The Moment(s) You Were Hooked to RPGs

[DeadBob]

In the UK at least I would say it's at least 70% responsible for the 80s RPG boom.

(There is very little in the UK RPG scene that isn't connected to Steve and Ian in some way, eager little bastards that they are).

I remember getting one or two of those supposedly for my kid brother when they became available over her in the US.

I think the CYOA books are great as a lead-in to RPGs because they can be frustrating, due to lack of any mechanics beyond Choose one of these two or three possible courses of action and see what happens.

I think of a few easily explained ways that even the most mechanically basic RPG and an inexperienced GM are a massive leap forward over that, which is really why I wish the experience of CYOAs was still common.

A week ago, I was asked by a friend who was not familiar with RPGs to explain D&D, as a mutual friend from work was talking about the campaign that they were running. If the friend in question had played/read CYOAs, it could have been done in all of about 5 minutes.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

I remember getting one or two of those supposedly for my kid brother when they became available over her in the US.

I think the CYOA books are great as a lead-in to RPGs because they can be frustrating, due to lack of any mechanics beyond Choose one of these two or three possible courses of action and see what happens.

I think of a few easily explained ways that even the most mechanically basic RPG and an inexperienced GM are a massive leap forward over that, which is really why I wish the experience of CYOAs was still common.

A week ago, I was asked by a friend who was not familiar with RPGs to explain D&D, as a mutual friend from work was talking about the campaign that they were running. If the friend in question had played/read CYOAs, it could have been done in all of about 5 minutes.

Ah, yeah, I was using the term in an overly broad way to describe gamebooks in general.

I think CYOA were a useful first step, but it's the Fighting Fantasy (and Lone Wolf, Grailquest etc.) that really acted as a ramp into RPGs for kids. Partly because, as you say, they had straightforward mechanics and introduced the concept of the dungeon crawl to a new audience.

 

[DeadBob]

Ah, yeah, I was using the term in an overly broad way to describe gamebooks in general.

I think CYOA were a useful first step, but it's the Fighting Fantasy (and Lone Wolf, Grailquest etc.) that really acted as a ramp into RPGs for kids. Partly because, as you say, they had straightforward mechanics and introduced the concept of the dungeon crawl to a new audience.

Oh, no, I understood. I think the FF books were very distinctive in some ways.

I specifically name-checked the CYOA books because they could be so damn frustrating sometimes with their lack of game type mechanics, and an inability (especially in the early ones) try to pull back from almost certain doom!

It was the frustration with those that made it easy to explain RPGs as an upgrade.

Instead of being " If you go down the darkened tunnel go to entry 73"
Entry 73: "Oops, you slide into a bottomless pit and are never heard from again. Your parents are sad for a while."

...in RPGs you could:
Have friends/other PCs along to help you out
Largely decide how to approach something mysterious or potentially dangerous, including options to poke and prod a bit before leaping in.
Could use gear to avoid the problem or improve your odds.
Even if weighted wildly against you, generally make some sort of roll to succeed, or possibly make a roll to not fail so badly.
Might be able to survive a brush with something harmful, at least once (hit points!).
Could actually have your odds based on skills of someone who wasn't a generic kid/tween as envisioned by the author.

It really is, just on those grounds, an enormous upgrade over the CYOA books, and that simple set of contrasts makes explaining the core concept of RPGs very easy, even before you get to talking about dungeons or dragons,or making a cool alternate personality/character to play.

I get that we all know this stuff, but it was absolutely mind-bending for Kid Me.

(I also think it helped that, in those ancient days, teachers commonly asked students after they'd read some short story, to imagine themselves in a situation similar to the characters, and how they might act or react, leaving the answers rather open-ended. Again, a bit like an RPG. I assume they still do that sort of thing, but I really don't know as it's been quite a long time since my own child was in grade school).

