|
Post by EricaOdd on Jun 22, 2017 4:49:34 GMT -8
My first AD&D experience, 1982 or so, ended poorly. Our neighbor lady next door introduced my and several other neighborhood kids to the game through a friend of hers, Paul. It was me, my brother, his friend Dwayne, and another friend, Steve. We were all 12-14 or so. Steve and I were the youngest. I rolled up a thief (they were called thieves in those days... we didn't have time for fancy words like "rogue" while dodging dinosaurs!) because... well... that's the choice the dice gave me. Yes, the DM actually used those eldritch charts in the beginning of the PHB that tells you your character's race, class, and gender based on what you roll (3d6, in order!). With my rolls, I had few choices. My thief had a Charisma of 3. We started out in a bar (which WASN'T a cliche back in those days when carbon, hydrogen,oxygen, and nitrogen were still glomming together to form amino acids and the first organic molecules on Earth!) but got thrown out because one member of the party got into a fight with a huge guy with orange skin. I have no idea what the guy was, but looking back based on the DM's description it was probably a hobgoblin. Anyway we had to camp out that night, and on the way to the dungeon (I don't recall now how we heard of it) I found a locked chest in the forest. I rolled well enough to pick the lock, but before I could open the chest I was attacked by stirges. I don't recall now why the other players didn't come to help me. She died. RIP. BUT, because it was our first experience with the game, he let me survive with 1 hp and the stirges flew away. Later on, we ALL died in the dungeon to some trap.
|
|
|
Post by uncommonman on Jun 22, 2017 6:48:28 GMT -8
Mutant (1984) but I have no idea at all what I played but probably a humanoid animal.
The first character I remember was a Hobit in a Lotr game but I only played him 1-2 times so there's not much to say about him either.
Damn my bad memory...
|
|
|
Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Jun 22, 2017 8:35:11 GMT -8
My first character was in Werewolf: Wild West. I played a young slave on the run who found himself part of the Silent Striders when spirits of the dead came calling. He learned Capoeira from his fellow slaves and it served him well when combined with his changed forms. But his true calling was summoning spirits of the west seeking revenge and giving them the power to enact that revenge by convincing them to inhabit the bullets of his allies.
Ultimately I had to leave the game because I had a horrendous girlfriend at the time who demanded my attention so the character died when he was seduced by the Black Spiral Dancers into a trap.
|
|
|
Post by ericfromnj on Jun 22, 2017 8:46:49 GMT -8
All I remember was that it was 1981 and basic D&D.
I had a fighter named Ventar.
I mostly GMed so I think he is still alive somewhere in the cosmos.
|
|
|
Post by lowkeyoh on Jun 22, 2017 9:48:17 GMT -8
I was 11. He was an elf Wizard. He was royalty because I wanted more starting money. I really wanted a keen sword because even my 11 year old self understood how doubling already large crit ranges in D&D3e was going to be less than balanced, but I couldn't convince my GM to let us have 8000 gold at level one. So I was a wizard.
We played during lunch at school. We got most of the way though the first dungeon the GM had made, and fought trolls. Then we stopped playing.
I ran a couple of half attempts at 3e games during middle school and high school but the first serious gaming I did was when I got people together for a Pathfinder game. I had run for a couple months a quick scenario that got the players to level three or four and then one of the players wanted to try his hand at running a story.
So I created a Monk. Lawful Neutral, who was pretty brutal in his problem solving skills. He was a chef with extensive points in profession: chef. He had a Ring of Sustenance which meant he didn't need to sleep, eat or drink. When he did eat and drink he made sure it was the most delicious food and wine he could possibly have. He didn't need to make due with bland food to simply get by. He had a magic intelligent item, a comb that he used to make himself bald, as he was only permitted to fight bald (GM's rules) but he was too proud of his hair to permanently shave.
