What made you interested in DnD?

Riolathel

Sorry for the odd wording in the question. I found it difficult to summarize this in one sentence.

I was thinking about how i'm starting to get into role playing.. You know, the real kind; with dice and paper.

Then i thought back to the first time i ever played a DnD system and realized it was Baldur's Gate. My dad showed it to me when i was a kid. Not only is this game still very fun today but it also got me into nearly every rpg i've ever played. I have a lot to thank BG for because it helped me discover a nerdy side of me i very much enjoy.

What was your first DnD experience? Did baldur's gate (or another game) influence you to try pen and paper or the other way around?

Teflon

It was 90's, my cousin brought dnd set consist of master rule book, classic and advanced. And dices.
I was fascinated about provided sample story and vivid illustration (It was fighter's adventure, and he meet female cleric and solving talking statue's quetion, cleric got shot by evil mage's magical arrow and he bring her dead body to chapel and so on)
However before that I think I've seen some computer games dnd style, like ultima series. It's not dnd however similar things like dungeon and monsters, get xp points and rich etc.
And the game named dragon wars and dragon strike also dnd based game too bad I didn't knew about dnd at the time I played it.

ajwz

Not kidding, BG1 really was my first experience with dungeons and dragons.

Of course, I'd played stuff like Heroquest before hand so not my first roleplaying experience.

I get the feeling that if BG2 had been my first D&D experience, I wouldn't have gotten into D&D as much. I'm not criticising bg2, it is my favourite game, it's just that bg1 made magic items seems so rare and special it felt more like an adventure.

Illustair

I accidentally opened BG2 on a computer shop during my early high school years; I immediately fell in love with the game...for a few days I kept on coming back to play the game, only to be uninstalled by the owner a week later. Life went on of course.haha a year after I found out about Neverwinter Nights, I loved it almost as much as BG2...and played it for a long time. I couldn't play the NWN2 when it was released since my computer didn't have enough specs to play it. Only recently, maybe 3 or 4 years ago...I met a friend in college who also played BG2. I don't know how we came to the topic but we did, and I borrowed the game; I was still unsure that it was the game that I played back in high school, until I tried it. Only this time, it wasn't immediately a hit to me...the graphics seemed so outdated. I forced myself to play it, and before I realized it...it turned out to be my most favorite game ever. Only then did I know that the game is D&D. Ever since I've been switching from NWN2 (I eventually had the right computer), BG-2, TOEE, and IWD-2; only recently was I able to play BG-1 through BGT. That's my D&D story. :-)

EDIT: oh, I just realized...I may have played TOEE earlier than BG2, I can't recall. But one thing's for sure...what made me fell in love with BG2 the first time is that its graphics is similar to Jagged Alliance 2. I first played the demo of the latter when I was a kid.

TJ_Hooker

I picked the closest option I could find, but it's not quite right. I think the game that actually introduced me to BG was BG:DA for PS2. From there I went on to play a fair bit of DnD based games (mostly Infinity Engine/NWN). I've never played any kind of PnP game though.

Kurumi

Was into (C)RPGs long before BG.. PnP-wise with MERS (MERP), DnD and Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye) and CRPG-wise, I started with Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, the Gold-Box Games, etc..

LadyRhian

I started playing D&D back in 1977.

O_Bruce

As sad as it is, I never had a single opportunity to play PnP Dungeons and Dragons. I don't regret that, thought. For some odd reason, what got me into Baldur's Gate series was jus review in a game magazine. Those were the times, when I could go throught entire game magazines, thinking "whoa, I wish I could play that", contrary to nowadays "I don't give a damn".

While my only desire to learn DnD rules is limited to what I need to know while playing Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale series, it doesn't mean in not interested in Forgotten Relams. As a matter of fact, I am pretty interested and I recently got "Crystal Shard" by R.A Salvatore. I had to start reading Forgotten Relams novels from somewhere, hadn't I?

The only PnP game I had ever played was Warhammer, but it's not something I can brag about, seriously.

LMTR14

BG introduced me to D&D and I even bought some rulebooks even though I have nobody to actually play D&D with, just to learn how the system behind the videogames works.

