Lots of people like to reminisce about the first RPG they either owned or played and understandably so. That's a foundational experience that, in my opinion, sets the tone for one's later involvement with the hobby. But what I'm curious about today is everyone's second RPG, the one they bought or played after their initial introduction into the hobby. Just as important is why you bought or played that second RPG.
My second RPG was Gamma World, which I bought likely on the strength of the references to it in the Dungeon Masters Guide, the fact that it was sold in stores right next to D&D, and was produced by TSR. That it was a post-apocalyptic game probably helped, too, since I was a big fan of movies like Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run.
So, what was your second RPG and why?
My first thought was Palladium (TMNT/Robotech) but thinking back it might have actually been Marvel Superheroes. :)
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of people my age, it was a Palladium game - Robotech. I ended up playing more Palladium games than anything else until I graduated high school.
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was Mentzer D&D (the first being James Bond 007 by Victory Games). I got it mainly because I was always seeing D&D and AD&D stuff around but not so much for JB. I had always scoffed at D&D because they used swords and armour, whereas Bond had guns, you could gamble and seduce women (like in the movies). But I had always had a soft spot for things medieval, mythological and fantasy based (like the Hobbit and LotR) and talked myself into trying D&D. Have never looked back since.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note that I have almost always learned RPG's by reading them and learning on my own, not by example. That did not happen until much further down the line when I had a much more consistent group of gamers to introduce new games to me.
Traveller because it was the second RPG I'd seen in a shop, D&D being the first and I liked SF. Had lots of fun just rolling up characters
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was Call of Cthulhu second edition. I saw it in the local games shop and was really drawn in by the cover, which I still think is one of my favourite pieces of RPG art - very atmospheric. I didn't have any idea who H.P. Lovecraft was at the time, although I searched the public library for the stories as soon as I could after that.
ReplyDeleteA big influence on me at the start of my gaming life were the British paperback, 'What is Dungeons and Dragons?' and another British book, 'Dicing With Dragons' which explained to me what these games were actually about. They also whet my appetite for other games - such as Man, Myth and Magic. At the time I thought this sounded a brilliant game but never saw it in any game shop. I recently got hold of a copy through eBay and found that it was really very weird.
It's a little funny for me, as my "first" RPG was really a mix of both 2e and 3e D&D as it sorta happened all around the same time. 2e was definitely my first, by 3e was a very close second. Took me two years of playing it before realizing I had maybe one single fun session in 3e during all that time. I think after that might've been playing in an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game, but I don't think it had much effect on me.
ReplyDeleteIt was either Marvel Superheroes or Conan the adventure game. I'm leaning far more towards marvel Superheroes though.
ReplyDeleteIf you count the Fighting Fantasy multiplayer game as a true rpg, then my second was the second (!) edition of Shadowrun, although that was the second rpg I played.
ReplyDeleteThe second rpg I bought was Traveller: The New Era. Our Shadowrun GM introduced us to the wider world of rpgs, and suggested that everyone in the group get their own game and try to run it, which was a clever way to introduce variety into the gaming schedule. He suggested Traveller to me, and TNE was the extant version at the time, so that's what I bought. I don't think I was ready for it.
If you discount Fighting Fantasy, then the second rpg I owned -- and played, probably, although it's difficult to remember exactly -- was Call of Cthulhu, and that was a much happier story.
AD&D was the first game I owned, but The Fantasy Trip was the first I actually "played" ... second on both scores was Traveller, which I acquired inspired by my friends' gaming stories and my own love of sci-fi.
ReplyDelete(VerWord: bleed [!])
My first was TMNT & Other Strangeness-- my second was the red box.
ReplyDeleteThe second RPG I played was Dungeons & Dragons, Mentzer Expert to be precise, because that's what the other sci-fi kids were playing in the high school library. The first RPG I played was Fighting Fantasy. The first homebrew I wrote was a D&D/Fighting Fantasy hybrid. The first RPG I GMed was Basic/Expert D&D, drawing strongly on Fighting Fantasy. The second RPG I GMed, however, was James Bond - because I bought The Q Manual at the same time, and when you're too young to drive a car Q is way cool.
