First game ever played?

[AKAramis]

Most of my boxed sets are basic rulesets of one stripe or another.

Let's take Deluxe RuneQuest by Chaosium/Avalon Hill.
Box: 2x9x12 inches.
Contents: 5 books, (Players, GM's, Magic, Monsters, Glorantha), two booklets (Index and Charts; Adventure), all 8.5x11" and coverless. A pad of character sheets. LARGE map of fantasy Europe (22 x 32 inch, folded up). 2d20. 3d6. 1d8.

What's in mine: all the above except the dice, plus the Gods of Glorantha boxed set's contents, plus the Human Adventurer Sheets pad, and 1/2" depth of empty space.

I've only purchased 3 boxed RPG's in the last 5 years: Tunnels and Trolls 5.5 and 30th anniv.

• 5.5ed: Rulebook (8.5x11 softcover), 25 pregen characters, adventure. 9x12" box. 3d6. 1/8" dead space above book
  
• 30th Aniv. (7ed): KSA 7Ed Rules Booklet (wirebound), FD Alternate Rules (7REd) Booklet, Bestiary Booklet, CD, 4 sheets of counters, folded grid-map for combats. 5x7" hinged lid tin. 4d6. No dead space.
  
• Lace and Steel 1e (used): 4 booklets (about 40pg each), softcover saddlebound. 2 decks of cards. 1" dead space on a box big enough to hold with 5mm clearance on all sides A4 sized books.

I like boxed sets, since with a little strapping tape, the boxes become rather rugged, and keep the game together for a long time. The T&T7 set's metal tin keeps the wire comb binding from getting crushed. It survives nicely in a coat pocket or book bag.

It's the combination of the extra 1/2" height and depth that retailer's tend to object to; bigger shelves means fewer shelves.

But they have the severe disadvantage of "No Browsing", and dead space.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

I think the boxed sets were easier to produce and less costly than bound books. RQ3 books (which I loved) were all black adn white and bound with staples. They lasted forever...

 

[soltakss]

In the UK, and perhaps the rest of Europe I'm not sure, Books are exempt from VAT (Value Added Tax) but boxed games are not.

In the 90s, or perhaps 80s, games started coming out as books because the profit margin was more if they didn't have to pay tax. Some of them were marked "PYOD" or "Provide Your Own Dice" because they didn't contain dice, we all thought it was strange and wouldn't catch on.

Now, all games are produced as books and it's very rare to see a boxed set.

Soon, most games will be available as PDFs and we won't even have books.

 

[The General]

For me it all started with basic D&D followed very soon after with AD&D. The most memorable early adventure being "The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh".

Like many of you we have rolled through a lot of different RPGs, but the more interesting ones included:

Twilight 2000
Gamma World
Paranoia
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Role Playing Game (boxed set that came with rocky and bullwinkle hand puppets!)

I got into RQ when the local gaming store was basically giving away RQ2 due to RQ3 being released. Of course after I read all the RQ2 stuff I just had to have RQ3 the next week... Such is the curse of RPG games - you get hours and hours of joy just reading them, then years more playing them.

Most enjoyable MRQ book to read so far has been Slaine which is the setting for the campaign I have just started. Looking forward to reading Lankhmar next.

Da General

 

[halorix]

Ah the good ol' days
We started with the red D&D boxed set, but soon got our hands on another boxed game! Powers & Perils from AH, we just loved our P&P

 

[Fabs]

Since D&D in about 1980 started it off, far too many systems, versions and home brewed variations to remember up till about the RuneQuest Revival in mid-90s then a break for about 10 years.

Possible highlights?
Introduced to RQII in about 1982 but disliked its, in my opinion at the time, over complicated system (too many rolls!). Little did i realise it would end up as probably my favourie system and one of my favourite games.
I remember pulling an all night gaming session, where on day 2 I agreed to GM Space Opera solely so i could get a couple of hours kip while the players rolled up thier characters
I even remember playing Toon!

I not seen The Fantasy Trip mentioned yet (or Melee & Wizard). Another system i have returned too time and time again. It has it's place

 

[gamesmeister]

For me it all started with basic D&D followed very soon after with AD&D. The most memorable early adventure being "The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh".

