Late to the party: RPGaDay 2019 prompt 1

“First”

My first tabletop game of D&D (I’d played Baldur’s Gate on the PC before) was played at lunchtimes in school.
I somehow managed to make a Drizzt Do’Urden clone before I’d even heard of him – a dual-wielding Drow Ranger with a green cloak and dark armour.

We played for a few weeks. We were playing AD&D using some old books that the DM had borrowed from his brother. I think it was a boxed set, but I couldn’t tell you which one (and this was over twenty years ago, so who knows).
I’d printed my own character sheet that I’d found on the internet but had problems filling it in – turns out I’d printed 2nd edition but we were playing ‘1st edition’.

I was mildly alarmed – the big news online was 3rd edition was coming in a year or two. Why were we not even up to date yet?

One of the other players had picked up the 2nd edition Player’s Manual from Amazon – back when we had to pay in dollars and wait for it to ship across the Atlantic.
I did the same with the DMG and Monster Manual, and we ran for a year or so using the new rules.

I loved it. When I started, these were a group of people I half knew, with one I had classes with. A few years later and they were the guys I hung around with between classes.

We gave up D&D during lunch after a while, but not before switching to 3rd edition.
We ended up renovating some computers for the Religious Education department and running their tuck shop during lunchtimes or playing games on the small network we’d built.
We played 3rd edition on weekends and hit up the local FLGS to look at new books we couldn’t afford to buy, and all the old books and boxed sets we’d passed over.

D&D stuck with me, even with other games coming and going, friends coming and going, me coming and going – I emigrated.

I was cursed for a while as a forever DM, but it’s not something I hate. I love looking up all the old rules and settings, the new ideas coming up. Incorporating new things into my games and settings.

I’m looking forward to another first now – my first tabletop game after the Pandemic, when I can sit down with people and roll some real dice.