How did you first start playing D&D?

In High School, a neighbor ran an ICE Rolemaster game (RM got its start as a collection of AD&D optional rules) and then in college, someone in the dorm ran an AD&D game. After a few games, switched to Shadowrun. After a transfer to another college, I got some more regular games of AD&D. Things became more regular when D&D 3.0 came out. I think that was the first time I gamed with my now wife. My wife grew up watching her mom play.

D&D isn't my favorite, but it's fun enough and usually easy to get players. At least there's no more THAC0. :D

1985 B/X, which was mostly a brief exploration before there was a global shift to 1st edition AD&D.  It was, however, 2nd edition AD&D that became the universal super system that was used for decades, and for many groups in my circle, is still the default D&D system.  We have campaign worlds that were created in the 90's still running today.

3rd edition became a sometimes alternative, but most 3rd edition era games just didn't stick. I think of all the versions of the game 3e was most famous for a lot of canceled and dilapidated campaigns.  

Skipped 4th edition almost entirely; the 5th edition has the same problems as 3rd edition. I've never even met someone who finished a 5e campaign.  Rarely do they last past a few sessions before people start having "scheduling problems" and lose interest.

2e campaigns remain the only viable platform for long-lasting campaigns, and these days is the only D&D I'm willing to run unless it's intentionally a short campaign, one-shot or something for the kids.  5e is good for those types of games, but if I'm running a proper D&D game its always going to be 2e, its the gold standard.

Quote from Delvesdeep2 >>

How did you begin your D&D journey? Was it a friend? A family member? Were you inspired by people online? How did you start?

 Back around 1977, I was at the local chess club when one of the other chess players mentioned a fantasy game that he enjoyed, something called AD&D. After a month or two of hearing his enthusiasm for this game, I decided to drop by where he played and that is where I met other AD&D gamers. After playing a session as an NPC, I was hooked. It was not lost on me that AD&D had a certain cerebral aura to it, which appealed to my analytical self (I had a career as a programmer / analyst from 1977 through 2010, or in geek speak, I was a "grey hat hacker"). So, it was a combination of the Ruy Lopez, 20 years as a U.S. Chess certified Tournament Director, Fortran, ANSI COBOL, the Hewlett Packard 3000 system and D&D editions 2.0, 3.0 / 3.5, 4.0, 5.0 and now, 5.5.