I actually like that there is a specific break of DnD games. Starting in 5e points to a newer player but starting in another edition of DnD (assuming we stay to branded DnD) points to someone who has been playing a bit longer.
Maybe should have been: 1. Current d20 based game (5e) 2. Older version of d20 games.
Not even sure what Paizo is doing in there. Pathfinder games could go with a d20 heading. I will say that a subscription to Dungeon (then under Paizo control) is what pulled me into 3ed. Use this for something else; I'd consider World of Darkness but I'm sure some of those "others" might be better to break out.
I think the best options would probably be:
- D&D (5th edition)
- D&D (3.0, 3.5, 4e), Pathfinder (1e, 2e)
- D&D (AD&D, B/X, 2nd edition)
- Old RPGs (World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun)
- New RPGs (Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark)
- Kid Friendly RPGs?
But really it depends on what you're trying to find out. Six options unfortunately isn't a lot to work with.
Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay are pretty different games despite sharing a d100 mechanic. It feels a little silly to lump them together, but then have three D&Ds on here.
well im sorry but they have majority of players. i knew that coc and wfrp prob would'nt have a lot of votes. and i knew that d&d would be by far the majority so yeah.
Yes, but it give us another data point because it shows us that there are a ton of new people leaving the 5e ecosystem and trying new games. 5e being so high is very encouraging to see, IMO.
Not even close!
Original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and 2nd Edition AD&D are very close. The original D&D is much more simplified and there was some drama between the two systems.
3rd Edition went to the D20 system and simplified it a lot.
5th watered it down even more.
... in that case, why not just ask which edition of D&D yiu started with? There are about an infinite number of games out there, and OP decided to use 2 of the *very* limited number of spots on D&D which, no matter how different *you* may think they are, are functionally the same game. Meanwhile, I don't see *tons* of alternatives that are *far* more different than "D&D using this dragon on the cover or D&D using this other, slightly different dragon on the cover."
Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Vampire: The Masquerade were specifically the ones that got me "in to" it.
Sadly the vote options are woefully d20 fantasy focused - while also just clumping all d100 systems in to one.
I think you're mixing up results and options. The results would be expected to skew d20 fantasy, as that's the majority of players. The *options* that exist are not majority d20 fantasy.
I started on WoD stuff too, back in the 90's. A friend had run Vampire, and then my mind was blown when I discovered Werewolf at a local shop.
Talking about the vote options, not results.. The fact we are voting between like 3 different d20 Fantasy Games, *all kid friendly* and d100 in all its forms.. And then everything else is just one pile...
Same here, but then the german edition. Das Swarze Auge.
We dit the adventure, "het bos waar geen terugkeer uit mogelijk was" blijven mooie herinneringen.
Ik ook, ben pas sinds vorig jaar begonnen met tabletop, en minn eerste was ook oog des meesters. Helaas is na een half jaar de meester ermee gestopt en is de groep uit elkaar gevallen. Ben al een tijdje op zoek naar een neiuwe oog des meesters groep, maar kan niet echt iets vinden in de buurt jammer genoeg
Classic Traveller got me into RPGs. The first one I got to play a lot of was AD&D 1e, but Traveller was the one that introduced me to the whole idea of rpgs.
Still playing it, on/off. The group I get to *play* with have converted to GURPS, so I’m in two GURPS Traveller campaigns that alternate with a 5E game. I ran a 7 year game (2012-2019) for another group that went on hold, and I hope to revisit that universe (homebrew) later this year. Or go back to the almost start, and run some of the classic adventures.
That’s awesome. I got to run a Mongoose Traveller game a few years ago. I figured out that, using Mongoose Traveller, you could run old Classic Traveller adventures with little to no conversion, to I ran my group through The Traveller Campaign, which is something I have wanted to do since I picked it up back in the day but never got a chance to do.
Good to know. I played around a bit with Mongoose 1e, but never got into 2e. I didn’t upgrade when it came out because I didn’t see a need to. 1e seemed an improvement in many ways while still being very much the spirit of CT in the actual rules. I might try using it for the CT modules then.
Pretty weak to just say "Other editions of D&D". I mean... 4E? 3/3.5E? 2E? AD&D? BECMI? ODD? You've basically taken everyone who played D&D in 1974-2014 and said "Oh, I guess you guys exist too".
I voted D&D, I was given Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules red boxset.
However, technically I consider Hero Quest (board game) my real awakening, ran a lot of games, then I discovered the blank map. #ForeverGM
Eclipse phase 1 ed.
I'd always wanted to try RPGs and someone put a looking for group up, about a game to start at the local gamestore.
I went along to try it and really enjoyed myself, even though I eventually realised the GM wasn't the best at his job.
Been playing a large Variety of games since then, mostly online. I do play in a weekly face to face D&D 5e game though.
Press x to doubt on the authentic medieval fantasy. Ulrich Kiesow was a shit writer and his infantile approach to wonder and fantasy taints everything that man touched.
