Naturally, we all had one.
Some were good, most probably weren't.
Some had ten pages of backstory, many probably appeared in a tavern somewhere out of thin air.
You probably rolled their first attacks with borrowed dice and likely failed the saving throw that killed them with your a set of your own.
So let's hear all about it: Who (or what) was your first fantasy tabletop RPG character? Age, sex, race, class, setting, backstory, eventual fate/demise, etc.
Also, what did that first character teach you about gaming (or about being a good player) that has since changed the way you game?
You open a door that leads down Memory Lane . . . What do you do?
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One of my friends had just drawn the Knight card from a deck of many things. The DM needing a fighter NPC told the player he's Mad Martigan from willow with bigger swords...and hair. 5 minutes later I dropped by that freind's house unexpectedly and was handed a sheet and told the same description. He was awesome.
Zilvanus Runihura, quiet and antisocial CN Male Half-Drow Hexblade. Set in a post-apocalyptic, deity-less desert world and partnered with a human Swashbuckler and a "new human" (a halfling-like mutant race) Ranger. Lived to 3rd level, after which the campaign came to a sudden halt for reasons I cannot recall.
His most memorable moment was getting hit by a Charm Person by a wizard captain we'd been sent to kill, after having a very very bad day with the Swashbuckler as the number-one pain in the neck. He was very happy to have a perfectly good reason to try to stab him. I don't remember if I killed him or not though.
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Dakkon Darkblade, young and lustful human Bard. We used rolled stats and I got the worst of everyone in the party; but due to ridiculously lucky dice rolls on my part continually outshone everybody.
I took Craft Wondrous item as his third level feat... in 3.5... *shudder*
Played about 3 sessions before we votekicked the DM from the DMing seat and I took over... Have never got to play enough since.
That said, deaths wise i've never lost a character in any system, and i've had dozens. Just lucky, or very cautious I guess
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The first I can really remember:
Kane Cor'Saal.
Elven "Wizard" of Blue Magic. Heavily homebrewed setting where all the magic was based around M:tG style (Red/Blue, White/Black, Green) stuff, and we were all crazy badass.
He was a failed "lancer" (think Kane from Final Fantasy 2/IV) who really just wanted to stab things with spears made of air. He also liked jumping, and later flying, of course with enormous spears.
His crowning achievement was critical success on a "meta-magic" spell which enhanced the Red Mage's Fireball spell. The DM ruled the Blue/Red blast kind of "Lazer Beam'd" a 6" wide hole clean through the volcano we were in. We did not stay in that volcano for very long following that, though.
Ah, i miss those old days...
Fjodor Dragonaxe, Arrakins son, Carrakins son, from the blood of Aglor Dragonaxe, from the house of Carrak who fought beside King Agar at the battle of thousand axes, from clan Ironhammer of Donnar Caurak.
Dwarf fighter, second editon, around 93-94 I think. Killed an ogre at first level, later he became a cavalry general at citadel adbar, he was riding a giant ram called firehorns and had a pack-pony called rockfall
was updated to 3.5 and is still played for one-shot adventures from time to time
Nain the Bard !
Being a bastard 1/2 half elf he was somehow
armed with a bastard sword, javelins and the Lute.
He had str 10, wis 18 and Al CN. Good times!
1974.OD&D
Cleric
Died covering the parties retreat from 114 orcs and a Black Dragon (in the third room of the dungeon)
First real Character..
Harmon Redfire
Wizard
I played versions of him through to 2E..in fact I still have his 25th level 1E Character sheet.
Elven Fighter/Magic User, Reed Elmorth
Remember being introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in grade six on a sunny afternoon in my buddy's musty basement where we played Keep on The Borderlands. My parents were very dismayed I was spending so much time indoors that summer playing the "Game".
Remember Isle of Dread at my friend's parent's cabin on a summer night. Most memorable experience ever with the warm night, all nature's sounds around me and trekking through the jungle.
