TheRPGSite

These boards seem to me to have a lot of, let's say, very experienced gamers, and I was curious if that's actually the case.  What version of D&D did you start with?  Also, how do you think that has shaped your view of how to play RPGs?

I started with Holmes Basic and moved to AD&D after about a year, not realizing it was a different game.  Gary's writing style in the 1E DMG has affected my gaming style more than anything else.  It set a tone very like Lieber and Moorcock's writing, and that set the direction of my games for quite a long time.

My first rpg in 1984 was MEGA (Messagers Galactiques), a special issue of the Jeux & Stratégies magazine. It gave rules for time-traveling, dimension hopping, teleporting investigators that had to solve problem in the megaverse. Semi-structured rules system but the magic was a mess. Never found people to play it with.

Then I discovered The Dark Eye, and for a while me and some friends had lots of fun with it.

The second 2 games I bought in 1986 were GW Call of Cthulhu 3rd, and AD&D.
Cthulhu (and that version of the rules) is still one of my favourites.

MEGA and TDE were available in regular bookstores, but for the American games you needed to find a dedicate store; I think there were 3 at the time in Belgium.

AD&D I liked as a player, but I found the rules overly complex, illogical and convoluted, and you needed to switch between the PHB and the DMG to find certain things. But I played it a lot in a group where we alternated GMs and so also played RQ, CoC, MERP, Twilight 2000, JB007, Toon, ...
I had a lot of fun with AD&D and AD&D 2nd as a player, but never got around to DM it myself (as character sheets were really hard to get in the pre-internet days).

D&D really started to feel playable for me when 3ed came around (but just until level 6, after which the bookkeeping for the players and the DM became too much of a chore).

So how did D&D shape my views? Fun system(s) but it has never been my all time favourite. I prefer my games more rules lite.

Basic/Expert with the AD&D monster manual mixed in shortly thereafter, and then the rest of the AD&D trilogy as it was available.  Not long after that, I ran a short Runequest game using the borrowed 2nd edition version.

I think the biggest influence of this was the time, location and means, not the edition.  Very limited funds.  No internet of course.  So a handful of Dragon magazine articles was my exposure to the wider group of players.  No local game store or even kind of distant game store.  Knew one other person who played and was never part of his regular games. Loved board games.  Got my games from mail order. I was already deep into LotR, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, The Stainless Steel Rat, and general mythology.  I did discover Vance through the magic of Appendix N.  That is, "D&D" and RPGs in general looked interesting from an already established interest in fantasy, myth (and history).

So it was a lot of figure it out as you go, with fortunately some forgiving players that were also learning with me.  They had a really good sense of humor about all the screw ups, which helped immensely. I at least had the sense to talk about the screw ups with them and work out a solution together (usually for "next time", not retroactive), which also helped.

That background--and Gary's instructions to follow the rules as written AND change whatever you need to change because it is your game, which was very confusing to me early--shaped how I viewed rules to this day:  Try them as written to see how they work, then do whatever you need to do to bend it to your game.  I'm faster to change a rule now than I was then, but that's largely increased confidence from experience. 

The Red Box was my first actual D&D game which I got for my 10th birthday (before that I'd just go out to the big stone outcroppings in the forest behind my house with the wooden sword my dad made me and climb about pretending to be the hero from the Dragon's Lair video game).

However, in terms of formative experience, a month or so later my parents let me pick out an adventure module and I chose DL-1: Dragons of Despair (I had no idea there was a difference between AD&D and BECMI at the time and my saved allowances bought me the AD&D core by the end of the year). The basic rules were similar enough though I could make it work with my friends on the bus and, most importantly for my formation, it had the pre-gen heroes and recommended their use, so you were starting out with level 4-6 PCs who didn't die at the drop of the hat and had REALLY GOOD ability scores.

The formative bit, at least in regard to the OSR people love here so much is that the idea of starting at level 1 with random stats was alien to me. During the time I was involved in AD&D I made PCs for my players by starting everyone at level 4-6 by asking them what race and class they wanted, assigning an 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13 (plus a 12 and 11 once I'd gotten Unearthed Arcana and added Comeliness and Social Class as ability scores) assigned in whatever order made sense for the class and gave them max hit points and everyone got to pick a couple of nonmagical weapons and armor and we were off to the races.

