How did you start gaming?

Kyle Aaron · January 13, 2007, 09:41:16 PM

It's my belief that most gamers don't become gamers by wandering into a game store and picking up a book, but are instead brought in by other gamers.

So, how did you get into your first rpg session? Did you buy or were given the game book, and start from there, or did some other gamer drag you in? Or something else?

droog · January 13, 2007, 10:02:54 PM

I found out about D&D when I was 16; in a magazine called Games and Puzzles, which I used to read in the school library. I investigated the Yellow Pages and found a shop, where I conversed with the proprietor about the merits of various editions (I thought I wanted the white box but he sold me on the J. Eric Holmes version). I then convinced my grandmother to buy it for me for Christmas. On Boxing Day I recruited three kids that lived in my street, two brothers from two blocks away, and my brother, and we got started on Keep on the Borderlands. We didn't even have dice, but I went and bought them the next day.

Blackleaf · January 13, 2007, 10:21:21 PM

Quote from: JimBobOzIt's my belief that most gamers don't become gamers by wandering into a game store and picking up a book, but are instead brought in by other gamers.

In Droog's example are you counting all the kids he invited to that first game as "being brought in by other gamers"?

Kyle Aaron · January 13, 2007, 10:35:30 PM

Quote from: StuartIn Droog's example are you counting all the kids he invited to that first game as "being brought in by other gamers"?

No, I would count only those who answered the poll. Otherwise, there might be some double-counting.

I would theorise that people who are still gaming twenty years after starting are more likely to be the self-starters like droog. Those dragged in by others would be less likely to stay.

Still, I'd expect that the majority of people calling themselves gamers, posting to forums and so on, were brought in by others. If not, then I'd ask, "where have all the other gamers gone, then?" You do meet a lot of ex-gamers...

Blackleaf · January 13, 2007, 10:42:15 PM

What I meant was, does "brought in by other gamers" include both
experienced RPG gamers
AND
your friend who just got this new game called D&D and he wants you to come over and try it with him
?

Kyle Aaron · January 13, 2007, 10:48:32 PM

It'd include both. The key point is whether it was your idea to start gaming, or someone else's. Whether that someone else or you had twenty years' gaming behind them, or just bought the book that morning, doesn't matter.

It's a question that affects a lot of other questions people ask about gaming, like, "what about a game that attracts kids?" and, "do we need glossy full-colour books?" and so on. If most gamers are made by just picking up a book, then the content and presentation of the books is the most important factor in making new gamers. If, on the other hand, most gamers are made by being invited by their buddies, then social things are the most important factor.

Caesar Slaad · January 13, 2007, 11:21:54 PM

I'm the first something else vote, though I may be splitting hairs.

Someone was running lunchtime games in the chess club room in Junior High school, I eventually got involved and learned how to play. Eventually, I got involved in one real group and moved on to help form others.

Serious Paul · January 13, 2007, 11:28:53 PM

I started playing when a friend of mine and his older brother asked me to sit in on a game of AD&D when I was 9. That was 23 years ago.

I didn't buy my own stuff until I was about 12.

Kyle Aaron · January 13, 2007, 11:47:50 PM

Quote from: Caesar SlaadI'm the first something else vote, though I may be splitting hairs.

Someone was running lunchtime games in the chess club room in Junior High school, I eventually got involved and learned how to play.

Yes, you're splitting hairs. Someone else had the book, and you joined in. You didn't go to the game store, buy a book, then start playing. It was someone else's idea, you followed along. That the guy was just sitting in the chess club and didn't actually wrestle you into the place doesn't matter.

JongWK · January 13, 2007, 11:49:57 PM

I was at a comic store in 1994, when I noticed a poster about a local RPG club located in a library. I visited it the next weekend, and joined a group for a short AD&D 2E adventure. A week later, I met a GM looking to run a game called Shadowrun.

The rest, as they say, is history.

EDIT: That'd be option #2, right?

Levi Kornelsen · January 14, 2007, 12:13:24 AM

We tried this on Big Purple and got a pretty fair percentage (about 40%, IIRC) that book-learned.

I did, myself.

James McMurray · January 14, 2007, 12:25:37 AM

Either my Dad or Grandparents bought me the D&D Basic set for Christmas. I don't know which it was, as it was marked Santa. I was well past the believing in Santa phase, but I suppose it's kinda fitting for a fictional being to spark a lifelong interest in fictional worlds.

RPGObjects_chuck · January 14, 2007, 12:35:49 AM

I was given a gift certificate to Waldens in my Christmas stocking every year. At the age of 10, I walked around the store and realized I'd read all the Tarzan, John Carter of Mars and Conan (I dislike Tolkien and had a subscription to Mack Bolan). While looking around for something, I discovered the red box D&D.

Although I had never heard of it, my parents had and were worried by what they'd heard, so the first game I played was for my mom and dad, with me the DM.

David R · January 14, 2007, 01:56:24 AM

Second option for me. I was about 13, when this girl asked me to join their group playing Traveller run by her boyfriend - they were around 18 at the time, in fact all of this group of 8 were older than me. Within a couple of months I was running Star Frontiers and D&D because clearly even then I prefered running games instead of playing them.

Regards,
David R

mythusmage · January 14, 2007, 02:14:36 AM

I was ten, the year was 1964. The game was Broadsides by Milton Bradley. It was an abstract simulation of a War of 1812 British raid on an American port. The Brits had to sink all the American shipping in port. The Americans had to stop them. Still one of the best War of 1812 games ever produced.

It started with D&D? You kids have no sense of history.