ReplyDeleteI suppose my second was really AD&D, but I consider my second to have been 1st Edition Top Secret - a game that, more than any other, made me an RPG writer.
ReplyDeleteMy second game was Villains and Vigilantes 2nd Edition, from Fantasy Games Unlimited. When I was a kid my money went to D&D and comic books, and this game fit perfect into my little world. Added bonus: when you created a character you were supposed to make a version of yourself. :-)
ReplyDeleteGamma World, 1st edition. I'd been playing the ubiquitous B/X-AD&D mashup with kids at school, and already owned the Moldvay boxed set. One day my Dad came home with the GW box set, completely out of the blue.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers, I remember a kid brought the old box set to school with the city map, we played through recess...
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was Gamma World. It was supposed to be my first Sci-fi game but adventuring among the ruins of civilizations and fighting mutant critters with blasters instead of swords made me slip right into Traveller ran by my best friend that same summer. Good times with good games!
ReplyDeleteThe second RPG I owned was Traveller, because my friends and I were interested in seeing how GDW could do for sci fi what D&D did for fantasy. Interestingly, I think D&D ultimately did sci fi (as a whole genre) better than Traveller did...
ReplyDeleteThe answer is not so clear cut. The first game I saw was Top Secret, but I was too young and friendless to play or run it. The first game I played was the second I met, BECMI D&D most probably, but I am unsure as our DM had hand-copied rules and materials. If this counts as my first RPG, however, then my second was 3 or 4e Stormbringer, which I bought myself as I was a HUGE Moorcock fan at the time. To this day I appreciate OD&D in all its forms, but Stormbringer!, Cthulhu, and BRP are a huge draw for me.
ReplyDeleteFirst RPG was Mentzer D&D (followed by Expert and Companion sets.)
ReplyDeleteThe second rpg was AD&D 2e. Funnily enough, I only bought the DMG since I thought that it would simply expand Classic D&D, and since I was always the DM, I only needed it. So for some time, we played with Classic D&D, plus some of the material in the 2e DMG. Quite soon I bought the 2e PHB, too, and we switched game, putting Classic D&D on the shelf for about 15 years. Only recently, after my move in the UK, I have started playing it again since I play mostly one-shots.
Dragonlance: 5th Age. (The one with the cards)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful deck of cards. I mean, now that I'm older and wiser I can see it was promising a lot more than it delivered, but that didn't matter because we loved the crap out of that game. We also ignored many of the inconvenient rules.
That's where I really found my GMing style, which felt like being a conductor.
I loved the crap out of that game.
My second RPG was Star Frontiers, it was on the shelf next to the D&D material at little store called Toys By Roy. I was a kid and loved all things Star Wars, so roleplaying in space seemed to be the next logical leap. The game never stuck the same way that D&D did, but I remember it being quite enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteEither Gamma World (run by my brother), or a superhero game of my own devising. In either case, for some odd reason, we didn’t play it in the same place: we played D&D in the spacious basement; we played the other games in the more cramped upstairs bedroom.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why.
GDW Traveller. Sci-Fi adventures, fast and furious.
ReplyDeleteMy second was the Hogshead edition of WFRP. It's been noted that I favour a 'look what the cruel hand of fate hath dealt you, then take it and deal' style of character generation and GMming, as well as a streak of twisted allusion and sense of black humour in my world-building. Can't think where I got that from.
ReplyDeleteAfter Basic, Expert, and Advanced (1st ed.) D&D, my second RPG could have been Star Frontiers (1st ed.), Gamma World (2nd ed.), Top Secret (1st ed.), Call of Cthulhu, or Stormbringer. They all blur together, probably because I wanted all of them at the same time. I have a feeling it was Star Frontiers, though, because it was a.) available at my local hobby shop, b.) published by TSR, which was familiar to me, and c.) science fiction, one of my favorite genres.
ReplyDeleteExcluding the various editions of D&D (I know we went from Moldvay Basic/Expert to AD&D pretty quickly) my second RPG was either Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes, or maybe even Boot Hill. I'm pretty sure it was Gamma World although we didn't last long with it (and all the reasons why are coming back to me with James' retrospective. Yuck.)
