PDA

View Full Version : Your very first PC



Kaptin Keen
2019-04-14, 01:53 AM
I wonder if this has been done before - most likely so. But while making a cup of coffee just now, I came to think of the first character I ever made: Akomestos.

Akomestos was a mage, but the system in question didn't really allow for mages having any real options in the early game - so for his first couple of adventures, he was primarily a very unskilled arbalestier. He eventually grew powerful, though. We were just kids, so things got fairly silly. The system was designed to be low-magic, and there were no real fly spells or the like. It was essentially 2d. But there were two artifacts - a cloak that allowed levitation, and a sword that would shoot a blast of air. I managed to convince my GM to give me both, making me the only character in the game world with access to sustained flight.

By the end, in my red dragon scale armor, jetting around with my artifact sword throwing spells around, I was essentially Iron Man.

And it's funny because it informed on all my coming years of playing: Since it had gotten so silly, I never went there again. I've played lower power games ever since, both as player and GM.

And so I'm curious: Do you remember your first PC? And do you think that character has influence all the others somehow?

Anonymouswizard
2019-04-14, 02:32 AM
Aragorn (this was just after one of the movies had come out, and I was like 9, maybe younger) the Cleric, later retconned into Aragorn the Elf*, in BD&D. There's not really much more to him, the game lasted about two seasons before my dad didn't have the free time to run again. I only remember Aragorn because of the uninspired name.

I played several games after, but my first proper campaign and actually serious character (because I'd GMed about 80% of those games) in a game that lasted more than two sessions (a big milestone) was a Thaumaturgist/Scholar in Unknown Armies 2e. He wasn't moral, he wasn't particularly good with people, but if you kept that in mind he did pay relatively nice with others. Unfortunately I can't give more detail, that game veers straight into inappropriate topics and doesn't let up.

* I wanted to play the Magic-User, but my little brother got to it first and he always got what he wanted. Elf allowed me to have my wizard magic while also giving the party a second warrior, even if we were missing a healer.

Kaptin Keen
2019-04-14, 03:11 AM
Aragorn (this was just after one of the movies had come out, and I was like 9, maybe younger) the Cleric, later retconned into Aragorn the Elf*, in BD&D. There's not really much more to him, the game lasted about two seasons before my dad didn't have the free time to run again. I only remember Aragorn because of the uninspired name.

I played several games after, but my first proper campaign and actually serious character (because I'd GMed about 80% of those games) in a game that lasted more than two sessions (a big milestone) was a Thaumaturgist/Scholar in Unknown Armies 2e. He wasn't moral, he wasn't particularly good with people, but if you kept that in mind he did pay relatively nice with others. Unfortunately I can't give more detail, that game veers straight into inappropriate topics and doesn't let up.

* I wanted to play the Magic-User, but my little brother got to it first and he always got what he wanted. Elf allowed me to have my wizard magic while also giving the party a second warrior, even if we were missing a healer.

Akomestos was in a party with Taris the half-elf, and Blade. I remember another friend played a dwarf fighter - I don't recall the name of the character, but I know he always played a dwarf fighter of that name, no matter what the game was. So you're not alone, and we we're closer to 16 =)

BWR
2019-04-14, 04:24 AM
My first character was a Thief in Basic. We started with the introductory boxed set from 1991, and ran the first adventure that came with it - Escape From Zanzer's Dungeon. I believe his name was Pike, one of the pregens.

We escaped the cell easily enough but the first encounter after this, a bunch of hobgoblin guards, was harder. Since we were all noobs, the GM read aloud everything about the monsters to us - their names, AC, hp, THAC0 and damage potential. Upon hearing that the monsters facing us dealt at least 1d4 points of damage, I paused. This being middle school we hadn't learned about probability in maths class yet, but I could reason out that 1d4 points of damage was a 3/4 chance of killing me with my 2 hp. I decided to stand behind the others and hope that their better AC and HP would save me.
"This is a game about heroes, and we have no place for cowards" the DM declared (or words to that effect), and all the enemies rushed past the other PCs to attack me specifically for being so unsporting. The first blow hit and killed me. There was a long, quiet bit where the DM looked surprised, then guilty and everyone started wrapping their heads around how easy it was to die in this game.
We'd spend probably about as much time playing as we did in character creation by the time I died.

Kaptin Keen
2019-04-14, 04:46 AM
Well if nothing else, it was a valuable lesson learned, especially for your GM =)

Anonymouswizard
2019-04-14, 05:08 AM
Akomestos was in a party with Taris the half-elf, and Blade. I remember another friend played a dwarf fighter - I don't recall the name of the character, but I know he always played a dwarf fighter of that name, no matter what the game was. So you're not alone, and we we're closer to 16 =)

Oh, the terribly uninspired names continued until the second character I mentioned (where I switched to thematic and/or real world names). I shall never forget Beano the Gnome (to be fair that was a comedy game). Or the game with Tordek the Dwarf Fighter adventuring alongside Tordek the Dwarf Fighter (should I mention that they had the exact same build?)


My first character was a Thief in Basic. We started with the introductory boxed set from 1991, and ran the first adventure that came with it - Escape From Zanzer's Dungeon. I believe his name was Pike, one of the pregens.

We escaped the cell easily enough but the first encounter after this, a bunch of hobgoblin guards, was harder. Since we were all noobs, the GM read aloud everything about the monsters to us - their names, AC, hp, THAC0 and damage potential. Upon hearing that the monsters facing us dealt at least 1d4 points of damage, I paused. This being middle school we hadn't learned about probability in maths class yet, but I could reason out that 1d4 points of damage was a 3/4 chance of killing me with my 2 hp. I decided to stand behind the others and hope that their better AC and HP would save me.
"This is a game about heroes, and we have no place for cowards" the DM declared (or words to that effect), and all the enemies rushed past the other PCs to attack me specifically for being so unsporting. The first blow hit and killed me. There was a long, quiet bit where the DM looked surprised, then guilty and everyone started wrapping their heads around how easy it was to die in this game.
We'd spend probably about as much time playing as we did in character creation by the time I died.

Ouch. Yeah, BD&D is probably the worst game for the GM to make that mistake, there's a reason that low levels are sometimes called 'Fantasy Vietnam'. Never had a character die yet (in early games my dad fudged, by the time other people began running we got sunset better at tactics*), but the one time it was borderline (I've failed skill roll and two PCs would die) I had the warning to come prepared

* In layman's terms our wizard no longer rushed into melee.

LibraryOgre
2019-04-14, 07:46 AM
1989. Yong-san, Seoul, South Korea. We have to sneak over to Andy Nuxoll's house, because we're not allowed to play D&D.

I am given a fighter and a mage. We fight Xvarts, and I misplace a sleep spell.

Kaptin Keen
2019-04-14, 09:03 AM
... and I misplace a sleep spell.

Even worse than misplacing your car keys, right? 'Honey, have you seen my sleep spell? I'm sure I left it next to the grimoire or the rams skull ...'

Jay R
2019-04-14, 09:16 AM
And so I'm curious: Do you remember your first PC? And do you think that character has influence all the others somehow?

Absolutely.

This was in 1975. My actual first experience was pretty much just rolling dice to see how it worked. That was my only time playing with just the original three pamphlets.

My second time, which I consider my first real game, I was playing Theseus, a first level paladin in original D&D with only the first supplement Greyhawk. The alignments were Lawful (which mostly meant good) and Chaotic (which mostly meant evil).

I joined a group of people who’d already played a few games. We had no nuance, and the game didn’t encourage nuance. We killed Chaotics because they were Chaotics, and expected any Chaotic to kill us because we were Lawful. [It didn't miss by much being the green army men and the red army men on opposite sides.]

So a party of 1st through 5th levels went down into the dungeon. I had rolled so low on money that Theseus had no sword – just a mace.

I was deeply committed to playing him correctly a a paladin, completely on the side of Law, and completely opposed to Chaos.

After several encounters, a couple levels down in the dungeon, the entire party was down to 1, 2, or 3 hit points, back when 0 hit points meant dead. Theseus had a single hit point left.

The treasure we had just found included a sword, which Theseus asked for. He received the right to pick it up. Unfortunately, it was a high-ego chaotic sword, and the first thing that should happen when my paladin touched it is that he should have received 2d6 points of damage, which would have killed the character. The DM made a few rolls behind the screen, and then wrote and handed me a note.

"This Chaotic sword has changed your alignment. You are now Chaotic, and holding a Chaotic Flaming Sword."

I thought for a moment, and realized my position. We had all gone down into the dungeon to find and kill people with an opposite alignment, and take their stuff. Theseus had only one hit point, and was surrounded by people who would kill him instantly if they knew he was Chaotic. How does he survive?

They had money and magic items, were all down to 1-3 hit points. Hmm…

I asked to speak to the DM privately. When we got into the other room, I told him, "I don't have any questions for you. I just want them to believe you gave me more information than the note had." I told him my plan, we waited a couple more minutes, and then we walked back in.

My (ex-)paladin told the group, "This is a Holy Sword with a quest I have to take on alone. I need you to go back the way you came. It's important that you do as I ask. Go back single file, and no matter what you hear, DON'T LOOK BACK."

Of course the five characters trusted my paladin, and did as he asked. My Chaotic ex-paladin came up and stabbed each one in the back. Several times the DM said, "You hear a stab behind you, and a body slumping." "We don't look back." After five times, he told them that they were all dead.

So in my first game of D&D, my paladin murdered an entire lawful party.

----------------------
One of the party members had a supposedly useless magic item. It was a Bag of Duplication. If you put something in the bag, you would get a useless duplicate: swords that didn't hold an edge, magic items that looked identical but weren't magic, food that tasted bad and didn't satisfy, etc.

Later that week, I heard about a different party that had suffered a TPK.

This party was turned to stone by a bunch of cockatrices. My "paladin" heard about them, and went out to rescue them.

Some time later, they woke up back in town, having been rescued by a paladin, who (of course) refused any kind of reward. But for some reason, none of their magic items worked. I understand they spent a fair amount of time trying to find out how being turned to stone would neutralize their magic items, and looking for a way to reverse the result.

