor the Fourth, a human Fighter from the list of pregen characters at the back of B1.

Notable Events: Can't remember any specific notable events. There was something called a triple iron golem that was really tough.

Highlight: The overral experience.

Lowlight: The other guys' characters in the group were all way tougher and more experienced than my buddy and me, so those guys got all the cool treasure. We started our own group after a few more sessions.

The overall perception you had afterwards: Like a gate opening to a new world. Had to play more, but not with the jerks who taught us.

-Year (if you're brave)

1977, thirty years ago last week. My mother had bought me D&D for my 21st birthday, November 13. I had just given up on rock n' roll and needed something to accupy my time, and my mom knew this. I read the game, loved it, went out and bought Traveller, then found a friend of my GF who ran a game. I played one game and decided I should be the GM and got my own group of friends together, most of 'em musicians. I Gmed almost exclusively from that point on.

-System/Setting

D&D. Don't know what version he ran, but he'd been running for a couple of years I think. I'm pretty sure it was a homebrew setting, but I only played it the one day.

-What Character You Played (or if you GM'd)

A human ranger. I can't remember his name.

-Notable Events

Wandering wide eyed through another person's world, thinking "I could do this better..."

-Highlight

One of a handful of times I played rather than GMed.

-Lowlight

Everyone else in the group was, like, 10th level. I was just trying to stay alive.

-The overall perception you had afterwards

Awesome potential, but, y'know, I could do it better.

-clash

-Year (if you're brave)

Summer 1982

-System/Setting

basic d&d and Keep on the Borderlands

-What Character You Played (or if you GM'd)

I DM'd for a single player

-Notable Events

My friend deciding to play 7 dwarfs for the adventure

-Highlight

One of those dwarfs being called Groin

-Lowlight

Groin being the only survivor of the adventure

-The overall perception you had afterwards

This is cool! Bought MERP soon afterwards and we expanded our group from me and my friend to 6 regular players. 4 of whom i still game with today.