ReplyDeleteCar Wars, if that counts in anyone's book as an RPG. I remember seeing it on the shelf near the D&D boxed sets, but chose the former because cars with machine guns spoke to me more at the time than dragons and elves. I bought it solely because of the cover art... that, and the box looked smaller and less intimidating.
ReplyDeleteMetamorphosis Alpha, which my sister ran for me a couple of times. I don't think I ever really got it at that age. With brown-box D&D I understood run in, hit things, take their loot. But with M: Alpha there was a bunch of other stuff going on that didn't make sense to me. Actually when I hit Gamma World, I assumed it was just another version of MA until I actually played it.
ReplyDeleteTraveller Deluxe Edition. I asked Ivor(Rogers - proprietor of what was then Anuvin Games) what the best sci-fi rpg was, and he directed me to the big black box. I was a huge Star Wars fan and had to get my fix somehow.
ReplyDeleteTraveller. It was at the little book shop that sold me my copies of AD&D's three books. They let me look inside the box, and I saw that the second book was titled "Starships". I was amazed, little SF fan that I was (I'd even read Dune by that point, and I was 10 years old), and had to have it. I still have the three little books (the first printing, where the starship combat is scaled 1 inch on the table/floor/whatever equals 1000 miles), much the worse for wear.
ReplyDeleteI think it was Talislanta 2nd Edition by Bard Games.
ReplyDeleteThe first game I played was Akelarre (Spanish game set in the middle ages, in a mostly "realistic" style). I still have somewhere that character sheet.
ReplyDeleteMy second, and first one I owned, was James Bond 007, because it was the only one I could find at that time that was not medieval fantasy. :D
I learned 2E via the TSR Gold Box games (Champions of Krynn and Pools of Radiance) and decided I liked things enough to get a couple books and see what the whole tabletop thing was. My second game didn't come along for a rather long time. I think it might have been Cyberpunk 2020 by R. Talsorian. I never got to play it but I got a lot out of the book.
ReplyDeleteThe first set was the original LBB of Dungeons & Dragons.
ReplyDeleteTechnically my second RPG was a home-brew we created to play in the Star Wars universe. Based on D&D and the Alan Dean Foster novelization, which was all we had to go on at the time (the actual film had yet to show in Oz). It was ... interestingly different from the film. Essentially a prequel (the old, everybody wants to be a Jedi problem).
The second set of commercial RPG rules I owned was Metamorphosis Alpha. It might have been Empire of the Petal Throne but the local distributor didn't have any copies in stock (and it took a couple of years to find a copy). I do recall going on a mapping frenzy of the Warden, but a campaign of it never really jelled in my head. I bought them because they were mentioned in the back of Greyhawk.
The second set of published RPG rules that I ran/played in was Traveller, bought due to an advertisement in a very short-lived Australian wargaming magazine called Fire and Movement, in which the local distributor mentioned this new SF game that they were bringing into the country. The first campaign was a fairly standard Terran Empire game featuring 5000 ton Nova Class Dreadnaughts (since they were the largest ships described in the game). I've still got the tables of organization of the Terran Empire, including the the much-feared Security Directorate. [Players didn't so much muster out in character generation as begin actual play; they were all serving members of the Empire or powerful merchant factors, spies, rogues, and security personnel.]
I feel old. <grin>
Top Secret
ReplyDeleteBig Bond fan and loved the concept of the game. We did play it for a while and enjoyed it quite a bit before moving on to other things.
Moldvay D&D. My first was Tunnels & Trolls which my parents bought because the salesperson said it could be played on it's own.
ReplyDeleteD&D was played by people at my school and I wanted to join them.
What's a real struggle to remember is my third fully unique (e.g. not just D&D variant), however I think it was Runequest, but it might have been Traveller or Rolemaster as once I decided it was ok to spend what little money I had on non xD&D material I diversified quickly.
