What brought you into the fold?

[Keldryn]

My very first exposure to RPGs was probably the two Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games on my family's Intellivision around 1982. Well, the first AD&D game certainly wasn't an RPG, but Treasure of Tarmin was a lot closer to being an RPG. You'd wander through this massive dungeon in 1st-person view and fight monsters, taking turns attacking each other. I don't think it actually had XP and character advancement though -- IIRC, your stats increased when you got new weapons, armor, or items.

I started with pencil & paper gaming in 1986 (when I was 12), with the "red box" D&D Basic Set and the "blue box" D&D Expert Set, moving on to AD&D fairly quickly after that, and continued to play for years. I got an NES in 1988 (Duck Hunt/Mario set) with The Legend of Zelda and played Dragon Warrior I, Final Fantasy, and Ultima: Exodus when they came out. I borrowed a friend's SMS (and lent him my NES) so that I could play Phantasy Star and Miracle Warriors. Phantasy Star was leagues ahead of any of the NES RPGs.

My cousin gave me his old C-64 in 1989, and I quickly got into The Bard's Tale series (mainly III), Might & Magic I, Wasteland, Pool of Radiance, and Curse of the Azure Bonds. I had copies of Ultima II and IV, but I didn't really get into them. The interface was kind of clunky and I didn't have access to the keyboard reference cards, and the graphics were lame, even compared to other games I was playing at the time.

Traded in the NES and games for a Genesis around 1990 and played Phantasy Star II to death. Tried Sword of Vermillion, but it was kind of lame.

We got our first real PC in 1990, a 12 MHz 286 with a 40 MB hard drive, a VGA card, and a Sound Blaster. Hero's Quest (Quest for Glory I) was one of the first games I had for the PC, as well as Times of Lore, Tangled Tales, and Dragon Wars.

Not long after I got those games, Ultima VI came out, and it utterly blew me away. The world was so detailed and fully-realized, with NPCs having full conversations and daily routines. I could pick up and/or use nearly every object in the game. The plot twist took me completely by surprise, and I spent hours every day for a good three months playing the game and exploring every inch of the game world. Ultima VI re-defined what a CRPG could be, and stuff like The Bard's Tale and Pool of Radiance were now utterly inadequate.

So that's how I got started.

 

[EvilManagedCare]

I started with pencil & paper gaming in 1986 (when I was 12), with the "red box" D&D Basic Set and the "blue box" D&D Expert Set, moving on to AD&D fairly quickly after that, and continued to play for years.

The red and blue Basic and Expert sets of D&D remind me of my finest gaming memories. I absolutely loved those sets. I moved to AD&D shortly thereafter as well. 1st ed., even with its faults, beats the living hell out of all that fucking d20 bullshit. 3rd edition on up is all about teh multiclass, which was the pussy powergamerz way out of accepting class limitations. Fags.

 

[Keldryn]

I started with pencil & paper gaming in 1986 (when I was 12), with the "red box" D&D Basic Set and the "blue box" D&D Expert Set, moving on to AD&D fairly quickly after that, and continued to play for years.

The red and blue Basic and Expert sets of D&D remind me of my finest gaming memories. I absolutely loved those sets. I moved to AD&D shortly thereafter as well. 1st ed., even with its faults, beats the living hell out of all that fucking d20 bullshit. 3rd edition on up is all about teh multiclass, which was the pussy powergamerz way out of accepting class limitations. Fags.

I prefer the 3rd Edition rules to the 1st Edition rules, by far. I actually feel like it captures the spirit of the old "Basic" game better than did the 1st and 2nd Editions.

Of course, the system is quite abusable by powergamers, but the more choices you give the player, the more opportunities arise for powergaming. 1st and 2nd Edition multiclassing was far more of a powergamer's way out of accepting class limitations, as there was really no good reason not to be a multiclassed character until about 9th or 10th level. Up until then, a Fighter/Magic User, for example, would generally only be one level in each class behind a character of a single class. A Fighter 5/Magic-User 5 was a far more effective character than either a Fighter 6 or a Magic-User 6. In 3rd Edition, a Fighter 6 or Wizard 6 would instead be comparable to a Fighter 3/Wizard 3 (or other combination of levels adding up to 6). Multiclassing absolutely hoses the primary spellcasters in 3e. Despite the fact that 3e has much more flexible multiclassing options, the design of the game encourages specialization in a single class, in terms of the most effective/potent character build.

The myriad of supplements full of prestige classes, feats, optional rules, and such obviously have the potential to play havoc with the core rules. On the other hand, look at the 1st Edition Cavalier, Barbarian, and Paladin (which inherited all of the Cavalier's abilities), and Method VI (?) of character generation (Fighters roll 9d6 & keep the 3 highest for Strength, 8d6 for Con, 7d6 for Dex, etc). Unearthed Arcana was a powergamer's paradise, far more unbalanced, broken, and exploitable than anything in 3rd edition.

 

[vazquez595654]

I started playing games when I was 5 years old. I enjoyed all types of games. I didn't care what genre they were called. Hell I didn't even know what they meant. I completely missed all the rpg's of my younger days. I caught a glimpse of Ultima 6, but it was too complicated for me at my age, and I was a graphics whore. I was completely immersed in all the Sierra and Dynamix games. Heroes quest, King's Quest, Space Quest, and so on. Then one day, a game came along that seemed to have everything. Amazing 3d graphics, music, story, and something that I had never really experienced before until that time; character attributes you could develop. Betrayal at Krondor comsumed not just my spare time, but also my brothers. We could easily clock in 8 hour Saturdays playing that game.

