Reading the news that Gary Gygax passed away today, made me reminisce a lot about my introduction to RPGs.

The first time I ever heard of DnD, I was in a playground at an after school day care. A couple of older kids were sitting in a circle ,each had a sheet of paper in front of them, chatting about elves, dwarves, and orcs and they would sometimes roll oddly shaped dice. That first day I sat down near them and listened to their adventure. It was amazing.

The next day I walked over to their spot before they had all gathered and asked the oldest boy, whom I saw carrying the papers they were using, what the rules of the game were and if I could play. I expected to be dismissed, as older boys usually did to younger boys, but instead he said he sort of made things up as they went along, but he had a book that outlined the basic rules. He pulled the book out of his bag and let me look at it while they played. When they finished for the day, he asked me if I wanted to make a character and play. Timidly I said yes.

That was over twenty five years ago, and I have only very rarely said no to anyone that has ever asked me that.