Sunday 7 August 2022

RPG A Day 2022--Day 8: Who Introduced You to RPGs?

 I have some Mandela Effect memories going on now at age 48. From earlier this year I mentioned watching the D&D cartoon during its first run and how that was my first interest in the hobby. That cartoon started in 1983 when I would have been nine years old. I distinctly remember trying to buy some kind of something D&D that may have been a thieves character kit--of course, you couldn't play the game with just that so it was lost to me. Looking it up online the one I remember getting early was released much later, so I'm wrong there somewhere. Nevertheless, there was one attempt early on that didn't quite click, but the interest was there. 

I have memories that can be confirmed of reading the 'Choose Your Own Adventure" and the 'Time Machine' books that were reader directed novels. Those apparently came out in '84 according to the Google. Later, in 1987 I encountered books with even more gaming elements involved with the 'Fighting Fantasy' and 'Wizards, Warriors, and You' books. I was living a very disastrous year in Alabama at the time so I distinctly remember those books being a help in getting me through it. I also recall other peers in grade 7 playing in D&D groups allegedly, but I was never a part of them. 

The next part gets a bit hazy. At some point after the family's return to Georgia, I got to go to Dragon*Con in Atlanta. It was during one of these Dragon*Con visits that I picked up the TSR 'Marvel Super Heroes' Advanced Set. From that time I really played and for the most part never looked back in one way or another. There were two older guys at a table in the dealer's room that sold me on buying it. I can give these unknown dealers the credit of really introducing me to the hobby proper. I remember my younger brother being with me, but I'm not sure if mom and dad were with me at the time or not. I did play with them later in an infamous game of Marvel Super Heroes that I related in a different RPG A Day blog entry back there somewhere, but what my dad did as the Hulk would have surely gotten him cancelled today. 



It was like this but a whole lot more...let's say politically incorrect. Hulk lost a lot of Karma points that day. 

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