I just started a poll in the right column -->
The Founders: Pre-1974
You belong to the tiny group of people who gamed with Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Rob Kuntz, etc. before D&D was commercially available.
1st Generation: 1974-1977Game: Dungeons & Dragons
Characteristics: You belong to a relatively small group that starting roleplaying with the three little brown books. These may have been blurry bootleg facsimiles, or, if you were lucky, they were originals tucked into a woodgrain or white box (shown).
Games: Basic Set (Holmes), Basic/Expert Sets (Moldvay/Cook), Advanced D&D
Characteristics: You belong to the largest generation of D&D players. You came of age in the late 1970s or early 1980s when D&D was a huge fad and sold zillions of copies. It's likely that you began playing with the Holmes "Blue Box" or Moldvay "Purple Box" (shown) basic sets, eventually "graduating" to the AD&D hardcovers.
3rd Generation: 1983-1988
Games: Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal Series, "Updated" AD&D
Characteristics: Even though D&D went through a major popularity decline in the mid-80s, new players like you continued to pick up the game either through the expanded series of boxed sets - including Mentzer's famous "Red Box" basic set (shown) - or through the ever-expanding line of updated AD&D hardbacks with the Easley covers.
Games: AD&D 2nd Edition, D&D Game, Classic D&D, Rules Cyclopedia
Characteristics: You primarily played AD&D 2e, although a small number of you may have been introduced to the game through the various basic editions (The D&D Game or Classic D&D). This was the lowest point for D&D as most roleplayers during this period favored games like Vampire or GURPS or skipped RPGs altogether to be part of the new collectible card game scene.
Games: D&D 3rd Edition (and 3.5)
Characteristics: You started playing D&D with 3e or 3.5e, probably in the heyday of the d20 open gaming license. 3e breathed new life into D&D at this time, but interest eventually started to wane due to a glut of poor quality third party products, and a confusing progression of complex rule additions, updates, and errata.
Games: D&D 4th Edition, Retroclones (Pathfinder, Labyrinth Lord, etc.)
Characteristics: You first started playing D&D a couple of years ago, most likely the 4th edition. This generation is quite different than preceding generations, however, because many new players are choosing to start with earlier editions of D&D, especially the 3.5e retroclone Pathfinder which threatens to eclipse D&D 4e in popularity.
I'm 2nd Generation, I guess. My preferred ruleset these days is BFRPG, though. I like the combination of different D&D editions more than any straight D&D game.
ReplyDelete3rd Generation here. I learned to play on the blue and purple boxes (didn't have the purple box, just one of the books, since I inherited them from my parents) as well as the 1979 hardcover editions, but was still too young to be doing much gaming--most of my formative game time was spent with the Red Box and then by the time I had a regular play group we ended up with 2e, but in practice it was 1e plus non-weapon proficiencies and random options from overpowered splatbooks.
ReplyDeleteI have always gotten the impression that a big chunk--if not the overwhelming majority--of old schoolers are of the second generation. But then again maybe I am projecting my own experience.
ReplyDeleteIt would make sense as you note that we are the "Baby Boom" of the game.
2nd gen and happily so.
ReplyDelete4th gen here, and glad for it. Learned the game on Classic D&D, then "graduated" to 2nd edition. Never having heard of the Expert Set or the Rules Cylcopedia, we just assumed that you were supposed to go from D&D to AD&D.
ReplyDeleteTo this day, I play with the Classic set and the Cyclopedia, but I keep a 2nd edition DMG around to remind me that the best way to award experience points isn't necessarily the OSR-approved way. =)
My first introduction to *The Game* was in 1980, when I was 10 years old. I first played Holmes basic, only once, and then a few months later my Mother bought me the Moldvay basic box for my 11th birthday. I acquired the Expert set soon after. It would be another two years (my first year of high school) before I bought copies of the Advanced books. This is my long winded way of saying I would fall in the second generation of D&D players.
ReplyDeleteGeneration two, sir!
ReplyDelete3rd Gen but late!
ReplyDeleteLooks like I'm a 4th generation play who started with AD&D 1st edition.
ReplyDeleteHm, my first contact was with ADnD 2ed, so I must be of 4th generation.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest - I cannot clearly classify myself with this - I was playing in old school / sandbox style using no game mechanics (about eight, nine years of playing in this manner), then I discovered LL in about 2006, then turned into OD&D in... early 2009 :-(
This should be a poll. :)
ReplyDelete- Ark
No love for AD&D 1977-1985?
ReplyDeleteGeneration "1.5" ;)
To be honest - I was born in the very beginning of the 3rd generation!