CoM_Solaufein

My friends got me into D&D PnP games long before BG came out. BG was a good substitute from those fun long nights of PnP gaming.

Howie

First tried a session of Basic held by a friend, then I got into SAGA, then I got into Vampire: The Masquerade, then joined a local gaming group of all pnp games.

Chaotic_Good

Every fable I have lived through has created a much better man then the world around me would have allowed each journey has given me morality, heart, and inspiration in my everyday life. I know among men with these same interests I am among friends, though lost at times as we all can be; trustworthy men with good hearts and pure souls.

The first D&D game I played was Eye of the Beholder introduced to me by my stepfather though I may have played an older D&D game and not recognized the logo.

The first RPG I really loved was Secret of the Stars (SNES) check it out. It was introduced to me by my grandmother. She is like 80 and has beaten Skyrim she is a real gamer, she just sent me Farcry 3 cause she couldn't really get into it. It is so funny I never understood why she complained about new games until I played the old ones (I don't consider bg a old game). I am going to send her Dark Souls so I can see what she thinks.

Lemernis

About half a decade ago a NWN PW project I was involved with got me doing some play-by-post PnP style gaming using edition 3.0. The DM did all the dice rolling for us in the interest of keeping the game moving. So all the players really had to do was RP our characters.

I had done some of that also with the BG community about 10 years ago.

It really was a blast. Honestly, I think I enjoyed this form of gaming more than playing CRPGs.

Sily

I'm not exactly sure where my roots with D&D started, but I can pretty safely say that it was either Fantasy Literature or Video Games. I think I started with BG1, then moved on to NWN-series and all that as soon as they came out, but I did also read all Salvatore's books and all the Dragonlance novels in my teens.

Sadly I got into the P&P aspect only six or eight years ago, but oh boy, have I enjoyed it!


PS. My love for D&D and my interest in P&P games has led me on a journey which I've enjoyed fully. From The Dark Eye to all those smaller (and larger) P&P games...

But this experience has also had one bad side. I can no longer play simple RPGs. MMOs don't "light my fire", there's just not enough customization or freedom, and the gameplay certainly dosn't hold me down either. After experiencing the freedom of D&D (particularly 3.5), I want to be able to have more choises over my characters in RPGs. Not necessarily in conversation or dialogue/plot options, but more gameplay-related things!

DinsdalePiranha

Baldur's Gate introduced me to p&p rpgs, then a few months later I found a really cool group of friends to actually play 'em with.
then I discovered diviners... and after a few games sent off the rails straight to hell, I was asked not to play diviners anymore.
then I discovered illusionists, and sent an opposing army through a nonexistent bridge.

...let's just say I don't play many magic users nowadays.

Riolathel

Lemernis said:

About half a decade ago a NWN PW project I was involved with got me doing some play-by-post PnP style gaming using edition 3.0. The DM did all the dice rolling for us in the interest of keeping the game moving. So all the players really had to do was RP our characters.

I had done some of that also with the BG community about 10 years ago.

It really was a blast. Honestly, I think I enjoyed this form of gaming more than playing CRPGs.

that's pretty cool. I feel bad that i didn't even think of that as an option.

Wendschlag

I was into D&D a long time already, and mostly it is the rule set that makes the RPG come alive to me. Black Isle was just one of the many that were able to capture it very well.

eltonbarrel

i play d&d since 1996 and i was 14 years old.
sigh..... really young and fearless..... i know my first game at my dear friend thomas's house . initially creating a party on warhammer. after testing skills, we decide to interrupt and follow d&d. after 2 years baldur's gate broke our minds. great nerd times. thomas house rpg pen & paper. my house playing bg.
and , of course, first girls cheating about " boys" at school, first rpg beers party..... great.......

MedullaOblongata

A friend in high school introduced me to AD&D... and the rest was history n_n

Jalily

Where's the simple "I'm not into P&P" option? "I don't like DnD" is flat out wrong.

Riolathel

@jalily well i made none of the above for that reason, and if you don't like PnP how can you like DnD?

Jalily

I don't dislike P&P at all.

It's possible to not be into something without disliking it.

