RPGaDAY: When were you first introduced to RPGs?

A more complicated question than it sounds.

As a kid I watched the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon on TV, but didn't have much concept of the game on which it was based.

I think the games first entered my consciousness while I was at university.  Someone brought a copy of Call of Cthulhu to a Discworld event.  Discworld got its own game.  But I never played anything.

While doing my postgrad course I went into an antiques shop, and found an old D&D box set.

Moldvay Basic Set (1981) #DnD #TTRPG pic.twitter.com/BZ5qbLMucO

— D&D Daily (@dnd__daily) May 9, 2022

 I enjoyed reading it, and thought one day I'd like to play.  But I never played it.

After I graduated I moved in with my boyfriend, who loaned me his copy of Planescape: Torment, from which I developed a deep hatred of THAC0.  I followed that up with Neverwinter Nights.

Then finally I got into actual RPGs, starting with a play-by-forum game that basically went nowhere, and then an invitation to a MUSH (Multi User Shared Hallucination), which differed from play-by-forum in that it happened live so you didn't end up waiting days for a response.  But I'd still not played any actual tabletop RPG.

And then the owners of the MUSH invited me to visit them and play a game.

We played Everway.  Character creation was low on numbers and high on concept.  I came up with Cinder, a fairytale princess who'd decided at the last minute she didn't want to marry the prince and live happily ever after, but to live her own life instead.  And equipped with nothing but a pair of magic running shoes and a winning smile, she set out in search of adventure.

I paid many more visits to my friends, who introduced me to many more games after that.  But it was that one game of Everway that started me on the path that's lead me here.