Who was it, that first made you aware of the existence of RPGs?

RPGPundit

I blame teevee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1wGlOwn1pM

Got the D&D basic red box (dragon cover) for Christmas from my either my grandparents or dad (can't remember which).

Tom Suzuki, a fellow boy scout who asked if I wanted to get in on a game of AD&D at a week long campout when I was 12.

(Maybe it is nostalgia, but I think one of the better places to play a fantasy RPG is in a tent in the woods with a campfire going right outside.)

This guy:

A group of kids I knew at school. They were playing a game at a local hang-out spot and I asked them what they were doing. Ended up in a Marvel Super Heroes game and a B/X game (they alternated between the two).

There was this guy in my fencing club who told little old me about the archery tournament his character just won and went on and on about adventures he had, so for my 10th birthday I had to have my very own box of Das Schwarze Auge. I can still remember unpacking it with my brother and my best friend and doing the first adventure this very afternoon. Good times.

Some guy who had the 3e books in my shop-class in middle-school.

Before that I had no idea what D&D was, other than it was something nerds did in the 70s/80's, and I thought the game they played in E.T. was just a board-game.

Fellow Boy Scouts in my troop that told me about this crazy game they played in the Scout room at the church. Once I tossed that first set of gem polys, I was hooked.

At a party when I was 9 a friend of my sister who was 11 told me about this D&D thing and how it was great to be Chaotic. Then at a party my mum ran for her students (she taught 16-18 year olds economics I was talking to this kid (I was maybe 10 by now as it was a couple of months later) she taught and he was talking about AD&D and actually came round the next day and lent me his DMG and PHB for a week.
I bought the Holmes book and started playing at school, before upgrading to AD&D at Christmas (1980).

Being teased for NOT playing Dungeons & Dragons on the way home from the park. The kid had a box of Original D&D at the time.

The exchangedincluded him saying "I bet you don't know what it even is?" and my lame retort "Of course I do." I later found out what it was by asking around at my scout troop. Got to read the rulebooks as some of the older scouts brought them along to play during the winter campouts that year.*

I was starting to play wargames at the time so me an my buddy found out where we can order it. Started out by getting the Holmes boxed set, then we split the $15 needed to buy the player's handbox. Then got T1-Hommlet, S2- White Plume for Christmas.

By then, 1978-79, it was spreading pretty much everywhere in my home town in rural NW PA and the game was on.


*My troop did winter camping using cabins along the shores of Lake Erie and in another camp in the hills south east of my town. It got dark early and while the scoutmaster generally planned for full weekend there was a lot of down time in the evening. At one time there were at least two tables in the cramped cabin playing a game.

The Lake Erie campsite was perhaps the best as the cabin we used has a stone fireplace and we played by the light of the fire. The cabin was near the shore so we could hear the grinding of the ice in the distance. In a typical winter there is a ice shelf extending a mile or so into the lake.

I found a copy of the Tom Moldvay basic set at the salvation army.

Quote from: RPGPundit;463725Who was it, that first made you aware of the existence of RPGs?

RPGPundit

My much older cousin Carlos when I was a child. He was in his twenties, had a practicum going on in the area where I lived, and he stayed at my parents' house for a few months. He ran an AD&D game for my brother and cousins. I was deemed too young to play, originally, but my brother got bored of the game and quit right in the middle of the session. I begged Carlos to let me take over the character. MU with a light spell and 1 HP. My first game, followed by many other solo games during his stay.

Whoever I got a copy of The Forest of Doom from, back when I was at primary school.

All the likely suspects were utter shits, but hey. TFoD was great as my first FF book.

(I maintain that the best FF was Night Dragon.)

Quote from: Benoist;463749My much older cousin Carlos when I was a child.

Did he play a Dwarf???