Can't quite remember whether it was 1st ed. Villains and Vigilantes or Traveller. The period when I started playing games, from '77- '80 under the tutelage of and older buddy and his brothers was overwhelming. Not only had they introduced me (and many others) to Blackmoor and Greyhawk and everything D&D that followed they played anything under the sun. They had V&V, Traveller, Boot Hill, Top Secret and participated in an already several year long Melee campaign. They all seemed exciting and for at least several long Saturdays they were.
ReplyDeleteIn the end the only game from those early days that I really stayed with for any length of time was D&D and its successors. i had no interest in running campaigns in any of those secondary games and no one who did ever stuck with it for very long (the Melee ref went blind and that stopped).
In the end we ditched TSR for SPI and DragonQuest and ultimately the Hero System. Played the heck out of that for over a decade.
I think that second one I actually bought and ran (even going so far as to create an adventure for it, before I even got the game) was the WEG Star Wars RPG. I played that more times than anything else other than D&D, and all because of my love of Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteWarHammer Fantasy Roleplay. A friend who didn't play D&D bought it and said we were going to play. It remains my favorite until this day, WFRP edition 1.
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was either Star Frontiers or Tunnels & Trolls. We played both back in the early 80s when parent were throwing a fit about D&D
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was Traveller. Not only was it the second RPG I ever saw in a store, but the bit on the cover "This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone..." really grabbed me.
ReplyDeletePretty sure that Gamma World was my third.
Assuming that we would count Holmes Basic D&D and AD&D as essentially the "same" game (albeit different flavors thereof), then my second game would have been Top Secret.
ReplyDeleteI have two "second" RPGs, as I bought them both the same day after falling in love with Gamma World 2e.
ReplyDeleteThey were both from 1983: the D&D Basic Set red box and the revised Top Secret 2e box.
it was either Gamma World or Top Secret, but I can't recall anymore. Top Secret ended up being our go-to game for one-offs and casual adventures.
ReplyDeleteFirst game played was Traveller. The first game I ever purchased was DragonQuest (SPI first edition, with all the counters) it completely baffled me but it was the one I could afford. Second game was RuneQuest 2nd ed. Game 3, Tunnels & Trolls!
ReplyDeleteFirst -- in '78 or '9 -- was Holmes, plus the Monster Manual.
ReplyDeleteSecond -- about a year later -- was Gamma World, for the same reasons you relate James. I also really liked the Genesis II / Planet Earth / Strange New World PAX Trilogy. My brother and I still talk about Eelopes, Weakies and Shooters.
My First RPG was D&D.
ReplyDeleteMy second on was Chill: Adventures into the Unknown by Pacesetter. Followed immediately by Traveller. In fact I am unsure which one I actually bought first.
Holmes D&D was my first, The Fantasy Trip (at the time, just Melee and Wizard) was my 2nd. And to this day, I think TFT is still me favorite. We played the hell out of it for 3 or 4 years, and often used many of its mechanics for other favorites to come, especially Traveller and DragonQuest.
ReplyDeleteMoldvay D&D was my first.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers was my second. Because of the cool Larry Elmore box cover, because it was sci-fi, and because it was sitting in Toys 'R' Us right alongside the other D&D boxes and books and modules.
First was Ad&D, second was Traveller.I remember bying it because when High Guard came out the whole premise was exciting! Pretty quickly we stopped even really bothering with High Guard and started running the "Merchant and Mercenary" campaigns because none of us couls really figure out how to make High Guard "work" from a play persepctive.
ReplyDeleteMy third game was Call of Cthulhu and these three game really became the "holy trinity" of the gaming groups I ran until RTG's Cyberpunk came along at which point it eclipsed Traveller for a bit until I eventually started running Traveller games using the CP2020 engine.
I played the heck out of a bunch of other games as well over the years, but it was first those three, and then those four that really defined my playing and DMing.
D.
Pretty sure it was Advanced Marvel Super Heroes...being a comic nerd it would have had instant appeal. Frankly, I still like it.
ReplyDeleteI'm an oddity, in that my second RPG was D&D (the Moldvay Basic Set), which I received at Christmas, six months after receiving the 1st printing of TOP SECRET for my birthday.
ReplyDeleteMy second was WFRP, in 1986. I'd played other games, but none captured me the way Warhammer did. I had been growing more and more dissatisfied with D&D (and I think Temple of Elemental Evil was my breaking point), and WFRP was so... refreshing, by comparison. The career system, the setting, the art. It still is my favorite FRPG.