 

[Endless Flight]

It was 1984-1985 when I got hooked. I already knew about D&D but supers had been my jam because of my comics reading. I remember seeing Marvel Super Heroes on the shelf at a local hobby store and my imagination just started to run wild. I finally got the $12 or whatever it was to finally buy it. My first time GMing was running my friend through an adventure at the local library using MSH.

When DC Heroes came out the following year, it was even more intriguing to me, for some reason. Like DC was for more grown up RPG players. I bought it and loved the mechanics and just the whole presentation. The Garcia-Lopez art was like the cherry on top.

 

[Voros]

Pretty obvious way for my generation: one of my older brothers brought home The Red Box and roped his little brothers into playing with him. I think I became more entranced by the game than anyone else in my family but had the good fortune to have access to our increasingly large collection of B/X, 1e and BECMI material.

Even then though I think I would have burned out on D&D in my late teens/early 20s if I hadn't discovered the 3rd edition of Call of Cthulhu in our local FLGS. That opened up a totally different style of play to me.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

Even then though I think I would have burned out on D&D in my late teens/early 20s if I hadn't discovered the 3rd edition of Call of Cthulhu in our local FLGS. That opened up a totally different style of play to me.

Same with me if you replace "D&D" with "Vampire the masquerade" and "totally different style of play" with "goth girls in corsets".

 

[Acmegamer]

Pretty obvious way for my generation: one of my older brothers brought home The Red Box and roped his little brothers into playing with him. I think I became more entranced by the game than anyone else in my family but had the good fortune to have access to our increasingly large collection of B/X, 1e and BECMI material.

Even then though I think I would have burned out on D&D in my late teens/early 20s if I hadn't discovered the 3rd edition of Call of Cthulhu in our local FLGS. That opened up a totally different style of play to me.

It's a logical progression you often see when people mention how they continued on with ttrpgs. DnD is the gateway and you quickly start looking for something better mechanics and setting wise.

 

[3rik]

It's a logical progression you often see when people mention how they continued on with ttrpgs. DnD is the gateway and you quickly start looking for something better mechanics and setting wise.

I started out playing GURPS Fantasy, then bought my own rulebook and ran a homebrew Fantasy setting with it. Then came into contact with WOD and bought and ran some of that before moving on to Call of Cthulhu 6E and then Gamer ADD.

 

[ExCrusader]

My friends oldest brother ran us both through an adventure in second edition in about 89 I guess. I rolled up a human fighter, but didn’t have enough gold for a sword so I had a spear or polearm of some sort. I can still remember being attacked by stirges and not being able to hit it with my weapon because it was piercing my neck, so instead I grabbed it to pull it out, rolled a natural 20, and was told that I had squished it with my bare hand. Felt so badass.

first I ever owned and ran myself was Mentzer Basic. Not the box set, just the one little book with character creation. My dad brought it home from the lost and found at work and knew I would like it. I had never seen the actual books when I had played the first time, so this was all I had to go by. Made all my own monsters based on the stat lines in the example adventure (there weren’t many monsters in it, just a handful), and really based all my adventures on it as well. Hand wrote everything on loose leaf paper and put it in one of those duo-tang folders from my school supplies. Every other type of game I wanted to play was home brewed based on that one little book for a long time after.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

I was fascinated by role-playing games before I fully grasped what they were. There was a new age/hippy shop that had shelves of Fighting Fantasy, some old Citadel miniatures and a second hand bin of Dungeons & Dragons books. Oh, how I wish I had paid the scant few pounds they were asking to take the lot of them away.

I finally played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, mostly because I did not believe there was a role-playing game of something as new as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (you can't be a ninja in the UK, true story). But there was, my friend had it, he refereed... Something. It didn't really resemble a role-playing game so much as a freefrom combat encounter with a plot.

That was it. I was hooked right there. Me and mutant bat.

In the next few days I played D&D and on the weekend I played MERP. I was clueless, but I loved it. I had found my hobby.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

In the UK at least I would say it's at least 70% responsible for the 80s RPG boom.