The sessions I ran and that game I played in really taught me everything I know about GMing. It was such a train wreck filled with almost literally every red flag a game can possibly have. But I still love my Chef Monk.
|
|
|
Post by Probie Tim on Jun 22, 2017 10:52:24 GMT -8
Blackpawn. I was... thirteen? I had been watching some kids play this awesome game called D&D during lunch break at school. My folks got me the red D&D Basic set (the Moldvay/Otus set). Not having anyone to play with (the kids at school weren't my friends, they were just some kids who played that I watched) I followed through the book and rolled up a thief. I then ran myself through the Caves of Chaos, from B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. I couldn't figure out how everything seemed so easy; every creature I fought went down in one hit. I re-read the book afterwards, and there it was: HD (hit dice) represented the number of d8s you rolled to generate the monster's HP (hit points). HD and HP were NOT the same. So I ran myself through the Caves again, and discovered that those 1+1 HD orcs are much tougher when they have more than 2 HP.
|
|
SirGuido
Supporter
Drizztmas Santa
Ask me about the Drizztmas Exchange!
Posts: 2,127
Preferred Game Systems: L5R, Traveller, Fate Accelerated, Masks
Currently Playing: Nothing.
Currently Running: Nothing.
Favorite Species of Monkey: Anything in a Cage.
|
Post by SirGuido on Jun 22, 2017 11:57:13 GMT -8
It was 1992, and I was a fresh faced band geek at my first ever band camp. During breaks I kept seeing some of my friends sitting around a picnic table with these weird shaped things that they kept throwing. And books and paper and pencils, Lots of books, paper, and pencils. I liked books, paper, and pencils so I was intrigued. When I wandered over to watch this strange ritual they were partaking in, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to "play"? "Play?" I said to him, "What do you mean, play?" He explained that this oddity was, in fact, a game. A roleplaying game he called it. I told him I was curious but knew nothing about these "roleplaying game" things. So he said not to worry he'd make it easy on me and scribbled some things on a piece of paper and handed it to me. It was like reading Dethek runes, nothing made sense to me. Str, Dex, Con? What the hell do these letters mean, and why do they all have a 6 next to them? Why is my HP, whatever that is, have an infinity symbol? I had so many questions, but I kept my mouth shut and we started playing.
It turns out, what my friend(who I learned was called the DM) had given me was what he liked to call a "Target Practice PC" which he gave to new players. I had infinite hitpoints so I couldn't die, but I also couldn't do jack shit. I didn't have ability enough to use a weapon, because of encumbance rules(this rule also made it so our wizard had to disrobe in order to cast a spell or use a magic item, since components and such were just too much for his frail body to hold while being weighed down by his clothing), I couldn't shlub gear around, I couldn't fight, I was too dumb to be helpful to anyone, and the only thing I owned besides my clothes was an eating knife. This was around the big time Beavis and Butthead boom so I named my character TP. TP Formi Bunghole to be exact. I spent the majority of that session getting beaten, stabbed, shot, cleaved, and burned by my fellow party members. You know, since I couldn't die and all that was their favorite past time. Eventually I had nothing left but my eating knife as my clothes had all been destroyed. It wasn't until we were run out of a village because of my nakedness that they deigned to buy me new clothes and some chainmaille. TO make hurting me more of a challenge.
Between breaks my friend let me make an actual character and I, as was my wont in those days, made a thief. An elven thief. An elven thief named Jaxom Ruth. (Anyone wanna guess what series of books I was massively into in those days?)
|
|
|
Post by chronovore on Jun 26, 2017 6:44:38 GMT -8
I can't remember the character's name, but HJRPG listeners might be amused that my Traveller GM stuck me with a ninja as a starting character. Some of you guys have brought up Brian Jamison's book here in the forum and in the podcast: test.gamemastering.info…this was the guy who introduced me to gaming. At least, he wanted my character to be a ninja, I was more interested in the technical toys the setting would allow, so I was always carrying industrial two-sided sticky tape (it was apparently a common item?) and explosives (slightly less common). Instead of investing money in the ship or an FGMP, my character wanted tiny, thrown bombs which looked like bubble gum balls. As a high schooler, it seemed clever at the time. When making an entry, instead of using stealth, I tended to Blow Shit Up. I wasn't a very good ninja. I remember taping transport vehicles in place with the industrial adhesive strips, so when we made our escape after a mission, the pursuers were unable to move their cars. I was a tape ninja. In our next game, he ran AD&D and I played a big, stupid fighter which was much more in line with my early play style. That guy's name was DarkEnder, which was his sword's name, and he liked it so much he started calling himself by that instead of his actual name.