Then the asshole DM from hell I've mentioned previously almost drove me from the hobby and destroyed any affection I had for what is now called OSR style play, but fortunately I found the Robotech RPG (ads for it were running in the back of Dragon that I had a subscription to at the time and the local hobby shelf had a shelf of all Palladium's products at the time) and some friends to play it with. And Robotech reinforced my sense that what came to be known as "Big Damn (Robot) Heroes" style play was valid... and nothing else in the Palladium line as we expanded into Heroes Unlimited, Palladium Fantasy and Rifts really disabused any of us of that sentiment.

I didn't return to D&D until 3e when some friends of mine got involved in the Living Arcanis program and started running "game days" at the local community college. Heroic-tier Point Buy plus starting with max hit points for the first three levels (you didn't start gaining additional hp until level 4) was right up my alley.

4E finally allowed me to pull off my favorite fantasy concepts without house rules in D&D for the first time ever; a proper adventuring fighter in lighter armor and who wasn't defined by their magic items (i.e. what you actually saw in film and television), wizards who could use simple magic whenever they wanted even at level 1 (again like you'd commonly see in media outside of D&D) and no need at all for some pagan cleric to actually keep you healed up (yeah, I still have resentment from that asshole DM... but also a pagan warrior priest in every party is such a D&D-ism that I was glad 4E allowed to be killed, dismembered, burned in a pyre and its ashes poured into the bottom of a Porta-John).

And now I have my own system that mostly reflects my preferences in gaming (there were a few things I preferred that playtesting shot down, but overall its the closest I'll ever come to a perfect (for me) system).

I started with OD&D in 1977. LBBs, GH,EW (no BM).  A Holmes book, and MM soon thereafter in 78.

How it shaped my views is probably a very lengthy story. Some key takeaways:

The game is a construction kit, not a finished product.

Your setting informs the rules, not the other way around.

Every DMs game should be different. There is no one true way- that's boring.

Play the game you like. If you like heavy story and minimal dice go for it. If you want maps and minis and procedures for everything, go for it.

Rules lawyers are not tolerated (they can start their own game and bother everyone)

If you use a published product, hack and change to your heart's content.  Canon be damned.

Be open to new things and ways to do things to get the experience you want to have (again-there is no one true way)

2e was my first exposure to the hobby, but shortly after it was my uncles' Basic set I found in my grandmother's basement that made it really stick. Strangely enough, there were three slide rules in the box which were probably used for war games—I did not put that together until decades later.

I found the hobby later than most, already in my mid teens. My brother and cousin would run 2e, I would run us through Basic whenever I could. Dozens of goblin villages were destroyed...

After a few years, I moved to RC from Basic before leaving TTRPGs behind for around 10 years at the dawn of 3e. Mostly stayed away from 3e and 4e, but started to engage with the OSR and eventually playtested 5e. I started running OD&D, which has been my main game for nearly 10 years now.

Today I play in three 5e games and run my bastardized version of OD&D in a fourth. I can have fun when I play, regardless of version, if I am at the right table. I play 3d6 in order Champion Fighter in every 5e game assuming optional feats and variant human is permitted :)

When it comes to what I run, I run what I enjoy which is generally my deeply altered OD&D game. I have also GM'd mini campaigns with several other games like LOTFP (original and play test rules), metamorphosis alpha, star adventurer, SW and several others.

Basic D&D influences everything from what I choose to run to what characters I choose to play.

My first exposure to Dungeons and Dragons was the AD&D Coloring Album.

http://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2011/10/greg-irons-advanced-dungeons-and.html

Although I didn't realize it at the time, it introduced me to the concept of the Mythic Underworld.

https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-dungeon-as-mythic-underworld.html

Bits and pieces of that idea permeate my Dungeon Mastering.

After that, I moved to Moldvay Basic and then Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

My first D&D was 2nd ed. It didn't influence me that much because I had already played Runequest, Drakar & Demoner, and MERP, and I actually think we had more fun with those.

OD&D way back in 1975. It set the tone for how run games and the style of play I like best.

