This topic has come up now and then in some personal convos for me, so it seems like a thing to ask of everyone at large.
For me it was when I was looking through the Google Play store in search of more board game apps after enjoying Elder Sign quite a bit. During said excursion I was intrigued by the Baron Blade icon (since I love mad scientist characters), and then was even more intrigued when I clicked through and saw that it was superhero-based card game. Since I thought that sounded like the coolest thing ever, being a fan of both superhero comics and remembering my days as a teenager playing Magic about twenty years ago.
And I remember the second thing I did right after winning the tutorial was read through the Multiverse, and I remember my decision to buy Season 1 was motivated as much by having more bios to read and music to listen to as it was having more stuff to play with.
(Aside: I know J&J rightly rag on the people who call Sentinels a "Magic rip-off", but I think the general similarity to Magic isn't such a bad thing when spun the right way, as it helped appeal the game to me and I know a number of people who are primarily Magic players who are also fond of Sentinels.)
It was at Gaelcon 2013, my roommate and his friends brought the game up to our room after the board game room was closed. They invited me to play and that began my interest
We were having our normal Saturday game nights, and one of our friends brought a friend of their's over. That person said they had this game called Sentinels of the Multiverse that was all about heroes defeating a villain. We tried it out and played it for the rest of the night. I then purchased all the things that were available. And became a playtester in time to playtest Setback. :D
It was 2013, and one of my friends brought it to our weekly game night. We all enjoyed it and agreed we should add it to our regular rotation of games… for at least the next 2 years it was our entire rotation of games.
It was christmas three or four years ago ago my brother inlaw and sister got me three games two ive played with them before but one was new. Looking at it i was very interested in the comic book feel. The bios made me look into it more and ended up on flamerthrowers guides on characters and then ordered every expansion up to date
I wish I could remember the details. I just remember it was recommended to me by someone who I met on a hike in 2014 after we'd got to talking about RPGs.
I was made aware of SotM at one of my Gamers Club meetings.
Someone had brought their version of the first printing of the game(Back when it was in that little flimsy shoebox-like container), and I fell in love then and there after playing a round. I don't remember who we fought, but I remember my first hero was Bunker since I wanted to play someone 'Iron Man-ish'. I almost chose AZ as my first hero, but luckily I was directed elsewhere. Soon afterward I was gifted that copy once that person got the enhanced edition. I picked up the EE myself soon afterward, thus I donated the first printing to my club.
And the rest is history. This was all back around when IR was released, I think...
A friend of mine brought it over, and we played Spite. For hours.
Then another friend of mine picked it up, and we played. He got more expansions, and we played more games. I played it at ACEN and other places, and I evnetually got my own copy.
I spent a solid two years not playing it in my local game club, despite being interested in it. There was one guy, that was pretty much all he played, just never got to it.
Then other friends who play it got me into it because of course I was gonna love it. :B
Some guy with long hair and beard wouldn’t shut up about it at his booth at Gencon 2011. I think his name was Chris or maybe Topher, something like that. I finally bought it just to shut him up :)
I honestly regret giving away my original copy to my nephews when I got the revised edition as part of the Infernal Relic Kickstarter
A professor in my grad program ran (and still runs) a weekly game night for students, visiting alumni, and friends (basically anybody who hears about it and can manage to arrange to get into the building after hours if they’re not affiliated with the program already). One guy had picked up the first edition at the Gen Con it came out and wound up bringing that and his Rook City copy when the latter arrived (so, early 2012). I was hooked immediately. I distinctly remember playing Legacy, Fanatic (when Absolution increased max HP instead of just regaining HP), and a particularly memorable game as AZ vs. Voss where things finally clicked and he became MVP once a Frost Hound came out.
Backed the IR/Enhanced Edition KS and everything else SotM immediately whenever they come up. I didn’t get the app for a while since I didn’t have a tablet at the time, though.
I still regret somehow missing the GTG booth at the 2011 Gen Con; I was there, but it just didn’t catch my eye during my wandering through the exhibit hall for whatever reason. I like to think that I’ve made up for it by being that guy who brings it to game nights with all of my other game groups from over the years (my undergrad friends, post-undergrad/pre-grad school group, old friends from high school, work friends now). I’m probably responsible for at least 5 other full collection purchases besides my own by introducing it to people who I don’t see often enough for them to use my copy.
My wife and I first played it at Origins 2012; I want to say that Adam ran our demo, but I could be wrong. I played Tempest, she played Ra, and we got curbstomped by Plague Rat, as we had no idea what we were doing.
By that point, they were trying to sell off the remainder of their original run stock, but they mentioned that the revised version was incoming. While I couldn't swing the cost then, the gameplay was awesome enough for me to want to pre-order the revised version. From there, it's been an addiction...
SotM's been my group's "default" board/card game of choice for as long as we've had the core set; any time we can't decide on what to play, we break out Sentinels. At least 3 of our group members also have at least the core set, while at least one of those has (like us) every expansion. I'm on the beta team for the video game version, and literally play that daily--it helps me unwind before bed.
Ah, I did actually avoid becoming a playtester for either iteration as, despite my love of the game and the enthusiasm of old friends I never put together a regular game group to play with since grad school and so don’t feel like I could try things out often enough to be helpful. I enjoyed being an early VG demo person for multiplayer at Gen Con 2015 and got a picture with Jeremy in his “defeated power armor Baron Blade cosplay that made it into the Handelabra post-GenCon blog post.
The game club back at my college introduced me. In my first game I played Argent Adept, and we got creamed by Miss Information. Fortunately, this failed to dissuade me, and here we are.
When Andy got back from his cruise, he told some of us about what he'd heard, along with their plans to release info about characters during Gen Con. Sounded like something right up my alley, so I went to the booth to check it out – that tiny little booth in Andy's picture. Maia gave me my first demo.
I was hooked.
The next day, my spouse kindly put up with trying out this new game that I was so excited about. Christopher gave us a demo.
I had a friend introduce me during our regular board game night in 2013. I recall playing as Ra my first game and having a narrow win against Baron Blade. The gameplay and theme hooked me.
In 2013, I was in search of board games that worked well as two player for me and my wife that were not overly vicious. Cooperative sounded even better. A friend suggested it, and now I've gotten way more into the game than he has.