LadyRhian

Actually, let me expand on my answer. I was at summer camp after 4th grade when I saw some kids playing D&D at the pool. I listened in, asked to read the book and while they went in the pool, I read for most of the time. Ended up with a horrible sunburn on my back (I'd started out in the shade, but as time (and the sun) moved on, I didn't, and ended up with a very red back). I started to play with them. Not just at the pool, but at camp, too (it was a daily camp, not a sleepaway camp), and I ended up getting the game for my birthday that year- from Spencer Gifts, which should probably give you a clue how LONG AGO that was. This was before the basic set, this was OD&D- original D&D, the set that came out after the three pamphlets boxed set. This version:

My original set didn't even come with dice. It had chits that you cut up and picked from with numbers on them to simulate dice. Later, I got dice from the Compleat Strategist in NYC, but they were so badly made that I ended up getting rid of them all when better dice came out. My first character was a fighter, Zenobia, given a name out of my Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, and she had bright red hair and green eyes. She was probably my most favorite character, and the one who ended up becoming a Goddess.

roboticsun

not interested in D&D at all, but Baldur's Gate is really a fun game. I especially like the strategic elements of this game. Before BG, I mainly play computer strategy games like Civilization, HoMM and Warcraft. And BG is pretty much the game that got me into computer role playing.

rexreg

@LadyRhian
the cover you posted is the 1977 first iteration of Basic (Holmes)
OD&D consisted of 3 small-ish white books in a white or wood-colored box
http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/original.html
the above site is a write-up on OD&D books

Nonnahswriter

Believe it or not, it was my own mother that got me into both DnD and BG... XD We started looking through her old DnD books when I was a child, probably no older than 9 or 10, and a few years later, she ran a small campaign for me and my best friend.

Around the same time, I saw her playing BG2, and she was having some difficulty. She was fighting the huge demon-thing that says something along the lines of "I reap from the pains of suffering" or whatever. I instantly realized that you had to heal the monster in order to kill it, but she didn't believe me at first. When I finally gave up I stopped telling her what to do and I left the room, only to have my mom follow me a few minutes later, and say, "You were right... You did have to heal it."

I had never felt so proud of myself as a child. *sage-like nod*

LadyRhian

@rexreg I consider it OD&D because nothing on the Box said "Basic Set" (as far as I remember it. I did end up getting the OD&D box set later, and I had the "Gods, Demigods and Heroes" book, which I bought later that year for my D&D. In fact, I still have my green character sheets from that era. (and the orange ones for NPCs as well...

rexreg

@LadyRhian
i haven't seen those god-awful character sheets in a coon's age
the orange hurts us, my preciouss
ummm...i don't see room for a Reflex Save....

LadyRhian

@Rexreg Yes, those are the "I murdered my eyes" sheets. i have others as well, now.

Teflon

Nonnahswriter said:

Believe it or not, it was my own mother that got me into both DnD and BG... XD We started looking through her old DnD books when I was a child, probably no older than 9 or 10, and a few years later, she ran a small campaign for me and my best friend.

Around the same time, I saw her playing BG2, and she was having some difficulty. She was fighting the huge demon-thing that says something along the lines of "I reap from the pains of suffering" or whatever. I instantly realized that you had to heal the monster in order to kill it, but she didn't believe me at first. When I finally gave up I stopped telling her what to do and I left the room, only to have my mom follow me a few minutes later, and say, "You were right... You did have to heal it."

I had never felt so proud of myself as a child. *sage-like nod*

Umm @Nonnahswriter
Do you often play dnd pen and paper with your mother nowdays?
From yer story she was dungeon master I presume
My mother played diamond game with me but not dnd hehe.

Edwin

Infocom Games. The Zorks, Enchanter, spellbreaker, Wishbringer, etc. These were my first experience of tasking on another persona and exploring an imaginary world.

This was coincidentally around the same time I discovered Tolkien and a selection of D&D modules and books were near the software section. It was a natural progression.

I imagine the notion of an all-text adventure game would hold little fascination for many, but I know from reading the forums that there are folks here who remember the fun of hand-drawing your own maps before the phrase 'mini-map' was ever coined.