I played half a dozen sessions of D&D with various older cousins from ‘82-87 (ages 8-13). I never touched the books. They weren’t mine. I kept a handwritten character sheet for a gnome named Figtoe covered with numbers I didn’t know what they meant (S v. PPD – huh?)
Between games, I would redraw what I could remember of the dungeons and run them freeform for my friends at lunch. When we used those up, I drew Star Wars maps and we blasted into space.
That’s why “making games” is as much my hobby as “playing games”