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12/31/2018 1:22 pm  #1


First Character Created

As I was putting together the marching order for our group's upcoming foray to Port Greely, I realized that today marked the 37th (yikes) anniversary of my entry to role-playing games.  For Christmas in 1981 my mom got me the red basic (Moldvay) boxed set.  I read through the rules and on New Year's Eve, 1981, my brother and my best friend and I all created our first characters.  Mine was Persimmon, an elf who was somewhat patterned after Legolas, of course.  My friend Greg created Kanda the dwarf and my brother made Gorrdon, a fighter. 

Anyone else have fond first character memories?

P.S.--The rest of that first party included Zircon the magic-user, Diende the thief, Father Rozemas the cleric, and Crom the halfling.


"Could you fancy me as a pirate bold?  Or a longship Viking warrior with the old gods on his side?  Well, I'm an inshore man and I'm nobody's hero.  But I'll make you tight for a windy night and a dark ride."--Jethro Tull
 

12/31/2018 2:15 pm  #2


Re: First Character Created

Sadly, I only recall I made up a Dwarf Fighter with my Holmes set in '78, surely patterned after Gimli. His name escapes me, and the character sheet is long gone. I have managed to save the majority of my campaigns and accompanying characters over the past 35+ years, though (across too many systems to list).


"It is all very well to point out that the man lacks facility; as he asserts, sheer force can overpower sophistication."
Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous
 

12/31/2018 5:36 pm  #3


Re: First Character Created

I have always been the DM, but still have my first module. Fruit didn't fall too far from Zenopus...
 

Last edited by Iron Ranger (12/31/2018 5:39 pm)


 
 

12/31/2018 6:28 pm  #4


Re: First Character Created

Balbo Baggins, a halfling thief. Bilbo's cousin. It seemed like a great idea when I was 10 years old!


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

12/31/2018 7:31 pm  #5


Re: First Character Created

Spider of Leng wrote:

I realized that today marked the 37th (yikes) anniversary of my entry to role-playing games.  For Christmas in 1981 my mom got me the red basic (Moldvay) boxed set.

Ha! Same here.
Like Iron Ranger, I've only been a DM. I can't even remember my first NPC anymore...
 


Michael Sipe 1979-2018
Rest in peace, brother.
 

12/31/2018 8:11 pm  #6


Re: First Character Created

First Character created:
The small campaign I was running back in 1981ish my friend/player made a Dwarven fighter.
As an NPC for him, I created Daniel "The Lionhearted" Human Fighter.
He made it to 10th level and became the King of Verbobonc.
Great thing is, my current campaign he is again going to become an NPC. Some 37 years later.

Last edited by achiriaco (12/31/2018 8:12 pm)

 

12/31/2018 8:51 pm  #7


Re: First Character Created

I started when I was 12 as a 1st level Balrog and adventured with a much higher level dwarf and an evil cleric. We ended up going to war with each other at much higher level.


“How can I wear the harness of toil
And sweat at the daily round,
While in my soul forever
The drums of Pictdom sound?” 
 

12/31/2018 9:15 pm  #8


Re: First Character Created

Got it!!


 
 

1/01/2019 12:43 am  #9


Re: First Character Created

1986 12 years old top gun was just release. I was introduced to red box. Elf Thief (DM let me) named Maveric.

Played him through the end of high school in 93. Retired him finally after a rival thieves guild killed his wife and all living children.

He crashed and burned.


Del Teigeler, Illustrator
mavfire.blogspot.com
mavfire.deviantart.com
 

1/01/2019 7:12 am  #10


Re: First Character Created

Hmmmm... I'm not sure I ever gamed as player even once until NTRPG Con in 2010. So, my first player was , I think, in Mythmere's Mythras Tower at that convention. I had a dwarf named Lucky. He died when an ant chewed off his face. 

My schedule that year:

- Mythmere, Mythras Tower
- Tim Kask, can't recall
- Grodog, Castle Greyhawk
- Philotomy Jurament, Cromlek Tor
- Rob Kuntz, The Dungeon of Death


Blackadder23: Insanely long villain soliloquy, then "Your action?"
BORGO'S PLAYER: I shoot him in the face
 

1/01/2019 6:56 pm  #11


Re: First Character Created

Kodax the magician...died to a Roper in the Underdark...might have cried a little when I was 12...

 

1/01/2019 9:10 pm  #12


Re: First Character Created

Chainsaw wrote:

Hmmmm... I'm not sure I ever gamed as player even once until NTRPG Con in 2010.

I was introduced as a player in middle school.  I gm'ed a few years and played as well.  I started GM'ing at cons in  2012 with AS&SH and now have a hard time sitting and just playing in someone else's game.

I always wondered if this was the case with GM's that have always run vs getting to play.


 


“How can I wear the harness of toil
And sweat at the daily round,
While in my soul forever
The drums of Pictdom sound?” 
 

1/02/2019 8:17 am  #13


Re: First Character Created

mabon5127 wrote:

Chainsaw wrote:

Hmmmm... I'm not sure I ever gamed as player even once until NTRPG Con in 2010.

I was introduced as a player in middle school.  I gm'ed a few years and played as well.  I started GM'ing at cons in  2012 with AS&SH and now have a hard time sitting and just playing in someone else's game.

I always wondered if this was the case with GM's that have always run vs getting to play. 

