do u remember ur first pnp game?

[Keyrock]

I remember MERP, it was basically an adapted version of Rolemaster.  I never actually played MERP, but I played plenty of Rolemaster and even more Spacemaster.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Keyrock

[Elerond]

I think that my first PnP rpg was Ankh, which was Finnish clone of D&D, but soon I moved to play Rune Quest, Twilight 2000, Cyberpunk 2020 and Rolemaster (second edition and later third, and mainly MERP campaigns), I tried AD&D also but my gaming circle didn't like it as much as they liked Rune Quest and Rolemaster. 

[Sylvius the Mad]

Technically, my first character was illegal. 1st edition AD&D Dwarf Paladin. But I hadn't read the rules, yet, and the DM suggested it. Presumbaly he wasn't really into race restrictions. As it happened, I didn't ever actually play in that group, but that's where I created my first character.

 

Then came the Star Wars RPG - not the d20 game that WotC made, but the original d6 rules. I played Kilchatca, a wookiee with 6 dice of strength - he could just about lift an X-wing himself, and did far more damage with his bare hands than he could with a blaster or bowcaster. So he ended up learning stealth skills so he could sneak up on guys and rip their heads off.

 

And I've been playing non-standard characters in non-standard ways ever since.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

My first pnp game was GURPS in a sci-fi setting. My character, Santiago, blew up a planet with the "demolitions" skill. Good times.

[Nonek]

As I recall it was a game of AD&D set on a dungeon floor plan that depicted a complex of royal tombs, very detailed and labyrinthine. Can't for the life of me remember any of the names involved except for the adventure being set in a region called "Koss." Played with a dwarven fighter, represented by one of the old lead Citadel miniatures figures. Nobbled by a Lich, don't think the GM had much idea what he was doing, setting something like that on a 1st/2nd level party.

 

Still despite the rough introduction, I was enchanted by the possibilities inherent in the medium.

[Keyrock]

Technically, my first character was illegal. 1st edition AD&D Dwarf Paladin. But I hadn't read the rules, yet, and the DM suggested it. Presumbaly he wasn't really into race restrictions. As it happened, I didn't ever actually play in that group, but that's where I created my first character.

 

It's only illegal if the DM says it's illegal.  The rule books themselves state that the DM can modify, ignore, or add any rule he or she sees fit.

[Walsingham]

I agree with keyrock. DM is final.

[melkathi]

Besides, what rules? They are more like guidelines

[Walsingham]

Besides, what rules? They are more like guidelines

 

Yarr.

[TMZuk]

I remember MERP, it was basically an adapted version of Rolemaster.  I never actually played MERP, but I played plenty of Rolemaster and even more Spacemaster.

A very simplified and much more playable version of Rolemaster.

 

I was never able to understand fans of Rolemaster, I have to admit. That game was so ardeous and so incredibly complicated, demanding dice rolls for everything. All it lacked was a Nose Picking Disaster Table, and there'd be a table and a chart for every damn thing you could possible imagine.

[Keyrock]

 

I remember MERP, it was basically an adapted version of Rolemaster.  I never actually played MERP, but I played plenty of Rolemaster and even more Spacemaster.

A very simplified and much more playable version of Rolemaster.

 

I was never able to understand fans of Rolemaster, I have to admit. That game was so ardeous and so incredibly complicated, demanding dice rolls for everything. All it lacked was a Nose Picking Disaster Table, and there'd be a table and a chart for every damn thing you could possible imagine.

 

Once the game got up and going it didn't take THAT long, assuming the GM had all the charts handy.  Character creation, on the other hand, was a ridiculously arduous process.  It would usually take me an entire day, if not longer, to create a single character.  Of course, that's if you were just using the base rules.  Once you start diving into the optional companion books...  

 

/whistles

 

The game was certainly not for the feint of heart, or the short on time. 

[melkathi]

If you have to write a five thousand word character background it takes longer thana  day anyway. Or a ten thousand word character background...

