Your First Character and their impact

[Brazeku]

I know this poll has probably been done before. But still the question remains, and we all know you never forget your first. Who introduced you to the heady world of roleplaying? Did it establish a pattern in the type of characters you've played?

Poll is related.

 

[Zendragon]

My first character was a 1st edition halfling cleric. He made it to about 11th level, built a temple, only to have it burned down by a cleric of a rival diety the day after it was blessed. It was a great hook, but we never got around to finishing it.

I still like the spellcasters, but tend more toward the magic side.

 

[megamania]

My first character died while still being rolled up. Using his stats we then built the next fighter whom happily survived the campaign.

These fighters did little to effect the types of characters I build. Especially when one compares 2ed to the current 3.5 edition.

Now my first 3.0 character was a ranger / cleric whom shined mainly due to the roleplaying. She influenced my creations only by showing me the varieties of characters availiable.

Its what I like about 3ed. @nd, what made characters stand out was mainly lucky rolls at creation and role playing. 3rd allows for all this and character construction. I hope 4th ed won't come for a long time yet.

 

[Piratecat]

My first character has a special place in my heart. He died when a secret door fell on him, and the other PCs walked over the fallen (and now oddly lumpy) secret door to try and find him. I'll always like human monks, and I'll always be vaguely annoyed by that particular DM.

But it doesn't affect what I play nowadays.

 

[robberbaron]

I can't remember my first character.

Back then it was my best mate running a White Box game for me so I had 4 or so characters.

I think they died a lot while I was getting into the game and I can't even remember any names for the first couple of years' characters. Then I got 3 or 4 characters that lasted so long they got updated for AD&D 1e and then lasted another 15 or so years.

They have no bearing on my current characters as I don't want to soil the memory of great games with half-arsed replicas.

 

[heirodule]

5th grade "academically talented" class session, 1979. Some high school guy brought in D&D with the teacher's approval and we made up PCs.

I made a Dwarf Thief. I distinctly remember the complex graph-paper dungeon the DM showed us (and warned us there was a dragon in the middle of the second level). I also recall opening a chest of "vials" (new vocabulary word) and drinking some of the potions to see what they did. I don't think that went well.

I got the Blue Box with the chits and B1 for my birthday that year.

I think I played a dwarf thief in Junior High once in memory of my first PC, but not subsequently.

All my PCs are RPGA characters right now. I have a human Rogue 8/Wizard1.

The thought has crossed my mind to make up a dwarf rogue for the Ruins of Greyhawk RPGA plotline. we'll see.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

My first character was a human fighter (whom I called a ranger, not knowing any better). When we moved beyond the basic set, I retconned him to a true ranger. Played him all through junior high and highschool, culiminating with Q1, which we finished right before my best friend moved away. After that I shelved him.

Now, I gravitate more towards rogues and bards, but rangers still show up from time to time.

 

[Boregar]

My first character was a fighter in a game my brother ran, after he had been given the red box D&D set as a Christmas present, and met a grizzly end at the hands of a rust monster.

However I have played pretty much every sort of class since then, and I've found that I prefer the spell casters, so I don't think that my first character had that much of an influence.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I play whatever I want, whether it is similar to my first character or completely different.

I do tend towards character with at least one good stat in int or cha. No dumb brutes for me.

 

[drothgery]

My first character was a 2e Thief, and so were most of the guys I played in the first few years after that. But I got frustrated with the utter uselessness of a 2e Thief by 7th-10th level, and our games were getting to that point, so I started playing wizards.

While a stock 'Dave character' is probably still a blaster mage (whether wizard, psion, or warmage), I've run just about every major archetype except a pure warrior type (barbarian, knight, fighter, paladin, melee cleric, etc.) or a monk at this point.