What is the oldest self-produced RPG material you still have?
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Paradoxish
First Post
Nothing nearly as old as 1981, but I have the character sheets from the first D&D game I ever played/DMed. I think it was back around '93 or so. I don't remember the exact year, I only know that I was 9 at the time. 
When I just recently moved, I found my very first character sheet from back around 1980.
It's battered, thinned and aged yellow, especially where some soda was obviously spilled on it. Its called "Advanced D&D Permanent Character Record", which makes me think, "This will go on your Permanent Record[\b]!" ;-)
I was apparently a huge twinkie at this age, my character has 18/84 STR, 18 DEX, 18 CON and Psionics. I apparently used a Halberd. Oddly, the sheet has no character name, and now that I think about it, I cant think of anyone using anything but their own name in this game. Hrm.
I enjoyed the heck out of finding this thing. ;-)
It's battered, thinned and aged yellow, especially where some soda was obviously spilled on it. Its called "Advanced D&D Permanent Character Record", which makes me think, "This will go on your Permanent Record[\b]!" ;-)
I was apparently a huge twinkie at this age, my character has 18/84 STR, 18 DEX, 18 CON and Psionics. I apparently used a Halberd. Oddly, the sheet has no character name, and now that I think about it, I cant think of anyone using anything but their own name in this game. Hrm.
I enjoyed the heck out of finding this thing. ;-)
ninthcouncil
First Post
While poking around at my parents' place recently, I found my D&D campaign maps from c.1979, and a shed load of Traveller stuff from around 1982, including my personal favourite - a redesign of the Free Trader deckplans to make it look like Thunderbird 2
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Maps from studyhall and notes dated 1978 and 1979 .....and a rather elaborate map of a huge dungeon complex I drew thoughout 1981 and 1982. Stopped at 5 levels of dungeon.
Found all my old character going all the way back to the begining 1978 and aperently my friend cleaned out his stuff and gave it to me which goes back to 1980. Funny character sketches in there too.
Found a ton of Traveller stuff too...wow
thanks for the memory lane .....hehe
Found all my old character going all the way back to the begining 1978 and aperently my friend cleaned out his stuff and gave it to me which goes back to 1980. Funny character sketches in there too.
Found a ton of Traveller stuff too...wow
thanks for the memory lane .....hehe
s/LaSH
First Post
Oldest stuff I've got is from when I was 10-ish, 1991 or 1992; probably some old photocopied character sheets from the Basic D&D set. I packrat everything. Over the next few years there's cartography for a dozen worlds, some vague D&D stuff, and a homebrew system that's almost ready to see the light of day, bwahaha. Unfortunately, I'll never find any of it because the scrap paper probably weighs more than I do.
KDLadage
Explorer
After who knows how many moves, the only really old RPG artifact I still have is a map from an early campaign I ran. The map dates to about 1983, and is about to fall apart these days.
I used to have a lot of other stuff (like the original Greyhawk, Eldrich Wizardry, a lot of old notes from my first campaigns dating back to 1979 or so)... but, thanks to a sad and strange misunderstanding, it is all at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean nowadays...
I used to have a lot of other stuff (like the original Greyhawk, Eldrich Wizardry, a lot of old notes from my first campaigns dating back to 1979 or so)... but, thanks to a sad and strange misunderstanding, it is all at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean nowadays...
Deadguy
First Post
I had some older stuff from before I went away to University, but my Mum threw all that away! Oh well, it wasn't any good.
So the oldest stuff I have left is a map I drew for a one-off one-on-one Palladium game at the end of academic year 1985-86: the Tower of the Summoneuse. That spawned a campaign that went through three incarnations and lasted until 1993!
So the oldest stuff I have left is a map I drew for a one-off one-on-one Palladium game at the end of academic year 1985-86: the Tower of the Summoneuse. That spawned a campaign that went through three incarnations and lasted until 1993!
geezerjoe
First Post
Wow, its nice to see other pack rats out there
I have stuff from the early to mid 80's. One thing I have includes the drawings for a HUGE manta ray in the Lolth's spider ship vein, except mine was cooler because it had a wand of magic missles mounted in a turret in the tail (heheehehehe .... ah the loves of my childhood). I also have a map of an evil warlord's island lair complete with 10(?) castles and dragon turtal (that's how I spelled it then) lairs (3 or 4). Ungh that was horrible but the memories are nice. I sometimes look at that stuff just to remind myself how far NOT to go
l8r
Joe Too Old
I have stuff from the early to mid 80's. One thing I have includes the drawings for a HUGE manta ray in the Lolth's spider ship vein, except mine was cooler because it had a wand of magic missles mounted in a turret in the tail (heheehehehe .... ah the loves of my childhood). I also have a map of an evil warlord's island lair complete with 10(?) castles and dragon turtal (that's how I spelled it then) lairs (3 or 4). Ungh that was horrible but the memories are nice. I sometimes look at that stuff just to remind myself how far NOT to go
l8r
Joe Too Old
Celebrim
Legend
I still have some of the material I produced as a DM in HS in the second half of the '80's, a rewritten version of 'Keep on the Boarderlands', a n adventure loosely inspired by U2 but on a more epic scale, and a large number of hand written short encounters. I haven't looked at it in some time, so I'm not at all sure what survived exactly. It's not that well written, but the ideas aren't that bad. I was obessed at the time with providing myself lists - contents of pockets, titles on a bookshelf, inventory of armories, and so forth. Still am to some extent, and I've only lately been considering how to write a module in a way that someone else could play it and still fit it in a 64 page folder.
My older stuff from my elementary and junior high years was thrown out when I left college, and seemed hopelessly juvenile back then. Although there was some attempt to be more, basically my earlier adventures devolve down to 'There is an evil undead overlord that must be destroyed. In the first room are skeletons, in the second room are zombies, in the third room are ghouls...' Now that I'm older though, I tend to look at my inspiration for that time and go, 'No wonder.' Consider say the plot of 'Against the Giants', 'There is an evil overlord to be destroyed. In the first room there are ogres, in the second room there are hill giants, in the third room there are frost giants....' I also wish I had that stuff back sorta like a slide collection for a vacation. Painful to look at, no matter how good the memories were.
Not to mention there is nothing like a juvenile mind for creating painfully devious traps. I wish I had the outlines of the unfinished and unplayed uber-dungeons I was planning as a JHS DM. Looking through dungeons like RttToH or RA, I have to wonder how many of the ideas were stripped from the designers early years as a DM and polished off.
My older stuff from my elementary and junior high years was thrown out when I left college, and seemed hopelessly juvenile back then. Although there was some attempt to be more, basically my earlier adventures devolve down to 'There is an evil undead overlord that must be destroyed. In the first room are skeletons, in the second room are zombies, in the third room are ghouls...' Now that I'm older though, I tend to look at my inspiration for that time and go, 'No wonder.' Consider say the plot of 'Against the Giants', 'There is an evil overlord to be destroyed. In the first room there are ogres, in the second room there are hill giants, in the third room there are frost giants....' I also wish I had that stuff back sorta like a slide collection for a vacation. Painful to look at, no matter how good the memories were.
Not to mention there is nothing like a juvenile mind for creating painfully devious traps. I wish I had the outlines of the unfinished and unplayed uber-dungeons I was planning as a JHS DM. Looking through dungeons like RttToH or RA, I have to wonder how many of the ideas were stripped from the designers early years as a DM and polished off.
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