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My first RPG was this one...



We played it from sundown to sunset. I usually was the gamemaster or - when somebody else was gamemaster - the wizard.

I still have a copy at home of this original one.

What was your first RPG?

AD&D I think. Probably Planescapes.

Heroquest all the way, baby. Back when it was in circulation, no less!

D&D 3.5... not the best thing out there, but everyone I play with knows it, at least

Pathfinder for me, I was a dwarf.
It was just one or two years ago^^

Rifts 25 years ago. If I ever want to experience that feeling again, I just need to pick up the latest Rifts books since Palladium hasn't bothered to ever really update it since instead ignoring the past quarter century of game design.

Basic D&D. I remember being in 3rd grade; my brother pulling Keep on the Borderlands out and telling me we were playing. Still have a soft spot for that module.

Earliest I recall is the original D&D Red Box. I never thought of HeroQuest as an RPG but I did play that as well, just not sure which first. It is probably what got me into miniature gaming.

D&D (Holmes Basic version)

Holmes Blue Book D&D (with the crappy polyhedral dice and the module In Search of the Unknown (original cover). Still Have the book, but module and box are long disintegrated :( I gave the dice away. I don't miss them.

3rd edition D&D using KenzerCo's Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. Kronk, the Half-Orc Barbarian.

Chaosium Call Cthulhu, second edition box set. Still one of my favourite games

Advanced Fighting Fantasy - a very nice, simple system.

Mine is probably AD&D 2e. I don't miss the janky, all over the place system, but I still have all my old books just the same.

 warboss wrote:
Rifts 25 years ago. If I ever want to experience that feeling again, I just need to pick up the latest Rifts books since Palladium hasn't bothered to ever really update it since instead ignoring the past quarter century of game design.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness was my go-to game for the better part of a decade. My friends and I played just about every day at school and on weekends. Sure, the system was (and is) terrible, but we didn't know better. Every once in a while I wax all nostalgic and break out the books and roll up a character. Then I realize why I stopped playing it, but no other system has really ever had a "mutant critters" system that felt as good as TMNTaOS did.

First one I was ever exposed to: Street Fighter

I was in high school and my buddy Nick was talking about playing Street Fighter in the Art room. I thought they had a Super Nintendo hooked up to a TV or something. Turns out it was an RPG. At the time I didn't know too much about pen and paper RPGs. All I knew was that it was the coolest thing to take part in even if we didn't get passed character creation. (I made a half man, half tiger dude who had cybernetics and knew the same fighting style as Fei Long. His name was Bungalow Bill)

First one I seriously played and understood was an RPG: Dungeons & Dragons 3.5

It was maybe a year or 2 before 4th edition came out. I played a half-orc ranger fighter character named Ruckus. It was mostly a summer thing. Once fall came around the other players and DM had to go back to school. I really missed that time: The store owner was more about the games rather than the business, my anxiety was not as bad, and finding players was never difficult.

1st Edition AD&D, circa 1985.

Basic D&D, early 80s.

The first RPG I played was Labyrinth Lord using a campaign book from AD&D 1E in the far-off year of 2011.

The first RPG I ran was Dark Heresy. I had never played a single game before I got drafted as GM. That campaign lasted for 3 years.

I've still never actually played DH.

GURPS, a fantasy game. Pretty fun! Then In Nomine, a game about Angels and Demons. Totally blew my mind.

After that, 3.0 D'n'D, planescape and ravenloft.

Is HeroQuest an RPG? It always struck me as distinctly a board game inspired by RPGs. Warhammerquest seemed more RPGish, but still not quite there. I guess many fantasy RPGs were/are pretty hack n slash, and railroaded, so maybe it is.

Anyway, my first RPG foray was with the good old red box D&D. Didn't get really into it until AD&D 2nd edition, but still hung onto the Monstrous Compendiums and Rules Cyclopedia. It was my gateway drug and I tried all kinds of stuff after that- Rifts, Star Wars RPG, Rolemaster, CoC. Even a bit of Vampire the Masquerade LARP (it kind of scared me and I quickly pulled out of that, even though I was glad the LARPers had a good time!).

Pathfinder. Although depending on how you define it Warhammer Quest may count (probably not though).

Pathfinder is a rough one to start with! So many moving parts and little fiddly bits. But lots of stuff available for free, which is a bonus.

 Da Boss wrote:
Pathfinder is a rough one to start with! So many moving parts and little fiddly bits. But lots of stuff available for free, which is a bonus.

If you just start with the core book it’s not so bad.

It’s not Rolemaster, Mythos, Champions, or many of the other crunch-heavy systems I’ve played.

But it’s not something simple like Savage Worlds, or WoD.

Pathfinder, just the basic Black Fang quest to start with. Good fun, and I maintain it was probably the best I've done.

The first I GM'd was Imagine. Again, my players seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Around 1980 we got into AD&D which was about when the 3 main books were all out (DM guide, player's handbook and monster manual).

BUT

We were freaks and were playing "Rolemaster" as well.
Affectionately called "rulesmaster" by those who loved to scratch their head at the detail of it.
We would joke that an field mouse could smear a level 1 character.

We played AD&D but used the charts and damage tables for natural 20 rolls from Rolemaster... brutal. The "critical strike" tables were not for the faint at heart. Something about receiving permanent injuries made things more characterful.

Ah! here it is:
http://medkorp2k.free.fr/JdR/RM/5800%20-%20Rolemaster%20Fantasy%20Role%20Playing.pdf
Look at page 231 to 241... yes, that is correct, 11 pages of various "types" of methods to get hurt.

Heh, we refer to it as “chartmaster” For every problem, there is a table to roll on.

And don’t knock the tiny animal crit table. It might not kill you often, but making you wish you were dead happened much more frequently.

And there was no level you were able to wade through “chaff” monsters. Even that puny goblin could open end a couple of times on his hit roll and put a spear through your eye.

 Nevelon wrote:
Even that puny goblin could open end a couple of times on his hit roll and put a spear through your eye.

Yeah, the horde encounters would be a campaign ender fast enough... the combat was more personal because you wanted as few hits on you as possible (<edit> more than normal, you felt it was a matter of time until something REALLY bad comes up on the critical table: adventuring without a leg sucks.).
It is not the arrow with your name on it to be concerned with, it is the one addressed "to whom it may concern".
Going up a few levels really seemed to mean something.
That was why AD&D mainly took over: why be a feeble "adventurer" when you can be a hero of epic proportions?!

Heh, Rolemaster's open ended rolling and crit tables were both hilarious and terrifying. I remember one session where a well armored, well armed player decided a frontal assault on a group of orcs was a great idea. Even the wizard got in on it- magical protection after all. Nice idea until the single orc he was fighting buried a blade in his chest (I think it was a Slash D 100). Whoops!

RNG is a cruel god.....

I think anyone who played Rolemaster can recount a few tales of incredibly scary rolling leading to a "terrifying" conclusion.

I think that is why we jumped to "James Bond 007" (1983) the roleplaying game for a time. With the advent of "hero points" we were happy to have a hope to survive fumble / critical failure rolls. BTW "Odd Job" or our name for him "Random Task" (edit: funny how Austin Powers came up with that name as well) was my nemesis in all things.

<edit> I am now suffering some serious flashbacks. I must admit, I do little RPG now but it was amazing and "vital" to me way back when.

So yeah, I think I did start off with that red box D&D kit but barely looked at it and went straight into AD&D with insane rolemaster charts... fun times!

Savage Worlds: Deadlands