ReplyDeleteWe played "Basic" for a long time before we got into AD&D, so technically and realistically AD&D was our 2nd RPG. All the rest became a blur, but I remember pretty clearly getting obsessed with the little Traveller books, and we played a lot of Paranoia and Twilight:2000.
ReplyDeleteWEG's Star Wars. It was a golden age. There were like 3 books, the movies, and that was really it. Everyone knew everything about the setting. Then more and more stuff came out, and it became less fun.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to remember that far back, but I think that my second RPG was Melee & Wizard (bought at the same time) from Metagaming.
ReplyDeleteTFotH
Depending on how you count, my second owned would be Expert D&D, AD&D, or Warhammer FRP. (Though I might’ve had Started Traveller before Warhammer.) Second played would be Traveller or AD&D.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about that, I can't remember the right order of buying these. It was either the German Stormbringer box from Laurin (bought in Kiel, Germany), the German Traveller together with Star Frontiers (bought on a Flea Market in the castle Schloss Burg, Germany), or the worn copies of the Swordbearer rulebooks in English which I was barely able to understand at the time (mail ordered from an unknown gaming shop).
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers. My friends and I had a blast with that Rpg. I still use some of the SF modules, but with other game systems.
ReplyDeleteAssuming the different 'editions' of D&D are all considered "one game" (that's how I would do it), the second game my first game group played was Gamma World. My first character was a mutant badger. I didn't realize 'badders' (or badger men) were a part of the game; I just chose a badger because I heard they were bad-ass.
ReplyDeleteMy second was Rifts. I had heard a lot of good things about Palladium (Mega Damage, ooh!) and Rifts in particular. We played at least two major Rifts campaigns during high school, and I still have a soft spot for the game.
ReplyDeleteThe first RPG I ran was a homebrew version of Melee\Wizard that I called "Melee D&D". I'd played Holmes with some friends when I got Melee and Wizard, so I expanded them to add thieves and clerics. This was years before TFT was made a full RPG.
ReplyDeleteThis would make Holmes my second RPG.
My Second RPG was Gamma World. I picked it up becasue of it's availability, it general similarity with D&D and I enjoyed the post-apocalyptic genre (I went Ape over Planet of the Apes when I was younger).
ReplyDeleteThat would be Dungeons & Dragons; the first adventure game I owned or played was the War Hammer Fantasy RPG.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure, because I bought a lot of material in a few months when I discovered that tiny rpg shop not faraway from mum's home. I think it could have been Legendes celtiques, a french rpg which was a summit of 80's simulationism [James, I'm sure you would be interested to discover a bit more about french 80's rpg production].
ReplyDeleteMy first RPG was Moldvay D&D, but I did not understand the rules.
ReplyDeleteThe second RPG was Mega (1984), a French RPG where you played psionic agents of a transdimensional organization. It was a very cool game.
I'm another member of that minority whose second RPG was D&D; the first was TFT. The "why" is pretty obvious: everyone was playing D&D! As to why TFT was first, it's because I started as a wargamer and worked into RPGs via Wizard and Melee. (Funny that James should ask this right after I posted on my blog about it: http://oldschooleclectic.blogspot.com )
ReplyDeleteVillains & Vigilantes. I was heavily into comic books, and superheroes have had a strong hold on me even to this day. I was, however, relegated to just making heroes for many months before I actually got to play the game.
ReplyDeleteBut I devoured that rulebook, every page, and made a binder full of characters.
Technically AD&D because first was Moldvay Basic D&D.
ReplyDeleteIf those count as one game, then my second is Gamma World.
Either 1e Shadowrun or Villains and Vigilantes. Because they were what was in the house.
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was Top Secret SI. Pretty fun at the time because it was so different from ADD. I think I bought it at Toys R Us in Phoenix, AZ while on summer vacation. Played with my cousin lots.
ReplyDeleteStill have it on my game shelf, and all the characters, note, etc.; to include an NPC of Mr. Bond who seems to have every damn skill in the game!!