Reed Elmorth took out Sakatha the Lizard King from I2, Tomb of the Lizard king with a lightening bolt. I got a few slaps on the back for that one.
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Ah, so many memories. I often played paladins, but one of my most memorable characters was Aramil Amalkir, Elven fighter/wizard. He focused almost all of his abilities on archery and had hopes of becoming an arcane archer. I invited my mother to play with our gaming group and she took up an Elven druid. Lilliana Galanodel (I think). We were playing The Speaker in Dreams, and the DM put the adventure in one of his capital cities. Apparently the lawful good religion could be very stuffy about their religion, and managed to tick off a few party members. Aramil Amalkir died in one of the fights with the wystes, chomped to death by a pseudonatural goo-worm. Anyway, my mother (the Elven Druidess Lilliana Galanodel) had the brilliant idea of taking Aramil's body to the cultists to be resurrected... The DM and I looked at each other cause I had already figured out that the cultists were unsavory, but I didn't say anything because I wanted to see what the DM would do. (Plus an actual resurrection spell was a little beyond the party monetary resources). With a shrug, he allowed it.... And so Aramil Amalkir became a pseudonatural elf with a strange psychotic alignment twist, and what's more, he wanted to go back (Kind of like the guy in Generations) So, Aramil Amalkir devoted his life from that time on to pursuing the Realm Beyond the Stars, and was well on his way to becoming a Pseudonaturalist by the time the gaming group fell apart.
Ah.... good times. :)
Edit: What this taught me. Don't be afraid to incorporate people who don't play regularly but are readers of fantastic literature. They will often have great ideas. Also, if its against the rules, but its for your character, don't say anything and let the DM figure it out. LOL.
Wow... my first character... well I remember it was Basic D&D and my cousin was trying to get me into the game. (I love her dearly, but she was horrible at motivating me). I didn't get a lot of choices, I remember she "suggested" I play a wizard (and an elf) oh... I guess it was a "mage" at the time. I recall being confused and disappointed that I only had one spell... either sleep or magic missile (I also remember thinking magic missile was a stupid spell... there aren't any missiles in a magic/fantasy world... at least that was my impression/belief at the time). I don't even remember his name... I'd like to say it was something clever like Naed Nesmies (my first and last names backwards) but I don't think that's true. Since I didn't enjoy the game at this time, I think she just killed him out of spite.
I truly got into D&D during the 2nd edition and "found" the Forgotten Realms (still among my favorite settings... up until 4e... wasn't fond of what they did to the Realms overall). But I mostly DM'ed... and have for a good part of the last 20 years (with short stints as a player).
Nowadays Pathfinder and the world of Golarion are my game/setting/world of choice. And I'm still the Game Master. :)
Dean; The_Minstrel_Wyrm
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Wow... my first character... well I remember it was Basic D&D and my cousin was trying to get me into the game. (I love her dearly, but she was horrible at motivating me). I didn't get a lot of choices, I remember she "suggested" I play a wizard (and an elf) oh... I guess it was a "mage" at the time. I recall being confused and disappointed that I only had one spell... either sleep or magic missile (I also remember thinking magic missile was a stupid spell... there aren't any missiles in a magic/fantasy world... at least that was my impression/belief at the time). I don't even remember his name... I'd like to say it was something clever like Naed Nesmies (my first and last names backwards) but I don't think that's true. Since I didn't enjoy the game at this time, I think she just killed him out of spite.
I truly got into D&D during the 2nd edition and "found" the Forgotten Realms (still among my favorite settings... up until 4e... wasn't fond of what they did to the Realms overall). But I mostly DM'ed... and have for a good part of the last 20 years (with short stints as a player).
Nowadays Pathfinder and the world of Golarion are my game/setting/world of choice. And I'm still the Game Master. :)
Dean; The_Minstrel_Wyrm
If you ever want to DM a pathfinderised version of Forgotten Realms, let me know. I have been hung up on a centaur cleric of Sune for about a year now...