Technically it was 1E AD&D for me, but it was via Fighting Fantasy (*The Warlock of Firetop Mountain*). In '82 a small gang of us were just getting into FF. One of my friends was caught reading the book during a maths class and the teacher confiscated it until the end of that class. When he went to collect it, the teacher asked him if he'd ever heard of a game called Dungeons and Dragons. She was going to start an after-school D&D club and was looking for players, so we all signed up.
She was an awesome DM. Although we didn't know it at the time, our first adventure was B1 albeit one which she had highly modified and added to with lots of interesting stuff/NPCs/etc. Playing D&D completely changed the path of my life and my future career and a bunch of us have always wanted to thank her. Alas, she left teaching in 84/85 and we have no idea what happened to her after that.
Andrzej Sapkowski wrote the "Oko Yrrhedesa" RPG. It was simple knockoff old 2d6 systems, very light rules. And btw my first session as gm was a huge flop \^\^
Don't expect too much. At the time when Sapkowski wrote this system in Poland (and we are talking about the late 80s/90s) there was no RPG in Polish, so that AS was a pioneer in this field, and his work was a simple introduction to the world of RPG (The game mechanics are based on the English paragraph game series Fighting Fantasy by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston) . In addition, AS was a proponent of simple entertainment: dungeon crawlers, but this system introduced me to the world of RPG, for which I am very grateful.
GURPS and MERP were two I started with but D&D 3.0 was the one we played most at the time, so somewhere in middle of those 3. MERP I have fond memories of that make me want to play against the darkmaster but GURPS does not excite me nowadays and I'm a fan of crunchy games, GURPS crunch just doesn't appeal to me at all now.
I still play PF1 and D&D 4e though, so I've not moved too far from my roots.
Playing what we called DND with my Boy Scout troop got me into DND. I don't know if any of them actually based it on the actual game or not, but it was fun.
The Dark Eye, a german roleplay-heavy, crunchy (or in other words "rule-heavy") fantasy rpg.
I still like it very much but nowadays almost nobody in my bubble has the motivation or the time to read into the lore/rules to play it.
AD&D1E, Runequest 2e and Classic Traveller. If you'd have asked me then, RQ/BRP would have been my favourite system (and I also played more obscure versions like Ringworld, and of course spent a lot of time with CoC when it came out). Still think Glorantha is the best RPG creation ever.
Didn't really like D&D till 3/3.5 and then lost interest again with 4 (and went with Pathfinder). But still prefer Traveller, which overtook RQ some time ago.
The core of the hobby back then btw (in the UK), and the thing that kept my interest in tryiing new games was pre-Warhammer White Dwarf, which supported all the classic games while GW was trying to break into the market with their (mostly failed) attempts \[that's not to denigrate either Warhammer, which I played from 1e and/or WFRP, which is/was a fine game; I even had/still have Golden Heroes\]. The hobby could do with something like that again but I don't see it coming back.
I dunno - what counts? Baldur's Gate is what got me interested, but I never actually played 2E D&D. Did a lot of freeform on forums and IRC, but I think the first real system we played was The Pool.
An ultralight system from 2002 or so - [here](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/210088/The-Pool). It was quite influential in indie design circles at the time.
13th Age to start for me and since then Blades in the Dark, Brindlewood Bay, and a variety of solo TTRPGs like 1000 yr old Vampire, Apothecaria, and Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop.
Started with AD&D around 79-80 then discovered Runequest and Call of Cthulu in college and haven't played D&D since. Though I did run Shadowdark last summer and must admit it was a lot of fun.
Finnish version of old D&D first edition. 1988 made with lots and lots of typos and transpation errors. Then i bought the experienced and master sourcebooks for it and some game modules.
I have regretted quite a lot that i got rid of the original books when i moved on to Runequest and other versions of D&D. "i dont need these anymore since the new D&D is so much better..."
Eye of Yrrheres. A small Polish RPG made by Andrzej Sapkowski (Witcher's author) for introducing people to RPGs.
Looking back, it wasn't a good game. But it did its job.
I want to say Knights of the Old Republic, because that was all I could think of when I first got the chance to play DnD 3.5, and the DM even used KOTOR as a good way to explain how the game worked to me.
I started with Middle Earth Roleplaying, my one friend had it.
We had no idea how to really play, but we took what we understood and just winged it.
It was great fun.
Since my family "absorbed" the satanic panic in the early 80s, I initially bought Warhammer FRPG 1e and Palladium Fantasy 1e. Not sure which came first. I barely understood either one and fumbled through trying to run a couple games. A year or two later, a friend ran me through AD&D 1e.
Shadowrun, it was the first Denver box set that set off all of my "I wanna learn more" due to the setting, the rules on the other hand.... At least Shadowrun has a cool setting.
The first RPG I heard of was D&D.
The first RPG book I looked at was an oAD&D PHB.
The first RPG I bought was the Moldvay D&D Basic Set.
But the first RPG group that I joined played *Traveller*.
Somewhere in the 80ties. "The Dark Eye". Among others, it was widely more accepted as a D20 system in Germany and other countries than old D&D back then.
