How'd you get into D&D?

[pinewoodpine]

I was introduced with D&D with Icewind Dale. Following my JRPG instinct, I made a less-than-smart decision - soloing a game that was supposed to be tackled by at least a four PCs. With a level 1 wizard. It did not end well. Realizing that it was a board game, I looked it up primarily to get better in IWD. Understanding the core concepts definitely helped me going through IWD and the BG saga. Then IWD2 and NWN happened, and it was then when I seriously picked up the rulebook and started learning about it.

I managed to find myself joining groups with people older than me (I was but a wee lad back then). I still remember my first proper character was a sorcerer whose sole responsibility was to blast anything that seems hostile to bits (in short, the boomstick). I have also played a sexy cleric (i've rolled an ungodly amount of success on diplomacy & bluff rolls with her), an inquisitive artificer (who didn't manage to graduate wizardry school) and an only-sane-man archer (because SOMEONE has to do range support in a party of already beefy barbarians/fighters/drunkards).

I've also started DMing games for D20 modern (I DMed a few short zombie campaigns/resident evil crossover), but I didn't run full fantasy campaigns until I've fully settled with 4e Pathfinder a few years ago.

[Agemegos]

I read an article about RPGs in an issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1979. It was "On Evenings Beyond the Fields We know", by the late John M. Ford. I found it very convincing. The following year I moved from the country town where I had grown up to Sydney, a major city, to attend a selective high school. I sought out fellow students who played these intriguing-sounding games, and fell in with a group who played AD&D.

[step7012]

To put it simply, one of my friends asked us "Hey, wanna play?"

His brother had talked to him on and off about his group, and my friend came to us and was like "You're a bunch of nerds too, right?" We nodded and he kept going, "So, I've heard about this game D&D..." and the rest is history. We discovered recently that it's the real reason we've all kept so close over the last four years. It's truly a one of a kind game.

[Begon Ugo]

We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. We lived in an apartment complex and my parents would clean the laundry rooms for extra cash. One day my mom came home with R.A. Salvatore’s Streams of Silver and Dragonlance #1 novels. Someone had left them behind. That was 32 years ago. Literally shaped my life.

[gjf2a]

My next-door neighbor invited me to play when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I think. I soon got the Basic D&D set, and after that I was totally hooked. I played throughout my teenage years but stopped in college. Over 25 years later, my interest has been reignited.

[Ghalev]

I had discovered GMing through TSR's Marvel Superheroes RPG, and wanted to find some new players in a new town we'd moved to. Noticed a comic shop, and the sign said it was also a game shop (and a used bookshop, too)!

Went in to browse, and they had a big sign advertising a gaming club. That weekend, gamed at that shop for a couple of days straight, trying new games, including my first real game of D&D. I'd been shown the game a couple years earlier but never played a full session before.

A few weeks later got a job there working for store credit, and games got right into my bloodstream =)

[Pheehelm]

Order of the Stick and the affiliated forums. I'm fond of CRPGs, so there was a bit of familiarity to OotS even without already knowing the rules, and my interest in D&D developed from there.

[VaultDweller]

Dragonlance was my first foray into the world. I was instantly hooked. I didn't discover Drizzt until years later. Then I found Critical Role and moved from just reading about the world to playing in the world. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[Socksy]

I just threw myself into a Neverwinter Nights persistent world with zero idea of what I was doing or what Faerun was. I was hooked after that.

[ItsMeTay]

I would just like to say D&D is such an amazing experience

It allows people to express themselves and to test their acting/critical thinking/imagination skills!

I've always played homebrews and they usually are a ton of fun if you have the right DM

[The Prototype]

Basically I wanted to find a way to write more in English (I'm not a native) so I searched in internet a RPG because in the past I played a role play game but it's wasn't D&D. Later I found that Dungeons & Dragons is a very popular game so that's it.

[DJP1961]

I started a new job in a new town when I was 18, and on the walk to work had to walk past a toy/game shop every day, in the window was the red box, sitting next to it Runequest 2nd ed (really nice box art) thought that they looked interesting. Went in and bought them, started playing and 39 years later I'm still playing.

[Aelius]

It all started with the original Baldur's Gate in 1998. The lore, the universe just hooked me from the get go and still hasn't released me from its spell.

[DanshiiWithWulfs]

It was the War of the Spider Queen books for me. My brother and I shared almost everything we read, and when he bought the first two books and finished it in two days, of course I had to do likewise. I was fascinated with the drow. On my own I went and found RA Salvatore's novels, devoured the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment games multiple times, then... Nothing.

Until a friend from college hooked me up with Pathfinder, then eventually D&D. The itch never left after that.

[Flamefriends]

I'd seen a bunch of references to the game already, and one day me and some friends were in a voice chat and we just did a random campaign on a whim. It was made up, there were no stats, just luck of the dice. It was a fun time.