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What was the game that introduced you to RPGs, even if you never played it but introduced you to the idea?

Extra credit: What game do you wish was your first RPG?

For me is was Star Frontiers. It was our mainstay for 4-5 years before we mainly played my homebrew space odyssey and a lot of Robotech.

What do I wish was my first RPG? I'm not sure I would change it from Star Frontiers but I wonder what would have happened if I'd been introduced to RPGs through Traveller.

I was introduced to the concept of RPing at the very beginning of fifth grade. The story is pretty much THE how I got into RPGs deal: my classmate's older brother was a gamer, my friend played with them once, told me about the experience and I really liked the idea, and wanted to try it as well. The game they played was M.A.G.U.S. - it's an early Hungarian fantasy RPG, with its own world (called Ynev) and system - of course, influenced by all kinds of stuff, but in retrospective, the system seems quite independent.

BUT.

We didn't play M.A.G.U.S., because we found the system too tedious. Also, its system used d10's and they were hard to come around (just one or two specialized shops were carrying them). So we sat down with this friend of mine and designed our own system with easy-to-get d6's and world. So basically the first game I played was a home made one. We read parts of the rulebook, my friend knew how to play, so we based it off of that. My friend did most of the mechanics (my only contribution was the damage system, with random hits - you rolled 2d6 or something and that determined which body part got hit). I did most of the world - it was a mixed bag, with some stuff picked up from Tolkien, but most of it came from either random ideas or Michael Ende's "The Neverending Story" which I was really into. My favourite thing was the silver city of Amarganth, so Amarganthians were a playable race. Ah, also at the first place, there was no distionction between races and classes. You couldn't be an Amarganthian Magician (but Amarganthians got some special spells), there was no Ranger class but a special race that were druids/rangers (called the Daravaqs or something equally FANTASY). But there were several human "subtypes", like fighter, magician, thief and bard. We played at school, during lunchbreaks, etc. Made tons of drawings, maps...

The funny thing is, my friend still has a folder full of our old papers!

A year or so later we switched to M.A.G.U.S., though. By the way, it's still published, now probably around its fifth or so edition. Lots of novels, too. Haven't played it in yeaaaars, though we have a plan to do some sorts of a retro nostalgia night and whip it out. I still remember most of the character generation rolls, experience tables...


What do I wish was my first RPG? Dunno, I'm happy the way it all turned out. It's good that I came into the hobby this way.


Edit: the very first "edition" of our game was very computer-influenced, and basically consisted of "pre-generated" character sheets I drew on index cards, with an inventory grid filled with artistically designed goods and weapons and whatnot. We ditched this approach the next day because, well, drawing those potions was way too fun to erase them when used!!

. It totally blew my mind. Which one do I wish had been my first? Maybe . Then I could have been playing it another two years more than I have already .

Unless you count my experience with the wargame side of Battletech, Shadowrun was my first tabletop game.

Looking back, I don't regret this, though I think it would be interesting to see what I would have done had I started in on d20 before starting Shadowrun, rather than after, though since I'd already played Neverwinter Nights for a watered down D&D experience I'm not sure how much of a difference it would have made.

To age my self....D&D..no like the real one, where elf was a class! it was the encyclopedia version where they had in all in one book. I started in 5th grade.


honest I'm fine with that being my start....

Technically, it was a game book with role playing elements: "Car Wars: Green Circle Blues", but the first true person moderated game was Rifts, from Palladium Books. Not the best system-wise, but there is a lot going for the story, even if it makes no sense, and has no balance, and stupid art and...

Ahh, but there is the rub! It is the faults in Rifts that inspired me to pick up game design on my own. Would I be doing this if I was more content with the system? D&D has its downsides and inspired alternate versions itself (ie Palladium's home system at its core reads like house-rules to AD&D, which is why it breaks down in SF settings.) BESM has a bit less to pick apart (though no game is without flaw, of course.)

If I had started before High School, chances are it would have been some variant of AD&D - 3rd edition only came out about the time I started senior year.

I started playing roleplaying games nearly three years ago, even if I was aware of roleplaying games much longer because I played Magic the gathering and the lord of the rings tabletopgame. But I never knew the right people to play such a game with.

Then I started playing online via Team Speak. The first RPG was World of Darkness: Deamons the fallen. It was quite fun but did not last very long due to diffenences in our group.

I wish I had started with PDQ# because I like the system. But I don't regret starting with something different.

The Swedish game Mutant (http://www.runan.info/rollspelsgalleri-nya-mutant/), possibly not the way it was meant to be played.

D&D, Basic (aka the original Red Box). I'm embarrassed to say I waited until I was the recommended age on the box.

What do I wish was my first game? I'm fine with the game,I just wish that I started younger, so that I could start designing earlier.