AD&D 1E, back in the mid 1990's.  So many rules.... "if" you played it RAW.  We didn't.

Moldvay Basic is not on the list?

Moldvay Basic is what I started with in the early 1980's.  And it spoiled me, because 40 years later its still my favorite RPG, but now I use the OSE tomes at the table.

Banged up copy of Holmes my cousins gave me.

Holmes, then AD&D. Never made it to 2E. We moved on to Dragonquest and Runequest.

Looking back, what probably influenced us the most was the movies of the 80s: Beastmaster, Excalibur, Clash of the Titans, Ladyhawke, Conan, Dragonslayer.

In 1977, a friend came back from Math Camp and told us about a game he played there. This was OD&D. His excited descriptions set our imaginations on fire. Without rule books or dice, our group began using pencils and graph paper to create mazes filled with monsters. We wandered through these using nothing but theater-of-the-mind and had a blast.

Eventually we found a place to buy the White Box and tore into it, hoping to finally understand the rules. Wrong! We didn't understand more than half of it, but we were already experienced with filling in the blanks from our imagination so that was no big obstacle. When we first got the 1e PHB, we immediately recognized that there were bits we wanted to adopt and other bits that we wouldn't touch with a 10' pole.

I still play weekly with two surviving members of that original group. Our views were shaped by the fact that we recognized early-on that our own imaginations were as valid as anyone's, not to exclude Gygax himself. We interpreted rules as being suggested guidelines for the DM. Nothing more. We approach every game with that in-mind. We understand that the complexity added by modern editions does nothing to improve the game, but certain simplifications introduced by modern editions did make it better. In the end, though, a good adventure hinges on the imagination of the DM and the decisions made by the players, not the mechanics or the modifiers.

God Bless the OSR and get off my lawn!

Quote from: Crusader X on September 04, 2021, 04:25:19 PM
Moldvay Basic is not on the list?

Moldvay Basic is what I started with in the early 1980's.  And it spoiled me, because 40 years later its still my favorite RPG, but now I use the OSE tomes at the table.

I thought Moldvay was the "B" in BECMI.  A quick bit of searching showed me that I was incorrect - sorry.

My first D&D ever was that first Basic boxed set. My "friend" brought it over. I made a Thief. Went down into the dungeon, and opened the first door.

"You're dead!"


"What? How?!?"

"You're just dead," grabbing up his basketball, "I'm going to go play murder all now."

He left it there and never picked it back up. I absorbed it thoroughly and vowed to do better. I can only hope that in the years since I have.

I think I've started with Fighting Fantasy books, and then went into Basic/AD&D, and then GURPS. The D&D cartoon was an early influence on me too.

The thing I remember the most is how you could create your own character, then somebody told me you could create your own dungeons,  and then I've heard about someone creating an entire CITY, and then with GURPS you could create EVERYTHING... I was hooked.

I stopped playing D&D because I felt 3e was too complex and limited compared to GURPS, then I've tried innumerable different systems, and nowadays early D&D is my favorite kind of RPG, although I still like to keep many options open and dislike anything that limits what I can do with my character (i.e., I prefer a system with a few feats, skills, and flaws I can pick instead of just rolling and choosing one of half a dozen classes, although that is fun too).

AD&D 1 by default because it was what was being played at the Boy Scout campout when I was first introduced to gaming. I tool over playing one of the henchmen and was a 1st level fighter who when attacked (bitten) by a werewolf, bit the werewolf back, and then died of a rotting mouth disease weeks later in game. In my defense, I was 12 and had no idea what I was doing.

Since the game that has influenced me most has been Classic Traveller, I can't say that D&D influenced me a lot. Although, I do maintain that player character stupidity tends to kill the character every time, sooner or later.

BECMI for years, then probably 8 adventures in 1e, then a looooooooong ass haul through 2e, then about 5 years i guess of 3e, now i do only D6 system.

I always remind people, back then, you couldn't just hop on Amazon or DriveThru RPG and order whatever you wanted. Having incomplete collections was a common thing as was mixing with editions since sometimes you had to just take what you could get. So I didn't really start on any particular edition.

