One of the types of stories I love to hear are about how people were introduced to role playing games. Especially from the people who tried them once and then never did again, since those are usually the horror stories!
For me, I think I was twelve, and my Mom bought me the AD&D boxed set for Christmas. Role playing games weren't even on my radar before that, and this was such a departure from the sorts of things she normally bought me that I'm not sure what prompted it.
I devoured the rule books, and immediately got one of my friends to play. Together, we managed to misinterpret nearly every rule and had a whole set of house rules to correct "problems" in the system until we finally figured out how it was all supposed to work.
So after a bit of a rocky start, we kept playing, and went through campaign after campaign for the next ten years or so, until I moved to a new city for college.
I'd love to hear about everyone's first experiences with role playing games, good or bad.
My first experience with RPG's is one of my cousin snubbing me when I asked if I could play. (I was probably 9 or so) Never got a chance to play it again until I went to college, where I got the insane roommate from hell with her psychotic boyfriend. They were gamers, and before I realized how completely insane she was, I met her gamer friends. The friends taught me how to play D&D 2nd ed., I kept the friends, ditched the psycho roommate.
Good thing her gamer friends weren't psycho, too!
Oh, they all had their quirks, but they all knew she was insane and had actually been working at excluding her and her psycho boyfriend. Apparently I was the token sacrifice that they threw to their friends to keep them in good humor. Fortunately, they were smart enough to say "Thanks!" and took off running with me.
It became a lot easier once psycho one and two decided to have a creepy fight at 3 am the day before I had a finals test in the morning. That wasn't what made me mad though. What made me mad is that she laughed at me the next day making it seem like I was insane for wanting to kill her abusive boyfriend. .....Yeah so enough of that [censored].
I was introduced to RPGs by my boyfriend now husband in college. I remember being in grade school that the smart kids played D&D but never thought that it would be something I would like.
In college, I think my first RPG game I ever played in (had watched several with BF playing) was Marvel Superheroes and it was a lot of fun. I played casually in a few more games over the years like Hackmaster and Gamma World but never had a regular game or interest to play until about two years ago.
A friend of ours had a game going and asked me if I wanted to play so I said yes. It was D&D. We've been playing that campaign for almost two years. My casual interest in RPGs is now replaced by a full-fledged RPGer.
Fun thread. Can't wait to read more.
A two-year campaign, sounds like terrific fun! There's something about watching characters change and grow over time, and seeing more and more of the game world through their eyes. I have a lot of fun with one-shot adventures, but would love to find a group that meets regularly enough to maintain a campaign, too.
I started off with l5r ccg. A friend of mine wanted someone to help him with the rules. I got hooked by the story and the epic feel of the game. The people with whom we played were rpg ( not l5r ) players and they got me started. I quickly started collecting the l5r rpg books and here i am.
You're the first role player I've heard of who came in through a CCG. That's very cool, that you thought so much of the setting that you wanted to pursue it in role playing.
My husband loves L5R the CCG. I like it, too, although I'm still trying to wrap my brain around playing it without so much help from him. I do love the continuing story of L55.
I wish we did more one shot adventures especially with different RPGs. Maybe this year we will get to do some.
I like one-shot adventures quite a bit. As a GM, I find players are less cautious with their characters when they know they won't be playing them again.
It makes Call of Cthulhu so much more fun when players aren't trying to keep their characters alive and sane. ;-)
Yeah those can be fun, especially for horror settings.
True but the players tend to "sell" their characters. They react without thinking how their char would really react.
I guess that depends on the gaming group. My original group way back when was very much like that, but the people I play the Call of Cthulhu one-shots with do very good at reacting like their characters would.
That might not be a fair comparison, though, because to really enjoy Call of Cthulhu, you have to be the sort of player who can let their character do the stupid things they would really do.
Yeah, in the group I'm in, just about everybody plays as their character, makes stupid choices their character would make. Hell, my boyfriend and I had an in-game fight because his human didn't think that it was unfair that the smaller races pay full price for half the material. (my halfling nearly kneecapped him she was so irate.
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True i guess it has to do with the game ( eg Call of Ctulhu ). My players tend to react the opposite way. They think us themselves and not their characters. That can really ruin things especially when you make sure that you have anticipated all logical outcomes... eg They still think that it is logical to react to the npcs by what you know of them from the ccg and not by everyday standards..
I have seen players play Call of Cthulhu that way, too. They usually do not have any fun at all!