Now that was a classic scenario! The two follow ups in the series weren't quite as good, but the SSoSM was awesome! One of the few items produced by TSR UK iirc.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Here is a question for all you veterans. You speak of these rpg boxed sets. I assume these were packed with stuff. How come I do not see these nowasays? And what were they like?

Others have touched on many of the points - You could include dice, being important when getting polyhedral dice could be even harder than getting the game, and "extras" like character sheets that can now be stuck on a website.
Another reason is that "Games shops" expected to get games, not books, and game companies were generally set up to publish paper or card backed, stapled rules books rather than full colour glossy harbacks. A boxed set gave you "Shelf presence" that a stapled book would lose if displayed sideways on.

They weren't without problems, at least for those of us in the UK. Firstly, as has been mentioned elsewhere, Books in the UK are 0 rated VAT (no sales tax), Games are not. Putting the books in a box immediately turned it into a game and added 15% to the price. Secondly, due to Americans not using European standard paper, the boxes look like you can fit your A4 character sheets, campaign notes and maps in, but you can't quite

I don't recall the last "boxed" RPG I bought "new" - maybe MERP.

the early AH RQ3 supplements were also boxed - again I think this was because AH were set up to produce books and ship boxes. These days few RPG supplements are produced this way, due to the extra expense in constructing and collating the sets. Mongoose did (at least) one CONAN City as a boxed set, and AEG did 3 boxed adventures for L5R as boxed sets (2 of which were cities), otherwise again I'm struggling to think of many recent examples.

Also, with regard to what I have seen from current companies, why do they not do many:

1. Scenarios or campaigns
2. Miniatures
3. Maps

Mostly cost, I imagine.

THe "traditional" answer to (1) is that sales are lower - "every" player might own a rule book, "many" players might own a splat-book, but only the GM buys a scenario. This may or may not be true for any individual group, of courtse, but it is probably "good enough" for a rule of thumb. What is true, however is that a good scenario, and especially a good campaign is harder to write than new mechanics or new "fluff". You need to come up with something that avoids any (obvious) railroading and allows for a variety of player actions, yet still fits in your book without 3/4 of the content never being used by any individual group.
If done well, however they are invaluable, and can really help to "sell" a game. Chaosium have survived for some years largely on the back of Call of Cthulhu scenarios, and CoC continues to feature heavily in lists of "top games"...

(2) producing miniatures requires a whole different set of skills and processes to producing books, and while writers (even good ones) are prepared to work for the typically low rates RPG publishers offer, Sculptors (especially good ones) are a much rarer resource. Then you need to market your figures - Different markets are looking for different things - traditional wargamers want lots of "standard" figures to make up a regular unit. Roleplayers want individual figures so they can identify them with their characters - they want lots of choice so that everyone doesn't end up with the same figure, but they might not want to buy many of each type... Modellers will want figures that can easily be converted. Collectores will want recognisable characters etc etc.

(3) Maps are similar, in that artwork (including cartography) is more expensive to commission than text. Like scenarios a map, particularly one with no supporting text/gazeteer, is only going to sell to a portion of the games potential audience. For a start, a map is only really of use to someone playing in that (area of the) world. People who are playing MRQ in their own worlds aren't going to want maps of Glorantha, Lankhmar, the Young Kingdoms, though they may buy books in those settings if they think there is material in there they can adapt/steal for their own game...

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Technically, MERP. There was a fantasy event in the local library, and some people were demoing this weird game. They needed another player, I got dragged in. I was an elf who'd gone through Moria. Awesome, says I.

After that, D&D->Cthulhu->Vampire->Legend of the Five Rings->pretty much everything.

 

[Greg Smith]

Traveller was the first proper game. Before that there was a bizare creation from our imagination based loosely on the description of D&D in the book 'What is Dungeons and Dragons' and Fighting Fantasy.

After that:
James Bond
TSRs Indiana Jones
Universe
Runequest
Lords of Creation

and then onto pretty much anything and everything.