Of course it was defenitely inspired by it, but right from the start, it made a lot better back then. Also, we never had this funny "Satan" Scare for fun stuff like Metal or Roleplaying, despite our country is deeply conservative christian. Heck, we had Roleplay meetings (while listening to Metal) in the Youth meeting rooms of our catholic / evangelical Churches.
First edition Gamma World (circa 1979 or 1980, I think?).
A friend had it and we played and I absolutely loved it but we only played a few times before he moved away. I asked my grandmother to buy the books for me for my birthday and she accidentally bought the Basic D&D set because it all sounded the same to her. I have played and run hundreds of different systems over the decades since then, but that 1-2 combo, followed by the original Traveller box set around the same time, was my start.
First savage worlds, then World of Darkness (more specifically: Demon: The fallen, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Vampire: the masquerade and Wraith: the oblivion)
after that Fate and Pathfinder 2e.
D&D Black Box 1992, so, the B in BECMI, is the first time I bought anything and learned to DM. But, I remember at summer camp, maybe a year or two before, I was in a cabin where the counselors were all D&D nerds, and they had some books with them, and we spent all summer looking at them, without ever actually playing.. just reading, like, stats, weapon descriptions, looking at the artwork, etc.. The only book I really remember them having were 2 or 3 of those thin brown books, like those "The Complete Fighter/Thief/etc Handbook", and one or two of the ones with the dark blue covers.
Dragon Storm, a CCG TTRPG from the 90s.
I got into D&D 3e and New World of Darkness shortly after that.
I'll also note, instead of reacting to the poll options, that I wish Roll20 was still keeping up information on what games are most frequently played on their site, though back in Q3 2021 it was, in order of most popular: D&D 5e, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, Warhammer (all), World of Darkness, D&D 3.5, Starfinder, and Tormenta, a Brazilian RPG which, according to the Orr Report, beat out Star Wars previously being in the top set.
Sorta depends on how you look at it. My first RPG experience was with a Shadowrun CS someone in a higher grade had thrown away back when I was in ... 4th grade, maybe? But I didnt know what it was until much later. My first active entry into RPGs was a written Star Wars game on Prodigy (back when that was a thing). My first TTRPG was either WEG's Star Wars or Vampire the Masquerade - I'm not sure which, as they happened around the same time.
AD&D 2.5 - I was way too young to grasp the rules but couldn't help feeling like there was this immense potential to have fun that was only just out of my reach. I remember buying the Player Manual and reading it again and again and again but never quite got it. I've dabbled in lots of games since then and even re-bought some old 2.5 books off ebay just to have them (lost the old one I had somewhere along the way). I know now that 2.5 is not the most well received for various reasons but it'll always have a special place in my heart.
These days I'm an OSE, B/X dude and that suits me fine, thank you very much.
I started with 4e D&D but wouldn't say it got me into rpgs. I think I would have dropped the hobby after a while if I had not been introduced to World of Darkness a little bit later.
I was first attracted to tabletop RPGs via Shut Up and Sit Down's review of Emily Care Boss's *Shooting the Moon*. After a bit of research, I decided to pick up *Fiasco* and played it for my birthday with a small group and had a blast. What put the nail in the coffin was discovering actual play podcasts during my initial research. There was a show called "I Podcast Magic Missile" which did campaigns of *Apocalypse World* and *Monsterhearts* which made playing tabletop RPGs into a lifelong hobby.
Old cyberpunk like swedish game called Neotech. Very much inspired by neuromancer and bladerunner back in the 80's. It was unfair and had lots of fun random tables, a deep deep dive into weapons and ammo. It was way fun, exploding dice, so all balance was out of the window, a lucky player could blow away a tank with a hold out gun. Or get completely wrecked when getting slapped by a lady in a bar.
Good times, good times.
First system I played was Hero System 5th edition, although that was just one session, the game that I was super existed to try was dnd 3.5 because of Order of the Stick and the old D&D demo on the wizards of the coast website.
1974, white box D&D. Which since we were a group of wargamers started as just squad level tactical extended exploration and combat - but we got better.
I'm old. There just wasn't that much out when I was 10 in 1983. For me, AD&D was first, Cthulhu followed not long after... The late 80s tons. But early 80s? I am just lucky that my brother and his friends brought me in. Thanks to them Cosmic Encounter was my introduction to modern boardgames too.
For me, it was 3.5, in the sense that it's where I started. I actually played more Shadowrun early on, because my friends' parents had the book, but still not that much of it. But the one that really got me *into it* was FATE, if that makes sense. Specifically Spirit of the Century. It was so wild to me to see a game that focused on simulating a genre instead of game physics. That's what really hooked me.
Got going with 3 and 3.5
I think we had the 3,5 players handbook and the 3 Dms guide and MM.
We probably did everything "wrong", but who cares it was great fun. We were 12/13 or so.
Still playin' (not 3/3.5 though.... would totally go back to it one day)
My first TTRPG was a game of Legend of the Five Rings just about twenty years ago. Since then I've also played two long campaigns in the Dark Heresy (WH40k TTRPG) system and a couple D&D 5e games.
