Open Thread: Your First Tabletop Game
We all got started somewhere – What was your first Tabletop Game?
Hey BoLS Readers! If you’re reading this you’re probably a fan of Tabletop Gaming of some form or fashion. That’s one of the things that unites all of us and makes us a pretty colorful community. But we all had to start tabletop gaming somewhere – so what was your first wargame?
Oh the Vulture – I miss you.
For me it was Battletech. Old School FASA, lead miniatures, bad paint jobs and all. I had an older friend who taught me how to play when I was a wee lad and I was hooked. The idea of giant mechs fighting on a futuristic battlefield for honor and glory were mind blowing concepts for me at the time. It opened up an entirely new world to me and that world was tabletop gaming. I still get a kick out of looking at the old miniatures or grabbing one of the old paperbacks to read.
For years I thought Battletech was the greatest thing ever – I wanted to be a Mech pilot when I grew up. Then I got a little older and I learned that Battletech also had an entire role playing side. that lead me to Mechwarrior and a few buddies and myself tried to give that a shot. We quickly learned you needed a GM so we talked to our respective parents. I was lucky that my Dad was a former DM, he didn’t know a thing about Battletech but he offered to run a Dungeon Crawl using his old AD&D Books. So we gave that a whirl and it was another eye-opening experience.
Yeah – This book, the one with the demon statue on the cover!
Between Battletech, AD&D, a growing obsession with all things Sci-Fi & Fantasy I was learning all about these awesome new world and games to explore. Eventually I was a regular figure on weekends at our local gaming store playing Battletech with adults many times my own age. They were pretty cool for the most part and I was a quick study. I had a lance fully painted and I knew how to handle a mech. We typically played campaigns and had a pretty good time. Then one day one of the regulars walked in and pulled out one of these:
Okay, it wasn’t exactly like one of those – but it was a Terminator.
Curiously I asked him what Mech Lance those were from. He laughed and said they were called Terminators and they were from a different game system called Warhammer 40,000. You used lots of units and models. It was fought at the infantry level. Plus the terrain was scaled differently and tables were only 6×4.
Then I learned there were special characters and they had stats and could do cool things – plus the game had a huge backstory with lore you could really dive deep into. Needless to say, I was hooked. I would still play Battletech for a few more years before I made the jump to 40k as my game of choice however. Battletech will always be my first tabletop wargame!
So BoLS Reader, what about you? What was your first game and how did YOU get into Tabletop Wargaming? Let us know in the comments below!