Meanwhile, Theseus (now re-named Darkstar) had several new magic items – and their gratitude. They never came looking for him, because they never realized that their real magic items had been stolen.

------------------

Years later he atoned, regained his paladin status and grew to defend the helpless – any helpless.

And yes, it affected all my D&D characters since then. I will never again play a PC who is not completely loyal to the party. We can argue, have different goals, keep secrets.

But I will never again act against anybody else’s PC.

Quertus
2019-04-14, 09:19 AM
Well, my first PC was a super Lawfully Good idealist, who got killed by the party for XP. I'm sure that has absolutely nothing to do with why I prefer to run evil Necromancers with undead armies and layers of powerful continent defenses.

CharonsHelper
2019-04-14, 10:04 AM
I forget the name, but my first PC was a 3.5 monk which I rolled an 18 STR for who I was trying to make into a grappler build. It might have worked decently eventually since I convinced the DM to let me be from a school where everyone became werebears, so I was going to pick up the Savage Species progression. (The lycantropy ones were some of the few decent ones, since the actual LA was only 2, and the 6 levels gave +16 STR, +8 CON, +2 DEX, and eventually large size. So unlike many LAs, his saves and accuracy would have remained solid.)

Unfortunately, that campaign died about 3 sessions in before I really got the hang of it. I remember failing to grapple the boss, only to realize afterwords that it should have worked because I forgot about their -4 size penalty. Of course, it never would have been an amazing build (because... 3.5 monk) but everyone but the DM was totally new to D&D, so no one was anything close to top tier.

Lord Torath
2019-04-14, 10:08 AM
Aragorn (this was just after one of the movies had come out, and I was like 9, maybe younger) the Cleric, later retconned into Aragorn the Elf*, in BD&D. There's not really much more to him, the game lasted about two seasons before my dad didn't have the free time to run again. I only remember Aragorn because of the uninspired name.

I played several games after, but my first proper campaign and actually serious character (because I'd GMed about 80% of those games) in a game that lasted more than two sessions (a big milestone) was a Thaumaturgist/Scholar in Unknown Armies 2e. He wasn't moral, he wasn't particularly good with people, but if you kept that in mind he did pay relatively nice with others. Unfortunately I can't give more detail, that game veers straight into inappropriate topics and doesn't let up.

* I wanted to play the Magic-User, but my little brother got to it first and he always got what he wanted. Elf allowed me to have my wizard magic while also giving the party a second warrior, even if we were missing a healer.I think I've got you beat when it comes to unimaginative PCs and names. My first PC (using the blue-box basic set) was a dwarf named Gloin. I don't remember much about his adventures.

My second PC was a wizard (probably named Gandalf, but I don't recall for certain), and I distinctly remember being utterly underwhelmed by the effects of my Magic Missile on the giant crabs we were facing. Missiles explode, right (at least the ones on my GI Joe cartoons certainly did). How could I hit this crab with a Magic Missile and not crack its shell wide open? :smallsigh: I was around 8 at the time.

Malphegor
2019-04-14, 11:25 AM
Until last year most of my stuff was in freeform
forum rp and in mmos (standing around roleplaying in someone’s hideout in a superhero mmo). A necromancer posessed by her evil ancestor, a few fuuristic knights with
laser sworda and energy shields... standard superhero
guff.

For actual tabletop though...

Verrick Tull, the Lawful Evil Bard (required DM permission). A magic user who seeks a fabled Words of Creation/Truename thing that would make him a god of pure creation, singing the universe. Didn’t work out in-character. There’s something
about a domineering diva of a rockstar who wants WORLD DOMINATION I like, but things petered out. (he was meant to be based on Mok from Rock 'N Rule)

Currently I’m playing the first character that ever made it past one session. Malphegor! Tiefling wizard, Lawful Neutral, modelled after mad scientist tropes, dreams every night of a futuristic city in which skyscrapers beam energy to a floating stone sphere, the grandson of a mad swamp witch who thinks life works like a story, the son of a pair of fantasy lawyers who try to distance themselves from this magic malarkey, has a strong mistrust of the fey, has mild hayfever, has a bit of narcissism, is a bit of a cleanfreak, is absolutely a tyrant if given any power, and is not evil... yet.

I kinda want him to die to try a better put together character rather than ALL THE MULTICLASS and dubious
legality of mixing 3.0 feats with 3.5e stuff but for a ‘first’ character he’s been a blast to play.

Seclora
2019-04-14, 01:07 PM
His name was Alfred Williams. The game was 3.5 with elements of D20 Modern. Alfred was a multiclass Bard Sorcerer, Chaotic Good-ish, and liked money.

By the end of the campaign, Alfred was the patron of resistance groups(Including the party), Record Studio Owner/Producer, and inventor of the Motorcycle. But me, I'll always remember him as the war criminal who effectively nuked a military creche and a Preschool in order to exterminate an invading aberrant species. My next character was a Vow of Poverty Saint. I think very carefully about the collateral damage of my actions now, and I blame Alfred for that.

LibraryOgre
2019-04-14, 01:13 PM
Even worse than misplacing your car keys, right? 'Honey, have you seen my sleep spell? I'm sure I left it next to the grimoire or the rams skull ...'

Well, in AD&D, sleep spells affected the lowest HD creatures first, which mean they knocked out our party.

Luccan
2019-04-14, 01:29 PM
Aragorn (this was just after one of the movies had come out, and I was like 9, maybe younger) the Cleric, later retconned into Aragorn the Elf*, in BD&D. There's not really much more to him, the game lasted about two seasons before my dad didn't have the free time to run again. I only remember Aragorn because of the uninspired name.

I played several games after, but my first proper campaign and actually serious character (because I'd GMed about 80% of those games) in a game that lasted more than two sessions (a big milestone) was a Thaumaturgist/Scholar in Unknown Armies 2e. He wasn't moral, he wasn't particularly good with people, but if you kept that in mind he did pay relatively nice with others. Unfortunately I can't give more detail, that game veers straight into inappropriate topics and doesn't let up.

* I wanted to play the Magic-User, but my little brother got to it first and he always got what he wanted. Elf allowed me to have my wizard magic while also giving the party a second warrior, even if we were missing a healer.

Wonder how he would have gotten along with my first character: Bilbo the Gnome, Magic-User/Fighter in AD&D (I think we were ignoring multiclassing restrictions). He wasn't really anything like Bilbo from the Hobbit, right down to not even being a halfling or thief.

Phhase
2019-04-14, 01:29 PM
Considering any system, it was a few years back, since I've been reading sourcebooks since I was a kid but only played proper since college.
It was a homebrew using the Fantasy Age system, a kind of scifi space opera setting with magic. It was pretty good, even if the DM was a bit railroad-y. I played Splynter, a Chaotic Evil Sentinel (A robot) who was actually being animated by an elemental spirit of lightning. My class was rouge(assassin), and I used my taloned hands as weapons. Turns out I'm not very good at being evil. My only real goal was to devour souls and swell in power, and I kind of had trouble RPing it when we were almost exclusively fighting elemental. I also developed a deadly grudge against an NPC, since it was a big figure in the DM's universe, and his greatest flaw was being unable to separate his lore canon from our adventure canon (So figures that featured prominently in lore were all but omnipotent, effectively). He had one of his archvillains try to draft my character, making a deal to allow my character to escape the universe. Eventually, the DM had me betray the party inside an arcane extradimensional prison for elementals we were trying to repair so that I could be the final boss, even though it really didn't make any sense to me why I would. The idea was for me to fight them straight up, but I instead destroyed the prison, causing chaos and havoc. He was too weak-minded to see how this could serve his campaign, and considered me to have destroyed his campaign. It wasn't that bad, but I was a little disappointed, since I could still see the potential.

However, DnD proper I started only a little while ago, with a Red Dragonborn Fighter/Rouge named Khorath. I made him lawful neutral, just because I could. He's half comedy, half voice of reason in our chaotic party. He's also the face despite having +0 to charisma, since the rest of our party is so distractable. Maybe it's MY +5 to diplomacy propping us both up, who knows. He's the sort to take a sample of everything, which his how I ended up commissioning a rapier that's more like a giant needle, letting me inject a bottle of (x) into the target on a hit. However, his signature attack is to take a long drought from a bag of rum he carries, then to blast that out along with his breath weapon. I call it the Accelerant Augmented Assault.

His backstory proper is that he has no clear memories past ten years ago. Anything beyond that is a blur of darkness, black metal, red light, constructs, and chaos. He is very unsure whether he truly is a Dragonborn, or even a flesh and blood being at all. He's a bit of a sense freak, being new to the whole biology thing. He was wandering in the wilderness until he found shelter in a nearby city. With a natural inclination for science, he quickly was admitted to the local chapter of alchemists and brewers. Later, he set out across the waves to find the truth of his origins, eventually meeting the party.

It's fun to think about, but hasn't really come up much yet. Right now the party finally put into port and Khorath is having a field day buying weapons and armor while pretty much the whole rest of the party gets smashed at a tavern.

Ortho
2019-04-14, 03:38 PM
I'm a latecomer, my first character was a 5e Champion Fighter named Flint Balderdash. He was a dwarf who singlehandedly convinced my DM to never let us roll for stats again (he had 13s and 14 across the board before racial bonuses) and who was only killed when said DM gave my 3rd level party a Deck of Many Things.

He was short lived, but an absolute blast to play. I just put on a bad Scottish accent and roleplayed the crap out of the campaign. Good times.

The Kool
2019-04-14, 05:03 PM
never let us roll for stats again (he had 13s and 14 across the board before racial bonuses)

This is actually fairly middle of the road for rolling stats? I mean, it's pretty decent, but nothing spectacular. 13 is the most likely number to roll. (https://anydice.com/program/13e)

Anyway, my first character was Bill the Paladin, AD&D. He didn't last very long because I had no idea how paladins were supposed to be played and mostly mimicked my older brother who was playing a stealthy and experienced Ranger. When I retired him, I picked up a magic-user, and mimicked my older sister who was a pyro... With greater success, at least.