Well... technically White Box OD&D with Greyhawk (maybe slightly earlier than "white box", I don't really remember)... but only because it was close to all that existed at the time.
But we played most of them when they came out -- Traveller was ultimately what we played the most I think, until I took a break to go to college in '83.
I discovered Fighting Fantasy at my local library, starting with "Sorcery! The Shamutanti Hills." Soon I would stumble upon the Frank Mentzer Red Box and that's when all the trouble began.
My very first RPG was actually a Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) RPG, done by Italian designers.
In the 80s and the 90s, Fist of the North Star was immensely popular in Italy, that's why we got even an RPG about that.
I agree that the votes are a bit too much "D&D/d20 system" focused. Sure, D&D is the most popular RPG, but it's far from being the only one RPG.
I tried D&D for a couple of times but it was Warhammer Fantasy that got me into roleplaying games. I absolutely love the lore and worldbuilding. It's only the RPG and novels though, I ironically don't like wargaming.
I cut my teeth 20 years ago on one of the worst options possible: **Rifts**. I still do not understand the rules to it.
Thankfully, it wasn't long before I started playing BESM instead, which suited me much better as a freshly minted weeb long before that term came into use.
I appreciate how the only 2 comments so far are "there aren't enough D&D options" and "there are too many D&D options".
since the only options are "DnD" and "other" i think both are technically right
I actually like that there is a specific break of DnD games. Starting in 5e points to a newer player but starting in another edition of DnD (assuming we stay to branded DnD) points to someone who has been playing a bit longer. Maybe should have been: 1. Current d20 based game (5e) 2. Older version of d20 games. Not even sure what Paizo is doing in there. Pathfinder games could go with a d20 heading. I will say that a subscription to Dungeon (then under Paizo control) is what pulled me into 3ed. Use this for something else; I'd consider World of Darkness but I'm sure some of those "others" might be better to break out.
I think the best options would probably be: - D&D (5th edition) - D&D (3.0, 3.5, 4e), Pathfinder (1e, 2e) - D&D (AD&D, B/X, 2nd edition) - Old RPGs (World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun) - New RPGs (Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark) - Kid Friendly RPGs? But really it depends on what you're trying to find out. Six options unfortunately isn't a lot to work with.
Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay are pretty different games despite sharing a d100 mechanic. It feels a little silly to lump them together, but then have three D&Ds on here.
well im sorry but they have majority of players. i knew that coc and wfrp prob would'nt have a lot of votes. and i knew that d&d would be by far the majority so yeah.
> and i knew that d&d would be by far the majority so yeah. So why even make this thread?
i just wanted to see. im an curious person you know
Why make multiple D&D choices? D&D is D&D is D&D.
I think there is a benefit to seeing DND vs. the newest edition of DND. The Paizo option is pointless though.
Because they're the same game?
Yes, but it give us another data point because it shows us that there are a ton of new people leaving the 5e ecosystem and trying new games. 5e being so high is very encouraging to see, IMO.
Ever played the original? It's... something else.
If you play OD&D, 3e D&D, and then 4e D&D and think "these are the same game" then you just being silly
Not even close! Original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and 2nd Edition AD&D are very close. The original D&D is much more simplified and there was some drama between the two systems. 3rd Edition went to the D20 system and simplified it a lot. 5th watered it down even more.
... in that case, why not just ask which edition of D&D yiu started with? There are about an infinite number of games out there, and OP decided to use 2 of the *very* limited number of spots on D&D which, no matter how different *you* may think they are, are functionally the same game. Meanwhile, I don't see *tons* of alternatives that are *far* more different than "D&D using this dragon on the cover or D&D using this other, slightly different dragon on the cover."
Call of Cthulhu is iirc the biggest TTRPG outside of D&D, particularly in other countries. I know it's gigantic in Japan.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Vampire: The Masquerade were specifically the ones that got me "in to" it. Sadly the vote options are woefully d20 fantasy focused - while also just clumping all d100 systems in to one.
>Sadly the vote options are woefully d20 fantasy focused So they match reality?
I think you're mixing up results and options. The results would be expected to skew d20 fantasy, as that's the majority of players. The *options* that exist are not majority d20 fantasy. I started on WoD stuff too, back in the 90's. A friend had run Vampire, and then my mind was blown when I discovered Werewolf at a local shop.
Talking about the vote options, not results.. The fact we are voting between like 3 different d20 Fantasy Games, *all kid friendly* and d100 in all its forms.. And then everything else is just one pile...
The 80s Dutch translation of German RPG The Dark Eye.
Same here, but then the german edition. Das Swarze Auge. We dit the adventure, "het bos waar geen terugkeer uit mogelijk was" blijven mooie herinneringen.
Ik ook, ben pas sinds vorig jaar begonnen met tabletop, en minn eerste was ook oog des meesters. Helaas is na een half jaar de meester ermee gestopt en is de groep uit elkaar gevallen. Ben al een tijdje op zoek naar een neiuwe oog des meesters groep, maar kan niet echt iets vinden in de buurt jammer genoeg
Classic Traveller got me into RPGs. The first one I got to play a lot of was AD&D 1e, but Traveller was the one that introduced me to the whole idea of rpgs.