The first time I actually shifted to playing one pure edition and actually took the time to sit down and learn all the rules by the book was core 1E + WoG in the early 90's. And that's how I answered the poll since this is really what had the biggest impact on how I play and run the game.

Key take-aways I got from it.

1. Not every campaign needs to be the standard ragtag band of borderline psychopaths wandering the land getting caught up in wacky adventures. You certainly CAN do that. But you can also do exploration campaigns, military campaigns, naval campaigns, world-building campaigns, and so on.

2. 0th level humans. If they are the most common "minion" style adversary, then a 4th level fighter is incredibly badass. This helps keep a lid on stat inflation while at the same time feeling as though your characters are growing immensely powerful.

3. Rules are created to serve a specific purpose. They are not necessarily to be applied universally. Weapon vs Armor adjustments, for example, are a pain in the ass to apply with high level ragtag band of heroes, and the payoff is insignificant. With scores of similarly outfitted 0th level humans, Armor vs Weapon adjustments are fairly easy to apply and make a very substantial difference. The rule was meant to be used with the latter mode of play, not the former.

4. It's the little things. Details make it pop. Necklace of Strangulation doesn't just kill you to death. It cannot be removed until you're dry bones. Adding a few random sights, sounds, smells, and furnishings from the Appendix I goes a long way.

5. World-centric rather than character-centric. A billion options for customizing characters does not necessarily translate to fun in actual play. Most mechanics and statistics say something about the game world. STR's chance to force open doors says something about how difficult doors are to force open.

6. Fact-based rather than skill-based. Metal armor can be heard for up to 90', hard soles on a hard floor can be heard up to 60', soft soles up to 30'. Which means you don't need a special skill for stealth missions. Just stay at least 30' away and out of line of sight when sneaking around. Move Silently and Hide in Shadows do those very specific things and are enhancements above and beyond the baseline. Skills are just the icing. Facts are the cake.

7. Exception-based rather robust. A rule that tries to do everything becomes bloated. You can use a simple rule that suffices 80% of the time and just work out exceptions off of that. The prime example is the 1E initiative system which has a simple base of d6, highest goes first, that actually IS all it is 80% of the time. The enumerated exceptions in total are applicable about 20% of the time.

8. Appendix A teaches a great deal about pacing and that if you present sufficient mystery, mere exploration becomes interesting without ever needing to even reference the characters' skills or abilities. If you can run a base that is interesting without any reference to mechanics, with mechanics and widgets as enhancements to that baseline play, you will never be left wanting for more rules to make the game more interesting.

9. Proto-Crowd Sourcing. Gary's simultaneously calling for some degree of uniformity among campaigns while encouraging creativity and making it clear the DM is the ultimate authority for their own campaign can be resolved if you understand his aim as a sort of proto-crowd sourcing. We need uniqueness and creativity so a multitude of fresh ideas emerge out from the masses. But in order for those ideas to interface with each other, there needs to be sufficient uniformity so that they are compatible. Finding the right balance maximizes how much creativity is channeled and unlocked by the game.

10. Gary's Holy Trinity in the Afterward. Specifically, this sentence, " BY ORDERING THINGS AS THEY SHOULD BE, THE GAME AS A WHOLE FIRST, YOUR CAMPAIGN NEXT, AND YOUR PARTICIPANTS THEREAFTER, YOU WILL BE PLAYING ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE."

Some take this to mean that the rules should come first. The DM is free to build their campaign so long as it fits within those parameters. And down at the bottom of the heap, only then do we care what makes the players happy.

I think of it more like this. Let's first state without qualification, the DM is free to run the game any way he or she sees fit. Even if this weren't the message of the rulebook, no game police are going to come by to stop you. So now that we've established total freedom for the DM, the next question is, okay, tough guy. So what are you going to do with it? How are you going to run your game such that it doesn't degenerate, that it has players coming back week after week, that DM doesn't get burnt out, that everyone is having as much fun as possible?

Someone once asked me advice about how to adjudicate the creation of magic items. I said, first, you want to make sure the item is not so weak as to make it a pointless pursuit. But it shouldn't be so strong that it breaks the game. Between those two extremes, you have a range that works. From there, consider what is most thematically appropriate. If that still leaves you with several options, let there be multiple grades or variations of the item, each with their own formula, and allow the player to decide which to pursue.