Nathaniel D. Gourd, a cleric slain in the Caves of Chaos. He was buried in a nearby grove.
If you ever want to DM a pathfinderised version of Forgotten Realms, let me know. I have been hung up on a centaur cleric of Sune for about a year now...Wow... my first character... well I remember it was Basic D&D and my cousin was trying to get me into the game. (I love her dearly, but she was horrible at motivating me). I didn't get a lot of choices, I remember she "suggested" I play a wizard (and an elf) oh... I guess it was a "mage" at the time. I recall being confused and disappointed that I only had one spell... either sleep or magic missile (I also remember thinking magic missile was a stupid spell... there aren't any missiles in a magic/fantasy world... at least that was my impression/belief at the time). I don't even remember his name... I'd like to say it was something clever like Naed Nesmies (my first and last names backwards) but I don't think that's true. Since I didn't enjoy the game at this time, I think she just killed him out of spite.
I truly got into D&D during the 2nd edition and "found" the Forgotten Realms (still among my favorite settings... up until 4e... wasn't fond of what they did to the Realms overall). But I mostly DM'ed... and have for a good part of the last 20 years (with short stints as a player).
Nowadays Pathfinder and the world of Golarion are my game/setting/world of choice. And I'm still the Game Master. :)
Dean; The_Minstrel_Wyrm
Wow Stardust... a Pathfinderized FR game... woo... that is tempting I gotta say. (heh heh I'm not sure I'd have the time... I run a weekly Monday game... and that's reaching high levels (everyone is either 14th or 13th level).
Speaking of... do I know you stardust? Or are you local (to me) because otherwise I can see how I'd be able to accommodate your request. (And this may be coming off wrong-sounding... I was just curious about some of what you said). A centaur cleric of Sune huh? Interesting.
My first character was called Rolo the halfling thief, started at 1 HP on level 1 (basis D&D). When he found a potion for the first time he started drinking it. And another one. And another one. I seem to remember one of these was his demise.
The second one (AD&D 1st edition) was a rogue who died when a lurker above fell upon him. He was always running into traps.
Background? Origin story? We never did that back then.
What I learned is that rogues always die in a trap. I played several, and they always did. :-)
I don't remmber his name , but he was a halfling wizard with a psuedo-dragon familiar. Probably something Proudfoot.
We didn't have the first hard-bound books yet and didn't know halflings couldn't be wizards. Or that psuedo-dragons weren't dog sized.
He had a (summer) long career and ended up retiring in Hobbitown as an innkeeper with his familiar, its mate, their children, and a Staff of Illusions hanging over the fireplace.
This was '77 or '78 or so. We had a new student that year whose friend from his old town in New York came down and introduced us to the game. We ended up getting the hardbound books from K&K Toys at the mall.
Cryotek, human fighter (Red Box D&D). He survived, and the game that he was in grew outlandish FAST. I do remember waiting outside a door with several hobgoblins and decapitating them as they came out. Ah, childhood memories.
Pandemonium was a thief with a crossbow. Fool had it in mind to set out BY HIMSELF to the caves of chaos for an adventure. (My brother was taking a turn as DM, and it was only us around at the time.) He was framed (honestly!) while shopping for equipment, and shot dead by Constable Warden - a fat law enforcement agent with a much bigger crossbow and a penchant for shooting first and figuring out what actually happened much later, if at all.
Oh, boy. My first character was a 3.5 Rogue. Our DM did not give away too many magic items, so I ended using my same crossbow for the entire time I played him.
He was a halfling Rogue in his mid twenties. Clark Oake was his name, but mostly went by the name of Cloake. At some point, he developed a split personality between Cloake and Dagger. My character was prone to switching personalities mid combat if he took any damage. It was fun idea to play with, considering Dagger had a completely set of feats. Cloak was the sneaky Rogue, while Dagger was battle hardened and would rush head first into battle.