The whole time this was happening, all of my brothers, myself included, were hardcore into sports. We're kind of an athletic family and we played any sport that was in season...little league, NJB, football. During this time I remember always hating when my friends would call to go out. I hated talking on the phone. I remember it was something my friends would do every night. Call other friends and talk about shit. I hated it. I always felt like I had to put on a show and entertain everyone. Playing games to me, leveled the playing field. Someone else was entertaining me for a change.

Then one day I realized I didn't have any friends...(continue the story)

 

[wendigo]

My very first exposure to RPGs was probably the two Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games on my family's Intellivision around 1982..

Hmm, I've read a bit about that game here and there. In your opinion, is it worth a playing today (via emulation or what have you) ?

That is to say, how has it aged? To give a personal frame of reference, I consider Ultima III to be too dated to replay, but Wasteland passable even today.

The screenshots I've seen make it look like an action/roguelike, which might be cool...

 

[EvilManagedCare]

The myriad of supplements full of prestige classes, feats, optional rules, and such obviously have the potential to play havoc with the core rules. On the other hand, look at the 1st Edition Cavalier, Barbarian, and Paladin (which inherited all of the Cavalier's abilities), and Method VI (?) of character generation (Fighters roll 9d6 & keep the 3 highest for Strength, 8d6 for Con, 7d6 for Dex, etc). Unearthed Arcana was a powergamer's paradise, far more unbalanced, broken, and exploitable than anything in 3rd edition.

Yeah that may have been. I was switching more toward wargaming by the time that came out so I don't really remember the above. I should say my contempt for multiclassing was even present with 1st edition. A couple of years ago I tried returning to D&D when 3rd edition first came out. It didn't work so well, and all I remember was two of the players going on and on about what classes they should multi with, etc. It was really irritating. What troubled me the most about 3rd edition was how it took all the staples of 1st edition and threw them out the window: namely race level limitations, no more weapon restrictions (yes, I understand they carried penalties in many cases), no racial class limitations. I know these were things many players lauded as needing to happen, not me. A cleric wielding a sword is just wrong. And don't get me started on the idiotic exotic weapons (double flail? Honestly) and the even more ridiculous 'repeating crossbow' as seen in the film hit 'Hawk the Slayer.'

To each their own. The niggling details above were what helped turn me away, petty as they may be. Lord knows 1st edition wasn't perfect either. Obviously many people enjoy 3rd edition, and that's fine. Though I am supposed to get started in a local gaming group soon to give it another try. I'm hoping to keep an open mind about it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm really surprised that you never played Dungeon Master - you had an Amiga (like many here it seems) and a penchant for FPP explore 'n mapping, so I'm really shocked.

If you didn't play Dungeon Master, you didn't have an Amiga. Everyone that owned an Amiga played that game.

 

[Johannes Teugen]

Drakar och Demoner, Kult and a few other swedish PnP games got me hooked on RPGs...
Fallout and Baldur's Gate got me hooked on CRPGs..

What he said. Expect for Kult, which I've only started playing now

And som jrpgs as well.

Kult is fucking brilliant. Exceptionally fucking brilliant. Gotta love those Swedes: I'm happy they stopped drinking and committing suicide long enough to give us a brilliant PnP RPG.

:D

 

[obediah]

On the other hand, look at the 1st Edition Cavalier, Barbarian, and Paladin (which inherited all of the Cavalier's abilities), and Method VI (?) of character generation (Fighters roll 9d6 & keep the 3 highest for Strength, 8d6 for Con, 7d6 for Dex, etc). Unearthed Arcana was a powergamer's paradise, far more unbalanced, broken, and exploitable than anything in 3rd edition.

I remember some of the horrible things we did with that book as children. I remember a fighter/wizard/theif-acrobat (drow of course). We were using the particularly nasty die method above, and the DM decided the best way to handle it was for me to just pick the largest of the fighter/wizard/thief columns for each attribute. Needless to say, I had 18's coming out my ass and by the end of the campaign, I could have destroyed the rest of the party at will. Oh well, it was sorta fun at the time.

 

[Ryuken]

Might & Magic II: Gates to Another World on the Genesis/Megadrive. A used version even, after the usual Genesis-games I sought something different and this was definitely it. I still can't believe I got so hooked on it.

Some time after I bought my first PC, Fallout really dragged me in the genre. So did BG some time later, although it didn't appeal me at first because of the character system and the tutorial stuff.

 

[Keldryn]

My very first exposure to RPGs was probably the two Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games on my family's Intellivision around 1982..

Hmm, I've read a bit about that game here and there. In your opinion, is it worth a playing today (via emulation or what have you) ?

That is to say, how has it aged? To give a personal frame of reference, I consider Ultima III to be too dated to replay, but Wasteland passable even today.

The screenshots I've seen make it look like an action/roguelike, which might be cool...

It's a bit hard for me to say, as I haven't played either of those AD&D Intellivision games in over 20 years now.

I think that the first one -- simply titled "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons"-- would probably be the most playable today. (I see it called AD&D: Cloudy Mountain sometimes so it may have been retitled at one point)

It's more of an action/adventure than a Roguelike, as there isn't any XP or character advancement. You collect three items -- an axe (to pass through forests), a boat (to cross rivers), and a key (to pass through gates), as well as arrows. Each type of mountain that you can enter is colour-coded according to difficulty and the item that you can obtain inside. The ultimate goal is to obtain all pieces of the crown (2 I think, but it could be 3) in Cloudy Mountain. The entire game is randomized each time you play though, from the layout of each "dungeon" to the world map itself.

Treasure of Tarmin is also completely randomized each time you play, but I think it would be rather tedious to play today, as there is no variation in the graphics whatsoever. Just levels upon levels of that two-toned green wall in 1st person. And turning the 90-degree angles takes a second or so to redraw. Easily more primitive than Ultima III, I would say.