(There is very little in the UK RPG scene that isn't connected to Steve and Ian in some way, eager little bastards that they are).

This is almost certainly true. I loved those books. A friend bought me a boxed set of the first five or six last year, just for the fun of it.

 

[Toadmaster]

Same with me if you replace "D&D" with "Vampire the masquerade" and "totally different style of play" with "goth girls in corsets".

I might have had more appreciation for VtM if somebody had mentioned the goth girls in corsets.

 

[FreeGamer]

It's already been mentioned by a few people, but I was hooked on RPGs pretty much since I read some CYOA stuff as a kid. There were a couple years there between 2nd and 4th grade where that was the bulk of what I checked out of the library. Probably the only time in my life I've used a library consistently. And I always gravitated towards sci-fi and fantasy media. So when I learned what an RPG was, it just sounded like the stuff I already liked +.

 

[Luca]

It was... I think 1986 or '87. First or second year at high school. One of my close friends keeps pestering the group about this "incredible new game" which is so different from everything else we know. The rest of us goes "yeah yeah, sure".

One day we finally relent and go to his home. BECMI red box. Player's Manual. "Read this book first". I read the introductory paragraphs with Aleena and Bargle.
Mind blown.

To this day, I still hate fucking Bargle. And red box BECMI is still the best introduction to RPGs ever written.

 

[Winterblight]

1982 I think was my intro to B/X. A friend of mine was moving to the US as his father had got a job there. They weren't supposed to come back, but they did the same year. My friend returned with D&D, still unopened. I knew I was hooked when we started filling in the numbers of the oddly shaped dice with the yellow crayon.

 

[NinjaWeasel]

Like many UK gamers, Fighting Fantasy books were my gateway into RPGs. I still remember that sunny afternoon when, after school, my Mum and sister came home from the local bookshop and my sister had Warlock of Firetop Mountain in her hand.

I'm not sure what year this was but that copy had no FF logo, or mention of Fighting Fantasy, on it so I guess it was 1982 or 1983. After my sister had done with it I was allowed to read it and it blew my tiny mind! My sister bought a few more and then I started buying them regularly along with Warlock, the Fighting Fantasy magazine.

Warlock made me aware of the White Dwarf magazine and D&D as well as RPGs in general. The idea of playing a game:with my friends in a Fighting Fantasy style setting where we could do "anything" really captured my imagination! It would be a long while before I got chance to play an RPG but, in the meantime, I learned a bit about D&D, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, and a few others.

At Christmas 1986 I finally got my grubby mitts on some RPGs!!! My Mum bought me the BECMI red box set and Games Workshop's Judge Dredd box set too. This led to a great deal of disappointment... I loved D&D's cover and interior art but, man, when I read it it wasn't what I expected. I thought, at first, maybe I wasn't clever enough to get it. In fact it stopped me from reading JD for a while as I figured I wouldn't get that either. However, eventually I did read JD and that? It was exactly what I was expecting. I realized that I wasn't stupid after all but that D&Ds rules were, to my mind, just garbage (sorry D&D fans). It was a mish mash of mechanics that just didn't gel for me and didn't even have Skills! Later some friends got heavily into AD&D and playing that just confirmed my belief that the mechanics were bad. Sadly, none of my friends were interested in playing Judge Dredd so it looked like my RPG phase was over.

But not for long! Because in 1987 I found a copy of the TMNT RPG! This was before the cartoon was on TV (at least in the UK, I certainly hadn't heard of it) and I was into the Mirage comics. The rules clicked with me (probably because JD had percentile skills aswell) and my friends loved the character creation too. It was an easy sell and we all loved it! Finally, I got to play and GM something that I actually enjoyed. We played TMNT a lot. Good times.