We started at level 1, of course. There were a few houserules that, in hindsight, were not the best of ideas. Basically, for skill points, instead of the usual 3+level limit, it was 4xlevel to determine maximum ranks in a skill. Thanks to my claok and plenty of ranks in my Hide check, I had +40 to Hide. Needless to say, you would not see my rogue coming.
He also took a few third party feats that made him all the better at what he did. With both Mimicry and Ventriloquism, he could imitate any voice or sound effect he ever heard without moving even an inch. He also had a different feat that let him throw his voice up to 100 feet. This, combined with basically being invisible all the time, made him one of the greatest of rogues.
Later on, using most of my savings I bought a hat of disguise. Not only could sound like anyone I've ever met, but there was a good chance that I could look like them too. Needless to say, I had a blast with my rogue.My rogue eventually reached level 11 and was actually the first character under our DM to do so. I was pretty proud of the fact.
My last adventure with the rogue was after most of the group had left for college but got together for one last adventure. We are to explore ancient temple in the side of a seaside cliff to find its great treasure. We eventually do reach the hoard and it is more than any of us can hope to carry out in one trip. We ended the adventure wondering how to leave with the treasure we always deserved.
Years later, I brought Cloak back in the campaign that I'm running. He's grown significantly older and is retired now. He makes a living as a contact man. If you need to meet with someone or some information, Cloake is your man. If he is not your man, he knows who is. I'm not too sure what happened since that last adventure, but it was nice to give him a mostly happy ending.
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The first character I played was some kind of Frank Frazetta painting come to life. We were playing from the Basic D&D Red Book, which nobody had actually bothered to read or make any sense of so the DM somehow threw all the characters together with stuff that sounded cool and handed out the sheets at random. I don't remember my guy's name but I think it was something like Deathdealer or Deathdude or something equally silly. The DM gave me my character and said, "You're a fighter. You've got a two-handed sword, a dagger, a scroll of magic missle, an army of 255 hypnotized elves and two pet hellhounds." I said, "Okay," and then I killed my brother's character with my sword because he was a lizardman and killing lizardmen sounded like something a heroic warrior named Deathdude would do.
Then my brother was told he could play an orc and I killed him again because he was an orc.
By the time we'd ended the game, Deathdude had killed my brother three times. I think I left Deathdude in a tavern drinking grape soda. He's probably still there.
If I learned anything about gaming from the four hours I played Deathdude and then never went back to that kid's house, I think it would be that repeatedly killing your brother's character the first time he's ever played a new game will ensure that he will never want to play that game again.
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3rd Ed. Gestalt Rogue/Sorcerer later retconned into a Fighter/Rogue. He was a pirate, with a hat of disguise and a pair of pistols named "Hocus" and "Pocus". Went from level 1-4, started as an escaped prisoner after a shipwreck.
Later realised some Lawful Good cult was oppressing people, but he didn't much care he was a pirate and wanted his ship back. He stuck with his Druid/Witch (DMG variant) lady friend because the only thing he cared about more than his ship, was getting into impossible pants.
When he got a hat of disguise, his insane bluff skill was dangerous.
I miss Cap'n Jimmy Kidd.
So let's hear all about it: Who (or what) was your first fantasy tabletop RPG character? Age, sex, race, class, setting, backstory, eventual fate/demise, etc.
Okay, I may as well contribute to my own thread . . .
Orlann Wands, human male wizard of House Wands in Waterdeep in a 3.5 Forgotten Realms game. No one in the party (DM included) had really played before, so before our first encounter, I remember asking, "Oh, should I prepare my spells now before we fight?" Good times. Plus, I got to write all kinds of spells since the rules were really fast and loose.
The game went into the epic levels and he became the Magister (second person in the Wands family to do so!) only to later open up his own wizard school called Dweomerlore (named after a spell the character wrote). I even wrote/composed a school song for it! The other party members hated him like crazy, but it made for a great play experience!
At any rate, it taught me that it's okay to play a character that the rest of the party hates, so long as those characters' players love to hate him . . . !
