Iconic 1E characters?

[T. Foster]

So, Erac's Cousin is in the 1E Rogues Gallery ... has Erac himself ever been detailed? I'm thinking of using him in a game.

Erac's stats have never been published, but Scott Gregg did a brief write-up of what's known about him (based on his interviews with Ernie Gygax and others) here. Erac is also the "star" of Gygax's "Expedition to the Black Reservoir" story which can be found (among other places) here. Lastly, in Gygax's "retro" OD&D/Greyhawk Castle mini-campaign of 2004-05 the players stumbled upon the level where Erac met his demise, recovered his body, and got him resurrected. So, at least in the Gygax "house" version of Greyhawk, Erac is back! See this thread at Dragonsfoot for details (as many details as were ever made public, anyway ).

 

[T. Foster]

A little info, actually, via Scott Gregg: http://doomsdaygames.proboards3.com/index.cgi?board=generalgreyhawk&action=display&thread=1080316778
which, upon closer reading, appears to contradict the conventional wisdom that Fraz was imprisoned in the Great Stone Face (per EGG's description in S4 and MM2, which don't actually call out the Great Stone Face specifically, but instead mention a bas-relief or a stone prison).

You're too fast for me, Allan! Hopefully, though, I get extra credit for also providing links to the "Expedtion to the Black Reservoir" story and the pertinent 2005 session-log

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That actually works well with what I've come up with so far, where Erac is one of the first of the Delvers to explore the Dungeon under Ptolus. By being in EGG's home 1E game, that certainly lines up pretty exactly. And my Erac is also a magic-user (wizard), although he's not going to be a particularly pleasant guy, whatever his alignment (probably Lawful Neutral).

 

[Squire James]

I imagine a few of the pregens for Against the Giants might qualify, if only for their bizarre names:

Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter (human MU 12)
Cloyer Buise the Magsman (human thief 13)
Roaky Swerked (human cleric 12)
Frush O' Suggill (human fighter 14)

The above were "the big four". The rest are also-rans that were probably henchmen rather than full party members (they also demonstrate why non-humans were not good in high-level games, since many were already at their level limit):

Fonkin Hoddypeak (my favorite, elf fighter/MU 5/8)
Flerd Trantle (human cleric 9)
Redmod Dumple (dwarf fighter 9)
Faffle Dwe'o-mercraeft (human MU 9)
Beek Gwenders of Croodle (half-elf ranger 9)

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Another reason 1E art is better than 3E. Seriously, nothing has harmed 3E art more IMHO than cramming those stupid iconics in everywhere and killing nay sort of creativity. Even Dungeon has their own iconics.

I think the worst offender I have seen is the Warmage picture from Complete Arcane. The first one is pretty good (the one with the class writeup), but then later in the book is another picture of the same iconic, in the same pose, throwing the same spell (Orb of Acid), just from a different angle. That really bugs the crap out of me. Almost as bad as lightboxing or tracing artwork and passing it off as your own, IMO.

On another note- I never realized before that Black Dougal had died so many times. He's the Kenny of D&D.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

fify. they were for D&D not ADnD

edit: even though they say ADnD on them.

the stats for them are in XL-1

Yep. Thanks. I actually own that module.

 

[Scarbonac]

What about Black Leaf?

 

[grodog]

You're too fast for me, Allan! Hopefully, though, I get extra credit for also providing links to the "Expedtion to the Black Reservoir" story and the pertinent 2005 session-log

You always get extra credit Trent! I'd forgotten about the other two pieces of trivia being related to Erac: you win

 

[kenobi65]

And I think Lord Robilar is about as iconic as it gets!

Met Robilar in a Living Greyhawk module a couple of weeks ago. He's Rary the Traitor's lieutenant now, and made it perfectly clear to us that he was Epic-level and could kill us all without breaking a sweat.

 

[Templetroll]

The iconic from the three tan books was Xylarthan, a magic-user. He was used as an NPC in the first campaign I played in. We called him Xylophone so steadily that a few years later his 'real' name was a trivia question for our gaming group! Not sure if there was a named character of the other classes.