Toric
2019-04-14, 06:23 PM
Like Malphegor my introduction to roleplaying was via freeform RP, on a chat room in my case. And so I was... Dark Ninja! He was a ninja. Dressed in black. He had shadow magic, which was really just Shadow Clone Jutsu but this was before Naruto so shut up!

My first D&D character was a 3.5E gnome ranger, whose name I can't remember. Through terrible DM-player communication he once interrogated a barkeep who had been attacked by goblins, rather than interrogating one of the goblins like any sensible person.

2D8HP
2019-04-14, 08:06 PM
Fighter #1 - He fought Giant Spiders and Skeletons and...

....that's pretty much all I remember about him, he was followed by a conga-line of other Fighters (or "Fighting-Men" as the rules then called the class)

The first non-D&D character was for Villains & Vigilantes and for the game the PC was supposed to be based on on myself - and other than that I'd rather have been playing D&D I don't remember much of that game.

The next game was Champions (another comic book superheroes RPG) and I made my PC an "Agent of the Shadowed Moon", and his "power" was a ray-gun he carried...

...which another PC grabbed, and that was the end of my character.

After that it was a bunch of Call of Cthullu "Investigators" who could read Latin, Greek or Magyar, and Traveller Scouts with starships.

My most memorable AD&D character was a half-orc Cleric/Fighter who kept his face hidden with a "Great Helm" and I had him try to act as a Paladin and...

...he didn't last long before the other players said "Nope!".

My last AD&D character that I remember something about was from the Barbarian Class in The Dragon magazine and I remember that I wrote down "Chaotic Good" as Alignment in the Character Record Sheet, and that in the Character Illustration I wrote "If you ain't a Barbarian then you ain't...".

My very last PC for decades was a "Solo" for Cyberpunk and that's all I remember about him.

I made some Knights for [/i]Pendragon, [/i] various GURPS PC's, and I made a dual class Rogue/Wizard and some Rangers for 3e D&D that I never played.

My first PC for 5e D&D that I briefly played was a half elf Rogue with the Entertainer Background, and then (for a bit longer a human Urchin background Fighter named "Lander Stormwind", who's the earliest PC I can remember the name of without looking up the sheet - he wasn't very memorable otherwise.

The PC I best remember was "Ossian" a Folk Hero background Fighter/Rogue who I had curse like "Captain Haddock" from the Tin Tin comics.

lawfulgay
2019-04-14, 08:38 PM
My first PC is a tiefling ranger named Zerissa. She is still around and is currently level 6.

She has blue skin (which I was actually given **** for by the DM and other players because blue skin tiefling is a weird thing??) And dark blue hair (yeah she kinda looks like Jester from CR but honestly I made her long before I even knew that CR was)
She has bright yellow eyes and sharp teeth.
Her horns are oni style, pretty short, and her right horn is actually snapped in half.

Her backstory is she grew up in a large town by the sea. Her family was pretty rich and influential, and at age 16 her father wanted to marry her off to the son of the other most influential family in the city.
Zerissa, however, is a lesbian who obviously didn't want to marry a man. So, the day before the wedding she ran away from home and lived in the forest and did odd jobs for money.
When she was 19, she met a half-elf woman named Lyra, who became her travel partner and the two fell in love. However, one night bandits raided their camp, planning on kidnapping Zerissa and returning her back to her family for gold. Lyra sacrificed herself so Zerissa could get away, and Zerissa know lives with this constant regret of how she got her lover killed.

In the current campaign she is 25. She met another tiefling woman named Kallista at a tavern, doing some fighting for money. (The DM put her there just so there was something exciting happening in the bar when we walked in. She wasn't meant to be anything but a background NPC, but I decided there and then that Zerissa just immediately fell in love with her.)

Now, Kallista is her girlfriend and Zerissa is super protective of her because she doesnt want another person she loves to get killed.
Zerissa was my first and one of my favorite characters I've made. I actually have commissioned tons of art of her. She is the definition of chaotic gay.

Spriteless
2019-04-14, 09:08 PM
Must have been around '95, on Sunday afternoons when we were all done with homework, Dad started running a game for us. I played Ariel the Avarial Winged Elf, cleric of the wind goddess, swept across the sea from home in a storm and looking for a way back, and later, the reason for her being sent to this strange land. I had a pet pseudodragon! Because Dragon Song! Mostly, I spent my spells taking care of my younger siblings.

Sis played a Wizard so posh she'd actually spend spell slots making 'unseen servant' do labor back in A&AD when that reduced your chances for survival. She rode a pegasus.

Bro played a dwarven fighter who rode a giant eagle. He would dive enemies for extra damage, because that makes sense right?

I never understood how people could be confused by the turning radius that the older editions imposed on fliers.

denthor
2019-04-14, 09:52 PM
Denthor a thief.

Name was given by a then friend.

Ambrone a wizard was the first one I named.

The friend of course ran Harold fork beard.

Kitten Champion
2019-04-14, 09:56 PM
My very first PC could be argued to be the Amazon I created for a Diablo II RPG I played at my friend's apartment when I was elementary school, but the Amazon wasn't a character so much as a block of stats moving across a modest pregenerated dungeon printed on a mat of some sort.

My first PC who was an actual character was Nadilee, a Human Rogue. This was Pathfinder using a conversion of the Eberron, and at the time I was quite enjoying reading through the campaign setting book I was lent and wanted to create a character that mostly fit into the internal politics of the world. The game itself was a train heist scenario with each of the PCs having their own underlying motives. I ended up making a Thranish assassin who aimed to get in with the robbers in order to arrange it so she assassinate someone aboard while disguising it as a random casualty.

Nadilee is prim, and will act with formality and respectfulness regardless of who she's dealing with. She's kind as well, and believes in doing good works out of altruism. However, she's also a stoic killer with a fanatical devotion to completing her tasks. Less because of religious zealotry, and more out of a pragmatic grasp of the realpolitik. She cares because she's faithful and wants to be a good person, but she acts because she's a Thranish assassin in the real world and firmly desires Thrane's safety and prosperity.

She was mostly based on Suzuno Kamazuki/Crestia Bell from Devil is a Part-Timer, which I was enjoying at the time. She was fun to play, even though we never finished that story because of life stuff.

ngilop
2019-04-14, 11:12 PM
My first ever character was named after myself Sir Kenneth,

Back in '87 and was a Paladin. Though was upset because I got a high charisma and I wanted my strength to be higher. Then my DM explained how I was basically Sir Galahad. mind you.. I was young and that was back when it was 3d6 in order. Only much later ( like 7 or 8 years) did I realize how amazing that character was in terms of stats rolled. I still have my character sheet as well.

Kalashak
2019-04-14, 11:48 PM
The first character I made was a half orc Barbarian named Wolf for 3.5, but I never actually got to play him. The first character I made and played was for Serenity, a mildly alcoholic lawman gone rogue named Dir Tiberius Harry. A lot of my characters have followed roughly in Dir's tradition, in that they're flawed people trying to do the right thing in a flawed world but I don't think that's actually because of him. It's just an archetype I'm drawn to.

Saintheart
2019-04-15, 12:18 AM
I made a monk. In 3.5.

This might explain why I haven't left that system in the 12-15 years since. I'm still trying to figure out how to make him not suck.

Guizonde
2019-04-15, 01:01 AM
the system was dark eye, we were young, and i wanted to play something uncomplicated. the gm threw the monster manual at us and told us "have fun, i'll deal with the chaos". and so "the troll" came to be. in dark eye, trolls have regenerating health due to their blood, and they're basically black holes for food. they're also incredibly stupid and strong. i was playing in a game with a fairy that cast spells, a centaur which was nc-17 in terms of acts, and i think a necromancer.

... i ate the barkeep in the first 5 minutes of gameplay. then i collapsed the inn. then i destroyed the jailhouse and ate the jailor, then the armory and ate the smith, using its load bearing beam as a club and its metal door as a shield. we went on to destroy the evil noble's castle and my healing blood saved the party's hp several times over. thus became "the troll paladin". really hungry, really loyal at protecting his fairy best friend.

ever since, i've been loyal to the party and always try to have a means of healing my team. my first answer is usually "how do we collapse the building". my first dnd character (much more serious) was father corbec girdersson, dwarven cleric of pelor, who was the black sheep of the family because he studied medicine instead of architecture and engineering. that character was loved by the team since he was a gruff, no-nonsense healbot who could fight like a man possessed and could actually tell you good info on what building we were in. due to a funny habit of always rolling great, he never got lost. ever. he was also a vegetarian which annoyed the dm to no end. that campaign ended when ooc relations with the dm soured badly. still would love to have that character sheet, but alas, it's now lost to time.

many characters have come and gone since then, knaki the chameleonic skink, josé, doc frankalice, edward, raymond... and even the sociopathic edward was loyal to the team, if about as destructive as a limited nuclear exchange.

Wraith
2019-04-15, 04:04 AM
Edion Exodise, an Elf multi-class Fighter/Mage in AD&D. He had a longsword and a longbow and wore chainmail armour - I didn't know anything about casting disruption at the time, but it didn't matter because he never cast a single spell.
The party kind of wandered around an Inn for 3 hours, tripping over wenches and bumping into other patrons, before the DM took a call on his 'phone that lasted 10 minutes and then he told us to pack up for the night because he was going to keep talking to the other person for a bit longer.

Did this character influence any of my others? Yes - It took me ~10 years before I bothered trying to play AD&D again, because it was so dull and my character was so humiliated.

Misereor
2019-04-15, 05:22 AM
--> Misereor dom Drachnor, 2nd ed. Human male CG Fighter.
Battle Axe aficionado with very lucky stat rolls, affectionately named "domdom" by his fellow party members.