When the TMNT cartoon appeared on UK TV it massively reduced people's interest in the game as they started to associate it with "kid stuff". We were only 11 years old but, hey, kids can be dicks about this sort of thing! However... Paranoia, Twilight 2000, Heroes Unlimited, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay came into our lives. These were pretty cool and kept us very much into RPGs before 1990 and the arrival of Rifts. For about 5 years Rifts would be all I played and, towards the end, I really burnt out on it as a setting and on RPGs in general.

Around 97 I was lurking in a comic shop and decided to have a look at the RPG section out of curiosity. Star Wars 2nd Revised and Bubblegum Crisis really caught my attention. Especially the latter as I was really into Anime and Manga at the time. I was pleased to see Cyberpunk 2020 was on the shelves still too. It was enough to get me thinking about RPGs again but my gaming friends were away at University and we were too into going out drinking and going to Clubs at that time.

Then in late 1999 I bought my first PC and got access (albeit very limited due to the cost of dial-up) to the web at home. Sometime in early December I discovered RPG.net and that drew me back in by introducing me to a whole shit ton of games I never knew existed! I started getting into GURPS (which I'd heard of in the 80s), the extended BRP family, and the Unisystem games over the next few years. Many other games would come along in time too. By 2004 I was really back into RPGs in a big way.

Well, I guess that was a pretty long post! But those were my key RPG moments summarised.

 

[Baulderstone]

But not for long! Because in 1987 I found a copy of the TMNT RPG! This was before the cartoon was on TV (at least in the UK, I certainly hadn't heard of it) and I was into the Mirage comics. The rules clicked with me (probably because JD had percentile skills aswell) and my friends loved the character creation too. It was an easy sell and we all loved it! Finally, I got to play and GM something that I actually enjoyed. We played TMNT a lot. Good times.

When the TMNT cartoon appeared on UK TV it massively reduced people's interest in the game as they started to associate it with "kid stuff".

I think TMNT was the first game I played after D&D, but nobody wanted to be seen with a copy of it after that cartoon came out.

 

[TGryph]

My friend and I were hooked on Avalon Hill wargames. On a whim, I picked up Magic Realm. After playing it, he said "Hey, there is a new game I heard about." So, later that week I was in a bicycle/hobby shop in Rochester, MI where I saw and purchased the Holmes Basic book. Ran my friend, another friend, and his stepdad though it once. 43 years later, still going strong....

 

[NinjaWeasel]

I think TMNT was the first game I played after D&D, but nobody wanted to be seen with a copy of it after that cartoon came out.

Yeah, that bloody cartoon really ruined things didn't it?! Towards the mid-90s I think my friends were getting interested in revisiting it but then there was a wave of publicity in the UK about the more... Er... Seedy and fetishistic elements of the Furry community. That absolutely killed off any interest.

 

[DeadBob]

1982 I think was my intro to B/X. A friend of mine was moving to the US as his father had got a job there. They weren't supposed to come back, but they did the same year. My friend returned with D&D, still unopened. I knew I was hooked when we started filling in the numbers of the oddly shaped dice with the yellow crayon.

Oh yeah. I remember how magical those dragon dice seemed the first time I got to see and handle them i person. That to really did make RPGs special.

 

[3rik]

I might have had more appreciation for VtM if somebody had mentioned the goth girls in corsets.

AFAIK it often sounded better than it looked in practice...

Edit: I'll add that this is mostly based on hearsay, as I personally never engaged in LARP and we didn't have any female players in our group at the time.

 

[Lofgeornost]

It's a logical progression you often see when people mention how they continued on with ttrpgs. DnD is the gateway and you quickly start looking for something better mechanics and setting wise.

I think that’s true. For me it was more setting than mechanics—a year or so into playing OD&D I encountered Empire of the Petal Throne and it showed how much richer the background for an RPG could be. Not that my home brews ever reached that level of sophistication.

 

[Fenris-77]

I think that’s true. For me it was more setting than mechanics—a year or so into playing OD&D I encountered Empire of the Petal Throne and it showed how much richer the background for an RPG could be. Not that my home brews ever reached that level of sophistication.

