Old Timers??

[upidstay]

How long have you folks been playing? Curious how many old timers we have here.

I started with the Basic Set in 1979. Bought it with my birthday money, at age 9. My first character was an Elf. Elf was a class back then, as was dwarf and halfling. There were 3 kinds of swords, a Short Sword, a 2 handed sword, or just a Sword. 1st level clerics got no spells. Elves could not progress past level 8 or so. Then you had to buy the "Expert Set". No one had ever heard of a Drow, let alone one with twin scimitars and an unpronouncable name. I do remember having a statue of a dog or something that would animate and follow me around though...

Anybody raid the armory in "The Keep on the Borderlands"?? Lost 2 good characters on the "Isle of Dread".
Now I have 2 kids, a mortgage and a job, so I don't get to play very often...

[Mulsiphix]

The majority of players here seem to fall into the "old timers" category. Check out this thread for a general idea of the average age ranges: The Age of Members

[Farcaster]

Well now, that depends on what you mean by old timer. If you're referring to age, then no, I'm a youngling -- barely a sap by any standards If you mean, how long I've been playing RPGs, well then I would fall into much the same category as you. I started with the D&D box set at twelve, and quickly moved into AD&D 1st edition. I've been playing ever since, which is about nineteen years.

[Drohem]

I started in 1982 with 2nd Gamma World. I made friends with David who just moved from Arizona and he introduced me to roleplaying games. He used some charts and materials from 1st Gamma World as well.

After we played that for a while, he showed us Star Frontiers. We had a blast with that game as well. He then showed us 1st AD&D. So, I skipped Basic D&D and never played it. I am glad that I did skip Basic D&D and went straight to 1st AD&D.

[gdmcbride]

I acquired my first D&D basic box and then the monster manual, players handbook and DMG in the early 80s. My parents bought them for me not knowing exactly what they were but knowing that I was intrigued, they were books and I read them voraciously. I played a little with a few friends but we had no idea what we were doing.

We ran the Keep on the Borderlands for example, reading each description and attacking each individual villager like it were an encounter. The bailiff was really tough. We had no solid concept of a DM despite the examples in the aforementioned material. We read each encounter description, complete aloud. We took them in order. Well, they were numbered!

But in 1984, Origins came to Dallas. I somehow convinced my parents to buy me a ticket and drop me off for ... well, more or less the weekend. I was 12. I soaked it all up. I played my first real session of D&D and Traveler and Champions. I played a war game with miniatures. I saw so much more. I wandered the open gaming halls like there were exhibits seeing the potential of the roleplaying game.

I was locked into the way of the gaming geek. Have been ever since.

Gary

[Xaels Greyshadow]

"Old Timer." For sure. I can't really remember the exact year, but it was around 77'. I seen the boxed Basic Set in a local hobby store in Pocatello Idaho, where I grew up. I knew I had to find out more about the fantastic game that was contained inside. The store also had the Expert Set and tons of Modules available, so I knew that either my parents, or I would remain financially unstable for some time to come. The day that I had the $10.00 to purchase the scared box came and I begged my mother to drive me to the hobby store so "I could get something." I was the weekend and I was going for the "Sleep over" at a friends house and the box was going with me. My friend Jim and I read through all the material, adventure and all and decided to give it a shot. He was the player and I the DM. I was forever hooked. I was mowing lawns to support my D&D habit of attempting to collect each and every book and module that I could get my hands on. Top Secret came along and Jim and I decided to give that a go. He had begun collecting some D&D stuff too, but Top Secret was new and fresh, and used pretty much the same system as D&D, so it was a easy conversion. Time passed, we grew up. Jim moved away to colorado and was never seen or heard from again. I had no one to play D&D with but continued to collect books and modules. Some 30 years passed and a couple of years ago I was somewhere and lots of people were playing D&D. I was invited to join in the fun. It was the 3.5 ruleset and things were completely different for me. No more THAC0, and much else, but I found the rules to be far easier to understand and things to be much more defined and left little to guess about for either player or DM. I have been collecting 3.5 and some of the more important 3.0 books for a while now and am lucky enough to be only 6 books short of a thorough and complete library of all that is D&D, along with the entire Eberron Campaign world. D&D is my relaxing escape from the day to day grind of life. I have been married and divorced, have a wonderfull relationship with a super woman that is not a gamer, but supports me fully and laughs at my silly D&D quips. I have been caught unprepared for the release of 4E, but will fall into line with the rest of the hordes and purchase the Core books, and being the D&D freak/geek that I am still today, start my library over and purchase each and every book whenever I have some change to spare. Long live D&D. Play, adventure and have fun. If you hear rumor of Xaels Greyshadow in town, lock up your valuables, double tie your purse strings. You are in the presence of a master rogue.