Fairly common sense once articulated. I then realized that this fits the holy trinity. First, consider what works within the framework of the game. Then considers what suits the campaign. Finally, let the players decide. And so rather than this being how you SHOULD play, this is really just a description of how a capable DM decides such things. It's just what is, spelled out here for those who haven't figured it out yet.

BECMI. We had a campaign that ran through to 36th level I think; at least I remember we had all five boxes between us. I had Immortals, but the feeling among the group was that it sounded rubbish because where is the fun if you can't die? We were OSR way before it was a thing!

I remember getting an AD&D2e monster manual in the ring binder, but around that time the group dispersed into adolescence.

3.0, I'm late to the party. I was the only 12 year old I knew with a "steady gig" (lawnmowing) so I was the only one who could afford the books and it made me the forever gm. 3.0 and 3.5 and 3.75 all made it very difficult for me to understand the concept of rulings over rules and it wasn't until about 15 years later that I was first introduced to the idea that there didn't have to be a written out rule for every single thing in the game.

JeffB and I are nearly alike. Just a year off. My OD&D starts in 1976. I only play OSR now if it is to be D&D.

I started with the Moldvay Red Box in 1981.  My mom bought it for me - a decision she still regrets to this day :P

I ended up landing with 2nd edition.  None of the WOTC editions did anything for me. 3.x was just too rules heavy and we spent more time looking up rules than playing.  4th I never bothered to try.  I dipped my toe with 5th when it first came out (before I knew anything about the wokeness infesting the company) and found that the adventuring day mechanic was impossible to get around.

2nd has a good balance of 1st edition feel and the air of mystery the game had back in the pre internet/file sharing days.  It also has a ton of support, and the thousands of spells and magic items allow me to easily add things to the game and keep it fresh all the time.

Eric

Greetings!

I chose AD&D. I think I started with OD&D, but AD&D came out and we were all into playing AD&D. I think we also blended the rules nd such often, and no one cared. I had some kind of beginner's set, which had a softcover book. It was white and turquoise blue, with a dragon on the cover. I recall the rules only went up to like, 3rd level. Anyhow, when the Monster Manual arrived, yeah, everyone wanted to get with the new rules. Most campaign styles were a mix of historical stuff and Swords & Sorcery, with lots of Gonzo elements thrown into the mix as well.

AD&D was the main game going from the late 1970's onwards.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK on September 07, 2021, 12:19:37 AM
I had some kind of beginner's set, which had a softcover book. It was white and turquoise blue, with a dragon on the cover. I recall the rules only went up to like, 3rd level.

Shark,

That's Holmes.

Here's a great site which explains the difference between Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer:

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2089/what-are-the-differences-between-holmes-moldvay-and-mentzer-dd

My "first" D&D, or RPG, or RPG-adjacent game was a board game where you'd like.. travel to a portal on the board, and then then fold the board out, I forget the name, but you had stats and would draw monster cards and kill them, sometimes get treasure, etc.

First actual D&D was some version of AD&D like.. maybe the same year 3.0 came out.  Didn't get to play it much, but I read the PHB a lot, and then got to play D&D with more people when 3.0 and 3.5 came out.

I guess it's shaped my views in that I don't really care about character background, and I'm used to making new characters,  I'm used to rolling for stats instead of choosing from a pre-determined array.  But I'm also used to arranging stats how I'd like. I'm also kinda used to adapting to new systems/rules changes.

Also I tend to be very impatient with people who like... care too much about their character in session 1,   sure if you've had your character for a couple months I could see starting to care, but session 1? that's way too soon to care if your character dies.

Quote from: Aglondir on September 07, 2021, 01:45:09 AM

Quote from: SHARK on September 07, 2021, 12:19:37 AM
I had some kind of beginner's set, which had a softcover book. It was white and turquoise blue, with a dragon on the cover. I recall the rules only went up to like, 3rd level.

Shark,

That's Holmes.

Here's a great site which explains the difference between Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer:

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2089/what-are-the-differences-between-holmes-moldvay-and-mentzer-dd

Greetings!