ReplyDelete2nd Generation here. Thanks for the link!!
ReplyDeleteTim
Also late 3rd gen, technically. Even though 2e came out in August '89 and the Rules Cyclopedia around the same time, I picked up the Mentzer boxed set in 1990 and most of the gamers I knew at my junior high still had the (revised) 1e hardbacks, so that's how I was introduced to the hobby.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, my actual D&D gaming consisted exclusively of 2e, so I'm really 4th generation after all.
(facepalm) D'oh! Sorry, didn't read 2nd geneeration, just didn't see pretty picture of MY favorite players handbook.
ReplyDeleteI began my journey at 13 with Basic, Expert, and AD&D, chugged strongly through 2E, fizzled with 3E, and gravitated back during the 4E-ssentials.
I began squarely in the 3rd generation but like others my actual play experience is not so easy to define. It wasn't so much an either/ or proposition for us between the Mentzer boxes and the AD&D books as it was a glorious mess of both with Dragon articles and home-brewed rules tossed in for good measure. Like Sir Larkins I also did a long stint with 2E and in 2000 picked up and played 3E for a bit.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why while I identify strongly with the underlying sentiments of being old-school I don't really identify strongly with a particular edition.
100% second generation. Holmes and Moldvay forever!
ReplyDeletelooks like 4th generation form me, but i really hate that.
ReplyDeleteI'm about to forswear my AD&D roots.
It is just not THE real fantasy role-playing game.
The only thing i must admit is that having AD&D roots enables you to have a solid background in order to comprehend other game mechanics.
My 1st exposure to D&D was 2nd Gen when I was around 10 playing with guys much older than me at the Bradford Wargames club which blew my mind. However, I see 3rd Generation as my edition, in the same way that I was aware of Jon Pertwee's Doctor but my Doctor will always be Tom Baker.
ReplyDeleteHm, ... 3rd Generation... but in Germany, and Mentzer's Red Box was afaik the first german D&D-Edition... played "Das Schwarze Auge" before, though. ;)
ReplyDelete2nd Gen. AD&D1e for me (with all the other systems resource materials hacked for ideas) :)
ReplyDeleteFavorite today: All things Microlite.
Late 2nd / early 3rd Generation here. Started playing with pre-Mentzer materials, but the first stuff I ever owned was the original Red Box. Our games, however, were a mashup of whatever we could get our hands on.
ReplyDeleteAD&D should be its own generation IMO, its certainly its own game and had a massive following apart from the Basic games that came out at or around the same time. First Edition is my favorite iteration of the game, even though I started on Moldvay and love that set to this day. Every single D&D player I knew back then dropped Basic to play AD&D as soon as they were introduced to it. Anecdotal, but true.
ReplyDelete6th generation - I'm a newbie.
ReplyDeleteSo, what if... like... yer 2nd generation but you want to be 1st generation? Can you like... diablerize a 1st generation D&D player to bump up a generation?
ReplyDeleteCuz I'm 2nd generation but I prefer 1st generation. :)
(Sorry for the V:tM reference, but I found it humorous.)
I'm a Gen X'er in real life, but a gaming "Boomer": 2nd generation all the way.
ReplyDelete3rd Gen. here using the AD&D hardbacks with the Easley covers.
ReplyDeleteI'm a freak. I was raised with Chainmail & EPT, bought Blackmoor to use with my bluebox friends, then dropped out after D&D didn't give me the stories in my head that I wanted.
ReplyDeleteI'll say "Lost Generation" - I've only found D&D fun as revised by diverse hands as of late...
I'm 5th gen, but I mainly play OD&D, Labyrinth Lord, and 1e now. Weird huh?
ReplyDeleteNice generation list!
ReplyDeleteFirst generation. Come on people there has to be more than 2 of us.
Those fancy xerox things were hard to come by back then. :) So I got the nice white box when it came out.
First generation here. I started with the Brown Box (3rd printing), shortly after Supplement I: Greyhawk came out.
ReplyDeleteI'm 3rd gen, but a revived interest in D&D has seen me purchase 1ePHB, DMG, and several Moldvay sets via eBay in the past six months. Never owned 'em or played 'em before reading all this OSR stuff. damnyouguys
ReplyDeleteNot sure if I'm 2nd or 4th...
ReplyDeleteMy dad played in college in the late 70's, and it was his old gaming stuff that got me started, but they sat on a shelf until the early 90's when I really got interested in the game. It took until '95 or so before I started the switch to 2nd edition.
Haven't played an old-school game in years, but my group switches back and forth between 5th and 6th generation systems.
