Where It All Started: Not Quite D&D

When Bricu asked where it all started, I recalled my own first video game RPG. Among the racing games and the side-scrollers in the pile of used Nintendo games my dad had brought home was this adventure game called Dragon Warrior. My friends and I played it for most of a summer, to the point my mother can still recall the theme music:

It had us captivated. So much so that, when our parents kicked us out of the house to get fresh air, we still wanted to play.

I wouldn’t realize it until years later, after I’d started gaming, but our little neighborhood hack of Dragon Warrior was my first experience with GMing. Sure, it was a glorified game of Let’s Pretend, but as the other kids played their parts — princess, warrior, slimes, dragons — I played the part of narrator, orchestrating the fights, weaving a story, making calls about who won the combat. Everyone described their actions and reactions, and though we didn’t have a system established to keep track of what it meant, the players “leveled up.”

I don’t remember how long we played, whether the novelty wore off in days or weeks, nor do I recall us ever doing anything like it again.

But it’s no surprise to me that, years later, I fell in love with tabletop roleplaying and, when the opportunity arose, running my own games.

So how about it, cats ‘n’ kittens? What games and stories inspired you so much you wanted to keep on playing in that world?

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