Aglondir! Thank you. It was Holmes then! Well, yeah. See? I was 8 or 10 years old. I remember my mother taking me into our local game store--"Games People Play"--and bought the game for me. She also bought me a box of miniatures to go with it, an some extra dice. I loved that Holmes game! As a kid though, I never paid attention to the author. It was just D&D. Not too long later, the AD&D books came out. Everyone switched over to AD&D, but it was also a blending. The white and blue Holmes book was still useful, and remained a favourite of mine!

HOLMES! OOH RAH!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Complete aside, but the number of people who are saying they started with OD&D/1e/Holmes and were already 10+ at the time while I started with the Mentzer Red Box c. 1984 has done a lot to make me feel not quite so old.  ;D

Seriously though, I do think there's something to be said for there being a degree of age/generational differences in gaming preferences that explain why, even though I technically started in the 1e era, I have no nostalgia for the OSR-era play even before you account for the asshole DM who caused me to abandon D&D entirely before 2e was even a thing.

In point of fact, the only part of 1e/Basic I have ever had any nostalgia for are the original Dragonlance modules (and the Dragonlance Adventures hardcover) that formed the foundation of what I consider to be my preferred campaign/adventure style (including PCs starting at well above AD&D's level 1/3d6 in order power level, dragonmen, minotaurs, schizotech, a smith whose arm was replaced with magical artiface and a playable dragon PC in one of the modules).

Worth noting too is that prior to the explosion of PDF's and the availability of broadband to make downloading them practical a lot of the older material just wasn't available if you didn't pick up a physical copy at the time of release. OD&D, Holmes, Moldvay and 1e without the orange spine just didn't exist as something for purchase by the time I was starting D&D and I never did own a physical copy of DL-11 because the local hobby shop never carried it (or sold out between the once per month visits my mom would make to take me to the hobby shop).

It's hard to get into a style of play from books you barely knew existed and had never read.

Quote from: Chris24601 on September 07, 2021, 12:08:05 PM
Worth noting too is that prior to the explosion of PDF's and the availability of broadband to make downloading them practical a lot of the older material just wasn't available if you didn't pick up a physical copy at the time of release. OD&D, Holmes, Moldvay and 1e without the orange spine just didn't exist as something for purchase by the time I was starting D&D and I never did own a physical copy of DL-11 because the local hobby shop never carried it (or sold out between the once per month visits my mom would make to take me to the hobby shop).

No kidding.  I remember quite clearly being in a book store around Christmas that had the Dragon Quest 2nd edition rules on a small rack for "game gifts".  I was so tempted.  It would have taken every penny of my "fun" balance and dipped slightly into savings.  I bought 3 sci/fi thick sci/fi paperbacks instead, with a little left over.  One of the worst budget decisions of my young teen years.  Two of the novels sucked.  Went back 3 months later and the whole rack was gone.  They still had copies of the crappy paperbacks.  :D

Quote from: SHARK on September 07, 2021, 11:21:38 AM

Quote from: Aglondir on September 07, 2021, 01:45:09 AM

Quote from: SHARK on September 07, 2021, 12:19:37 AM
I had some kind of beginner's set, which had a softcover book. It was white and turquoise blue, with a dragon on the cover. I recall the rules only went up to like, 3rd level.

Shark,

That's Holmes.

Here's a great site which explains the difference between Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer:

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2089/what-are-the-differences-between-holmes-moldvay-and-mentzer-dd

Greetings!

Aglondir! Thank you. It was Holmes then! Well, yeah. See? I was 8 or 10 years old. I remember my mother taking me into our local game store--"Games People Play"--and bought the game for me. She also bought me a box of miniatures to go with it, an some extra dice. I loved that Holmes game! As a kid though, I never paid attention to the author. It was just D&D. Not too long later, the AD&D books came out. Everyone switched over to AD&D, but it was also a blending. The white and blue Holmes book was still useful, and remained a favourite of mine!

HOLMES! OOH RAH!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Shark,

Good memories, good times.  I bought my Holmes Box at a model railroad store. No gaming stores back then in our area.