I began with AD&D before the release of the Easley cover player's handbook, but that was the first copy I owned had that cover--so I must have started in 1982. I guess I started at the end of the 2nd age and reached my heyday in the 3rd.
ReplyDeleteI put myself in 1st Gen, though the AD&D MM had just released when I started. We played from the brown books with supplements adding AD&D to them as the PHB and (finally) the DMG came out.
ReplyDeleteThese days, I play Pathfinder, FATE, M&M (3rd) and various other games. But still have great memories of the various editions and the games they lead into.
I'm late 4th gen / early 5th gen, but I really want to be 2nd / 3rd gen.
ReplyDelete4th/5th here as well. Initial Knowledge of the game came in 4th gen, but I didn't start playing until 5th started.
ReplyDeleteI'm late 2nd edition. I had books and was aware of the game in 79 or so (I was 7 at the time - roughly my son's age now). I didn't actually get to play the game until about 1981. I really consider my gaming heyday to be around 1986 or so though. I was a freshman in HS and we played AD&D 1e (the revised Easley cover era with UA and MMII, DSG, WSG, etc).
ReplyDeleteMy first exposure to D&D rules actually came from the video games Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, so I guess that makes me 4th gen.
ReplyDeleteSolid 2nd generation here, started with Moldvay B/X in 1981.
ReplyDeleteKewl idea. I cross posted a link to this over at Kenzer&Co's forums;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kenzerco.com/forums/showthread.php?p=972590#post972590
I'm 2nd Generation, btw...
I'm in the second Gen. My favorite rulebook, tho, is 4th gen... the Allston D&D Cyclopedia & Wrath of the Immortals.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, most of the people I introduced to Roleplaying didn't get introduced to D&D... they got d6 Star Wars, WFRP, FASA-Trek, Traveller, or Hero System. One got Robotech.
Many Others in the gen 3/gen4 eras have gotten started with DSA, WFRP, WEG d6 Star Wars, Traveller...
And a small fraction got started in gens 1-7 on T&T....
Early third, just past 2nd by a hair.
ReplyDelete3rd Generation.
ReplyDeleteI began gaming in the middle of the '3rd Generation', and didn't manage to actually play D&D until the waning years of '5th Generation', but D&D was always there with me, in some form or another!
ReplyDeleteI've been playing RPGs since '85 utilizing a homebrew system cobbled together by me and a few friends, initially based off inspiration from Video Games(PC/NES primarily, and ports thereof) like Wizardry, Zelda, Faxanadu, Ultima, Final Fantasy, CastleVania 2:Simon's Quest, etc.... ,which all obviously are descended largely from D&D, and refined over the years into something else altogether.(Almost beyond recognition! :-)) At roughly the same time, I discovered T&T 5th Edition, which also wouldn't exist without the creation of D&D, through a local game store. The next year a friend invited me to play the Mentzer Basic Set, but the game fizzled out before it got started!(PC creation.) And of course, I played (A)D&D video games in the meanwhile. Somewhat later, I visited my FLGSs, regularly browsing TSR's selections(among others like Chaosium's, SJG's, FASA's, GDW, Palladium, etc...), oftentimes buying some 2E products(which was a lot more popular than some seem to think, see for example, WOTC's marketing data.) especially Ravenloft, which I loved, but utilized with other systems. During all this time, I knew plenty of AD&D 1E/2E players, especially 2E(as it was very affordable, especially for Adventures and Box Sets),(and one group that went BACK to Mentzer Basic![Considered weird, even wrong; 'Advanced' is clearly better than 'Basic'|as 'Classic' D&D was erroneously labelled by most everyone I knew at the time|, as we all know, right? ;-)]), but I never joined in. The years went by, and I FINALLY played a non-electronic D&D game in 2006, at a local Con. At last, the real deal!(Or not. Depending on your view of 3.5.) Now I happily use the B/X derived LL in addition to T&T and BRP(which itself was created in the wake of D&D). Odd how omnipresent D&D was, but I always seemed to skirt the edge of actually gaming with a full-fledged rules set!
6th Gen here :p I've started to read the Pathfinder Corebook recently, but I've been a Vampire The Masquerade storyteller this years :)
ReplyDeleteWhew! I'm a youngin' with 5th gen. Started out on 3.5, but I inherited a blue box set and the transition begun :)
ReplyDeleteFirst generation D&D player here (started in Nov. '77), though I moved up to AD&D 1E in late '78. Did most of my playing while I was in the Navy. Now family and life in general gets in the way of me playing my fave game.
ReplyDeleteI was exactly of the 4th generation. I think my active range was 1991-1999. I did play some "basic" D&D during that period too.
ReplyDelete