Wayback in the early to mid 80s (perhaps 1983), I bought the Player's handbook for ADnD. I guess I was about 16.
Earlier than that, I had been playing with the "choose your own adventure books, Sorcery books, Wizard of Firetop mountain" etc...
But I'm referring to a real RPG rules set, playing with other people.
So anyway, a new RPG shop opened in my area and they were doing introductory ADnD adventures to actually show people how to play RPGs.
I didn't have the rules at the time and only vaguely understood what RPGs were.
I had read many fantasy books before then, such as LOTR, The Hobbit and all sorts of other Author's books, but apart from the solo Game books, that's all I had to go on, RPG wise.
The guy who was running these sessions had the PHB, DMG and MM on the table, but all we got to see was the PHB from a distance and we generated characters, which was fun in itself.
I ended up generating a Human Mage, so I had a Sleep spell and that was about it.
The other players generated various other class/Race combinations.
I remember being pretty excited, as it all felt very arcane and secretive, especially as I'd not even had a look in the PHB really. The DM was just reading out to us what to do.
Then the gaming session itself started and it was awesome and exciting. You could throw a spell and roll dice and all those dice and and character sheets looked so cool.
He also used 25mm figures, which was even more awesome as it really helped visualise what was going on.
That and he drew out a map of where we were when fighting Goblins and a forest encampment etc.
Anyway, after that quite long session, I guess which ran for about 5 hours, it was the evening and the RPG shop where the sessions took place stayed open for us to buy the books.
Very kind of them indeed! ;) .
I ended up buying the PHB, MM and DMG there and then, along with a set of dice.
so did pretty much everyone else in that gaming session.
The other people and I ended up forming an RPG club and we even hired a community hall to play RPGs for a while.
The club lasted for some months and I played ADnD for that duration. So those months were a lot about playing the game and getting the rules terribly wrong probably, but it was awesome fun and I was truly obsessed with RPGs from then on.
Later I bought the 1st Edition Stormbringer Boxed set and that was the first RPG I ever actually ran.
Shortly after that I started running ADnD as well though.
To me the first time I opened up that PHB and started reading the rules and generating characters, it seemed very mysterious, secretive and special, like I had some secret knowledge the general populace didn't have.
It really gripped my imagination and attention as a major part of my life for years.
So, what was it like for you?
What RPG was it?
What were the circumstances of your first real RPG experience?
I remember seeing this:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ju11mgCz1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
and going "Holy cow!" (Hey, I was in 7th Grade and hadn't graduated to better cusswords yet.)
Mostly awe and wonder at what I'd gotten my hands on.
Yeah the various pictures in the books really fired my imagination.
In '78, my friend's older brother just got the PHB (he had OD&D books) and ran a game for us (I was 7, I guess my friend was 9)
I mostly remember being entranced by this:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DSs2bX13hVc/SInXZwSlGrI/AAAAAAAAAHo/PDqBX5D7gZc/s1600/lion009b.jpg)
And so my first character was a paladin, who died rather ignobly, trying to cross a crevice on a log and failing a dexterity check
Yeah, that's a great picture...no flashes of light coming off the paladin, no powahs...sword and shield. And courage.
The first book I picked up was the blue book, from the blue box. And there's this dragon looking at me, it's sitting on a pile of gold...
BX and Gamma World around the same time. Followed by AD&D not long later.
Id played in AD&D before that but never actually seen the rules.
For Basic it was a sense of "What is this?" and reading through and getting a grasp of how it all worked. Those alien shaped dice, the striking illustrations and the relative ease of it once you grasped the basics.
Gamma world was very different in a way as it was a very blank slate overall. Though it combined well with BX, especially for overland travel. The art was also different and set a different tone from BX.
Quote from: Doom;795869Yeah, that's a great picture...no flashes of light coming off the paladin, no powahs...
Well, none beyond his protection from evil aura.
An actual physical book? In or shortly after 1987.
Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain, so RPG stuff only got here in very small quantities and was still a largely unknown and poorly understood thing. Actually, I think computer RPGs, like the SSI Gold Box series, had better penetration at the time, because computer game bootlegging was way more firmly entrenched* - pnp RPG really only made a proper appearance after '89. (And yes, Fighting Fantasy books were also a big thing.)
Anyway, my uncle is a typographer and had the opportunity to go to Chicago on some professional business/scholarship/whatever it was; and he brought home two books for me. He didn't really know what they were, but someone out there assured him that this was the latest rage among kids, and the title and the cover looked like something I would really like (and I did).
Now, the books weren't Dungeons & Dragons. I know this was 1987 or shortly thereafter, because these books were published that year, on the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope. They were the very first edition of WEG's Star Wars and the Sourcebook. As I'm typing this, they're in my desk, within arm's reach. Even the 1st ed. PHB isn't nearly that close.
*For a very long time, western computers such as the C64 were on the CoCom list and couldn't be legally imported into WarPact countries, so there weren't any legal computer game stores, either. People would smuggle (then later legally bring) stuff from mainly Austria, then bootleg it either for money or quid-pro-quo. Or just freely share if they were nice fellows. There were things like "copy parties" in local culture centres, events whose raison d'etre was to copy a large number of game tapes on somebody's double-deck recorder.
In the summer or fall of 1978 I got a hold of the Holmes Basic D&D Set with B1 Search into the Unknown. It wasn't until the fall of 1979 with the AD&D DMG came out that things really picked up with tabletop roleplaying. Until then we did a lot of hex and counter wargames which was also in a boom period at the time.