More info on Holmes. Scroll to bottom. 1stLt USMC, Korea.

https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/holmes/j-eric-holmes-photo-gallery

The Expert Ruleset and an AD&D Players Handbook was how I started rolling in probably 82. When your game comes by way of elderly relatives getting advice from confused bookstore attendants you use what you get. I had asked for a Choose Your Own Adventure book and got these instead with assurances that they were 'much better'.

My Nana was right!

My first RPG was a GURPS homebrew and the DM was so horrible that it turned me off of GURPS and homebrew altogether for years. I ended up playing tabletop D&D only in 3rd edition and as fr as influencing my views, and at the time it felt good to have a system with solid rules to rely on - even if looking back now 3E was a whole mess on its own. At this point I don't really play D&D anymore, splitting my focus between year zero games and OSR games.

Good old red box. Got into it as a kid from being super keen on Fighting Fantasy books. Played a thief and character got killed within the first twenty minutes of exploring a pretty simple dungeon. Those were the days.

Quote from: Aglondir on September 07, 2021, 03:23:45 PM

Quote from: SHARK on September 07, 2021, 11:21:38 AM

Quote from: Aglondir on September 07, 2021, 01:45:09 AM

Quote from: SHARK on September 07, 2021, 12:19:37 AM
I had some kind of beginner's set, which had a softcover book. It was white and turquoise blue, with a dragon on the cover. I recall the rules only went up to like, 3rd level.

Shark,

That's Holmes.

Here's a great site which explains the difference between Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer:

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2089/what-are-the-differences-between-holmes-moldvay-and-mentzer-dd

Greetings!

Aglondir! Thank you. It was Holmes then! Well, yeah. See? I was 8 or 10 years old. I remember my mother taking me into our local game store--"Games People Play"--and bought the game for me. She also bought me a box of miniatures to go with it, an some extra dice. I loved that Holmes game! As a kid though, I never paid attention to the author. It was just D&D. Not too long later, the AD&D books came out. Everyone switched over to AD&D, but it was also a blending. The white and blue Holmes book was still useful, and remained a favourite of mine!

HOLMES! OOH RAH!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Shark,

Good memories, good times.  I bought my Holmes Box at a model railroad store. No gaming stores back then in our area.

More info on Holmes. Scroll to bottom. 1stLt USMC, Korea.

https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/holmes/j-eric-holmes-photo-gallery

Greetings!

Hey Aglondir! OOH RAH indeed! I didn't realize that Holmes was so accomplished. A Marine officer, a Doctor (Neurologist?), professor, author, and speaker. Damn, you know? ;D AND--a game designer. The guy was very talented.

I had so much fun with the Holmes book. I actually played with my parents! *Laughing* My mother played a savage barbarian Fighter, while my father played a pious and crusading Cleric. Such good times!

Soon, my parents bought me all of the AD&D books. I remember searching through the Monster Manual in total awe! The Dungeon Master's Guide...damn, that was like some combination of the Silmarillion, Lord of the Rings, and the Bible! ;D

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

My first D&D was a shiny red box of (Basic) D&D, circa Christmas of 1984, and I learned that everything was about dungeoneering. Didn't get into the Role play aspect until far later.

Not too long after, my dad brought home a Jack Chick tract, and things went badly.

I played B & X with modules and tried to make some AD&D modules work with it then in the spring of I think 1982 or 1983, I think was was 11 so 1983 is more likely I got on a bus and went to Hobby Store next to the Village Cinema which was a General Cinema with two screens, and I knew they had some D&D stuff so I bought the Dungeon Master\s Guide and the Monster Manual and some metal minis from Ral Parth and Rafm and Grenadier, and ordered the players handbook. I already had some gooney dice that came with a crayon to darken the carved numbers. I had seen the Basic Box at the Toybox Toy Store in Highland Mall but never bought it.

And that is how I went from a player to an owner. I got the B and X boxes for Christmas that year having checked them in the catalog along with a pellet gun which made them the nicer option.

I also got Traveller that year because I checked Space Opera and my Mom thought I had checked Traveller but it had people in frilled Star Wars helmets and hovering vehicles so I was happy.  I got into Gamma World 2nd Ed and Star Frontiers, and Top Secret later on and then even later Marvel Super Heroes and Someone who knew I liked the ElfQUest books bought me the Elf Quest Chaosium game and someone else I knew got the Dr Who rpg from FASA.   Then shortly after that I bought the CityTech box which led me into Battle tech. Star Fleet Battled happened sometime then too.

