D&D Introduction – Day 1 D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop

This is day 1 of the d20 Dark Ages’ D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge! Based off of the challenge’s prompts I will be sharing personal stories about my history with Dungeons & Dragons every day in February. You can hop to another participating blog by using the links at the end of the article or click here to see my previous answers.

Day 1: Who introduced you to D&D? Which edition? Your first character?

I was a seventeen-year-old and attending the local community college in the tiny city next to my even tinier home town. Seventeen was a time for a lot of my firsts: my first romance, my first car, and my first D&D game. My friend Jason brought in his 3rd Edition D&D books to the college and sat across from four woefully prepared teenage players.

While I had a passing familiarity with D&D (rolling dice and killing goblins, right?) I was ill prepared for what “roleplaying” actually involved. I sat and expected to be dished up an encounter like a Final Fantasy game, but instead we stared glossy-eyed at Jason while we tepidly narrated exploring a dungeon. We were befuddled by the complete lack of interface.

We were all too confused and too self conscious to play more than one session. I believe I played a dwarven fighter. I swung an axe at a dark mantel at one point. And then I stopped because the goblins started talking instead of making attack rolls. It wasn’t Jason’s fault, he was really doing a fine job considering what he was working with; we were shitty players.

I’m ashamed to say that it was an experience that didn’t capture my heart. It seemed too alien to matter and I didn’t care enough to invest more time; that whole “first romance” and all. I didn’t get to play again until I moved out, after highschool. By then I was ready to jump feet first into what would become my favorite hobby and my best source of lasting friendships.

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