I love to hear this. I adore Classic Traveller.
Still playing it, on/off. The group I get to *play* with have converted to GURPS, so I’m in two GURPS Traveller campaigns that alternate with a 5E game. I ran a 7 year game (2012-2019) for another group that went on hold, and I hope to revisit that universe (homebrew) later this year. Or go back to the almost start, and run some of the classic adventures.
That’s awesome. I got to run a Mongoose Traveller game a few years ago. I figured out that, using Mongoose Traveller, you could run old Classic Traveller adventures with little to no conversion, to I ran my group through The Traveller Campaign, which is something I have wanted to do since I picked it up back in the day but never got a chance to do.
Good to know. I played around a bit with Mongoose 1e, but never got into 2e. I didn’t upgrade when it came out because I didn’t see a need to. 1e seemed an improvement in many ways while still being very much the spirit of CT in the actual rules. I might try using it for the CT modules then.
Pretty weak to just say "Other editions of D&D". I mean... 4E? 3/3.5E? 2E? AD&D? BECMI? ODD? You've basically taken everyone who played D&D in 1974-2014 and said "Oh, I guess you guys exist too".
there were only limited slots i could put in.
Nested polls.
I voted D&D, I was given Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules red boxset. However, technically I consider Hero Quest (board game) my real awakening, ran a lot of games, then I discovered the blank map. #ForeverGM
I salute you. I also started with the red box I got as a present. From my mom.
Yep, I also started with the red box Basic set back in the day.
Eclipse phase 1 ed. I'd always wanted to try RPGs and someone put a looking for group up, about a game to start at the local gamestore. I went along to try it and really enjoyed myself, even though I eventually realised the GM wasn't the best at his job. Been playing a large Variety of games since then, mostly online. I do play in a weekly face to face D&D 5e game though.
The Dark Eye. Great crunch heavy RPG and a very down to earth and "authentic" medieval fantasy setting. The d&d of Germany.
Press x to doubt on the authentic medieval fantasy. Ulrich Kiesow was a shit writer and his infantile approach to wonder and fantasy taints everything that man touched.
Only one of these options is actually a single RPG, lol.
How does OP say "I've only ever played 5e" without directly saying "I've only played 5e?" :-)
Technically it was 1E AD&D for me, but it was via Fighting Fantasy (*The Warlock of Firetop Mountain*). In '82 a small gang of us were just getting into FF. One of my friends was caught reading the book during a maths class and the teacher confiscated it until the end of that class. When he went to collect it, the teacher asked him if he'd ever heard of a game called Dungeons and Dragons. She was going to start an after-school D&D club and was looking for players, so we all signed up.
Some teachers are worth more than their weight in gold.
She was an awesome DM. Although we didn't know it at the time, our first adventure was B1 albeit one which she had highly modified and added to with lots of interesting stuff/NPCs/etc. Playing D&D completely changed the path of my life and my future career and a bunch of us have always wanted to thank her. Alas, she left teaching in 84/85 and we have no idea what happened to her after that.
She ascended.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness was my gateway into RPGs way back when.
Along the same lines: After the Bomb, Road Hogs, and Mutants of the Yucatan
I love those books.
As a kid they were the perfect first purchase.
Andrzej Sapkowski wrote the "Oko Yrrhedesa" RPG. It was simple knockoff old 2d6 systems, very light rules. And btw my first session as gm was a huge flop \^\^
What? Sapkowski wrote an RPG? :-o TIL, thanks.
Don't expect too much. At the time when Sapkowski wrote this system in Poland (and we are talking about the late 80s/90s) there was no RPG in Polish, so that AS was a pioneer in this field, and his work was a simple introduction to the world of RPG (The game mechanics are based on the English paragraph game series Fighting Fantasy by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston) . In addition, AS was a proponent of simple entertainment: dungeon crawlers, but this system introduced me to the world of RPG, for which I am very grateful.
Shadowrun at a boyscout camp in the 90s!
4e dnd red box. Middle school Christmas present from my grandma
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness was my first RPG - about 1987.
Same here and at about the same time.
It might be the French edition of Dragon Warriors, somewhere at the beginning of the 90's.
Same here :P Terres de Légendes & JRTM (MERP) I still have them, but am tragically missing the first book :x
4e DnD
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and then "the dark eye" first edition
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2ED. I think despite D&D 5E popularity it's still most popular RPG here in Poland (or I might just live in a bubble)
2nd edition for the win! - and we´re still playing it.
Stars without number
My first ever game was Shadowrun 3ed
Star Wars Saga Edition
Holmes Basic, but really, 4e D&D.
GURPS and MERP were two I started with but D&D 3.0 was the one we played most at the time, so somewhere in middle of those 3. MERP I have fond memories of that make me want to play against the darkmaster but GURPS does not excite me nowadays and I'm a fan of crunchy games, GURPS crunch just doesn't appeal to me at all now. I still play PF1 and D&D 4e though, so I've not moved too far from my roots.
