My path into Gaming

Hi Scott here, I thought I would have a look at the development of the TTRPG(Tabletop roleplaying game) genre over the course of my gaming career(life). It is great to see the massive influx of people willing to give the medium a try and even better to see the number of people who have decided to stick around and dive head first into the wonderful world of imagination.

When I was 10 years old a friend asked if I wanted to join him and his older brother with a game that his brother had picked up from a bookstore, that game was Dungeons and Dragons. Always being a fan of the great fantasy of the era(the 1980s) I was all for it. 

As we played a magical world of the struggle of good versus evil opened up before me, with interesting things to see and do, all confined to the limits of my imagination. Dragons roared and goblins chittered their incomprehensible gibberish, swords thrush and spells exploded and after a few sessions, the game came to an end, the heroes overcoming all odds to right the wrongs my friends' brother had set for us. With the briefest of glimpses into the alternative world of fantasy, a lifelong spark had been ignited, which still burns brightly to this day, well over thirty years later.

A few years passed and over that time I had picked up a few things, the main one being Advanced Heroquest, a fantastic board game released by Games Workshop, the great thing being the solo play rules, allowing me to play as a group of adventurous dungeon delvers. Having returned to the UK after living abroad, I made new friends at my school, until one day I asked my friend if he wanted to play Advanced Heroquest, I popped all the pieces into a smaller box one day and headed around to his house after school. 

We instantly formed a mutual love of all things geek, my friend mentioned how he had played Fighting Fantasy novels and read comics when he lived in Turkey. The sheer delight of finding a kindred soul with pretty much the same love of nerdy things was such a rush of fresh air. We became the best of friends and gamed constantly, if it wasn't Advanced Heroquest it was something equally as geeky. 

Then one day we spent the night at my friend's Dads house as the next day was my friend's birthday and his Dad loaded us into the car and whisked us to Toys R Us. My friend's Dad handed him some money and declared that my friend should get himself anything he wanted from the store. The pair of us headed off money in hand, with massive smiles on our faces. 

Up and down the isles we headed looking at this toy and that, did my friend want a couple of the new gargoyle figures. No. Maybe the Cluedo, we always liked Cluedo. No. What about this black box of something called D and D. Oh! I played that a while ago! I think I have heard of it. Should we get it? And thus a Dungeon Master was born, we rushed to the car after paying, heading home to my friend's Dads house, black box in hand, we burst into the dining room and cracked open the box to be met with a dizzying plethora of cardboard figures, dice and booklets.

And so the greatest adventure of our lives was started, it would prove to be a long and winding road....but those tales are for another time. I hope you enjoyed the read and look forward to sharing with you random times in my adventuring career. Feel free to share in the comments how your path into gaming developed, be you a seasoned veteran or just starting out with your first steps on the road. Roll 'em if you got 'em!

Scott