Yup. My moment there was the first time I open my shiny new copy of the Forgotten Realms boxed set. I know the Realms are little passé for some people now, but at the time it was a revelation.

 

[AsenRG]

I remember getting one or two of those supposedly for my kid brother when they became available over her in the US.

I think the CYOA books are great as a lead-in to RPGs because they can be frustrating, due to lack of any mechanics beyond Choose one of these two or three possible courses of action and see what happens.

I think of a few easily explained ways that even the most mechanically basic RPG and an inexperienced GM are a massive leap forward over that, which is really why I wish the experience of CYOAs was still common.

A week ago, I was asked by a friend who was not familiar with RPGs to explain D&D, as a mutual friend from work was talking about the campaign that they were running. If the friend in question had played/read CYOAs, it could have been done in all of about 5 minutes.

Funny enough, I've seen (and used) "CYOA books" as a generic name for gamebooks. Some people on other RPG forums didn't seem to understand what I mean by "gamebooks", so I started using them this way.

Even funnier, the first gamebook of the "new wave" (meaning published in the previous decade, which lead to a modest revival of the gamebooks around here) had no mechanics. However, it had a few scores of codewords, and if you get to the final, you get a "good play" assessment depending on which ones you have earned, so basically it had mechanics.
And the follow-up offered a choice of playing with or without dice-based mechanics.

 

[Malakor]

Funny enough, I've seen (and used) "CYOA books" as a generic name for gamebooks. Some people on other RPG forums didn't seem to understand what I mean by "gamebooks", so I started using them this way.

Even funnier, the first gamebook of the "new wave" (meaning published in the previous decade, which lead to a modest revival of the gamebooks around here) had no mechanics. However, it had a few scores of codewords, and if you get to the final, you get a "good play" assessment depending on which ones you have earned, so basically it had mechanics.
And the follow-up offered a choice of playing with or without dice-based mechanics.

Every time I see CYOA, my brain first translates it to "Cover Your Own A$$" and THEN, 'Oh, yeah; Create Your Own Adventure". Not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive

 

[Malakor]

And on topic for the thread. . .

I was introduced to RPG's in 1980, when I was stationed in Orlando in the Navy. Several of my friends played, and had told me about it repeatedly, to which I usually replied "that's nice."

Then, one weekend when both of the girls I was dating were out of town and I was low on funds and planning on spending a Saturday night reading in the barracks, they offered again and said "There will be pizza." Pizza always wins out, even though Navy Mess is usually really good.

They were playing a (as found out later), heavily house-ruled 1st Edition AD&D game. I was handed a half-elf ranger to play, and used my buddy's dice.
After about half an hour, I was really having a great time. Next day, my buddy and I went to Enterprise 1701, (if I recall the name correctly) the Orlando area gaming store, and I purchased my first set of dice, a Ral Partha Miniature and a Player's Handbook.

I have been playing and running games ever since. Actually got both of the girls I was dating to join us at the games (yeah, they knew about and actually knew each other ).

 

[AsenRG]

Every time I see CYOA, my brain first translates it to "Cover Your Own A$$" and THEN, 'Oh, yeah; Create Your Own Adventure". Not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive

And you can cover your own derriere with a CYOA book if you wanted to make it (CYOA)^2!

And on topic for the thread. . .

I was introduced to RPG's in 1980, when I was stationed in Orlando in the Navy. Several of my friends played, and had told me about it repeatedly, to which I usually replied "that's nice."

Then, one weekend when both of the girls I was dating were out of town and I was low on funds and planning on spending a Saturday night reading in the barracks, they offered again and said "There will be pizza." Pizza always wins out, even though Navy Mess is usually really good.

Note to self: next time I plan to introduce newbies, I should bring the pizza.
...though I think I'd stick to pancakes, instead!