My parents had a problem with D&D, so my second RPG was GangBusters, which probably was worse for my young mind. :)
ReplyDeleteSecond RPG? Gamma World First Edition...that is all.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all the Vampire players?
ReplyDeletePacesetter's Chill RPG.
ReplyDeleteFBI's Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes. A most underrated game, by Michael Stackpole.
ReplyDeleteStarter Traveller and never looked back...save in rear view mirror of a shiny sportscar of a game system. My first love was always SF then fantasy came as an afterthought and interest in AD&D. Later, it went to History & Politics - and boy Traveller had it all.
ReplyDeleteMarvel Superheroes was the second game I owned, but first one I actually played.
ReplyDeleteTop Secret, I think. I really can't remember if it came before or after D&D Basic, because it made a bigger impression. I do remember that a neighbor kid had it, and the cover, with the gun, the passport and the leggy woman sold me on it. My dad was a bit of a Bond fan, and we were allowed to stay up to watch those flicks on TV, so I knew what espionage meant. This would have been 1980 or 1981, I guess.
ReplyDeletePop is a model railroader, and one of his favorite hobby shops also sold games, so I had probably seen RPGs and wargames there. The fellow with Top Secret said he'd gotten it at a local discount store (which my family never went to), so I badgered Pop to go there, rather than look for it at Hobbyland. Later on, I am pretty sure I bought many TS modules, and much more besides, at Hobbyland.
AD&D and Star Frontiers came soon after, as well as a flurry of wargames.
The second RPG I played (after D&D/AD&D) was either RuneQuest or The Morrow Project - because friends had them.
ReplyDeleteThe second RPG I actually bought was Call of Cthulhu - because, well, it's Call of Cthulhu, isn't it?
Boot Hill was the second RPG I ever played. The second one I ever bought on my own was Traveller.
ReplyDeleteBasic D&D (Moldvay)- couldn't afford the AD&D I had played at my brother's friend's house.
ReplyDeleteCall of Cthulhu was the second one I owned after D&D.
ReplyDeleteThe second one I played was FASA Star Trek.
Counting AD&D, Mentzer and Moldvay D&D as one, my second RPG was the Avalon Hill version of Runequest. Though I'm not sure I actually played it more than once. I was then introduced to Palladium games through TMNT, though I think we played more Heroes Unlimited than anything else. I'm not really sure what I liked about Palladium games; it certainly wasn't the quality editing or background research. :p
ReplyDeleteMy first RPG I played was either Star Frontiers or Top Secret. Only after I played those did I try AD&D.
ReplyDeleteMy first RPG bought was Marvel Super Heroes, though I was playing BECMI D&D already. I don't remember if Star Frontiers or buying BECMI was my second. I bought BECMI because I wanted to DM, and the year between trying and buying Star Frontiers my taste in the game, its mechanics, had changed. I was a bit disappointed in SF.
Not long ago I mentioned this on my own blog but basically, I can't really recall with definite accuracy.
ReplyDeleteBetween playing Basic D&D (first game August 25th, 1977) and purchasing Villains & Vigilantes 2nd Edition (sometime in 1982) I played Gamma World, Boot Hill, Traveller once in 1979 and Advanced D&D in 1981.
I have not idea if I played Gamma World or Boot Hill first. I simply can't recall. Villains & Vigilantes was purchased by splitting the cost with a friend. For all the rest, D&D included, I played or ran the game using someone else's copy.
The first game I purchased by myself with my own money was FASA's Star Trek.
The second game I played was Boot Hill ... but not really. I saw a scenario for Boot Hill ("The Taming of Brimstone") in an issue of Dragon and, since I absolutely love westerns, decided to run it for my friends. The only problem: none of us owned the rules, and none of the local shops had copies. So I tried to reverse engineer the system based upon the stats of the NPCs presented in the scenario. When I finally got a copy of the rules, I found that I hadn't even come close, so I guess my 2nd game would technically be a homebrew inspired by Boot Hill.
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd published game I actually owned and played by the rules was Gamma World.
Traveller -- the original boxed set of little black books -- because I've always been way more into science fiction than I've ever been into fantasy.