[WDeranged]

My first RPG was Rifts, I was a Glitterboy 

[nikolokolus]

It was about 1986 or 87 and it was the Mentzer Basic set. My buddy had that boxed set, but he and 3 other guys were already playing AD&D 1st ed. and before I could join in the fun he gave me that little red book and the solo dungeon to run through a few times so I could get the hang of it before being exposed to the "grown-up" version of the game. I'm pretty sure my first character was a dwarf that got killed three times in that solo adventure.

 

As for my first "real" AD&D character, he was most definitely a Chaotic Good, wood-elf ranger named Tinglaf with 18/54 Strength. Those glorious 2d8 starting hit points and the weapon specialization rules in Unearthed Arcana made him an unholy 1st level terror with a bow and a two-handed sword. First fight was with an Ogre in a clearing. One glorious natural twenty with the 2-hander and I one-shot that bastard; one of the best adrenaline fueled moments of my life up to that point ... although when you're eleven or twelve, second place is probably climbing really high up a pine tree and getting a "tingly" feeling in your special place. Pretty sure his second fight was with 4 goblins armed with poison tipped arrows. RIP Tinglaf.

[redneckdevil]

Well ill go ahead and add my first group wipe.

I made a dungeon that had an evil cleric at the end of it but he also had a hidden plant that would shot needles totals away intelligence. The plant came with 2 plant zombies. If the plant grappled u for 2 turns u would turn into a plant zombie of urself. Had an alchemists, a Magnus, and a sorcerer and a fighter. All lvl 3.

Well they get thru the dungeon pretty well but the sorcerer got himself a shiny magical sword so he started going in and trying to melee the plant zombies and gone unconscious. The fighter and magus make short work of the zombies and the alchemist uses his mutagene to take on the cleric. Alchemist gets grappled and the fighter gets holdbperson cast on him. Magus is missing on the cleric.

sadly the alchemist fails grapple checks both times and becomes a plant zombie in its mutagenesis form.

So the fighter watches the alchemist tear into the magus and is basically fed to the zombie plant to become a zombie himself.

 

Sadly the dice gods were not with them in that match but the players loved going out in style and had the cleric and the zombiefied versions of the past party as bbeg in the campaign. So crazy how free flowing pnp can be when even game overs are just really just a new chapter in the game.

[Jarmo]

T'was around mid 80's, there was this magazine article telling about the roleplaying concept and me an my brother decided to give it a go.

We didn't have any rules or such and only one six-sided die, so it was to the tune of "I roll ... 4, is that a hit? guess that's a hit. Roll... 5 for damage.. hmmm. guess the goblin's dead now."

 

Sweet stuff, storytelling experience with dungeons and magic crystals, when we wanted to do something, we decided what needs to be rolled.

I had played some Scott Adams text adventures on Vic-20, so I knew how adventure stories work.

 

A bit later we went big and bought D&D red box.

It was a choice between that and Middle Earth Role Playing, Larry Elmore's sweet D&D cover won that battle.

[melkathi]

 

We didn't have any rules or such and only one six-sided die, so it was to the tune of "I roll ... 4, is that a hit? guess that's a hit. Roll... 5 for damage.. hmmm. guess the goblin's dead now."

 

Reminds me of school. During recess a friend asked whether I couldn't quickly wiz up an adventure. "Oh, ok. Do you have dice?" "No. You?" "No... eh, just grab that eraser there and roll that."

[Noviere]

It was AD&D, and I was 8 or 9(so 1988-89?). It was summer, and I was at our family's cottage. My older brother and his friends were all playing it, and I begged to play also. I remember the gnome illusionist kept saying I shouldn't be allowed to because I was under age -- they were all 12-13 and I think it said for ages 10+ on the cover of one of the books. Any way, they let me and I made an elven mage named Hocus...  I remember thinking I was quite clever haha. I don't remember much, except for that there were lizardmen and a swamp. Oh, and that Hocus drowned on the last day that we played.

 

We didn't own any of the books, so we didn't play again until the next summer. That was the summer of Robotech. The summer after? Teenage, Mutant Ninja Turtles. When I was 12 or so, I started asking for AD&D books and managed to amass a fairly large collection over the next 6-7 years before finally giving up on PnP as friends outgrew it, or moved away. 