They were playing a (as found out later), heavily house-ruled 1st Edition AD&D game. I was handed a half-elf ranger to play, and used my buddy's dice.
After about half an hour, I was really having a great time. Next day, my buddy and I went to Enterprise 1701, (if I recall the name correctly) the Orlando area gaming store, and I purchased my first set of dice, a Ral Partha Miniature and a Player's Handbook.

I have been playing and running games ever since. Actually got both of the girls I was dating to join us at the games (yeah, they knew about and actually knew each other ).

So the important question is, were they the first girl gamers in this group?

 

[Malakor]

And you can cover your own derriere with a CYOA book if you wanted to make it (CYOA)^2!


Note to self: next time I plan to introduce newbies, I should bring the pizza.
...though I think I'd stick to pancakes, instead!


So the important question is, were they the first girl gamers in this group?

Yes, they were. And both civilians

 

[AsenRG]

Yes, they were. And both civilians

That's the way!

Follow-up question related to one of my own theories: after they joined, did you have an easier time recruiting for new players?

 

[Torque2100]

It was, of all things, several DnD themed FoxTrot comic strips. As a kid, I read the Sunday funny pages religiously. FoxTrot was one of my favorites. At one point they re-ran a strip of Jason playing DnD with Peter. It was the first time I'd seen the term "Dungeon Master" and I thought this game they were playing sounded super fun.

The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Malakor]

That's the way!

Follow-up question related to one of my own theories: after they joined, did you have an easier time recruiting for new players?

Absolutely. We also wound up with four groups playing in the rec hall by the time I was shipped out to my next assignment, and every group was mixed male and female, civilian and Navy, and a mix of officer and enlisted. We had to read the riot act to a couple of ensigns to explain that they left their rank at the door of the game, and one left in a huff, the other turned out to be a great guy.

 

[AsenRG]

Absolutely. We also wound up with four groups playing in the rec hall by the time I was shipped out to my next assignment, and every group was mixed male and female, civilian and Navy, and a mix of officer and enlisted. We had to read the riot act to a couple of ensigns to explain that they left their rank at the door of the game, and one left in a huff, the other turned out to be a great guy.

Great! Thank you for sharing that, the detail about the ensign is really funny...and I doubt many non-military guys would have that experience!

Also, my theory was confirmed. (If anyone is wondering, the "theory" is my simple advice "get girls to play first, the guys are going to find you themselves", which I've offered to friends that struggled to start a new group)!

 

[Silverlion]

It was... I think 1986 or '87. First or second year at high school. One of my close friends keeps pestering the group about this "incredible new game" which is so different from everything else we know. The rest of us goes "yeah yeah, sure".

One day we finally relent and go to his home. BECMI red box. Player's Manual. "Read this book first". I read the introductory paragraphs with Aleena and Bargle.
Mind blown.

To this day, I still hate fucking Bargle. And red box BECMI is still the best introduction to RPGs ever written.

There is an adventure out there called 'The Shrine of St. Aleena', also one I believe is 'Let's Kill Bargle!' I deeply wish I could play those. With some form of early D&D.

 

[Toadmaster]

It was 1978, the summer between 4th and 5th grade, a friend invited me over to play a new game he had. I had heard of D&D but knew very little about it beyond what the title suggested. I had a half elven fighter, a shield, a spear, a sword and a sack full of torches. I used the classic Ral Partha elf spearman with a Greek styled helmet.



I was hooked, not sure what rules he was using for those first games but I patently waited for each of the AD&D books to be published and then arrive at the Lakeshore Toyhouse where I would check each week until I had a copy in my hands.

In 5th grade things really took off as I met a number of other kids hooked on D&D. One of these new friends older brother ran a Traveller game and let some of us join. The friend who introduced me to D&D later ran my Newtling through Apple Lane (Runequest).

By high school the search for the new RPG hotness was in full swing, and it only let up when I didn't have the time.


