RPGaDay1 2014: The First RPG I Played

Like many people, the first RPG I played was Dungeons and Dragons.

My grandmother bought it and sent it to my sister and I as a Christmas present one year.  It was a pretty red box.

1980 Cover

We read it, I barely understood it, but I wanted to play it.  My sister, being five years older than me, was of course, not interested in playing the game with her little brother.

Not too long afterward, we were visiting some friends in Alabama while my dad was going through some training.  These friends had a son close to my sisters age.  I was able to get a chance to play.

I died, horribly, because the DM did not want me playing because of my age.  I was 9 or 10, the DM was 16 or 17 and my sister was 15 or so.

Dirk the Dimwit was no more.

No deterrent for me, I ended up continuing to play when we were stationed in Arizona.  Met a few people at school and I fell in love with the game.

From there, everything snowballed.

Dungeons and Dragons, Twilight 2000, James Bond 007, Star Frontiers, you name it, we played it.  We converted our favorite TV shows and movies to the different game systems we were playing.  We even converted them all over to Dungeons and Dragons.

Then the big "Satanic Panic" happened.

Dungeons and Dragons was satanic, the lead figures had demons in them, you could hear them scream if you melted them, and various other misconceptions were laid upon me.

But James Bond, Star Frontier and Star Ace were absolutely fine.

At one point, I was in a boys home.  Dungeons and Dragons was not allowed, so we made up our own using the rules that I could remember off the top of my head.  I was a full-blown gamer at this point.

From there, things just kept moving.  I traveled further and further down the gaming path.  I have never looked back.