Guy Fullerton wrote:FWIW, I was a Moldvay Basic & Cook/Marsh Expert kid.

Then your kind did exist after all! I wish I had taken that route, I found it depressing to go through all the steps of making & maintaining a PC with the Players Handbook.

Straight into AD&D for me, in 1980/81 - PHB and DMG. Picked up MM/D&DG/FF after about a year.

Holmes and then into AD&D though we were a little confused about a large number of things until we got our hands on this new book called the Dungeon Masters Guide.

Started in 78 with the Holmes set. I was only 8 so my friend's big brother was running it. We played the board game dungeon, snit's revenge, awful green things from outer space, dark tower, divine right. By age 9 I was creating my own dungeons and at 10 ran my first game with my parents as players (they died in the first room fighting a hell hound). When I moved at age 11 the first day at the new school I brought 3 guys home and we played D&D. Then I joined a group.

I jumped from Homes to DMG, PH, MM. I thought those other sets where Elf was a class were really silly. I remember saving up my allowance to buy the Fiend Folio when it came out. It was my favorite monster book. I collected huge amounts of figures and painted them. At first Ral Partha then warhammer.

Modules I remember were A1, B1-3, I2, S2, U1, T1, and X2. Fond memories of the monos. At some point picked up a copy of Hargrave's Arduin stuff and loved it. Loved the Deities and Demigods with Cthulhu and Melnibone.

We experimented with most of the TSR games, Top Secret, Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes, Star Frontiers but always went back to D&D. At some point I mixed Warhammer FRP with 2nd Edition D&D and we played that for a long time. Then I got hooked on MTG. All my friends called me a traitor. I didn't play D&D for over 3 years. I think that's the longest it's ever been.

We did use Comeliness. Bought first dice at Walt's Hobby Shop in West Dearborn Michigan. Fiend Folio purchased at Hobby House in Westland Michigan. First Minis at Hobbytown USA in Dearborn Michigan. I don't remember where I got the rest.

I started with the woodgrain set in 1975, right around when Greyhawk came out.  Of course, my first set of rules was $3 for copies I bought from Kerry Lloyd (later creator of Thieves Guild games).  We used to play in the back room of The Little Soldier Shop in Wheaton, Maryland.  Did eventually get a second print woody though.

They were photocopies, not mimeographs.  Fourth printing I believe.  Kerry sold copies to several of us who could not come up with the full $10 for the actual set.  (Kerry is no longer with us and the statute of limitations is long past, so I guess I am not really ratting him out.)  I bought an OCE off the shelf later. I bought my friend's second print woody about 1985 or so for an obscenely low price.