I'm always intrigued with those who had the mythical female gamers in their groups. One downside to my early RPG experience was it was always a sausage fest. Perhaps a bit of the time/place/age, I'm thinking teenage girl gamers were not widely socially acceptable in the US pre VtM. During one of my gaming lulls I dated a girl who was very interested in RPGs but had not been allowed to play. She had dated a guy in high school who played D&D but either he didn't want her to play or his group didn't allow women unclear which. The only group I knew at that time that had an active game, the GM had a similar policy, not an outright ban on women, but he strongly discouraged wives / girlfriends. That group did have a husband / wife pair in that group at one time but she was an established gamer before joining. I had not been playing with them for a few years by then, so not really in a position to try and get them to change their attitude. Kind of ironically the last group I had played with was the only one to include multiple women (a wife and a fiancé) but that group fell apart shortly before I started dating her (GM was kind of a pill). Years later we ran into one of the players (the guy with the fiancé, by then married and divorced) and it turns out she went to high school with him, so with different timing that group might have worked.

My wife is a gamer, but again after we were dating. She did read D&D and other fantasy novels at work which along with her other, errr attributes did attract my attention.
She had long been interested in RPGs, but between living in a backwards small town where D&D was seen as bad by the very conservative adults, and the backwards guys expected "their women" to be blond with long hair, big green eyes, world class breasts, ass that won't quit and legs that go allllll the way up, and oh yeah they don't play D&D.

 

[ffilz]

I had a couple girls join my high school game. Sorry to say that the other guys and I were immature and we ran them off.

In college I had some women join my games with more success.

Since then, I have on and off had a woman or two in my games. My RQ Thieves Guild campaign has two. We had a woman drift through the Gloranthan campaign for several sessions.

 

[Moracai]

There was this time I first played rpgs, with D&D redbox. My first character died from encountering the first monster (carrion crawler), in the first round of combat.

And another time when I first played WFRP1. I almost rage-quitted for having a scalp wound critical that prevented me from seeing properly.

I still play both of those games, but somewhat newer editions.

 

[Toadmaster]

I had a couple girls join my high school game. Sorry to say that the other guys and I were immature and we ran them off.

In college I had some women join my games with more success.

Since then, I have on and off had a woman or two in my games. My RQ Thieves Guild campaign has two. We had a woman drift through the Gloranthan campaign for several sessions.

I did start to run across female gamers in my early 20s but by then we are getting into the MtG and VtM era, which at least from my perspective caused an upswing in the number of women in gaming.

I started going to gaming conventions in the early 80s and even there with hundreds of gamers women were just a small minority, maybe 10% at most. Big difference from what I've seen in more recent years.

 

[Brock Savage]

It wasn't until my late teens/early 20's that females made a regular appearance at the table but from age 13 I had a girl who joined my games of Cyberpunk (and later Vampire and SLA Industries). She was beautiful and bright but could be extremely crude, openly smoked pot (remember it was still illegal) and was shamelessly promiscuous. Most males would either hate on her or simp on her but someone who could be chill and normal around her was usually pretty cool.

Funny I haven't thought about her for while and she was my best friend for 20 years.

 

[Acmegamer]

Oddly, we always had some female players even the late 70's in our groups. Even the owner of that first game shop I went to was actually owned by a female.

 

[Yeti Spaghetti]

I guess this might be somewhat unique, because I was partly intrigued by the game because of the Satanic Panic, and my parents who were very much against me playing. I was slowly acclimated to actual AD&D sometime around 86 or 87 in middle school. My friend, who would later become my DM, kept bringing his books to school, and I would often peak at them while we sat and waited for classes.

Thumbing through the Monster Manual eventually did me in. I had been a big fan of Universal monsters and, as many have been noting, CYOA books. Apparently the AD&D MM brought that all together for me.

I eventually discovered Chill by the early 90s, which allowed me to more directly scratch my monster-loving itch.