ReplyDeleteBut I eventually merged Traveller with AD&D (my 1st RPG) to run a space fantasy campaign set in the Star Wars universe.
My #2 was TOON by Steve Jackson Games. It took a lot of convincing for the guy to get me to play it, for I was 15 and much too mature for such things, but once I played, I had a TON of fun. The guy who ran it was a great GM. I bought a copy and I still break it out once in a while at family gatherings to play with the younger kids. However, it spent several years sitting in my parent's basement, so it doesn't smell so great.
ReplyDeleteMy first of course, was AD&D 2nd Edition, but after that it was the Star Wars D6 game by West End Games. Turnin stormtroopers' helmets around with the force, good times.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers was my first non-D&D RPG. Marvel Superheroes followed after that.
ReplyDeleteMy first was the black DnD "basic set" from 1991. My second was AD&D 2e. White Wolf's STREET FIGHTER rpg was close to being second, but I only played it once or twice.
ReplyDeleteD&D! Oddly enough, the first game that I played was the MSH game, my older cousins brought the basic set down one summer and we played. After that my older bro bought the Mentzer Red Box...he was 8 and I was 5.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna go ahead and count Moldvay's Basic D&D and AD&D together as my first owned and first played - although I guess I actually read the Holmes Basic set before either of those. My second game played was Villains and Vigilantes, run by a friend of mine - I never owned it though. My second game owned was Star Frontiers - I eventually picked up almost all of the new game Materials, up through Zebulon's Guide.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the Expert D&D Box until much later with Mentzer's version - I got the Companion version then too. I still have all the Mentzer versions and am currently in the process of getting copies of the Moldvay Basic set (which I always liked more than the Mentzer version - though that one is pretty awesome too), the Moldvay Expert set, and the Holmes Basic set.
Star Frontiers. I can only assume it was because it was available at the book store unlike more obscure titles that to this day I've only seen in the pages of Dragon Magazine.
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was Gamma World. Mainly because I think it was the only one that was available at the time. We played the heck out of it and I still own my first edition box which is well used.
ReplyDeleteCrazy mutants were a great diversion from the D&D grind. We had some crazy adventures with this game.
Dragon Quest, because I liked the cover of the book. We were also looking for inspiration to add variety to our AD&D game.
ReplyDeleteStar Frontiers. Red box D&D being my first one. Had loads of fun with the counters on the SF city map which actually was a totally new experience to me. Being German at that point I never had seen any wargames so counters were from another planet. Cool experience, though.
ReplyDeleteMy second RPG was also the original Gamma World. My memories of it are still strong. Even though my favorite edition of the game is the 1992 version. If anyone likes the earlier editions of Gamma World, I highly suggest they check out the new game The Mutant Epoch. Review on my YouTube channel (done last week).
ReplyDeleteSecond RPG? Interesting topic. Okay, Gamma World 1E. With the machine-gun toting bunnies and all that. :) I was thinking Star Frontiers, at first, but that was my 3rd game.
ReplyDeleteThe second RPG I PLAYED was Tunnels and Trolls, but I did not buy the book etc. right away. SO the second RPG I OWNED was Traveller -- I bought the 8 1/2" x 11" TRAVELLER BOOK.
ReplyDeleteWFRP.
ReplyDelete*Real* WFRP. In a book. With Fimir, Zoats, and Life and Death Elementals. And Malal.
We are talking 30+ years ago here so things are a little fuzzy. It is going to come down to one of three Traveller, CoC or Gamma World. I think it was Traveller though and that was because we expanded our group and the person had it and ran it for us. If it was either of the others it was because I bought them and liked them but again the memories are beginning to fade :(
ReplyDeleteUnsurprisingly, the majority of us went to sci-fi for our second rpgs. Gamma World is the clear leader, with Traveller a distant, but strong, second. I never purchased Gamma World myself. One of my friends had it, and I played some with him. It was an okay game, but it didn’t entice me to purchase a copy for myself (unlike Boot Hill). I wonder if its success is due to it being more available than Traveller. Perhaps it had something to do with brand loyalty to TSR? My third and fourth rpgs were both from TSR (Top Secret and Gangbusters).