Got captured by Lareth of Lolth underneath the Moat House outside Hommlet. During the daring escape that followed, everyone else was killed and he barely made it into the woods with 2 HP left, but Lareth's band of cutthroats was crippled. After that we got about halfway through the U series and almost to 3rd level before our DM quit due to real life issues and I had to take over. Like many neophyte DM's, I immediately retconned my poor character into an overpowered NPC, but luckily I had enough self respect never to harass my players with him.

Knaight
2019-04-15, 05:35 AM
I don't remember my first PC at all - there are PCs I remember from a solid decade ago (and I'm in my 20s), but I honestly couldn't tell you who my first PC even was. Hell, I couldn't tell you what game they were in, though I at least have some guesses. In any case, by the time I had a PC I'd been GMing for years - though I don't remember the first game I GMed either; I just have some vague memories of the earliest days. It's the first game I GMed in the first system I found that I really liked that I actually do remember, though that's a name and some fragmentary details more than a cohesive whole.

Judging by my earliest PCs I actually do remember, I don't think that really went forward meaningfully at all. Neither did the first game I GMed, though it's possible that it did give a small well of nostalgia - that first game was a dungeon crawl, a style that I've almost completely abandoned but that comes back very infrequently for one shots when I'm deliberately going retro; a source of nostalgia could explain that nicely. So could it being the dominant style in the hobby.

Kaptin Keen
2019-04-15, 06:14 AM
--> Misereor dom Drachnor, 2nd ed. Human male CG Fighter.
Battle Axe aficionado with very lucky stat rolls, affectionately named "domdom" by his fellow party members.

Got captured by Lareth of Lolth underneath the Moat House outside Hommlet. During the daring escape that followed, everyone else was killed and he barely made it into the woods with 2 HP left, but Lareth's band of cutthroats was crippled. After that we got about halfway through the U series and almost to 3rd level before our DM quit due to real life issues and I had to take over. Like many neophyte DM's, I immediately retconned my poor character into an overpowered NPC, but luckily I had enough self respect never to harass my players with him.

That's such a classic - using retired PC's as NPC's. My first PC had a similar run. The very first campaign (in which Akomestos was a PC) was about cleansing a land of evil that had been sealed off for millenia - this was back in the days before alignment based genocide was something we thought twice about - and much later, Akomestos was retired as a headmaster of the Heroes Academy deep inside that land, making sure the evil races stayed properly genocided.

Yea ... all those moral grey zones I love so much now ... all that was much later. In the beginning it was all pleasantly simple and black and white =D

Lord Torath
2019-04-15, 12:12 PM
My first Shadowrun PC, a rigger named Black Nickel, re-appeared in a game I ran, but as an auto mechanic (she had a Vehicle Facility as a PC so she could work on her own car), not someone who'd compete at all with the PCs for the spotlight. Black Nickel sunk about 700 grand into a SAAB Dynamite. It was a sweet ride, but relatively useless. Would have done better to invest in a Doberman drone, but the drawing in the Rigger Black Book was so ugly and the comments about it so derogatory, that I spurned it out of hand. Still, she was pretty fun!

LibraryOgre
2019-04-15, 03:15 PM
My first Shadowrun PC, a rigger named Black Nickel, re-appeared in a game I ran, but as an auto mechanic (she had a Vehicle Facility as a PC so she could work on her own car), not someone who'd compete at all with the PCs for the spotlight. Black Nickel sunk about 700 grand into a SAAB Dynamite. It was a sweet ride, but relatively useless. Would have done better to invest in a Doberman drone, but the drawing in the Rigger Black Book was so ugly and the comments about it so derogatory, that I spurned it out of hand. Still, she was pretty fun!

I noticed our high school riggers tended to focus on vehicles. Drones didn't get popular (with us, at least) until later.

Illogictree
2019-04-15, 10:31 PM
Sogen Marsh, a NG half-elf ranger. I didn't build him myself, he was a PC my DM had prepared for a different game, but I made up the name and characterization. He was a pretty standard good-guy character, but he gradually developed a peculiar family history where his human father was basically the setting's equivalent of Chuck Norris (as in, there were all kinds of wild stories about his prowess and escapades, though most of them were basically made up. The story about him punching a dragon was true though.)

My SECOND character was his estranged twin sister Serrata, a cleric/fighter who punched her problems to death. Due to the circumstances of the campaign, I played both at the same time and had quite a bit of fun with their getting to know each other again.

Both characters later showed up in a freeform chat RP, as antagonistic NPCs. And the "reverse" version of Sogen, Negos Shram, became a recurring enigmatic frenemy in the first Dungeon World campaign I ran.

Spore
2019-04-15, 10:33 PM
Tiefling Monk, loosely sculpted after Raziel, the protagonist of Soul Reaver. I was so edgy and cool. There was a dwarf cleric before whom I just called Thorax because it sounded dwarven (and this is probably the first thing shattering under his warhammer).

Particle_Man
2019-04-15, 11:34 PM
My first character was the short-lived Fred the Fighter in B/X D&D who wandered off on his own and got killed by shadows.

I learned: a) Not to wander off on my own, and b) Clerics are pretty awesome (ok, it took me 4 more short-lived Fred the Fighters to learn the second one. I was 10).

Puh Laden
2019-04-16, 12:10 AM
My first character ever was made for 3.5e by a different player who had quit. A 16-year-old human rogue with a pirate background. Pretty fun. I like playing roguishly -- placing ladders over pit traps, etc. Then when that campaign rebooted, I made a human paladin/cleric of Death (Death was Neutral Good). His name is my account's namesake: Puh Laden (because that's how I originally thought "paladin" was pronounced. When I was corrected, Puh Laden became his name.) He was so paranoid about this group of wizards that ruled the main city of the campaign, that the DM actually decided to change them from being based off of the jedi and good to being based off of the sith and evil. (Not!Palpatine & Not!Windu were the two main wizards).

Kol Korran
2019-04-16, 05:29 AM
My 1st PC? Well...

The year was 1989, I was at 4th grade. It was in D&D basic (The red box). I joined the group mid adventure.

The story was that every 1000 years, the King of Dragons would rise from hell, and would fly around the world, drawing all kind of dragons regardless of alignment as part of his "flock", as he would either scour a land, or be appeased by some powerful item or such.

The party was sent by a major city in an attempt to find a solution to save it. It was one of the last parties sent to a dungeon, to retrieve The Golden Fleece, which could either be used to stave the wrath of the dragon king (It granted 1 wish per year), or be given to it to spare the city. The dungeon was massive (6 floors, each containing about 40-50 rooms, an old massive dungeon crawl), and quite deadly.

The party was 3rd level. I joined as a thief (Because the party lacked one). He was the last surviving member of another party. I remember very little of him except for 2 facts:
- The DM decided to introduce him by putting a dagger to another PC's throat, unsure of the party's intentions... Yeah... Not my intention, but it made the other player hate me, despite explanations afterwards. The animosity carried through out that gaming group existence, with his various characters trying to kill mine in attempted-subtle ways, without much success... :smallsigh:
- The thief died 2 encounters after he was introduced. The party found a secret room with gargoyles in it. I... didn't know what gargoyles were. (I'm from Israel, and as a 9-10 year old kid I had no idea what they were). I remember that from the DM's description I was sure those were strange stone colored worms with wings, teeth and somehow claws... I was too shy to ask, and wanted to prove myself to the party, so I tried to engage one alone. Not a wise idea for a 3rd level thief. :smallfrown:

I do remember much more my 2nd character (Who for me really felt like my first). :
The DM apologized for the 1st attempt, and the quick death, and asked me to play something I was thrilled about. I just read "The Hobbit" then, and so decided to play a halfling! (This being 1st Ed, race and class were inseparable). He was very much inspired by Bilbo Baggins character, but fared much poorer:
- He joined the party soon after they descended to the 3rd level of the dungeon. First encounter- Spitting cobras and some other snakes. He got blinded and bitten in his leg. The party decided to cut off his leg so the poison won't spread. (Yeah, this probably wasn't covered in the rules, but we rolled with it). With another party member blinded, the party decided to head back to the city.

- In the city we got partially cured of our blindness, yet one of my character's eye wouldn't recover, so he wore an eye patch. He also got fitted with a prosthetic wooden leg (Which caused the other players to often sing a line from a song going "... And a wooden leg!" followed by a "Pok!" sound. An old Hebrew children song...).

- We also failed the mission, and the Dragon King was coming! The DM adjusted magnificently! The city decided to evacuate it's populace, and most treasures, to reduce harm. The Dragon King would be less likely to take notice. However, the city's structure and facilities still stood, and the people of the city worried that his dragon flock could cause great harm. So... As the ONLY surviving adventurers (By then 4th level, Yay?!) we were tasked to lead the defense of the city against potential ravaging dragons, as the Dragon King and his flock flew by. We each got a defensive tower, Some artillery, and 500 archers. We also got handed a bucket full of potions and scrolls and other dispensable magic items to help in the defense.

The session was... glorious! I still remember it to this day!
The tension was immense, and the DM had a table to randomly roll dragons that would descend upon the city- for the various colors and ages (I think back then there were only 3 ages in the DMG?). They would each fly and attack the city/ explore it, and we would fight back. I think around 5-8 dragons came down from the flock.
We tried fighting, with our ballistas, with our archers, and some of the magical equipment. By the near to last dragon, 2 party members were dead, most archers were dead as well, and only the elf, the wizard and my halfling were still functioning. The great white dragon smashed my tower, yet somehow my halfling survived with but 2 hp, buried under the rubble. The elf managed to bribe it away.

The last dragon was red, and it took all remaining opposition, till the wizard drank a Control Red Dragons potions, and the DM rolled a natural 1 for it's save! The wizard (A smart fellow), didn't want to try out the control too much, and used it to get the dragon to attack another settlement, not long off, but not THIS CITY. ("Pretty please oh great and magnificent dragon?")

- Hooray! We survived the Day of The Dragons! The city was half destroyed, and so were we, but the sensation was... Beyond words! My halfling, though he survived, was not without further harm. Some of his hand was crushed, and so another semi prosthetic (I remember some sort of a wooden magical claw? I remember having only 3 functional fingers in that hand, and that they required practice to get used to...) was installed.

