I was in middle school in 1977. I picked up the (blue box) Basic Set + got the MM later and introduced my two closest friends to the game.

I was 12 years old in 1981 and played a fighter named Lars at a Boy Scout campout AD&D game.

6th grade, whatever age I was at that point (11-12?).  Played some D&D, Gamma World (1st I think), and Ogre/Gev (to note that it is also my start in wargaming) in an after school group sponsored by a teacher who also played (but wasn't D/GM, that was a fellow student).  Made characters for but never played Top Secret with that group as well.  I'm pretty sure I was invited because I was already into historical and fantasy "stuff."

If 30 is ancient, what does being 49 make me...

Quote from: Tetsubo;748559If 30 is ancient, what does being 49 make me...

A great Wyrm.

First RPG experience was the fighting Fantasy books. I discovered them in a giftshop that had a stand with "The Wizard of Firetop Mountain" book on it.
That must of been perhaps 1983 or 1984, I can't remember exactly.
I was about 16 anyway.

A few months after that, LFGS opened in my area and a bunch of people I met there and I formed an RPG club and I bought ADnD, which I played.
The first actual RPG I ran was Stormbringer 1st Edition. The boxed set.

After a few months I also GM'd ADnD as well.

1997, when I was 15 years old. A few friends had D&D 2E in Hebrew, well out of print by then, including a proper PHB, a Monster Manual folder, and a photocopied DMG (it was somewhat difficult getting the actual book in peripehral Israel at that time, as the company publishing it locally went belly-up in the early-mid 1990's), as well as dice. My friends organized a game, which lasted only two sessions unfortunately, but I was hooked! And in a few months I DMed my own 2E campaign.

1978, I was thirteen, bought the blue box set at Hobby Lobby of all places....

I created my first character in 2000, to help test out GURPS 3e, which my flatmate had just picked it up, but we didn't actually end up playing. I first played in 2001 when I was 19, when my flatmates ran an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game. I started in earnest though two years later joining first a D&D 3.5e game with some friends from school, and quickly joined a Buffy game that lasted 7 years.

I was eight. But speaking to the poll choices... 30 is ancient?  LOL I'd murder the lot of you to be 30 again.

Quote from: spaceLem;748911I created my first character in 2000, to help test out GURPS 3e, which my flatmate had just picked it up, but we didn't actually end up playing. I first played in 2001 when I was 19...

Hmmmm.... First tossed a set of dice to play D&D about five years before you were born... was a full time GM ....four years before you were born. Old Geezer was playing D&D five years before me, however 1972 was the first time I started playing tabletop wargames... using 1/72 scale minis first because they were cheap and easily available. Got a box of 50 Airfix minis then for about a quarter... really! Now that same box is about $9. Didn't really get around to board wargames until 1974, but played one Avalon Hill game the summer of 73.

Two older gamer brothers and I was nine. It was a T&T homebrew. Holmes came shortly after.

We also played a lot of AH and SPI at the time. Before all that, it was floor games with toy soldiers, very Little Wars like, with dice for hits/kills and movement rates.

Dad liked history, books, toys - especially trains - and took us to a lot of fun movies. Gaming was fated to happen.

It was 1974 and I was 10 years old.

Always played lots of boardgames with my brothers and cousins growing up, and the rules were mostly abandoned in favor of making up new ones.

I was exposed to D&D in 2000 or so, I was at my grandmothers apartment and this airman and his wife were moving out of the upstairs apartment. The wife was large pregnant so the airman paid my cousin and myself ten bucks a piece to help him move some stuff out of the apartment. While I was helping I came across box after box of these books with badass fantasy art with all sorts of numbers strewn about and massive three ring binders full of homemade maps. He let me flip through a 2E monster manual and I have been hooked ever since.

I spent the next couple of years making up my own versions of how I figured D&D must have worked based on what little I could gleam from the manuals of Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale. I was always begging my brothers, cousins, and friends into letting me run these homemade monstrosities for them. About 2003 my step dad ran a whitebox game for some friends of mine and myself, shortly after one of my friends got the 3E core books and we ran a campaign for a year or so after.

I have branched into a few other games over the years, Traveller, Pendragon, Star Wars D20, etc.

Anyway that is the long version of how I discovered RPGs.

I like data, and this thread interests me a lot!

Here's the age, date and D&D edition or other RPG people started with, based on written replies to the thread.

I also extrapolated each persons current age where I could (please forgive me).

12, 1991, Black Box Basic (35)
12, no date or edition given
8, BX, no date given
10, 1976, Blue Box (47)
16, 1972, Gary's New Game (58)
10, Moldvay, no date given
11, 1984, Marvel Supers (41)
12, no date or edition given
9-10, no date or edition given
16, 1984, 2E Gamma World (46)
10, 1981, BX & Star Frontiers (43)
21-23, Gurps, no date given
9, Moldvay, no date given
11, 1983, BX (42)
10, 1980, Holmes (44)
17, 1975, OD&D (56)
13, 1980, Basic Red Box (47)
15, no date or edition given
16-17, Warhammer, no date
12, AD&D, no date given
11-12, no date or edition given
12, 2nd Edition, not date given
16, 2003, AD&D 2nd Edition (27)
17, 1977, OD&D (54)
12, Basic D&D, no date given
11, Blue Book, no date given
12, AD&D, no date given
11, 1985, BX (50)
21-22, no date or edition given
16, WFRP1e, TNNT, no date
12, no edition or date given
7, AD&D, no date given
8, 1980, Holmes (42)
8, 1980's, no edition given (40?)
12, 1985, Marvel Supers (41)
14, 1991, Mentzer (37)
10, 1980, no edition given (44)
13-14?, 1977, Blue Box (50?)
12, 1981, AD&D (45)
11-12?, D&D, Gamma World
16, 1984, AD&D (46)
15, 1997, AD&D 2E (32)
13, 1978, Blue Box (49)
19, 2001, All Flesh (32)
8, no date or edition given
??, 1974, OD&D
9, T&T, Holmes, no date
10, 1974, no edition given (50)

Here's Current Age and Edition:

58 (Geezer Anomaly!)
56 (OD&D)
54 (OD&D)
50, 50, 50 (BX, Blue Box)
49 (Blue Box)
47 (Blue Box, Basic Red Box)
46, 46 (Gamma, AD&D)
45 (AD&D, AD&D)
44, 44 (Holmes)
43 (BX, Star Frontiers)
42, 42 (BX, Holmes)
41, 41 (Marvel, Marvel)
40
37 (Mentzer)
36
35 (Black Box)
32, 32 (AD&D 2E, All Flesh)
27 (AD&D 2E)

52% are in their 40's
24% are in their 50's
20% are in their 30's
4% are in their 20's

According to the poll this far, 72% of players started playing when they were 13 or younger.

No one who responded, who's age i could extrapolate, is under 27.

76% are 40 plus.

Not sure what that data means... probably not much, since I was only able to mine 25 people for their current age (the poll itself has 129 respondents so far).

It's interesting to see age and edition though.

Two folks who are 41 that both started with Marvel Super Heroes is interesting. I assume that relates to the release, and strong marketing at the time.

Old Geezer is, of course, the anomaly.

Anyway, interesting stuff.

If I've made any mistakes, please forgive me... I'm doing this on my iPhone.