A Lifetime of Gaming

[James Maliszewski]

A Lifetime of Gaming

When you have no background in tabletop gaming, you make up your own rules to D&D

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[Altorin]

I had a sort of similar story about my introduction to D&D, although it was still years later.

What you neglected to mention was that that hysteria over D&D took another decade and a half to cool down, particularly in religious circles. My introduction to the idea of Dungeons and Dragons actually happened when my parents told me that under no circumstances was I ever to play it. It was about 1990 at the time, and honestly, I had never really given D&D much thought. I was always told that it was a sinful game that makes people commit suicide - why would I want to play that?

Well, in grade 1 (1991), I met a guy who changed my young mind about D&D.. We had a similar situation to your story, where we were trying to make D&D characters and figure out how to play, but he figured he was oldhat about it - he played with his older brother and dad. So when I learned that D&D wasn't only NOT going to make me kill myself, but was actually a fun game that families could play together, I wrote my mom a detailed email (yeah, lol), about how ridiculous the negative hype over dungeons and dragons had been, and did as much research as a 7 year old kid with a computer could do, and gave her all sorts of evidence that showed that Dungeons and Dragons wasn't something to be afraid of.

It worked, and I have played D&D since, even inviting her to some of my later games to play. My dad was a bit more of a stick in the mud, and at one point threw out all of my Magic cards because he thought they'd turn me to the devil. He doesn't recall that, but I certainly do.

 

[shannon.archer]

My dad was a bit more of a stick in the mud, and at one point threw out all of my Magic cards because he thought they'd turn me to the devil. He doesn't recall that, but I certainly do.

Wow I'm so glad I was brought up outside of religion :S Can't imagine being able to deal with that.

 

[Fasckira]

My first introduct to roleplaying was being asked to join in this strange sci-fi game called "Paranoia".

I think that game night scarred me and altered the way I would play RP tabletop games for the rest of my life, much like being raped on your 16th birthday or similar (but in a good, warped way).

 

[Liquid Evil]

Only three posts?

That's criminal, this was an excellent and insightful slice of life article sir.
Kudos are in order...

 

[GonzoGamer]

excellent article, almost bitter sweet article in a "stand by me" knid of mood, on the happiness of days gone by.

I have a fairly similar story, just a few years after (in 83, and in France, and I was 12), but more or less on the same lines. To this day, the sunday afternoon playing D&D retain a special place in my poetic memory.

That's why I hear Richard Dreyfuss narrating this article in my head.

He even threw in the "Can you believe the fat kid from Stand By Me is married to Rebecca Romain? Doesn't that piss you off?" line.

I had some friends that very loosely interpreted the rules (of D&D) and other groups that were strict rules lawyers (of Palladium). Both ways were fun though and I was always a very dramatic dungeon/game master: I even had soundtracks I would play: mostly a lot of prog rock, death metal, and other purely weird music like Tom Waits.

 

[Jenx]

I have to admit, the 80s truly were magical years for tabletop (and video) gamers. Being a kid of the 90s (sort of) and not being from the States, my first exposure to roleplaying games were trough things like Diablo (first one), Fallout (second one) and Baldur's Gate 2. From then on it snowballed into tabletop games. And ironically, I've never played D&D. Ever. I know most of the rules for AD&D, 3.5th edition and 4th edition and I've never actaully played one of them. I really gotta get some people these days and do some one-shot or something.

What was I talking about? Ah right - great article!