I loved that halfling!
We continued to adventure, with my one eyed, one legged, wooden claw halfling (He reallllly liked riding ponies after that). And the little bugger survived many hardships after all. He even outlived some other adventurers (This behind 1st Ed, and the DM making liberal use of random encounters, meant a character died every 1-2 sessions at least).

He... didn't quite help much, but he was tough, and unrelenting. I wanted to reach 8th level, and become a sheriff, before returning home. But... The gaming group was having friction and they wanted another campaign, and so around 6th level, we decided to play a sort of "retirement session" where the PCs traveled to where they would retire, and make an ending to the story.

The part before last was just with the halfling and the wizard (who also survived quite successfully, mainly by knowing to put the meat shields first!), since I desired a similar ending of Bilbo and Gandalf returning to the Shire. But right before reaching the halfing's village, we encountered a couple of owl bears, one of which ate my halfling up! :smallsigh: The DM wanted to make the halfling a "savior of the village", by eliminating the owl bear menace that threatened it, but probably didn't consider the lower power of just us 2...

I was a bit bummed out, but we also thought it was, in it's own strange way, a good ending. The wizard managed to gut the sick and dying owl bear later (It died due to being unable to digest the prosthetics. :smalltongue:), brought the wooden leg and made a sort of a headstone from it, and taught the entire village the song "... And a wooden leg!... Pok!" :smalltongue:

Did it affect my gaming later on?
I think in some ways yes:
- First of all, as both player and GM I discuss the way a character is brought to the game very carefully. First impressions matter, and can set a tone for a character, or even a player.
- Secondly, I think most of my characters have been great optimists, even in the face of great adversity, and personal troubles, failures, hardships and setbacks. No character I can think of has underwent what that poor halfling went through, but in his own way, I think his spirit lives in them all...
- Thirdly, but not less importantly- The session with the Day of The Dragon! However implausible it was, however many plot, rules and other kind of holes and such were in it, I still remember it as one of the most powerful, intense, exciting and pivotal gaming experiences I've ever had. A large part of it was that we knew our DM wasn't fudging anything (He rolled in the open, and showed us his random tables). It affected my DMing style considerably, though it took me a loooooong time to understand it.

Great thread! It made me think back of good old times, and brought a HUGE smile to my face! So thanks! :smallbiggrin:

NRSASD
2019-04-16, 10:05 AM
First PC ever: Sir Bangasaur of the Bangasaur Brothers. He was a knight (AD&D 1st edition fighter) who could polymorph into a T-Rex once a day and helped clear a cavern full of giant bugs for a powerful sorceress. She gave Sir Bangasaur a magic cookie of giant strength for his efforts.

To be fair, I was five. I haven't stopped playing since.

caden_varn
2019-04-16, 10:16 AM
I'm not sure if it was my first character ever (it was nearly 40 years ago), but it might well have been - a halfling in BD&D (red box) who made it to attack rank C.
Races were classes in that game - dwarves were basically fighters, elves mages (or maybe fighter mages?), and halflings ... were peasants who could hide in rural areas, basically.
I presume he had a name. No idea what it was (although there is a fighting chance his character sheet is still rotting somewhere in the innumerable folders of paper I steadfastedly refuse to throw away)

Gallowglass
2019-04-16, 10:41 AM
ugh.

My first character was a Basic D&D Elf (not just a race, but a class!) named Spiderhawk Highfeather.

Followed by a halfling (which I called a kender) named David Hasslehoff Burrfoot. (sigh)

Give me a break, I was 12.

Some other high (low) lights.

In 1st Edition I had a Cleric/Fighter/Thief named Candy Hayroller who had the prostitute profession. I was 15 at that point.

Oh hey, maybe you guys can -help- In my very first game (with Spiderhawk and Hasslehoff) another player had two other elves named "Sorka and Damon"

It was implied to me that they came from some fantasy novel series, but I never found out what. Does anyone know of a fantasy series with characters named Sorka and Damon? Sister and Brother I think.

That House
2019-04-16, 11:41 AM
She has blue skin (which I was actually given **** for by the DM and other players because blue skin tiefling is a weird thing??)

Hells yeah blue skinned tiefling gang!

My first PC was Quint Latimer the CE tiefling bard/warlock. He’s big on enchantment and illusion magic, and he’s basically all seven of the “seven sins” (not the anime but pride, wrath, greed etc) rolled into one, plus a few extra sins.

He has blue skin, golden deer antlers, six fingers/hand, hooves, wings, cat eyes, and long black hair. Basically he’s a freak of nature, which necessitates the Disguise Self eldritch invocation (5e).

The campaign for him is just at the beginning, but so far he’s sold his soul to Graz’zt and started working for the local mafia. He’s been such fun, even if his horrible character traits have caused some trouble. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: he hasn’t affected any of my other characters, as he’s my only one so far (I DM’d before Quint).

Faily
2019-04-16, 01:14 PM
Seeing all the people who got into RPGs by playing D&D make me feel like I started off wrong or something. :smalltongue:


First character was Selene, she was a professional thief, dealing mostly in art objects. One day she was hired to steal something from a rather unknown artist living in a rundown apartement in New York; a rather macabre piece depicting a playground where the roles of playground-children had been enacted by mice. Mice that had been forcefully attached to the seesaw, swings, and carousels. In the brief time it was in her apartment after the theft, she was certain she heard the sounds of the playground, of the mice scream. The nightmares didn't go away once the deal was over and the "artpiece" was out of her house.

... Seeking help against the nightmares from some shady sources, she ended up teaming up with two other women plagued by other horrors, seeing the darker side of the city (which may or may not have been Metropolis), and other horrible things...


I started with KULT.

Psychii
2019-04-16, 02:09 PM
My first character was in Pathfinder. Okrin Aureum was an Aasimar Sorcerer with the Draconic Bloodline, and he was themed around the color gold. He was descended from a gold dragon, and I took angelic blood and burnished skin feats to turn his skin golden. Due to good rolls, he had high physical stats and charisma, so I took levels in the draconic disciple prestige class. I also had a somewhat large obsession with using his claws.
He was basically just a damage dealer, that's probably the best way to describe him. Blasty spells and clawing people:smallcool:.
He didn't have much of a backstory, mostly because I honestly couldn't think of one.
Okrin was massive (I think I made him somewhere in the neighborhood of 6'11") and had long golden hair. He was very headstrong and confident in his divine and draconic origins.
It wasn't unearned confidence either. Everyone in the group besides the GM was a complete noob, and it was obvious. I went online to the pathfinder srd and read basically everything, and I looked up a guide because my brother, who was also in the group, scared me by saying that he heard it was really easy to make a useless character. Thus, my blaster/melee sorcerer ended up being the most powerful character in our group.

I think Okrin did affect my gameplay after that. I originally really didn't care for roleplaying and only did it because the GM liked it, but I grew to like his interactions with the dumb human knight, the goofy gnome wizard, the insane kobold factotum, the surprisingly-not-very-gruff dwarf paladin, and the similarly headstrong human monk(played by my brother). Now my characters actually have a written backstory, and actively interact with other characters.

Gluteus_Maximus
2019-04-16, 03:42 PM
Gluteus Maximus was originally an obese, TN mountain dwarf ranger. Then, when I found out the party needed a cleric, I became Gluteus Maximus, obese CE hill dwarf cleric of Gruumsh (he was raised by orcs and his eye was torn out by a dwarf lich who killed everyone in his father's castle besides him and his brother, seen as a sign by the orcs to be a godsend by Gruumsh himself). I kept wanting to do new things, but they all were non healer roles and they were already struggling enough since I was either a war or a tempest cleric, idr, so I wasn't healing much. Plus one of them had a home brewed shardmind and I was the only spell caster so I was on mending duty to fix the guy up. So I was stuck being a healer.

Velaryon
2019-04-16, 06:56 PM
Arguably, my first ever PC was a nameless Tremere using the intro version of Vampire: the Masquerade that came packed in with an issue of InQuest magazine back in 1997 or so. I had never played a TTRPG before and didn't even really know what they were, but it sounded cool. I talked a friend of mine into sleeping over so we could try it out. We each built two characters (mine were a Tremere and a Ventrue, I think his were a Brujah and a Gangrel but I don't remember for sure). We pillaged my board games for dice, because this little starter booklet used d6 instead of d10 like the real game. Although we played it more like a D&D dungeon crawl than anything else, I had a good time and ended up buying the book... and then could never get enough friends together to have an actual game. I've owned the VtM core book for 22 years and still never actually played the game.

But what I think of as my first PC was my first 3.0 D&D character, a half-elf fighter named Creel. I was invited last minute to join a game that was starting that very night, so I had to make a character during the game while having no idea what I was doing (the guy playing a multiclass ranger/druid hid his annoyance fairly well while helping me). Creel was a horribly unoptimized mess of a character, whose highest stats were in Dex and Con, had the Spring Attack line of feats, and fought with a halberd.

I came up with a backstory I thought was very cool, about how he was the son of a minor noble from Cormyr who was framed for his parents' murder after he stormed out of their manor during an argument, and was now living under an assumed name while looking for clues to the real killer's identity. Unfortunately, the DM already had his story in mind and did absolutely nothing with this.

The DM started each character off with a powerful item - mine was a Ring of Regeneration (which got upgraded during gameplay from the book-standard version to one that granted actual regeneration like trolls have. Still, Creel's main contribution to the party was jumping in front of the party wizard and getting knocked unconscious during most fights... until he got knocked out by a weretiger and failed his Fort save. After that he was pretty terrifying.

Unfortunately the game ended a month or so before the end of the school year when the DM's classes got too overwhelming and he had no time to plan for the game.

Lord Torath
2019-04-16, 09:00 PM
Seeing all the people who got into RPGs by playing D&D make me feel like I started off wrong or something. :smalltongue:

I started with KULT.Sadly, we must now shun you.