Tam Lin; a gray elven fighter from Greyhawk (didn't roll high enough to make a ranger), part of an all-elf team. I'm not sure of the year, but the French translation of 2ed AD&D had been on the shelf for a few months only. It made it to level 6 or 7 before it got killed by a giant...
Actually, my first RPG character ever was a Rolemaster High Warrior Monk, but we played that game 1 session only. As far as I'm concerned, Tam Lin is my first character.
Evran Whitefire, Archmage, order of the white robes. Dragonlance setting. Loved the dragonlance series at the time and friend was a great storyteller and also loved dragonlance so he talked me into playing.
Memorable moment; first game session inadvertently hit my chars brother (solamnic knight) with lightning bolt while he was charging a draconian.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Jonas Johnson, cleric. Red Box Basic D&D, playing solo.
Sat on the bed while my mate DM'd off a tea-tray back in ... argh... '83 or so!
Jonas lasted about two hours before getting paralysed and eaten by a carrion crawler. No idea what the adventure was, but there was definitely a blue graph-paper style map. It might have been Keep on the Borderlands The Crawler was a wandering monster, and before that he'd fought kobolds.
I came home and announced that I wanted an RPG for Christmas. My mum bought me Chill.
Sigh. I had to GM it for my little brother and sister after dinner and everything.
Jonas lasted about two hours before getting paralysed and eaten by a carrion crawler. No idea what the adventure was, but there was definitely a blue graph-paper style map. It might have been Keep on the Borderlands The Crawler was a wandering monster, and before that he'd fought kobolds.
I strongly suspect that was the included adventure in the Red Box D&D set. I remember that damned carrion crawler, and I THINK (though I don't know for sure) that there were kobolds, because I vaguely remember being confused about what they looked like...
Damned carrion crawler.
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The first character I ever made on my own was named Calwyr.
I had the flat orange starter set box from 3rd Edition. I copied the face of the necromancer token for his character portrait.
He was a "rebel cleric" - I liked the rogue class and the cleric class, and wanted to combine them. I didn't know about multiclassing, so I just kind of mashed some abilities together.
Unfortunately, I never got to play him. I got the starter kit on my own, and from then on I was the one running games and teaching people how to play.
I can't remember the first PC I actually played in a game...
My first character was Brynhild the Swift (I loved Norse mythology in middle school); she was a human fighter (I called her a Valkyrie), AD&D, from a little forest village called Fleetwood. Funny thing was, I envisioned her as being lightning-quick, but the dice said differently when I rolled her up (my DM used the 3d6 in order, let the chips fall where they may); she ended up with a Dexterity of 6, as I recall.
I played a couple of adventures with her before she got paralyzed by a pack of ghouls and gobbled up like candy-corn.
Now that I think on it, she was partially inspired by the Valkyrie character in that old coin-op arcade game "Gauntlet". Ah, the many quarters I fed that machine growing up . . .
Doom-inspiring video game voice: Valkyrie . . . is about to DIE!!! . . . lol.
OK my first charecter was a wizard cause when my friends asked me at the tender age of 18 what kind of charecter I wanted to play I said "the guy with the magic hat" I had never heard of D&D until the cartoon.
This was 2nd ed so please excuse the power level. His big claim to fame was since we didn't have a cleric my wizard took the remains of a high elf ranger that had been killed by drow and his body mutilated to prevent raise dead. I sewed him back together useing the drow parts and then incorporated some giant insect parts into him then brought the whole mess back to life. Needless to say the player of said charecter was not happy, I told him in charecter that if he served me for 1 full year as my personal valet and bodyguard I would fix him. After the end of the year and one polymorph spell later he waa a normal high elf again.
Again this was 2nd ed same wizard had the crown of moander and that crown let him control all dragons within a 500 mile radius no save. I was the nastiest 11th lvl mage on all farun, except for el and the seven.
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I started as not much more than a toddler, rolling dice for the monsters for the DM. And looking at the pics in the various books & mods.
