Turns out this week is D&D’s 40th birthday! I’m slightly older than it is, and have been playing for somewhere around 30 of those years.
My first D&D game was in a car on the way to a Boy Scout camp. It was diceless and mostly rule-less. I joined in progress; one guy had Blackrazor, one had Whelm, and one had a crossbow. Encounters usually ended with us all trying to kill each other as well. Good times. (I find it interesting that nowadays people contend you can’t play D&D diceless, or can’t play it PvP… Kids nowadays.)
I was always more of a SF guy so I played Star Frontiers, but got frustrated with buying Dragon Magazines for the Ares section and not being able to use or understand the rest (What’s a “hit die?”) so got the original Red Box, and then it was off to the races!
So thanks to D&D for many years of fun. I still play it (even though it’s called Pathfinder now)!