1...D&D Blue Book
2...Traveller
3...RuneQuest
4...Champions

Quote from: Gabriel2;408961I wish Mekton II and Z had gotten a lot more attention and play in the broader world.

  They got love wherever I was GMing.  Mekton II blew my  mind when it came out for the cinematic parts plus the crunchy parts (Lifepath, Last Chance Ejection Table - "Pilot has time to utter last words, and a meaningful flashback" etc.)

  I still think Mekton Empire is one of the most interesting and inspiring concepts in sourcebook design ever.  As one of my fellow gamemasters puts it, it's "great bathroom reading".  Here's some planets, NPCs, and a blank map.  Use what you want.  Brilliant!

We started playing Traveller at almost the same time as we started playing D&D... Within weeks of each other, if I recall correctly. D&D was the first RPG, but Traveller was a close second. We started playing Gamma World right after it was released, and I remember Boot Hill being in the mix early on as well... Maybe 1978 as well. I didn't like it much, as I was always getting shot dead before I could do anything cool.

It was 79-80 before we started playing other RPGs... Tunnels and Trolls, Wizard, Melee, Runequest & Chivalry & Sorcery. Only after we had seen these being played at Ghengis Con, or being advertised in Dragon.

We also role-played with wargames. Squad Leader was very popular at the time, as it was released in 77 as well, and there was a SL campaign variant where you could add an extra 7-0 leader to the scenarios (Which represented your personal leader), As your leader survived and was successful at influencing the battle, you would accrue experience points for your leader, and they could get promoted becoming better combat commanders.

This variant was very popular with us, and we played it for awhile.

Mine was D&D back in 1978. Though I think I fell harder for Gamma World.

Started playing Holmes basic in middle school, in rural South Carolina. I was powerfully intrigued, but found it hard to get games together. When we moved to Denver, we had a D&D club in my high school. I found dozens of people to play with regularly, and I was peer pressured to spend my lawn mowing money on Arduin, Cerebus funny books, and Rush albums. I wasn't actually irrecoverably hooked till then.

Quote from: Walking Paradox;408583So, what was your first non-D&D RPG and what made you start playing it?

My first RPG was RuneQuest 2 - the Games Workshop boxed set. Bought in a newsagent in the mistaken belief that it was this game called D&D I had heard about.
My second RPG was Call of Cthulhu.
The third one I played was Star Trek FASA.
Fourth, Villains & Vigilantes.
Fifth, probably Champions.

In about 30 years I've played D&D twice.

My first GM introduced me to 2e Gamma World, Star Frontiers, and then 1e Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (in that order).  After my friend and GM died in a plane crash, I started playing AD&D with some other guys from high school.

The eye-opening RPG for me was RuneQuest III.  I was working at a used book store and started talking with a guy who also played RPGs, but not AD&D.  He introduced me to his group and I started playing RQ3.  A lot of the concepts in RQ3 clicked with me and scratched that dissatisfied feeling I was getting from AD&D.  In hindsight, much of my early dissatisfaction with AD&D developed from the play style of the group and GM, and not the system itself.

my "gateway drug" was probably Fighting fantasy and stuff like that, then D&D.  My first RPG after D&D was probably Robotech, if I remember correctly.

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