My first ever "PC" was FRED the fighter, named after the greatest character in the history of the universe (or so I believed when I was little), Fred Flintstone. I played Fred, in various incarnations, pretty much until the end of third grade.
Then came Tigris or Tigran or something like that. He was my first real PC. A Ranger-like/ Thief-skilled PC.
Alexia Morgan, 2E human female cleric of no one in particular. (We were playing in a vague homebrew setting with no pantheon, and clerics basically came in two flavors: Evil or Good. If you were neutral, I guess you were a druid.) I was terrified of "acting weird" in front of people, so she was mostly known for thinking of clever things to say and then not saying them.
Her biggest moment of glory was finding a magic ring in a campaign where the DM gave out next to nothing in treasure. We found a corpse tied spread-eagled on a forest path, and the DM believed in rolling for items randomly. You had to ask every time you looted a body, "Does he have any weapons? Armor? Boots? Rings? Belts?" and he'd make a percentage roll. Everything was *dice* "No" *dice* "No" *dice* "No, until I asked "Rings?" and he rolled the dice and raised an eyebrow. He rolled randomly for what kind of ring it was, and Alexia ended up with a ring of Invisibility.
The campaign petered out when she was 4th level and had a job as a ship's cleric, in the course of which she helped fight off pirates by setting their sails on fire with Produce Flame. She was last seen as a NPC cleric of Ffarlanghen (which I can never spell) in a 3.5 campaign I ran.
Mine was a human fighter(shock and surprise)named Hawk Ironheart. This was late 80's and I was like 14 or 15. I was at my brother's home and didn't know why he was rolling all this dice and writing the results down. He rolled like 50 or 60 times. It was insane. Wound up with an 18, 16, two or three 9's and something else.
That was the days Int, Wis, Chr didn't mean squat(for fighters anyway). And back stories? Are you kiddin' me? We didn't do any of that. It was all about numbers. Man I think about it now, and that's just BOOOORIINNNGGG! To this day I have a difficult time with back stories. I love the mechanics part but if I can't find anything interesting about him I just can't run him. And I am mostly a mechanic guy.
The neighbor next door was over just before we started rolling him up and went home to create a short adventure for him. By the time he got done a few hours later, he made it back over to start and then my mom showed up and I had to leave. Boy that sucked! (Parents, man, always ruining the fun) :)
I eventually got him to 9th level over the course of 3 or 4 years. He wound up with like 350,000 xps.(Man it was hard to get levels back then!) Life took over and that was it for him and DnD altogether until about 10 or so years later when 3.0 came out. Never ran him again though.
Starin Steelfist, 1st level Paladin.
With this character I learned that 'Ooops!' is a bad thing to hear from a kender.
*shakes his head*
Cael. A gnome. Laughably innefective in combat and never managed to shine. Became the group buttmonkey over 6 or 8 months before being friendly fire killed by the party mage (which also took out two more of my characters. x.x) and having gnomes WRITTEN OUT OF THE DAMN SETTING.
It got better.
"Twigs" was a strength-buff rogue that favoured knives and kicks to the shins. He had a ridiculous cockney accent and was an ex-bandit/slaver that had travelled west (and in the countries he passed through been arrested, wanted for theft and been conscripted, swindled army supplies and deserted respectively) with the sole ambition of seeing the sea... Until he sold his soul, that is. The campaign dissolved after he was literally about to march his way into hell with the very same mage as above before the campaign had dissolved. He was a hoot. :)
But back on topic, my first character was rather embarassing, as most are. :)
Nithlegar, Wild Elf Ranger
Few of my characters elicit a smile as much as Nithlegar. He was an archer with a particular hatred from giants and (of course) orcs. The highlight of his career was when the party stormed a keep infested with orcs. He stealthily climbed up the main tower and took out the orc watchman before the rest of the party went stupid and simply stormed the place. A round later and Nithlegar was sniping several dozen orcs and an ogre brute. Although he did prevail that day, he was later overwhelmed by undead.
Ah simpler times.