Mentzer's Basic and Expert sets.  Thought race as class was lame but loved the game otherwise. Older second cousin exposed me to AD&D 1E and I switched rather than getting more boxes.

How did it shape my views?  That there should be limits on number of playable Demi-humans or you wind up with ridiculousness. You can't expect to be constrained by written rules and maintain plausibility.

Quote from: DM_Curt on September 08, 2021, 08:01:12 PM
My first D&D was a shiny red box of (Basic) D&D, circa Christmas of 1984, and I learned that everything was about dungeoneering. Didn't get into the Role play aspect until far later.

Not too long after, my dad brought home a Jack Chick tract, and things went badly.

Greetings!

JACK CHICK!!!! Fucking hilarious! I used to love reading those silly tracts! "NO! B-B-Blackleaf!" ;D

My friends and I used to roar with laughter reading those things.*

*(All of us were pretty solid church-going Christians, too. A mix of Catholics and Southern Baptists for sure!).

DM shows group the Succubus entry in Monster Manual...
Fighter Dorn--"I will bravely fling myself at the evil Succubus, and allow my companions to escape. Yes, yes. It's a tragedy that I am doomed to serve her for an eternity of wickedness..."

Our group was doomed to Hell for certain. *Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Yeah the sadistic all female D&D group with their " you are dead so you can't be here and we can't hear you" nonsense is hilarious.

Real life DM is like " Shut up, nobody liked Blackleaf, nobody gives a shit, just roll up a new character so we can get the game going again. It's role play adventure not role play drama. "

Player 2 "Ha ha let's drag black leaf's remains over to that place where I thought I saw Carrion Crawler spore!"

DM : "This is a ruin used as a base by goblins. There is no carrion crawler. They goblins would either kill it or move out. That would be like a tiger in the hard ware section at SEARS. It makes no sense. This is rats and goblins and a couple of wild dogs. "

Player 2 " Oh so serious about your ree-uhhh-lisss-tiiiic dungeon!"

Player 1 : Ohhh Black leaf is dead! I'm dead! I'm dead! Ohhhh noooo"

DM: " We better call her mom. This isn't right at all. What the hell?"

Player 2: " She went all Tom Hanks on us."

DM: " Well I guess the goblins and poison gas win then. "

Player 2:  "I told you D&D is for babies and adults play Runequest."

I'm a Lutheran and our local pastor looked down on it but not because of any satanic nonsense, he just thought it was nerdy and a little anti-social like pinball and thought we should be going out for football or camping or leaning to drive a pickup with stick shift or building shelves out of lumber or maybe fishing. He thought we were wasting the best part of our lives on SMOFFY weirdo nerd nonsense and we'd probably come to regret it.

Dad was more "That's Satanic!" and I ended up having to retrieve my books from apartment complex dumpsters more than once.
Jack Chick ruined parent-teen relationships and I'm glad that grifter is rotting in a box.

He was more pissed off about Catholics than anyone else. That seems like what the largest section of his tracts go after. Especially the Pope and Jesuits. Oh well. Our own church's pamphlets were more about not letting fortune tellers or ouija boards ruin your life or coming under the sway of superstition. Basically the idea was that some people who look for such things can get so fooled by them that they develop all kind of complexes and problems and think they have spirits after them when really they fell under the power of some charlatan or something a charlatan mad to keep people enthralled. I remember the church being slightly angry about the vampire fad that sprung up again after Salem's Lot was on TV. Seems like they had just got rid of the old fad of the Universal Monsters and Stephen King somehow dug them up and dusted them off again.

I chose ADnD 1st ed, as that was the one I actually played with other people.

I did buy the Basic Red box DnD before that and read the rules, played the Solo game (Still feel bummed out Aleena died  :(  ;) ).

After a few years of playing ADnD (and many , many other RPGs) , I started playing Basic DnD with a friend and others for a bit, which was pretty fun. I remember playing a "Halfling" which was a race/Class combo in Basic DnD