Did your very first character die or level up?
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
ExploderWizard
Hero
1980. Fighter too stupid to deserve a name (don't remember) . Walked into a tavern and picked a fight with a guard. Somehow several more guards showed up and corned him in a dead end alley. A fine example of natural selection working as intended.
jaerdaph
#UkraineStrong
It was the fall of 1979 and I was in high school. I was in the cafeteria, minding my own business and reading The Two Towers when the person who would become my first DM approached me.
"So do you like The Lord of the Rings?".
"I do," I replied. I glanced around nervously. I was the shortstop on the JV baseball team and this guy was in AV Club after all.
"Did you see the animated version they showed at SUNY this summer?"
"I did."
"It was so much better than that TV version of The Hobbit a few years ago."
"I don't know," I shrugged. "I kind of liked that. It got me reading this."
"How many times have you read it?"
"This is my third time through."
"Do you play Dungeons & Dragons?"
"What's that?"
I soon found out, and he offered to DM a game for me. He lent me the Basic Rulebook from his D&D Basic Set. I devoured it. The very concept, the very notion that this game existed, excited and overwhelmed me like never before. I spent hours thinking up the perfect character, his history, personality, his life story. I went for the first time to this amazing, magical place called "the game store" and bought a 1e AD&D PHB (my teenage ego could settle for nothing less than being "Advanced") and a complete set of those beautiful little jewels known as polyhedral dice. I also grabbed a stack of character sheets from The Armory, and went home to roll up my character.
His name was Balin, and he was a dwarf fighter.
I waited in anticipation for my first dungeon. I spent the days leading up to that fateful encounter reading and re-reading, rolling and re-rolling, preparing myself and Balin for years of adventure and glory.
The fateful day arrived. We met again in the school cafeteria during study hall. This DM person sat on one side of the table with his books and notes behind some cheesy little cardboard thing he made himself and called a "screen", while I on the other side opposite with my dice and character sheet. I was nervous - butterflies in my stomach as if I was in my first school play. He described the dungeon entrance, I cleverly figured out how to get in, I descended the stairs, short sword and torch in hand, and entered the first chamber. He rolled one of those precious polyhedral dice...
"A grey ooze drops from the ceiling on top of you."
Balin the dwarf fighter fell that day, in a room marked "1" on a piece of loose leaf graph paper.
My first experience playing D&D wasn't the greatest. Fortunately, I found another group of people to play with not too long after.
But you never forget your first.
"So do you like The Lord of the Rings?".
"I do," I replied. I glanced around nervously. I was the shortstop on the JV baseball team and this guy was in AV Club after all.
"Did you see the animated version they showed at SUNY this summer?"
"I did."
"It was so much better than that TV version of The Hobbit a few years ago."
"I don't know," I shrugged. "I kind of liked that. It got me reading this."
"How many times have you read it?"
"This is my third time through."
"Do you play Dungeons & Dragons?"
"What's that?"
I soon found out, and he offered to DM a game for me. He lent me the Basic Rulebook from his D&D Basic Set. I devoured it. The very concept, the very notion that this game existed, excited and overwhelmed me like never before. I spent hours thinking up the perfect character, his history, personality, his life story. I went for the first time to this amazing, magical place called "the game store" and bought a 1e AD&D PHB (my teenage ego could settle for nothing less than being "Advanced") and a complete set of those beautiful little jewels known as polyhedral dice. I also grabbed a stack of character sheets from The Armory, and went home to roll up my character.
His name was Balin, and he was a dwarf fighter.
I waited in anticipation for my first dungeon. I spent the days leading up to that fateful encounter reading and re-reading, rolling and re-rolling, preparing myself and Balin for years of adventure and glory.
The fateful day arrived. We met again in the school cafeteria during study hall. This DM person sat on one side of the table with his books and notes behind some cheesy little cardboard thing he made himself and called a "screen", while I on the other side opposite with my dice and character sheet. I was nervous - butterflies in my stomach as if I was in my first school play. He described the dungeon entrance, I cleverly figured out how to get in, I descended the stairs, short sword and torch in hand, and entered the first chamber. He rolled one of those precious polyhedral dice...
"A grey ooze drops from the ceiling on top of you."
Balin the dwarf fighter fell that day, in a room marked "1" on a piece of loose leaf graph paper.
My first experience playing D&D wasn't the greatest. Fortunately, I found another group of people to play with not too long after.
But you never forget your first.
Last edited:
delericho
Legend
Neither.
1988. 1st Edition human thief (9th level, I think, and I don't think he had a name).
We played a handful of sessions, but the DM never gave out XP. I believe he was going to give it out at the end of the adventure. However, we never got that far - the university term started, and suddenly he had better things to do.
1988. 1st Edition human thief (9th level, I think, and I don't think he had a name).
We played a handful of sessions, but the DM never gave out XP. I believe he was going to give it out at the end of the adventure. However, we never got that far - the university term started, and suddenly he had better things to do.
Fifth Element
Legend
Neither.
My first character was a BECMI first-level cleric, can't remember his name. I remember he smashed a skeleton with his mace in the first combat. This was 1988. We didn't play another session with that character.
My first character to do either level or die was my second character, a first-level paladin in AD&D, also in 1988. Rolled a 17 Charisma on 3d6. He went into the sewers to exterminate some sewer goblins. Had some success, then fell in a 30' pit from which he had no means of escape. Death was presumably from starvation.
My first character was a BECMI first-level cleric, can't remember his name. I remember he smashed a skeleton with his mace in the first combat. This was 1988. We didn't play another session with that character.
My first character to do either level or die was my second character, a first-level paladin in AD&D, also in 1988. Rolled a 17 Charisma on 3d6. He went into the sewers to exterminate some sewer goblins. Had some success, then fell in a 30' pit from which he had no means of escape. Death was presumably from starvation.
4 lvl monk. nearly died from getting shot by another party members arrows. fumbles. managed to survive to 4th lvl but then we stopped playing. one of my friends was going to kill me to become an assassain. now i mostly dm though i do occasionaly get to play wish i had a better dm tho
coyote6
Adventurer
A 1st level fighter whose name escapes me; got beat up by a guard headed into the City-State (I don't remember what started the fight -- I think it was basically the DM's desire to show me how combat worked), limped away with 1 hp and a broken arm. Never played that character again, but he was the first.
White Tornado
Explorer
2001, a human priest (because the group I joined needed a healer) with an awesome granted power (I love 2nd edition priests, if the DM is generous). I played two sessions with that group when the campaign ended prematurely. Not sure why, but I never saw that DM again. The group has grown into two groups and still plays every summer and winter, I joined them again last summer. And they're still playing AD&D 2nd edition.
the Jester
Legend
Other.
My first D&D experience was 1e, playing Ghost Tower of Inverness with the pregens. Some lived, some died; but I never played them again, so none leveled up.
My first D&D experience was 1e, playing Ghost Tower of Inverness with the pregens. Some lived, some died; but I never played them again, so none leveled up.
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