Happy New Years

Xaels

[Bloodwyrm]

Ive Been Playing For Lets See 15 years at age 7 i played with older friends not too sure on the set. so would i be classified as an old timer????

[RealmsDM]

well, I had two older brothers who were into D&D, so I was exposed to the basic set sometime in the early 80's- maybe 82 or 83? They let me roll dice sometimes, but mostly made me sharpen pencils & fetch rulebooks & sodas. Then there was the occasional in combat argument where I acted ast the stand in for the wondering goblin encounter & have people slashing at me with my own darth vader lightsaber toy!

I remember the rulebooks were clearly marked "ages 10 & up" so my brothers pleaded that case with my parents & wouldn't let me officially play until that age, but my friends & I would steal the books any chance we could get & started playing.

I had a few characters named after my favorite cartoon characters, like Voltron, Optimus, etc. My first "official PC" was a barbarian made using the Unearthed Arcana rulebook for AD&D- my oldest brother ran "Against the Giants"... today, people still talk about the 4 natural 20's I rolled against King Snuree!!! (and yes, I was still used as the in combat stand in as a PC to Giant ratio)

[Maelstrom]

I'm pretty young in this group. I started up with the Gold box Forgotten Realms computer games, the first being Pool of Radiance sometime in the late 80s.

One of my friends and I had so much fun playing the game, and we had heard about the pen & paper game so we just used the rules we picked up from the games and played without any source books.

We finally got into the game at 2nd edition, went back to basic D&D for kicks, and I've been playing the latest ever since.

[Farcaster]

Ahhhh! Pool of Radiance. I remember it and it's crazy copy-protection-translation-wheel well. I loved that game... Until I lost my wheel. LOL. I eventually hacked it though and was able to finish the game.

[rabkala]

I also started in '79, though I was older than 9.

I lost way more than 2 characters on the Isle Of Dread, your DM must have been a big softee.

I now have 4 children, a granddaughter, a monstrous mortgage, and a real pain in the *** job. I still mange to play quite regularly.

[Mulsiphix]

Bah I'm definitely young. I was introduced 12 years ago to BattleTech. We actually did quite a bit of RP for just a wargame but then again we used MechWarrior which was an RPG supplement. We did so loosely though so I wouldn't consider it true RP. I played for a solid year and then moved away. I've followed the game, although did not actual playing, until FASA closed their doors in 2001. Luckily it was started back up again by Catalyst Games and I've been following it again. Thankfully my wife and I started playing about a year ago. Little game time, long time infatuation, still super young when compared to how early many of you started. Long live PnP

[upidstay]

Pool of Radiance. Battletech. Top Secret. Gamma World. Those were great games.

[starfalconkd]

I started in '88 (at 11) with Red Box, followed quickly by the 2nd edition PHB, DMG, and the Monstrous Compendium. I never really played the classic modules. I was weaned on the Dungeon magazine modules of the time.

[Skunkape]

"Old Timer." For sure. I can't really remember the exact year, but it was around 77'.

Same here. I actually started with Avalon Hill wargames a few years before then, like 3 or so, but that's not role-playing!