D&D General First D&D Character?

[ART!]

I can almost guarantee that my first D&D character was a human ranger. I was diggin' me some Aragorn at the time, and human rangers have been one of my go-to race-class combos ever since.

I don't care for rangers in 5E (although it's getting better with the recent options), and I guess I didn't like them in 4E either because I don't recall playing one. Hmm - don't recall doing it in 3E, either...

The first character name I can remember is Cameron Aleniam Apgar IV, a human paladin. I might even still have the character sheet around somewhere! He was your basic knight in shining armor type. I remember him being pretty badass.

I can't remember the last time I ran a paladin, since then - and that was decades ago.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hrm... I definitely had some copycat names...Beowulf springs to mind. And I thought I had come up with the name Redhammer myself, but when I re-read "Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes" I noticed that there was a Dougan Redhammer. Which, 87, sounds about right for when I would've made that character. Wasn't my first D&D character, but 87 matches for him because I know I made him first in Basic but transferred him to 1e. Sir Toril got his name from the Forgotten Realms.

Another character, Scythonarak, or Scythe, was my take on how all the Dragonlance elves had fancy longer names that shortened to something notable.

heh. Which brings up the question, "how did you name PCs back in the day?" I named a bunch of mine after characters in REH stories... I think I had three different fighters named Wulfhere. But I also plundered names from such places as a car (Saab), a rifle, (Hawken), and a musician (Zamfir)....

 

[Mistwell]

My daughter, age 10, just made her first D&D character. A fairy druid (based on the recent UA for fairy) named Cordelia.

 

[thomkt]

Mine was a human MU. I don't think we gave the characters names; the character and the player were interchangeable. Didn't have much fun with that game, the DM didn't really explain any rules, but expected us to know them (hadn't even read the Player's Handbook yet). I didn't play with that group long, and it was a few years (Jr High to High School) before I played again.

 

[Shiroiken]

Yikes! Sometimes it amazes me how many people stuck with D&D with all the player or DM jerkery some groups put up with!

Rolling with big character changes is definitely a fun part of the game, though.

While I think it was super jerky at the beginning, I think it was good in the long run. Begin forced to RP a female as a geeky high school kid made me expand my skill. This caused the DM to take me as an apprentice, teaching me how to DM (back then becoming a DM usually required a teacher, because the rules were hidden from players and very convoluted). I wonder if he hadn't done that, I'd have even been interested in becoming a DM. That change would have had a tremendous impact on my career in D&D, and I probably would have stopped playing at some point. I seriously doubt that was what he had in mind when he did it, since he really was a [expletive], but I'll take the silver lining.

 

[Laurefindel]

Hrm... I definitely had some copycat names...Beowulf springs to mind. And I thought I had come up with the name Redhammer myself, but when I re-read "Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes" I noticed that there was a Dougan Redhammer. Which, 87, sounds about right for when I would've made that character. Wasn't my first D&D character, but 87 matches for him because I know I made him first in Basic but transferred him to 1e. Sir Toril got his name from the Forgotten Realms.

Another character, Scythonarak, or Scythe, was my take on how all the Dragonlance elves had fancy longer names that shortened to something notable.

Yeah, the names my kids come up with for characters and avatars and handles and whatever, are much more original, less silly, and less pun-y than whatever names we came up with when I was their age...

[edit] For our defense, they didn't have to play "fighter Bob VIII" because Bob 1 thru 7 didn't make it to level 2...

 

[Lanefan]

heh. Which brings up the question, "how did you name PCs back in the day?" I named a bunch of mine after characters in REH stories... I think I had three different fighters named Wulfhere. But I also plundered names from such places as a car (Saab), a rifle, (Hawken), and a musician (Zamfir)....

Same way I do now: if something leaps to mind I'll use that; if nothing does, I've got a homebrew method for rolling random names that's produced some great results.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yup, I started with the Moldvay box, which I found in my parents basement in, hmmm, maybe 1986? So obviously Keep on the Borderlands is where it all started for me. My first character was Zargon the fighter, who, for his sins, got run through B2 probably four or five time, the last time as a solo speed run. Good ol' Zargon.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Well, my first half dozen characters weren't D&D characters so I had been a DM for a dozen D&D (and two dozen WEGd6 Star Wars) campaigns by the time I made a character.

Oliver D'Burrows, real name Olly Cobbler, a swashbuckler and maker of fine shoes. He tried hard to be just and honorable, but no one took him seriously. As one of the other PCs was killed by a thirty foot tall Giant's club, he shouted "You fight like a shoemaker!"

The thirty foot tall Giant stepped on poor Olly moments later.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I still remember the kid (and I was also a kid at the time) that showed up wanting to play "Ding Dong Farty Marty."

Kids these days (ahem), I think, have grown up playing videogames where you get to name your own character. When I was a kid, you mostly played as a pre-named character (when you had a name at all). The times where you get to name and create your own character were few and far between (Legend of Zelda comes to mind).

Yeah, the names my kids come up with for characters and avatars and handles and whatever, are much more original, less silly, and less pun-y than whatever names we came up with when I was their age...

[edit] For our defense, they didn't have to play "fighter Bob VIII" because Bob 1 thru 7 didn't make it to level 2...