When the Journey Began

My first experience with Dungeons & Dragons was not with pencil, paper, and a handful of dice. I had an Intellivision in the 1980s and one of the games in my collection was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This game was a TSR-licensed game but did not recreate the tabletop game experience in a faithful way. It also wasn’t a game that my young mind comprehended. I could not figure out how to make sense of the world map, let alone visit a dungeon, so while I had awareness of D&D at a very young age I did not understand what it was. 

My first true entry to the RPG genre came a few years later when Nintendo Power magazine offered me a free copy of Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest). I had seen coverage for Dragon Warrior in Nintendo Power and I admit it had its charm but the menu-driven gameplay was of little interest to me. I only got a few new games a year so taking a chance on this weird game that thematically looked fun but mechanically did not was not something I desired. But a free game? How could I refuse?

Dragon Warrior took about six weeks to arrive. Such was the way the world worked back then. I spent that time dreaming about the adventures I would have in this game. It is funny how my anticipation was so high for a game I previously had no interest in. This excitement was a true roll of the dice because I had never played a game like this before. Thankfully, my excitement was rewarded because I loved Dragon Warrior from the moment I began playing it. 

I learned a lot about what an RPG is from Dragon Warrior. Resource management. How far can you push before you need to return to town to rest and replenish supplies? Character growth. Leveling up to become stronger and to learn new spells delivered a progression path that was unlike anything an action adventure game of that time provided. Exploring an open world. Though not the first open world I adventured in, Dragon Warrior was vast and I was free to explore in any direction I wanted. Strategy. What weapons and spells worked best against individual monsters? This game was the foundation for what would eventually become a love of RPGs of all kinds. 

It wasn’t until late high school or college that I picked up a set of dice and played my first game of real D&D and it wasn’t until a decade ago that D&D and tabletop roleplaying became a true passion and a fixture of my everyday life. There is more to this story that deserves attention in future posts but appreciation for RPGs had to start somewhere and for me it was a video game offered free from a magazine.