<shun>

Okay, consider yourself shunned. :smalltongue:

Blackhawk748
2019-04-16, 09:05 PM
I have no idea what the character's name was but he was a Human Ranger, and I recall that simply because I was the only non-Fighter in the party. The DM had recommended that everyone just play a Human Fighter for our first game to simplify things (this did actually work) and I was under the impression that Fighters only did melee, and I wanted to shoot stuff.

So, a 5 minute discussion later and I was playing a Ranger who used a shotspear, shield and a Repeating Heavy Crossbow. Hilariously I was the most useful dude in the party simply because I was the only one who could hit.

Togath
2019-04-17, 12:15 AM
My first pc was!.. a middle aged(or old? Talking DnD 3.5 age categories in this case) paladin named Baldwyn who was planned as a sort of mixed melee and divine magic user... who my gm decided wouldn't be strong enough. ^_^;
So he was replaced by my second! A druid using 3.5's equivalents of PF's archetypes to exchange wildshape and an animal companion for easier shapeshifting and a fast healing aura I could expend spell slots for(also named Baldwyn).
He spent a lot of his time in the form of a mountain lion!

comk59
2019-04-17, 09:47 AM
A super cool half elf rogue that dual-wielded short swords. He dressed in all black leather, had a dark past, and was super cool. He also eventually got repeating crossbow, because those are super cool. He eventually got tried and executed when he murdered a guard patrol for hassling him, because that's just how cool he was.

Kaptin Keen
2019-04-17, 10:07 AM
A super cool half elf rogue that dual-wielded short swords. He dressed in all black leather, had a dark past, and was super cool. He also eventually got repeating crossbow, because those are super cool. He eventually got tried and executed when he murdered a guard patrol for hassling him, because that's just how cool he was.

I believe a lot of us start out with rather ... shallow ideas of what's cool. I've made a number of characters who were essentially Conan with another name. And I'm not even really claiming to be any cleverer today - the only real difference is that these days, I consider snarky sarcasm to be more cool than giant 2-handers.

Luccan
2019-04-17, 01:25 PM
A super cool half elf rogue that dual-wielded short swords. He dressed in all black leather, had a dark past, and was super cool. He also eventually got repeating crossbow, because those are super cool. He eventually got tried and executed when he murdered a guard patrol for hassling him, because that's just how cool he was.

It's weird that even though half-elves are thought of as inherently edgy (what with their "not belonging anywhere" standard lore), all my half-elves when I was a kid were plucky, even the orphan rogue/fighter pirate. It's only now that I'm getting out of college that I would consider a half-elf with a dork and troubled past.

Guizonde
2019-04-17, 01:37 PM
It's weird that even though half-elves are thought of as inherently edgy (what with their "not belonging anywhere" standard lore), all my half-elves when I was a kid were plucky, even the orphan rogue/fighter pirate. It's only now that I'm getting out of college that I would consider a half-elf with a dork and troubled past.

the few times i played half-elf, they were shunned by most full-bloods but were otherwise well-adapted. hell, currently my character josé is very well-adjusted to being half-drow and is not exactly edgy despite being a dangerously spontaneous troublemaker (due to his upbringing in a military academy, not because of his drow ancestry). the dm does roleplay well that elves find him spontaneously untrustworthy due to his looks, until he explains he grew up in riddle-port, where they find him untrustworthy for everything but his looks.

most characters i make with dark and troubled pasts don't angst over it. it's just shaping the reasons why my character would walk with a limp ("friendly" fire), be a total sociopath (highborn failed eugenics experiment), or be gruff yet caring (medic on the frontline of a war). i find the background to be the explanation behind a character's personality, not the reasoning or the flanderizing of it. although i do have a buddy who loves playing the angsty shonen type and we all have a blast with his lampooning of the dark and edgy trope. to wit: a half-tiefling half-drow vampire who got bit by his half-sister (his one true love) but was forced to kill her when she tried to take over her father's kingdom. he's now on the run from the law for regicide and regrets seeing his family burned at the stake and tries to make amends while grappling with ptsd. that is hilariously over the top.

darkrose50
2019-04-17, 03:11 PM
My first character was a Basic D&D Cleric. The DM was my 5th grade teacher! It was some fun stuff! I went from a 3rd-grade reading level in 5th grade to a college reading level by 8th grade. D&D helped me in many ways over the years!

I tend to like the caster types, and love me some healing spells. I normally play humans, even before 5e. I am playing a 9th level Paladin in the Castle Ravenloft game just now.

We made characters for The One Ring, but we never played. My friend Josh rolled the maximum stats across the board (after some "bonus" points step).

Some interesting characters resulted from random rolls. I had a Wizard with a 18 CON, and had just about maximum hit point by the time we hit 9th and stopped that game. I had a space doctor with a 16 DEX, that somehow was the best combatant.

NRSASD
2019-04-17, 03:18 PM
It's only now that I'm getting out of college that I would consider a half-elf with a dork and troubled past.

Accidentally letting your true opinions slip out?

RedMage125
2019-04-17, 03:19 PM
My first character was a 2e cleric (war priest) in Ravenloft named Damacles Vour (D. Vour).

DM gave us each one magic item, randomly rolled, and I got a +1/+2 warhammer.

We did some Ravenloft modules, then the group stopped being able to meet. We played after school, DM was one of the teachers.

GreatWyrmGold
2019-04-17, 04:16 PM
Kenthokk the half-orc barbarian (3.5 D&D), who lasted one adventure. I had basically no idea what I was doing, but I do remember a few things.

1. Kenthokk said he didn't like to talk about his past much. Then he started boasting about some of the improbably impressive stuff he did, like wrestling a dire bear. (I was in middle school at the time.) The DM's PC* called me out on it, and I had no response.
2. If it wasn't for the DMPC, he would have stumbled into every trap the local kobolds thought of without a second thought.
3. For some reason, I was uncomfortable having my avatar worship anything but the Christian God...which I find really funny in retrospect, since I'm an atheist now.
4. His companions were Dillon D. Warf, the DMPC (named after a bunch of characters he'd played with the same name) and a halfling ranger, whose player just spelled his first name backwards. He assumed "favored enemy" meant one specific person, which the DM corrected partway through the adventure.

I don't think Kenthokk could be much less like the kinds of characters I like to play now. Half-orc barbarian is pretty much the most generic class/race combination in the game; these days, I try to make unique and interesting mechanical decisions. Kenthokk had basically no personality or backstory, which I tend to build my characters around these days. Finally, Today-GreatWyrmGold finds TRPG combat to almost always be mind-numbingly dull, especially the standard melee "I make another attack roll" variety, so I rarely ever play beatsticks.
But I think it was a good choice at the time; the barbarian is simple and easy to pick up and play, and comes complete with a more specific character archetype than most base classes. This is mitigated only slightly by the fact that I pretty much only picked barbarian for its hit die.


*The DM was my dad, and the players were me and my brother. We needed the guidance and the extra set of hands.

Tinkerer
2019-04-17, 04:35 PM
My first created and played PC was in Cyberpunk (prior to that I had played several characters and created dozens but never both). I recall his name was Jeckel, his saga was brief and... brief.

He was the only PC in the group to roll poorly enough on the funds table to not be able to afford an armoured helmet. I set him up with an armoured trenchcoat and the game started with him leaving the front door of his apartment building to meet the group, who were on the sidewalk. Three steps away from the front door a gang fight erupted a couple of buildings down and a stray bullet hit a random member of the group. Said random member happened to be me. Random hit location determined head shot.

So ended the saga of Jeckel. Three steps and less than a minute of playtime in and he was left dead on the front steps of his apartment building.

P.S. Incidentally my first played character was Spider-man when I was 5 (I think it was from Marvel Super Heroes but my memory is way to fuzzy) and my first created character was George and his Giant Cat from Heroes Unlimited.

Faily
2019-04-17, 05:24 PM
Sadly, we must now shun you.

<shun>

Okay, consider yourself shunned. :smalltongue:


*sob*


Nooo, come baaack. Don't leave meeeee.

Lord Torath
2019-04-18, 07:38 AM
*sob*


Nooo, come baaack. Don't leave meeeee.Oh, don't worry. You were only shunned for the length of the <shun>. We're done shunning you now. :smallbiggrin:

JBPuffin
2019-04-18, 09:39 AM
I started playing with just my dad and I, so I built a lot of characters at once. The first one I played with other people involved was actually
a 3.5 Dwarf Fighter who trained in UMD for a wand of Magic Missile...and immediately had it taken by a Barbarian I almost singlehandedly killed by botching UMD rolls. He really didn’t do much beyond continuously trying to do things he wasn’t built for, which was hella fun.

First 4e character in a group was an Archer-style Bard who, like all my other characters, did what he wanted in the general interest of the people he called friends.

5e...pretty sure Vidald was first. Human Arctic Druid from a giant-ruled mountain region, a young medic who served in their army before discovering his true gifts after being found on assignment where the party was doing things. His home ended up destroyed later on, a victim of the extra-dimensional horrors that were coming to kill us all, and in the end he wasn’t part of the group that saved the world, but Vidald was my first attempt to play a character rather than myself as a character. Then came Tsakwin and Vish, and I haven’t played in about a year since I’m my group’s DM...next one’s already in the brewery tho.

If anything binds my characters together, it’s a willingness not to fight needlessly. They’re more than willing to sit down, have a chat, mediate and deliberate...except for Vidald when he went feral. Then you didn’t mess with the Eagle; he messed with you.

GreatWyrmGold
2019-04-20, 12:02 AM
That's such a classic - using retired PC's as NPC's.
I've only used a former PC as an NPC once that I remember. In the Runelords game I'm currently running, my former PC had some neat utility magic that I figured the party would want before they head into the next part of the adventure path (most importantly identifying magic items), and I figured he'd be a good excuse to introduce the new PC.
...Does it count if another player brought back a former PC as an NPC? Or if it's just a clone of said PC? Because that just happened in the same game, too.