Confusing.
The version of Basic D&D I first purchased wasn't really intended for complete novices. I didn't really understand it until I got to play it with some older kids at school. The Fighting Fantasy books, which came shortly after, were much more geared toward the novice being as they were targeted at kids. The Mentzer Basic rules that came a few years later were better targeted at novices.
Quote from: flyerfan1991;795860I remember seeing this:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ju11mgCz1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
and going "Holy cow!" (Hey, I was in 7th Grade and hadn't graduated to better cusswords yet.)
Mostly awe and wonder at what I'd gotten my hands on.
Same here. Same picture in fact. The B/X books were the first I looked at, and by God did they leave an impression. Erol Otus and Bill Willingham art for the win.
Quote from: yojimbouk;795937Confusing.
The version of Basic D&D I first purchased wasn't really intended for complete novices. I didn't really understand it until I got to play it with some older kids at school. The Fighting Fantasy books, which came shortly after, were much more geared toward the novice being as they were targeted at kids. The Mentzer Basic rules that came a few years later were better targeted at novices.
Actually the B of BX has some good pointers in it. Especially when you realize Keep on the Borderlands is essentially more DMing pointers at the start.
I first knew about D&D from seeing these weird little brown books for sale, but I wasn't captured until this:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lYPniRgIIGA/UFACRMe2XpI/AAAAAAAAAoc/eSN1BDiNqB4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-11+at+11.31.37+PM.png)
At that point I knew D&D was something new and not another one of those little booklet wargames. Later I got Moldvay Basic and saw that first picture.
Quote from: flyerfan1991;795860I remember seeing this:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ju11mgCz1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
and going "Holy cow!" (Hey, I was in 7th Grade and hadn't graduated to better cusswords yet.)
Mostly awe and wonder at what I'd gotten my hands on.
At that point my reaction was similar, awe and wonder as a whole new world opened right in front of me. Magic Missile and Web...the coolest shit ever.
1979. Holmes Basic. I had never played, nor had anyone I knew. Opened the books (Holmes Basic book and B1 In Search of the Unknown) and was captivated by artwork and maps.
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ5OlsaKuHn-PUpOHc1zQV5LOC24yQqSnchmvgmIksjLmwDhC9G)
(https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTvJUNOefC2zjYiGhJhNEEuhcqZvQyzfs41Ww9gzlAwkTKwp0OA)
But I couldn't make heads or tails of the game rules themselves.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the very first RPG books I got my hands on - Little Black Book Traveller. It felt cool and sophisticated as it was something for "older kids" (actually the books were my older brother's) but as you can imagine, for a 9 year old, it was not quite on target. But as a fan of Fighting Fantasy books I knew what I was after. Bought Tunnels and Trolls soon after (D&D was proscribed in the house) and went from there.
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:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ju11mgCz1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
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):
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/Chainmail_3rd_edition.jpg)
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...).
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/2a93f4c3e9bec1b3890f0a7a604c5ebb/tumblr_n8gbm25pIu1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
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:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7q2316u8I1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
Then there was this one:
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gkDiG1iZS_8/TKPuLHUzmOI/AAAAAAAAAls/Qz7M6a_VK6c/s1600/basic1.jpg)
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
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOISzdrSjTk/UMqCSAhL_MI/AAAAAAAAD44/E_6UM93BynU/s1600/CoC.jpg)
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:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7q2316u8I1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
and this:
(http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m88nluxIOj1ro2bqto1_500.jpg)
and because I was in Seventh Grade and hitting puberty, this:
(http://www.toplessrobot.com/morganironwolf.jpg)
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:
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/03/ciu/44/77/d39a017b42a067a20f132210.L.jpg)
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.
I think that the very first kind of 'visual impacts' I got were from the art of the Fighting Fantasy books.
But as far as RPG books, when I opened a D&D box set, the thing that probably made the most impact wasn't the art (having already gotten used to the FF art), but rather the non-standard dice.
I started playing AD&D at a Boy Scout campout in 1981 and was 12. I played without having a real good grasp of the rules, but whenever I could I tried to look at and read everything in the Three Books. I remember this pic in the DMG had me enraptured.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PtifRMzjgYQ/UzdC_ANfbpI/AAAAAAAAAIs/I6ry7S4cUYs/s3200/emirikol-the-chaotic.jpg)
I wanted to be that guy on the horse shooting death rays from his finger.
I can't say that I got all that much use out of AD&D books back then because reading the rules only confused me a lot (it wasn't until I got BD&D that several of the rules in AD&D were understandable because I had a well written base with BD&D to spring off from).
I can say that I thought Classic Traveller, which I found a year later, was much easier to comprehend and thus easier to run and play. It didn't bother me that there weren't that many pictures, it was well written and the rules included examples of the design sequences and rules, so it was much more user friendly.
Jesus Christ, is it social hour at the old folks home again?
;)
Yes. Here's your prune-tini.
Quote from: Piestrio;797253Jesus Christ, is it social hour at the old folks home again?
Depressingly, most of the books named are from later than I started playing. And the party won't really get started until someone fires up Space Invaders.
The first rule books I looked at (Greyhawk and the first three books) didn't have that great an impact on me; it was the game itself. And the explicit freedom to change it all to the way we wanted it to be.
Tunnels and Trolls. Bought from an art supplies shop in town, after I had played some Traveller with some kids in the 6th form. Followed about a year later by Basic D&D Red Book.
Then RuneQuest 2nd edition, the UK GW edition.