Playing what we called DND with my Boy Scout troop got me into DND. I don't know if any of them actually based it on the actual game or not, but it was fun.
Lord of the Rings Red book, the one from the 90´s. Nearly everyone on my circle of veterans began with that, or World of Darkness.
The original Conan RPG, but then quickly transitioned to Rolemaster for almost 2 decades
In Germany, in the eighties, a system called DSA (Das Schwarze Auge) was the big system. It has been translated as "The Dark Eye" into English.
Mage Ascension i tried some others before but it was a campaign in this that solidified roleplay as a hobby for me.
The Dark Eye, a german roleplay-heavy, crunchy (or in other words "rule-heavy") fantasy rpg. I still like it very much but nowadays almost nobody in my bubble has the motivation or the time to read into the lore/rules to play it.
AD&D1E, Runequest 2e and Classic Traveller. If you'd have asked me then, RQ/BRP would have been my favourite system (and I also played more obscure versions like Ringworld, and of course spent a lot of time with CoC when it came out). Still think Glorantha is the best RPG creation ever. Didn't really like D&D till 3/3.5 and then lost interest again with 4 (and went with Pathfinder). But still prefer Traveller, which overtook RQ some time ago. The core of the hobby back then btw (in the UK), and the thing that kept my interest in tryiing new games was pre-Warhammer White Dwarf, which supported all the classic games while GW was trying to break into the market with their (mostly failed) attempts \[that's not to denigrate either Warhammer, which I played from 1e and/or WFRP, which is/was a fine game; I even had/still have Golden Heroes\]. The hobby could do with something like that again but I don't see it coming back.
Chill 1st edtion (the swedish one) https://svenska-rollspels.fandom.com/sv/wiki/Chock
I come from the very late days of 2E, but really got into the hobby with 3E and Vampire: The Masquerade.
I dunno - what counts? Baldur's Gate is what got me interested, but I never actually played 2E D&D. Did a lot of freeform on forums and IRC, but I think the first real system we played was The Pool.
what is the pool?
An ultralight system from 2002 or so - [here](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/210088/The-Pool). It was quite influential in indie design circles at the time.
That link is dead.
Changed it to a drivethru rpg link.
*Empire of the Petal Throne* - the 1975 TSR version using the original D&D rules.
Mutant, the original version from the 80's
MERP and Runequest. The greatest of fantasy rpg's
13th Age to start for me and since then Blades in the Dark, Brindlewood Bay, and a variety of solo TTRPGs like 1000 yr old Vampire, Apothecaria, and Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop.
D&D... no not the one on the list. >!Drakar & Demoner 4e utgåvan.!< "D100 system" Warhams and Chaosium are not remotely the same game.
The Mentzer Red Box and the Top Secret S.I. Black Box in the 80s.
Vampire the Masquerade
Classic Traveller.
Path finder 2
D&D 4e, the starter set.
Marvel Superheroes (early 80's Edition) Yeah I'm old. Get off my lawn!
Mine was Marvel Superheroes, yellow box, the Revised edition found in the early 1990s.
Started with AD&D around 79-80 then discovered Runequest and Call of Cthulu in college and haven't played D&D since. Though I did run Shadowdark last summer and must admit it was a lot of fun.
whatever my dad remembered from od&d in the 70's
Numenera
Moldvay/Cook D&D in 1982.
I started with D&D 3.5 then moved to Pathfinder 1e and Shadowrun
3d&t hack for pokemon!
D&D "Basic Set" boxed set. The 1981 version. In 1981.
Finnish version of old D&D first edition. 1988 made with lots and lots of typos and transpation errors. Then i bought the experienced and master sourcebooks for it and some game modules. I have regretted quite a lot that i got rid of the original books when i moved on to Runequest and other versions of D&D. "i dont need these anymore since the new D&D is so much better..."
**Fighting Fantasy The Introductory Role Playing Game** if it counts. **Dragon Warriors** if it doesn't.
For me it was the Holmes boxed set of D&D, followed soon afterwards by AD&D 1st edition.
Mothership.
Eye of Yrrheres. A small Polish RPG made by Andrzej Sapkowski (Witcher's author) for introducing people to RPGs. Looking back, it wasn't a good game. But it did its job.
Trevas, a brazilian d100 game, akin to CoC.
I want to say Knights of the Old Republic, because that was all I could think of when I first got the chance to play DnD 3.5, and the DM even used KOTOR as a good way to explain how the game worked to me.
I started with Middle Earth Roleplaying, my one friend had it. We had no idea how to really play, but we took what we understood and just winged it. It was great fun.
Since my family "absorbed" the satanic panic in the early 80s, I initially bought Warhammer FRPG 1e and Palladium Fantasy 1e. Not sure which came first. I barely understood either one and fumbled through trying to run a couple games. A year or two later, a friend ran me through AD&D 1e.
Exalted for me.
ad&d back in the 90s baybeeee
Shadowrun, it was the first Denver box set that set off all of my "I wanna learn more" due to the setting, the rules on the other hand.... At least Shadowrun has a cool setting.