Followed by a halfling (which I called a kender) named David Hasslehoff Burrfoot. (sigh)
Give me a break, I was 12.
That's half my current age, and I think that pun's brilliant. (Though I do think it's a shame nobody could quote Reinhardt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ezsEKluMMc) at you.)



Oh, don't worry. You were only shunned for the length of the <shun>. We're done shunning you now. :smallbiggrin:
Aw, but I wanted to not shun him! What fun is not shunning people if nobody else is shunning them?



I'm surprised how many people here started gaming at ages between five and elementary school. My dad introduced me and my brother to D&D when we were in middle school, so I assumed that was the earliest common introductory age.
Hm...does anyone have any good systems or guidelines for running a TRPG for a couple of kids of questionable attention span, which only needs a couple sessions to show how dice and rulebooks improve make-believe? (Ideally something involving dragons, fairies, and/or Harry Potter; I'm confident my cousins will still be interested in those by the time I get the chance to run this.)

CharonsHelper
2019-04-20, 08:49 AM
Aw, but I wanted to not shun him! What fun is not shunning people if nobody else is shunning them?


I can shun you if it makes you feel better.

Quertus
2019-04-20, 05:17 PM
Hm...does anyone have any good systems or guidelines for running a TRPG for a couple of kids of questionable attention span, which only needs a couple sessions to show how dice and rulebooks improve make-believe? (Ideally something involving dragons, fairies, and/or Harry Potter; I'm confident my cousins will still be interested in those by the time I get the chance to run this.)

Having taught multiple 7-year-olds to play 3e D&D mechanically competently, I'll recommend 3e.

Pointers? Hmmm... Make their characters for them, teach them the rules in one-on-one sessions. Have these sessions include - at a minimum - a sample combat, and a sample decision. Afterwards, let them know what else they could have done, and what the consequences of each decision would have been.

Keep playing one-on-one games until they are comfortable with the core mechanics of the system, with rolling and reading dice & basic math, with finding things on their character sheet, and with taking their turn reasonably quickly. And with making decisions for their character.

Gorgon_Heap
2019-04-20, 07:51 PM
My very first PC, back around '95, was named Angela and was a LE Fighter bent on revenge and power. It worked out well.

In that same game another player, named John, played a Fighter as well, named John. I was so annoyed that I declared his previous profession had been chicken farmer, and it stuck despite his protestations.


Quertus, having loving embraced 5e and see adults struggle with it at a RL game, I cannot imagine teaching kids to play 3e.

StevenC21
2019-04-20, 11:04 PM
My first PC was a Human Sorceror in 5e.

I have since moved to 3.5e, but I do remember that character. I played him for a whole 3 sessions...

Akal Saris
2019-04-21, 12:21 AM
Mine was in 2E and was a half-elf cleric of Tyr, named Gastre the Entangler. I thought I could cast any spell listed as divine because the whole major sphere/minor sphere thing was confusing to me, so I had a few fun sessions casting druid spells like Entangle (hence his name), before 1 of the other players hand-wrote a list of the entire spell list that I could cast as a cleric of Tyr, and then I was sad :/ Gastre was killed by shadows and ghouls in a bull**** TPK session by a DM that basically ignored the rules to try and kill parties (not that I'm bitter!!!). I wised up to him the 2nd time it happened and from then on I just went home early if his was the only table open on D&D nights at the game shop.

Jophiel
2019-04-22, 09:55 AM
Mine would have been c.1982 and was a Lawful Good human cleric, rather amusingly named "Silverblade" despite the fact that 1e clerics couldn't wield blades. This never occurred to my ten year old self. Silverblade went on many a classic module adventure, often as a DMPC since it was usually myself and my friend playing. The fact that we took turns DMing meant that we had an unspoken mutual protection treaty since if one of us killed the other guy's character that would be total bull**** and grounds to never play again. Eventually Silverblade hit level 20 and I think I had him solo the entire Isle of Dread (not all at once, of course) and claim it as his own kingdom. He also, at some point, married a hot elf chick because of course he did. Silverblade retired at around level 30 with Mrs Silverblade and I'm pretty sure I played at least one or two half-elf characters who got to start with awesome gear from their parents' stash.

Durandu Ran
2019-04-23, 12:01 AM
My very first PC was a halfling whose name and class I don’t remember in a version of D&D I don’t remember (probably 3.5 or 4, because it was a random game I played at a con in the late 00s), so I’ll answer this with the first PC I can remember anything about, which was also the first PC I played for multiple sessions.

He was a halfling ranger named Baldrick Bottomleaf in a Pathfinder game to which I was invited by a friend. I created the character at the table with the help of some of the more experienced players. I chose a ranger because I wanted a class with an animal companion and somebody else at the table had already picked a druid. Pathfinder rangers don’t get animal companions until level 4, and I didn’t actually end up staying long enough for that to happen.

There was a house rule about needing a character voice distinct from your regular voice, so I loosely based Baldrick’s voice on Mark Corrigan, David Mitchell’s character on Peep Show, because my wife had been watching a lot of it recently and I was confident in my ability to do a passable imitation of his accent. I ended up loosely basing his personality on Mark too, less because I showed up wanting to play the hobbit version of Mark Corrigan, and more because when I start out without a backstory and all I really have for the character is a voice, when I have to say things, I default to the kind of things I’ve heard that voice say before.

The first quest our party went on was rescuing children who’d been kidnapped by goblins for a sacrifice. Our low-level party got into some rough encounters on the first floor: the rogue ran straight into an invisible gelatinous cube in a narrow hallway and barely survived. The party was attacked by flying heads with bite attacks, and a few different characters, including Baldrick, failed CON saves and caught diseases (or curses? It’s been a long time) that, if left uncured, would result in our heads separating from our bodies and turning into monsters (we found potions that could cure us later on, but it took a while). We got so badly hurt that we decided to rest for 8 hours before we continued further into the dungeon. It took a few more sessions for us to get to the end, but when we did, we learned that the goblins had already sacrificed the children, because we’d rested earlier. I didn’t like that. I don’t think the DM ever has to warn players when they’re about to do something stupid, but as a new player, it was still a mood killer and I would have appreciated a warning that this was a risk back when we made the decision to rest. Shortly afterwards, we found a room full of goblin children that another party member lit on fire. It was admittedly a lot darker than I would’ve preferred, but I was willing to roll with it in the moment (because of initiative order, there was no real opportunity to stop him or try to talk him out of it, and I had no desire to start a fight between PCs), but my wife really hated it.

Both of us dropped out of the game shortly afterwards because my wife starting getting sick more often, and after two or three missed sessions in four weeks, we dropped out so the other players could keep the campaign going. If we were happier with the way the campaign was going, we might have tried harder to stay involved, or if my wife hadn’t been sick so often around that time, we might have stuck around longer and gotten better at the kind of play style the DM was expecting, but I guess we’ll never really know.

Luccan
2019-04-23, 01:15 AM
It took a few more sessions for us to get to the end, but when we did, we learned that the goblins had already sacrificed the children, because we’d rested earlier

Bad enough you got screwed by trying not to die in what sounds like a very lethal game, worse it took multiple sessions for it to have a consequence. I probably would've considered it a non-factor by that point. I think if you've got a time limit going in-game, it either needs to be explicit (you have X days/hours/whatever) or very strongly implied that resting is a bad idea. Since it was multiple sessions, I would expect a rest at some point any way, so it sounds like your choices were get lucky or die. Hope you've had better games since then.

GreatWyrmGold
2019-04-23, 09:31 AM
We got so badly hurt that we decided to rest for 8 hours before we continued further into the dungeon. It took a few more sessions for us to get to the end, but when we did, we learned that the goblins had already sacrificed the children, because we’d rested earlier. I didn’t like that. I don’t think the DM ever has to warn players when they’re about to do something stupid, but as a new player, it was still a mood killer and I would have appreciated a warning that this was a risk back when we made the decision to rest.
I can one-up you. I was playing 5e a few weeks ago; we fought a group of skeleton guards, but exhausted enough of our resources that we took a short rest before entering the keep and dealing with the rest of the encounters between us and the person we were going to rescue. There were no more enemy combatants, and it was one of those situations where the prisoner is just about to be sacrificed when the PCs arrive, so...

The moral of these stories is that DMs need to telegraph things. If there aren't many enemies left, mention that the place is quiet. If there's a time-sensitive sacrifice about to go off, mention sounds of ominous chanting and eldritch screeches. If you don't hint at what's going on, it's going to make the players feel like they had no agency in their own consequences.

Great Dragon
2019-05-13, 06:58 PM
OMG. I'm old!!!
Alllll the way back to 1983!!!
(But, not Ancient = 1975<)

My very fist Character was an AD&D 1e Human 1st level "Magic-user".
No one ever asked his name, and he got tired of being called "Mage" so he exclaimed: "I'm Egam!!"
* What? I was like.....13 *

(I've had to recreate his Real Name too many times, now)

I also turned him into an NPC in my Games to replace that annoying "famous" Faerun Wizard.....

Actually, he's more like Fizbin: very friendly, but absent minded... (But not Divine)

I've converted Egam into every Edition, except 4th. (Non Epic 3.x)

In 5e, he'd be like a 75-year-old 20th level Conjuration Wizard.....with a Raven Familiar.
- and a bad habit of pestering Low Level Adventurers, for some reason.

ExLibrisMortis
2019-05-13, 10:08 PM
For all of fifteen minutes, an unnamed elderly Japanese man with a bokken in a zombie apocalypse scenario (I don't know why, honest). Yeah, that game (supposedly "rules-light", meaning "zero effort") didn't go anywhere.


After that, a Spell-to-Power erudite tourist (a great reason for adventuring, you'll admit). His parents were tax adminstrators at the adamantine- and mithril-ore shipping docks of some big city up north. He once (at level 1) killed a heavily-damaged ogre with crystal shard while at 0 hp, using his final power point and falling unconscious in the process. That was pretty awesome.


Edit: There's a Basic D&D character between these, but I don't remember anything about them. My best friend and I did die a lot to the first monster of the sample adventure, and we didn't think of simply bringing more than one character each, or jumping to level 2, so that monster still defends an untouched adventure site somewhere.

