So for you, it was tragedy which started you table-gaming. Interesting how for a lot of us, it wasn't just getting interested in nerdy stuff.
See, we did not have a DM. Well, I guess originally the guy who got me into tablegaming played the role of DM, but eventually we all became equals. We incorporated DnD rules into TFT's system, since DnD had a much broader "world" and lots more rules. We also began writing our own adventures.

I can remember I was learning about Feudalism in World History class, and added this into our game as well. I like to think of this as my very first mod.