ReplyDeleteI get the impression that many people's choice between Gamma World and Traveller might've been significantly affected by their age at that time -- with preteens tending to choose Gamma World and older people tending to choose Traveller. How does that jibe with other people's experiences?
ReplyDeleteMine was CHAMPIONS , bought in the original first saddle-stapled edition in 1980.
ReplyDeleteI'd never seen a system that versitile - up until that point it was D&D or bust.
Ed Dove: Well, I was 10 when I was given my first copy of Traveller (for Christmas, as I recall). Gamma World was not one of my main interests at the time, though I did end up with a copy within a year or two (I've only managed to keep the map, unfortunately for me). So, my personal experience isn't like that. My half-brother, three years my senior, preferred Gamma World, commandeering my copy after I got it.
ReplyDeleteMine was either Shadowrun or Alternity.
ReplyDeleteMy first was 2e D&D, and then my second was Rifts by Palladium. Mostly I think because a friend of mine (who didn't, and as best I can remember never ended up, gaming) had somehow ended up with the book for it and I thought it looked really cool (I think he actually had it before I started playing D&D so once I did and realized that Rifts was an RPG I got even more interested). I ended up buying a lot of Rifts books and making a lot of characters, but we really didn't actually play all that much. The books were fun though because you got a glimpse into another part of the Rifts world, and a bit more of the "story" of the world which I thought (and still do think) was a pretty cool world. I don't much like the actual rules, and I've been meaning to try to find another system to run a Rifts game with for a while.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, great question!
My first RPG was Moldvay Basic D&D. My second RPG was FASA's Star Trek. I was on a big original series kick at the time (having watched alot of reruns) and liked the depth of background material in the FASA Trek supplements. I still like their approach to Klingons better than the "official" one.
ReplyDeleteMy second was Traveller. A friend of a friend ran a game for us - the module was Shadows, which he thought apt as it was 'dungeon like.'
ReplyDeleteWe were attacked by the bat creatures in one section. I fired on them with my carbine as they approached and continued to do so once we were engaged, and had a hard time hitting them.
Afterwards, the ref mentioned that mechanically, I would have had a better success rate if I'd simply used the carbine as a club.
At this point I achieved enlightenment.
Star Frontiers.
ReplyDeleteSecond I bought? Metamorphosis: Alpha. I don't think I got to play it, but I remember making maps.
ReplyDeleteSecond I played (and third I bought?) The Fantasy Trip. I don't remember if I bought it all at once or piecemeal, but we actually did play about 10% TFT, 90% D&D in high school.
I'm counting "all D&D" as one game, here. I started with house-ruled White Box and bought Holmes Basic as my first-ever RPG, followed by the PHB.
That I actually played?
ReplyDeleteThe Fantasy Trip.
SPI's Dragonquest, after buying Universe only a couple of weeks before.
ReplyDelete[James, I'm sure you would be interested to discover a bit more about french 80's rpg production]
ReplyDeleteIndeed I would!
T&T, my first rpg was Traveller!
ReplyDeleteTechnically DnD was my second game.
ReplyDeleteI started role playing on a game called "Dragon raiders" which was a heavily.. well how can I put this... evangelized version of dungeons and dragons. (It even has a chapter on how to convert players to Christianity... No kidding.)
Haha! Dragonraid is pretty interesting, as a design. I never cared for the evangelical parts, but the world is interesting and reminiscent of Narnia, if not the sort of thing that I'd design, and the design decisions that reinforce the players' special status as "LightRaiders" are instructive.
ReplyDeleteSecond for me was Traveller, with it's strange mixture of lasers and cutlass armed marines. Not much had been published in the way of supplements or background back then so we rather struggled with what we imagined a Star-Wars-ish future may be with what we had read of Sci-Fi stuff and what we understood of real physics. And how that worked with sword armed space pirates!?
ReplyDeleteDepends on what you count, I guess. I was introduced to the hobby as a wee lad in the 80's by my dad who used a houseruled version of The Fantasy Trip. I think the next game I got into after that was TSR's Marvel Superheroes game.
ReplyDelete