Great Dragon
2019-05-13, 11:19 PM
My next Character that I can remember, was an AD&D 2e Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief.
I think I named him "Alvor Darktree" or something like that..... The only Class he didn't max out was Thief!


******
My favorite Shadowrun Character was a Troll Battle Mage: With the spells Improved Invisibility (Force 5) and Improved Stealth (Force 5) and wielding a Combat Axe at Creation; known as (did ya guess?) “Predator”.
Sadly, game died after 3 sessions.


******
Star Wars D20:
“Reka” Human Jedi Guardian.
Game stopped at 10th level.


******
Superhero:
“Illumix”. Altered Human.
Create and Control Light.

Eventually able to use
X-RAY vision.
Create Light in a 50 foot diameter, and control brightness.
Light Beam (damage living targets)
Light Beam (damage objects)
Invisibility
Intangible
Wingless Flight. (20 meters per turn, I think)

Flaw: Must recharge in sunlight for 4 hours a day.
Start: only usable for 8 hours. (Consecutive)
Upgrade: usable for 16 hours. (non Consecutive)
Maximum (never achieved) was 20 Consecutive hours.

(****Thanks for reading*****)

Delta
2019-05-16, 06:29 PM
My very first PC was a Shadowrun, 2nd Edition character back in 92 or 93 or so, I think by the name of Blackhawk, when we were far too young to really understand how to play a game like this but old enough to see the cover of Shadowrun 2nd and know that whatever this is, we want to play it

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/1151840e-a16c-4d1f-b303-4d93c0e5c30a_1.7320418cea6547717265d7be58fadf8a.jp eg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF

We basically ignored most of the limitations given at character creation, give us a crapton of points, equipment and stuff, I couldn't tell you a single defining thing about this character beyond his equipment list (which was also just a variant of "yes, all of the above, please!"), so yeah, the less said about those early years, the better.

The first character I really dove into and tried to create a real backstory and personality for was also a Shadowrun character, like 4-5 years later, an ex-corporate Black Ops operative named Pandora with some serious aggression and bonding issues who has actually survived through 5th edition in different variants (cosmetic surgery, rejuvenation treatments and stuff having kind of "reset" her "shadowrunner persona" multiple times throughout the decades) and I guess since I'm a sucker for nostalgia I'll rebuild a version of her in 6th too as soon as the toy books are out for that. That character would now be OOC old enough to drink even in the US by now, I just realized, damn I'm old :(

Tvtyrant
2019-05-16, 06:33 PM
1998, AD&D. I played an alcoholic dwarven cleric. He was a scot who rode a pony and wore heavy armor while healing people and hitting things with a hammer. The most stereotypical character I could make honestly.

My second character was the same one but wanted to become a Lich (now 3.0) to free himself from his alcoholism.

Next character was a woman, who was also a scottish dwarven cleric.

This went on for a bit.

Kaptin Keen
2019-05-16, 06:39 PM
This went on for a bit.

Ha! The whole 'recognizable pattern' thing. So many of my characters have been barbarians. My most recent character is a barbarian. At least a couple of my characters that weren't barbarians were really just reskinned - like Grell, my half-orc paladin .. who really was a barbarian in every way except he was a different class.

Tvtyrant
2019-05-16, 06:43 PM
Ha! The whole 'recognizable pattern' thing. So many of my characters have been barbarians. My most recent character is a barbarian. At least a couple of my characters that weren't barbarians were really just reskinned - like Grell, my half-orc paladin .. who really was a barbarian in every way except he was a different class.

I do the same thing. "Oh I will play a Druid! An Elven Druid who is nearly identical to a Dwarven Cleric in world view and habits!"

FaerieGodfather
2019-05-16, 08:25 PM
Summer of 1993. First Edition AD&D. I attempted to name my 1st level Elf Monk "Matthew", but my stepfather renamed him "Matton ****ton" to "sound more elven".

We used a unique rolling method: Best 3 of 5d6, reroll 1s or 2s, unless you rolled five-of-a-kind, whch was 18 plus face value. Improbably, all of the DM's characters had multiple stats at 20+.

I don't think this experience shaped how I play my characters today, but it did certainly inform my opinion of rules that requre a great deal of DM fiat. The most remarkable thng is that, somehow, I've kept playing the game all of my life.

RifleAvenger
2019-05-16, 09:56 PM
A Ranger/Ex-Paladin who ran away from a heavy duty and a great destiny. In traveling with the party, he would slowly realize the importance of taking up that responsibility...

Yeah, it was knock-off Aragorn #Too Many. The game was a crazy mess played by midschoolers with little creativity and no sense of balance. My not even a fully operational character was partied with, among other things, an adult bronze dragon with Druid levels.

Happy to say that character hasn't much influenced my more recent PC's.

GreatWyrmGold
2019-05-17, 12:18 AM
My second character was the same one but wanted to become a Lich (now 3.0) to free himself from his alcoholism.
That's a unique motivation for becoming a lich; I'll have to remember it.

Delta
2019-05-17, 02:41 AM
That's a unique motivation for becoming a lich; I'll have to remember it.

"Great hero, why did you cross the Valley of Unfathomable Despair, climb the Mountains of Infinite Doom and best the Immortal Guardians of Unthinkable Power to finally come to me, the Djinn of Cosmically Powerful Wishes? What boon can I grant you?"
"Well, you know my mom just won't get off my back and wants me to clean up my room but, you know, I really can't be bothered and it's kind of a mess, so..."

LibraryOgre
2019-05-17, 09:00 AM
Summer of 1993. First Edition AD&D. I attempted to name my 1st level Elf Monk "Matthew", but my stepfather renamed him "Matton ****ton" to "sound more elven".

We used a unique rolling method: Best 3 of 5d6, reroll 1s or 2s, unless you rolled five-of-a-kind, whch was 18 plus face value. Improbably, all of the DM's characters had multiple stats at 20+.

I don't think this experience shaped how I play my characters today, but it did certainly inform my opinion of rules that requre a great deal of DM fiat. The most remarkable thng is that, somehow, I've kept playing the game all of my life.

So, if you rolled five 6's, your stat was 48? Or 24?

FaerieGodfather
2019-05-17, 12:41 PM
So, if you rolled five 6's, your stat was 48? Or 24?

24. Standard rolls ranged from 9-18, Yahtzee from 19-24.

Grey Guard
2019-05-17, 03:46 PM
I did freeform stuff like many others before tabletop RPGs. My first freeform character was... clearly inspired by Legend of Dragoon's Emperor Doel. Dude with two swords, lightning magic, and could turn into a Legend of Dragoon's version of a Dragoon. Read: Winged, Magical Knight. I'm not proud of that one, but it could've been worse.

I cut my teeth on D&D in Highschool, 3.5. I made a Human Sorcerer. I wanted to be a charismatic playboy, but also have Phenominal Cosmic Power. I mentioned my character had a thing for the ladies, and the DM proceeded to introduce my character by saying I was fleeing out of a brothel at top speed, in his birthday suit, trousers in hand, while a pimp chased him, followed by a half-naked halfling girl. I had hoped to be more "smooth ladies man" and less "comic relief" but eh, it was funny in hindsight.

Only issue with that was that since we were still learning the rules, I was the only one who had a grasp of how magic worked. Not even the people who would DM ever read much up on it. And once I used Magic Missile, and they discovered that I just "did damage", no save or roll involved, they thought it was the most OP, broken thing ever. And after that, many of our adventures took place in dungeons suspiciously enveloped in anti-magic fields. :smallannoyed:

Lord of Shadows
2019-05-17, 06:28 PM
OMG. I'm old!!!
Alllll the way back to 1983!!!
(But, not Ancient = 1975<)


Hmmm... What's between "Old" and "Ancient"? Very Old? :smallcool:

Fall, 1979, Freshman in college dorm...

Upper classman next door got a few of us from the floor together to try a "new game"

He had the hardcover PHB, and I think the Basic and Expert rulebooks, and some dice

My character was a Cleric, with a name right off the list at the back of the adventure, "The Mystical One"

First adventure was B1 - In Search of the Unknown... we survived, at least as much as we did. That guy never DM'd us again. Not quite sure why.

Found a new group in the Spring semester, and the character went on to "Name Level" and establish a stronghold, and retired. Oh, and changed his name, too.

Great Dragon
2019-05-20, 09:45 AM
@Lord of Shadows:
Well, Very Old was an Age stage for Dragons...😸

I suppose that helping introduce 3e counts as First PC material.

Pippilin Farhawk. Halfling Rogue/Shadowdancer.

Imagine a 2'4" Batman!!



I'm surprised how many people here started gaming at ages between five and elementary school. My dad introduced me and my brother to D&D when we were in middle school, so I assumed that was the earliest common introductory age.
Hm...does anyone have any good systems or guidelines for running a TRPG for a couple of kids of questionable attention span, which only needs a couple sessions to show how dice and rulebooks improve make-believe? (Ideally something involving dragons, fairies, and/or Harry Potter; I'm confident my cousins will still be interested in those by the time I get the chance to run this.)

The D&D Card game Dungeon Mayhem could be fun. Gives them an idea of what Classes are, and do. Add dice when they are ready.

5e D&D has the Starter Box Set, which has what most consider a great Beginning Module: The Lost Mines of Phandelver.
It comes with pre-made Characters and It's got a Town besieged by Bandits, and a large Area with several things that the Players can check out. If they lose interest, it's Easy to keep track of what has been done, for when the kids return to play again.


*******
While it's a little more difficult to create a Character (you'll most likely need to pre-make some PCs), Cyberpunk's Cybergeneration is all about Kid PCs (8-16) trying to do stuff (from hoverboard-ing where they're not supposed to be; to video-ing people doing wierd stuff) while surviving (fighting gangs) in the Future. While they don't get Cyberwere they can get some cool "powers".

HouseRules
2019-05-20, 09:49 AM
A party of rogues.
Keep on losing to those Cleric's Channel Negative Energy.