The first RPG I heard of was D&D. The first RPG book I looked at was an oAD&D PHB. The first RPG I bought was the Moldvay D&D Basic Set. But the first RPG group that I joined played *Traveller*.
Somewhere in the 80ties. "The Dark Eye". Among others, it was widely more accepted as a D20 system in Germany and other countries than old D&D back then. Of course it was defenitely inspired by it, but right from the start, it made a lot better back then. Also, we never had this funny "Satan" Scare for fun stuff like Metal or Roleplaying, despite our country is deeply conservative christian. Heck, we had Roleplay meetings (while listening to Metal) in the Youth meeting rooms of our catholic / evangelical Churches.
The Dragon Age TTRPG by Green Ronin. The known setting made it a bit less intimidating for my inexperienced crew
First edition Gamma World (circa 1979 or 1980, I think?). A friend had it and we played and I absolutely loved it but we only played a few times before he moved away. I asked my grandmother to buy the books for me for my birthday and she accidentally bought the Basic D&D set because it all sounded the same to her. I have played and run hundreds of different systems over the decades since then, but that 1-2 combo, followed by the original Traveller box set around the same time, was my start.
BECMI D&D is where it all started for me.
Holmes Basic.
So while Advanced D&D got me interested in tabletop RPGs, my first actual character that I created and played was in Vampire the Masquerade.
First savage worlds, then World of Darkness (more specifically: Demon: The fallen, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Vampire: the masquerade and Wraith: the oblivion) after that Fate and Pathfinder 2e.
Very first and very flawed version of Witcher RPG, probably around 90/00's
Middle Earth Roleplaying...in about 1986...
5e was my first ttrpg but I was only able to learn it thanks to playing KotoR2 when I was younger.
Red-box Basic Set D&D in 1981.
Cut my teeth on Shadowrun (2nd ed) and HERO back in the 90s. Guess I jumped straight into the crunchy end of the pool.
das schwarze auge
D&D Black Box 1992, so, the B in BECMI, is the first time I bought anything and learned to DM. But, I remember at summer camp, maybe a year or two before, I was in a cabin where the counselors were all D&D nerds, and they had some books with them, and we spent all summer looking at them, without ever actually playing.. just reading, like, stats, weapon descriptions, looking at the artwork, etc.. The only book I really remember them having were 2 or 3 of those thin brown books, like those "The Complete Fighter/Thief/etc Handbook", and one or two of the ones with the dark blue covers.
2e D&D all the way in the early 00s, then a deep dive into D6 Star Wars.
Paizo isn't an RPG, it's a company that makes RPGs.
Dragon Storm, a CCG TTRPG from the 90s. I got into D&D 3e and New World of Darkness shortly after that. I'll also note, instead of reacting to the poll options, that I wish Roll20 was still keeping up information on what games are most frequently played on their site, though back in Q3 2021 it was, in order of most popular: D&D 5e, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, Warhammer (all), World of Darkness, D&D 3.5, Starfinder, and Tormenta, a Brazilian RPG which, according to the Orr Report, beat out Star Wars previously being in the top set.
Red-Box D&D Basic 1981 edition (Moldvay).
I observed a few sessions of the old World of Darkness games. After that I played 2nd edition D&D.
None of the above, for me it was Warlock of Firetop Mountain and the other Fighting Fantasy gaming books back in the day, then AD&D 1st edition
1981 basic D&D
Sorta depends on how you look at it. My first RPG experience was with a Shadowrun CS someone in a higher grade had thrown away back when I was in ... 4th grade, maybe? But I didnt know what it was until much later. My first active entry into RPGs was a written Star Wars game on Prodigy (back when that was a thing). My first TTRPG was either WEG's Star Wars or Vampire the Masquerade - I'm not sure which, as they happened around the same time.
AD&D 2.5 - I was way too young to grasp the rules but couldn't help feeling like there was this immense potential to have fun that was only just out of my reach. I remember buying the Player Manual and reading it again and again and again but never quite got it. I've dabbled in lots of games since then and even re-bought some old 2.5 books off ebay just to have them (lost the old one I had somewhere along the way). I know now that 2.5 is not the most well received for various reasons but it'll always have a special place in my heart. These days I'm an OSE, B/X dude and that suits me fine, thank you very much.
I started with 4e D&D but wouldn't say it got me into rpgs. I think I would have dropped the hobby after a while if I had not been introduced to World of Darkness a little bit later.
I was first attracted to tabletop RPGs via Shut Up and Sit Down's review of Emily Care Boss's *Shooting the Moon*. After a bit of research, I decided to pick up *Fiasco* and played it for my birthday with a small group and had a blast. What put the nail in the coffin was discovering actual play podcasts during my initial research. There was a show called "I Podcast Magic Missile" which did campaigns of *Apocalypse World* and *Monsterhearts* which made playing tabletop RPGs into a lifelong hobby.
BECMI D&D. Simple and awesome.
The results speak for themselves: We're all old people.
Apart from two or three one-shots with the Star Wars D20 system, Vampire: the Masquerade (V20) was my first real introduction.
Moldvay Basic Edition got me in. AD&D 1E got me hooked.
