Did your very first character die or level up?

[Baron Opal]

Blue book, a human wizard by the name of Mathagen or Radagast (I forget). The party came across some orcs and I defeated them with my might spells of legend! (Sleep) Later, we came across a ghoul and I was paralyzed. When the giant ants marched, I was left behind to prop the door closed. By the time the ants chewed their way through the party escaped.

 

[chronoplasm]

2E.
Nevik the Bard. Eaten by Gnolls in a desert.

 

[S. Baldrick]

My first D&D character was Torc, an elf from the Tom Moldvay basic set. He survived his foray into the Orc cave in the Caves of Chaos but he was killed in In Search of the Unknown by a goblin. He never made it to 2nd Level.

 

[nedjer]

Gelatinous Cube

 

[Dragonhelm]

My first character not only leveled up, but he dual-classed. Somewhere around 13th level now, IIRC.

In the process, he has died SIX times.

The DM was running a sci-fi/fantasy game with a machine that would reconstitute you from any leftover molecules you might have after your death so long as it was within 48 hours. Cheesy, I know. In those days, you lost a point of Con if your character died and returned to life. So I sat and watched my Con go from a 15 to a 9, then it got raised back up to a 10.

Had I been more experienced when I played this game, I would have really messed with the DM by having my character believe he was a clone, that he had no soul, etc. etc. Oh, well. Live and learn.

 

[Infiniti2000]

1st edition AD&D, halfling thief, in Temple of Elemental Evil. Died because the idiot player wizard tossed sleep centered on the party. The DM, having been frustrated by this time, had everyone go to sleep, including the enemy bugbears. They woke up first and starting killing everyone. We got rid of the player and restarted, with a lot more success (and fun).

 

[Scribble]

Roofus Thistlenot, Halfling Cleric of Yondolla...

Survived almost being eaten by Spiders.

Survived being fireballed by a fellow party member (to save me from the spiders of course...)

Survived having bits of metal (fused to his skin by the aforementioned fireball) ripped from his body while almost drowning in a river (while forgetting I was wearing a ring of water walking)

Only to be eaten by a giant weasel...

RIP Roofus... RIP buddy.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

A 1st level fighter, mix of BECMI/AD&D rules. Died first encounter in the first room of the dungeon. A water weird in a fountain. Dragged in and drowned. I had no idea what was going on and how I was supposed to have survived. I loved it.

 

[Stormonu]

Holmes D&D, an unnamed fighter. In his first adventure, the cautious thief in front of the group died falling in a pit he failed to detect. So we went outside, made a ruckus and started drawing the inhabitants out, ambushing them on their way out. We ran when they sicced their ogre on us, but we got enough XP to level.

 

[The Shaman]

My first character was a blue-box fighter, name long forgotten, who I think might've made it to second level before he was abandoned for a ranger when the 1e PHB hit the bookstores.

The ranger eventually made name-level, though.