|
|
sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
|
Post by sbloyd on Jun 26, 2017 14:24:38 GMT -8
Gork was an elf, in red-box Basic D&D. Later I remade him in AD&D as an elf fighter/magic-user/thief (because, why not have *all* the fun?).
|
|
tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
|
Post by tomes on Jun 26, 2017 14:39:28 GMT -8
1982, maybe? I don't remember the name or class, but it was red box basic D&D... it was me and my 6 year old brother playing two adventurers in a crypt. Our older (11 y.o.?) friend ran us through the game. I remember columns, and a big pit. We were smart enough to use the pit at our backs to limit the number of skeletons attacking us at once... but not tough enough to survive. We died overwhelmed by the skelies. Obviously we were hooked.
I do remember that I used "Silverleaf" liberally as my elf PC name... I think that's stolen from one of the examples in the Basic D&D set. (Not to be confused with Blackleaf.)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2017 1:46:34 GMT -8
I didn't play my first pen and paper rpg until I was 18. 4th edition D&D was out, and at the time I didn't know there was more than one edition. I found a group over an hour away (I really wanted to play) and showed up with my 4th edition books. Turned out they played 3.5. They helped me roll up a character, a swashbuckler/rogue multiclass. As that was a decade ago I can't tell you much about the character, although I could probably still find the picture I used if I tried.
Anyhow, there isn't much to tell.
|
|
|
Post by uselesstriviaman on Jun 29, 2017 12:37:46 GMT -8
1982. Red box. Zargon the Wizard.
I think I still have a character sheet for him someplace. He wound up somewhere ridiculous, around 36th level with multiple artifacts and an impregnable mountaintop tower.
|
|
|
Post by chronovore on Jun 29, 2017 19:17:16 GMT -8
1982. Red box. Zargon the Wizard. I think I still have a character sheet for him someplace. He wound up somewhere ridiculous, around 36th level with multiple artifacts and an impregnable mountaintop tower. There's pills for that, nowadways.
|
|
|
Post by vyrrk on Jun 29, 2017 20:49:23 GMT -8
My first character was 6 years ago. I was 28 and my friends had informed me I was going to GM for them since none of us had played and all wanted to try. I went to my local game shop that I heard had DnD encounters or something like that... Walked up to the table and said "Hi. I have read all three of the DnD 4th books but need to play a game so I understand how it works". They handed me a wizard pregen and told me to "Watch and learn". The next 3 hours were so painful I decided DnD is a stupid game for stupid people. hahah 3 Weeks later I found the happyjacks podcast and decided to give this RPG thing another chance.
|
|
shinigamitwo
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 45
Preferred Game Systems: oWoD, Deadlands, D&D
Currently Playing: Deadlands HOE Classic - The Doctor Rides Agin!
Currently Running: Vampire 20th Anniversary
|
Post by shinigamitwo on Jun 30, 2017 13:46:44 GMT -8
My first character was in a lone wolf game of D&D, beginners edition which was not red box or the like but a brown book that had elf and dwarf as a class with no races and only five levels of game. I had managed to convince my brother who is 16 years my senior into running me a game, as he had been playing D&D since red box and the like.
I made a Thief. He came in to existence, read we started game, having successfully entered the foyer of his target and spotted a vase to steal. I picked up the dice for the very first time and FAILED HARD as sneaking up to the vase. One round of combat later I was unconscious and the game done. But I was in love. I bugged a friend into making a character for a game that never happened maybe a week later, which I honestly think is still stuffed into the early parts of that book, and have been gaming happily since.
|
|