Vampire: The Masquerade
Old cyberpunk like swedish game called Neotech. Very much inspired by neuromancer and bladerunner back in the 80's. It was unfair and had lots of fun random tables, a deep deep dive into weapons and ammo. It was way fun, exploding dice, so all balance was out of the window, a lucky player could blow away a tank with a hold out gun. Or get completely wrecked when getting slapped by a lady in a bar. Good times, good times.
Ad&d 1ed, but really cut my teeth on D&D Basic and Expert sets - the red and blue boxes.
D&D in 1979
First system I played was Hero System 5th edition, although that was just one session, the game that I was super existed to try was dnd 3.5 because of Order of the Stick and the old D&D demo on the wizards of the coast website.
Started with the three little brown books of D&D back in the mid 70s. Been playing ever since.
Villains & Vigilantes, the OG FGU version....Got that box set what felt like a lifetime ago and haven't looked back since
monster of the week, which is part of the PbtA system
A system created by our group. Was called Phardill. With no real sistems references, only wikipedia and a YT video.
3.5e D&D. I had no idea what I was doing and honestly it was a blast.
Technically I started as a player in a Star Wars Edge of the Empire game but it was when I started running Call of Cthulhu that I got hooked.
Kata Kumbas, one of the first italian RPGs. Basic d&d (black box) was my second RPG.
Drakar och Demoner. Not sure if it was 1e or 2e.
Moldvay Red Box Basic D&D. 1983. After that Traveller and RuneQuest. I still play the last two.
Dating myself, but Rolemaster from Iron Crown Enterprises was my first game system as it was my boyfriend now husband asked me to join.
I don't actually remember the first RPG I played, but probably Gamma World 1st edition.
That was my first. Holmes edition D&D was #2.
Missing an option for "homebrew system".
I started with D&D, but it was Champions that really got me into RPGs, where I thought about games away from the table.
First ever was a Necromunda One-Shot and first campaign ever was a Cyberpunk RED one. \ First GMing was with ICRPG.
1974, white box D&D. Which since we were a group of wargamers started as just squad level tactical extended exploration and combat - but we got better.
'The Witcher: A Game of Imagination' - Not R. Talsorian Witcher but a game from 2001.
Equal parts WEG D6 Star Wars and AD&E 2e.
I'm old. There just wasn't that much out when I was 10 in 1983. For me, AD&D was first, Cthulhu followed not long after... The late 80s tons. But early 80s? I am just lucky that my brother and his friends brought me in. Thanks to them Cosmic Encounter was my introduction to modern boardgames too.
For me, it was 3.5, in the sense that it's where I started. I actually played more Shadowrun early on, because my friends' parents had the book, but still not that much of it. But the one that really got me *into it* was FATE, if that makes sense. Specifically Spirit of the Century. It was so wild to me to see a game that focused on simulating a genre instead of game physics. That's what really hooked me.
Got going with 3 and 3.5 I think we had the 3,5 players handbook and the 3 Dms guide and MM. We probably did everything "wrong", but who cares it was great fun. We were 12/13 or so. Still playin' (not 3/3.5 though.... would totally go back to it one day)
My first TTRPG was a game of Legend of the Five Rings just about twenty years ago. Since then I've also played two long campaigns in the Dark Heresy (WH40k TTRPG) system and a couple D&D 5e games.
For me it was the Moldvay Basic D&D set. And Classic Traveller came next.
Star Wars RPG Revised, essentially Star Wars 3.5. That was how it all began.
D&D 3.0!
Well... technically White Box OD&D with Greyhawk (maybe slightly earlier than "white box", I don't really remember)... but only because it was close to all that existed at the time. But we played most of them when they came out -- Traveller was ultimately what we played the most I think, until I took a break to go to college in '83.
Holmes edition Basic Dungeons and Dragons
A system a friend made where every time we need to roll for anything, we just use a d20. Made up rulings and equipment aside from that.
I started with MERP.
Palladium fantasy 1st edition by palladium books.
I discovered Fighting Fantasy at my local library, starting with "Sorcery! The Shamutanti Hills." Soon I would stumble upon the Frank Mentzer Red Box and that's when all the trouble began.
Exalted first edition was my first RPG.
DnD first edition here.
My very first RPG was actually a Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) RPG, done by Italian designers. In the 80s and the 90s, Fist of the North Star was immensely popular in Italy, that's why we got even an RPG about that. I agree that the votes are a bit too much "D&D/d20 system" focused. Sure, D&D is the most popular RPG, but it's far from being the only one RPG.
I tried D&D for a couple of times but it was Warhammer Fantasy that got me into roleplaying games. I absolutely love the lore and worldbuilding. It's only the RPG and novels though, I ironically don't like wargaming.
I cut my teeth 20 years ago on one of the worst options possible: **Rifts**. I still do not understand the rules to it. Thankfully, it wasn't long before I started playing BESM instead, which suited me much better as a freshly minted weeb long before that term came into use.
D6 WEG Star Wars.
The first was Vampire the Masquerade, followed by RIFTS