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I always get super nostalgic this time of year as it was Christmas 1981 when I received my Magenta Moldvay Boxed Set. I created my first character, Persimmon the Elf, on New Year's Eve. My brother made Gorrdon the Fighter and soon thereafter my best friend rolled up Kanda the Dwarf. We later converted those characters to AD&D and all are still major NPCs in my home campaign. I still have all those old B/X and BECMI books & modules and I may even pick up the Old School Essentials rules as it's getting a lot of buzz.
How about other folks? What was your intro to the hobby? Remember your first character?
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I got the Holmes set for Christmas '78, but have no recollection of my first character, sadly. I'd bet it was a Dwarf, though, and probably named after one in Middle-Earth lore. We also moved to AD&D when it came out, but then also gravitated to RuneQuest, DragonQuest, Traveller and eleventy-billion other games over the years. The past decade or so has seen us mostly returning to our old favorites, though. For me that's running house-ruled AD&D (AS&SH with my own house-rules) and Classic Traveller (closest to the '77 version).
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In the Fall of 1976, I was invited to play OD&D by a nerdy kid in middle school. I was a 1st level Balrog, my best friend at the time was a 1st level Evil High-Priest, and another was a Dwarf fighter, ah the tales! That Christmas my mother purchased for me my own White Box, Eldritch Wizardry, Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and Chainmail. From there Empire of the Petal Throne, AD&D, Traveller, The Fantasy Trip, Dragon Quest, Champions and others!! Now we play Fantasy Age and of Course Astonishing Swordsmen! Three of us have been playing together now for 35+ years