[nikolokolus]

T'was around mid 80's, there was this magazine article telling about the roleplaying concept and me an my brother decided to give it a go.

We didn't have any rules or such and only one six-sided die, so it was to the tune of "I roll ... 4, is that a hit? guess that's a hit. Roll... 5 for damage.. hmmm. guess the goblin's dead now."

 

Sweet stuff, storytelling experience with dungeons and magic crystals, when we wanted to do something, we decided what needs to be rolled.

I had played some Scott Adams text adventures on Vic-20, so I knew how adventure stories work.

 

A bit later we went big and bought D&D red box.

It was a choice between that and Middle Earth Role Playing, Larry Elmore's sweet D&D cover won that battle.

 

There was definitely something special about that ersatz Conan guy, with the sword and shield, taking on a dragon, that immediately pulled you in and made you want to replicate that moment some how.

[Zorfab]

Warhammer Fantasy 1st edition and I think I was ~12 or so. It definitely hooked me into the whole RPG thing. First game I DM:ed myself was Palladium Fantasy and then I transitioned to AD&D 2nd and Twilight 2000 (for a spell).

[UrielOWA]

I started with DnD 3.5 Pathfinder.

My brother brought me into this and i still love it. I didn't know much about the rules, only a bit about the world, religions, and others stuff (mostly because of Computergames)

Don't remember exactly the first play, but i have to favorite situations :D

 

first one:

I nearly always play a halfling-ranger, with subclass "Pathfinder".

And on that second time, our group had to find a sponsor in town, for an exploration of some ruins deep down in a forest.

As soon as we had decided on one of the 5 possible sponsors, the leader was abducted and we had to find and rescue him before we could start our exploration.

After some research and a fistfight in a bar, we got the necessary information where the leader was hidden. While my brother (a human-rogue) sneaked into the house of the kidnappers, our wizard, our warrior and me stormed the house.

As soon as we arrived at the top floor (where the bandit-captain plus two bandit-minions where), my character took out his sling, threw a stone and i rolled a 20 twice. 

Well, our master didn't see that coming and couldn't say more than "wtf".

So i instantly killed one of those minion-bandits with a hit right between the eyes and send him 2 meters flying.

That gave us the possibility of an surprise attack and it didn't end well for those bandits.

 

second one:

In another DnD-scenario we had another group made. This time my brother played a human-warrior, but oh well, i made another halfling-ranger again :D

This time we stood in front of a human village, which was occupied by some elven-hunters. My brothers character hated those. Really....extreme hate :D

Well, we had to negotiate peace between the human village and an elven village nearby in the forest.

Of course it couldn't end well, because of those elven hunters.

Well, their leader stood up and confronted us.

The only words my brother said were: "You belong to me!"

And in the next moment, my brother took his sword and with one swing (and two rolled 20s) he chopped of the head of that elven hunter before he could even react.

Our master was desperate that moment, because he wanted this conflict to last longer. Well...not this time.

Our master rolled his dice if the other enemys would run in fear and as he facepalmed himself, we knew: no luck for his "longer conflict"

The elven hunters ran in fear and we could convince the village to have peace with the elves.

We laughed so hard when my brother rolled those two 20s :D

[Razorchain]

I think it was '87 when my friends older brother ran an adventure for us. We played Warhammer Fantasy RPG, I played a woodsman called Johannes and we went to Nuln and I clove a bandit in half with my axe.

 

It was awesome

[Volourn]

'86ish. It was basic DnD where dwarves were dwarves and elves were elves.  The rules now seem limiting but back then it was awesomesauce. It's where my love of dwarves started.

[Walsingham]

I'm amazed we have so many old skool players new to the forum.

[NWN_babaYaga]

It was completely stupid. Our DM was so mad at us because we wanted to walk away from the adventure he planed just by using a different road that we had to stop the game. He never played with us again....!

 

That was the beginning!

damn virgin!