 

[CarlQ]

Traveller was the first proper game. Before that there was a bizare creation from our imagination based loosely on the description of D&D in the book 'What is Dungeons and Dragons' and Fighting Fantasy.

Wow. Major surprise to hear that someone else had 'What is Dungeons and Dragons'. I bought two copies (because I gave one away as an "I'm sorry I missed your birthday present"), and unearthed my remaining copy last year. Talk about nostalgia!

Did you actually run the example dungeon in that book?

Carl Q.

 

[Host of Angels]

I think it was 1978 and a partial photocopy of the basic D&D blue book.

Before that my sister and I had invented a kind of almost-rpg based in Middle Earth - and then my sister went to stay with a cousin in the US of A and all that was swept away. She returned with the precious photocopy. After months of struggling with an incomplete rule set I tracked down a shop in Epsom that had the game. My father was press-ganged into the long drive to the shop from Croydon.

Interestingly - I recall that the basic box I bought did not include dice, despite all that has been said previously. It came with a sheet of chits to cut out and use as random number generators. I was gutted when I realised - and dad had to drive me back to Epsom to buy the dice.

After that? Too many systems to mention - all in the attic now.

 

[Loz]

1981, Basic D&D in the purple box. I read it and just didn't really understand it; it took taking the plunge and running Keep on the Borderlands for one of my friends to grasp how it was meant to be played, and from there I was hooked.

After that, bought LBB Traveller, then RQ2 (Games Workshop boxed set), then Stormbringer 1st edition. D&D got left swiftly behind when I discovered RQ and Stormbringer; I'd already created a D&D Young Kingdoms variant, but the SB boxed set was everything I'd wanted.

Played lots of Cthulhu and Bushido too, in those early, halcyon days, and a fairly long Traveller campaign that my friend ran set in the Spinward Marches.

 

[The Greek]

Basic D&D - the Blue Box set of the late 70's. Was introduced to the game at my school's games club and have never looked back.

After that there was a brief flirtation with Tunnels and Trolls, mainly for the solo aspect.

Then there was Traveller, and the introduction of White Dwarf at the local games shop.

And then RuneQuest. Oh the hours of fun we had in Pavis, being hunted down by the various criminal, rebel and Lunar elements. Such joy! AD&D did get a fair bit of play but RQ was the no.1 game for my school years by a long way - Griffin Mountain rocked! Then there was GW Dredd, Golden Heroes and Great Cthulhu. (whimper), all marvellous fun, and suddenly my childhood was gone and college beckoned...

More Dredd and RQ, Paranoia and Pendragon made guest appearances, AD&D (of course) and Cthulhu (yelp). Then adulthood beckoned...

and the road went merrily on (or somesuch)

 

[Fishy]

Oooh, let me think.
Must have been Maelstrom (published in paperback by Penguin I think) back in about '82ish. Followed by a bit of D&D Red Basic Box a couple of years later and then it's gets terribly complicated because I don't think there's been a time since '88 that I wasn't playing at least two (and often more) games, barring odd breaks for holidays and illness an the like.

Kinda scary when I see it written down. :?

 

[Sinisalo]

Oooh, let me think.
Must have been Maelstrom (published in paperback by Penguin I think) back in about '82ish.

Oooh Maelstrom!. It was all there wasn't it in that tiny book? The illustrations I still highly rate (for evocativeness) and it shipped with an introductory adventure like all great games ;P so you could actually play straight away not wait over a year for the first proper module !cough! !splutter!...

 

[gamesmeister]

Is there anyone on this list who isn't an old duffer?

 

[Host of Angels]

Duff duff duff duff

We are duffers together

 

[CarlQ]

Is there anyone on this list who isn't an old duffer?

Apparently not, unless you're of more recent vintage than the rest of us. Personally, I started with Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, progressed to Erol Otus-cover Basic D&D (& shortly after to Mentzer Basic/Expert) in 1984, Then spread out into RQ, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, a little Boot Hill - TSR games were the most available in my area - and so on and so forth. BTW, I loved Maelstrom! particularly the herblore section!

Carl Q.

 

[Sinisalo]

BTW, I loved Maelstrom! particularly the herblore section!

Thats it im going to go look for it!