My experience has been that I run because I'm the most able to put the work in to run: the others in my group are usually too busy with other things. But I do get to play, and when I do I try and provide helpful advice to the GM, when asked. Even though I enjoy getting the opportunity to play, it's usually not a game I would choose to run, sadly.


"It is all very well to point out that the man lacks facility; as he asserts, sheer force can overpower sophistication."
Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous
 

1/02/2019 8:24 am  #14


Re: First Character Created

Iron Ranger wrote:

Got it!!

I love seeing things like this. I have my own archive, and I pull something out now and again to review.


"It is all very well to point out that the man lacks facility; as he asserts, sheer force can overpower sophistication."
Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous
 

1/02/2019 4:35 pm  #15


Re: First Character Created

I've also got many of my old adventures too, though ironically I won a module design contest at Walden Books when I was in 8th grade but I don't seem to have that adventure anymore.  It had something to do with kobolds.

I still do all my campaign notes and adventure writing by hand. 

In fact I still take all my notes for my published academic stuff on 3x5 index cards, then type the manuscripts from the cards.  I'm old school in many ways, I guess.  Hell, I still collect CDs and I was making mix tapes until last year when I traded in my old car that had the cassette deck in it...


"Could you fancy me as a pirate bold?  Or a longship Viking warrior with the old gods on his side?  Well, I'm an inshore man and I'm nobody's hero.  But I'll make you tight for a windy night and a dark ride."--Jethro Tull
     Thread Starter
 

1/02/2019 7:44 pm  #16


Re: First Character Created

Spider of Leng wrote:

I still do all my campaign notes and adventure writing by hand.

I usually do as well, though sometimes I do manage to type them up as I go. I bought some RPG journals for one of our players, and she's an amanuensis in truth: a running record of our sessions, all hand-written. We usually go a few weeks between sessions, so her records are a godsend, even for the Ref...

Spider of Leng wrote:

In fact I still take all my notes for my published academic stuff on 3x5 index cards, then type the manuscripts from the cards.  I'm old school in many ways, I guess.  Hell, I still collect CDs and I was making mix tapes until last year when I traded in my old car that had the cassette deck in it...

Yes, that's pretty much the textbook definition of OS. 


"It is all very well to point out that the man lacks facility; as he asserts, sheer force can overpower sophistication."
Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous
 

1/02/2019 9:06 pm  #17


Re: First Character Created

rhialto wrote:

Spider of Leng wrote:

I still do all my campaign notes and adventure writing by hand.

I usually do as well, though sometimes I do manage to type them up as I go. I bought some RPG journals for one of our players, and she's an amanuensis in truth: a running record of our sessions, all hand-written. We usually go a few weeks between sessions, so her records are a godsend, even for the Ref...

Back in the late '90s, when I was playing MERP, one of our players kept a detailed journal that I still have.  It was definitely helpful.  Off and on I've written up my own notes.  The most extensive was for a BECMI campaign (ca. 2003-2012 intermittently) that took the PCs from 1st level to immortality and used the vast majority of the published TSR adventures and all the gazetteers.
 


"Could you fancy me as a pirate bold?  Or a longship Viking warrior with the old gods on his side?  Well, I'm an inshore man and I'm nobody's hero.  But I'll make you tight for a windy night and a dark ride."--Jethro Tull
     Thread Starter
 

1/02/2019 11:37 pm  #18


Re: First Character Created

My first character was a fighter named "Shadowlord" for AD&D in 1988. I guess I thought the name sounded cool to my 10 year old self at the time. My second was an evil cleric named "Gwyn the Hunter" from the Lloyd Alexander Prydain chronicles books. Both of those came in 1988. Cue 1989 when my 11 year old self was actually able to scrounge enough money to buy a PHB, read rules, etc. I tore up Shadowlord in disgust over my "not understanding the rules". I still haven't located the Gwyn character sheet, but he made it to 6th level. By this time 2E was the big thing and growing up in northern WI I couldn't find 1st edition MM or DMG, so I converted to 2E because I was telling anyone who I could about this awesome game and I had to DM since no one else wanted to. The funny part was I didn't actually get the 1E stuff until years later when I started collecting AD&D things!


Other bands play, Manowar kill!
 

1/03/2019 12:00 am  #19


Re: First Character Created

Spider of Leng wrote:

Hell, I still collect CDs and I was making mix tapes until last year when I traded in my old car that had the cassette deck in it...

I sympathize. When I bought a Prius in August, I bought the Two 100% because the Three and Four have a (super cool) 11" screen on the dash that prevents them from having a CD player. I have over 500 CD's, so I can't go for that.


Michael Sipe 1979-2018
Rest in peace, brother.
 

1/03/2019 5:48 am  #20


Re: First Character Created

Spider of Leng wrote:

The most extensive was for a BECMI campaign (ca. 2003-2012 intermittently) that took the PCs from 1st level to immortality and used the vast majority of the published TSR adventures and all the gazetteers.
 

A few years ago my wife alerted me to a FreeCycle post near us of someone giving away "D&D stuff". I went by, picked up a box left in the driveway, and was amazed to find a complete BECMI set (which I'd not previously owned), a few modules and supplements, and lastly a bunch of campaign binders dating from the early '90's. Quite cool to see someone's creative output, though bittersweet, since they'd given it away.


"It is all very well to point out that the man lacks facility; as he asserts, sheer force can overpower sophistication."
Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous
 

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