Around the same year also picked up SPIs Universe RPG and whoooooo was that thing a different experience! No art and very math heavy and that style of organization I'd come to know in later years as classic SPI style. The robust character and planet generation was fascinating.

If you think I can remember the first time I opened an RPG book, think again! I was a rock n' roller in the 70s, man - which was the decade in question! ENTIRE YEARS ARE GONE!

-clash

Quote from: flyerfan1991;795860I remember seeing this:

It's cool to know that I am not the only one, or even three, who had such a positive reaction to exactly that picture.

I remember seeing the old D&D box on a shelf in The Last Grenadier. It (and many of the games around it) was intriguingly ugly... they had that air on them of 'forbidden fruit'... similar to the covers of underground comics and Heavy Metal that I'd just started reading.
The first RPG book I really got a look at was AD&D PHB... and mostly I just looked at the pictures... and I think my imagination put together something that was a whole lot wilder than any of the games we ended up playing. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the words and charts but assumed they added up to the things depicted in the illustrations.

Near that time I also got the Traveller box and loved the sleek clean look of that black text on white pages with no muddle. It really put me in mind of things like 2001 and Space 1999. Those were the first RPG books that I actually sat down and read.

I picked up this interesting looking game in the local hobby shop where I bought my 1:32 scale plastic army men, around 1976 (age 9):



I spent maybe two years using this to do something sort of like solo roleplaying games where every character is in a war and dies sooner or later. Then I stumbled across this bad boy in the FAO Schwartz in Chicago, asked for it for christmas (having no idea there was a whole game that goes with it...).



And I was hooked.

My first RPG book was the Moldvay Basic D&D book.  The image that probably made the biggest impression on me was this one:


Then there was this one:


These images pretty much defined what the game was to me.  You roll up characters, like in the first image, and take them through a dungeon like int he second image.

I suppose this also imprinted the idea on me that, for the most part, my characters would be adventuring avatars of myself, rather than something to facilitate "story" or "exploring themes".

I can't find the damned things nowadays, but one pic that made a big impression were these ants that floated underwater and would chew up boats from underneath. I think this was BD&D, but not sure.

Also the Cthulhu stuff from the Deities and Demigods that I never managed to get my hands on (grumble), though that lead me to



which lead me off to CoC.

I also really liked AD&D's tables of weird stuff in the DMG (the potion is Bubbling and Chewy)

I was in Grade Seven, it was 1987. My long time friend introduced me to his new friends, who were all playing a super hero game. This turned out to be Marvel Super Heroes (advanced).

When I was finally loaned the books to read through, I felt like a large switch in my imagination was suddenly clicked on. I had been looking for this hobby - something to play heroes, tell stories, and have a chance of failure. I was that kid playing cops and robbers thinking "I wish there were rules".

I'd seen adds for D&D, but my family was firmly deluded by the moral panic thing in the 80s, and D&D was "satanic" as far as they were concerned. So this was my gateway into RPGs.

What I remember was the mystique we attached to being able to read the books. There was some juvenile rules we'd created about who could look in the Judge's Guide, and woe befall the one who dared peek at the Judge's notes in his binder.

To this day, I am thrilled when I open a new game book. I feel like I'm peeking into the imagination of another, ready to walk into new adventures. For me, the childlike wonder and potential has never, ever gone away when I'm dealing with RPGs.

Quote from: JamesV;796046It's cool to know that I am not the only one, or even three, who had such a positive reaction to exactly that picture.

Yeah, it was a really well done pic.

There was also this:



and this:



and because I was in Seventh Grade and hitting puberty, this:

I still love those old pictures, many of them being ones posted in this thread.
Their simplicity left a lot for your imagination to expand upon.

I remember being so excited when I used the Dungeon generator in the ADnD DMG.
Also reading through the lists of magic items and discussing them with friends.


Good times.

It was the Hollow World box set for Dungeons and Dragons. Good stuff. Got into because my father told it was like making your own stories for Lord of the Rings.

Quote from: danskmacabre;796277I still love those old pictures, many of them being ones posted in this thread.
Their simplicity left a lot for your imagination to expand upon.

Good times.

Oddly I consider the older art more complex and detailed than newer colour art.

Quote from: Omega;796286Oddly I consider the older art more complex and detailed than newer colour art.

Well, I guess in some of those pics posted there, there's more actually going ON, but the individual monsters and characters are drawn with simplicity compared to newer art.

A friend of mine had a "The Dark Eye" board game and thought one of the supplemental boxed sets for the actual RPG was an expansion for the board game. So this was my first RPG product I saw and opened:



I was fascinated, but couldn't make heads or tails of it -- and of course neither could my friend. So much text, for a board game? It wasn't until a year or so later, that I was actually introduced to role-playing.

The first time? It's hard to remember. Feels like I just cracked it open and it was over in like, 3 seconds. After that, I fell asleep, and...oh, wait, we're talking about BOOKS.