Your Very First Monster Encounter

[Gothmog]

My first monster encounter was with a pack of ghouls. I had a 1E 2nd level dwarven fighter, and the ghouls got the jump on us in some sewers. Within the first round the elf mage was down from wounds, the humans were paralyzed, and the halfling thief ran off and left us. I got hit a few times by the ghouls, but kept making my paralyzation save. Two ghouls herded me into a corner and kept at me while the other 3 ghouls started eating the elf (tender and tastes like chicken). I managed to kill one of the ghouls in the corner, then made a break for it. I got back aboveground, got the city watch, and got back in time to save the two humans, although the elf was meat. The halfling ran down another corridor and got drowned in sewage water by an otyugh- the coward's fate.

 

[Nifft]

As a player, it was Keep on the Borderlands -- and Kobolds! I remember that I had a spear.

As a DM, it was goblins -- I threw a warband of them at my 3rd level PCs.

-- N

 

[Breakstone]

In my first game (in 2e), I played a Paladin named Henry. I was walking along the beach, when skeletons popped out of the sand!

Now, I had been raised on Jason and the Argonauts. Immediately the Harryhausen skeletons leapt to mind, and I was hooked.

Later, Henry found a cave. Now the DM had three miniatures, which included two goblins and one ogre. In the first room, Henry fought two goblins. Then he fought an ogre. Then he fought two goblins and an ogre. Immediately, I thought it might be more fun to be DM than player...

 

[Kormydigar]

I just wanted to see what everyone's first monster encountered in D&D was. Mine was a Carrion Crawler who was hiding in the shadows above the entrance to a scratch build dungeon. We saw something up there and poked it with our 10' pole . It dropped down and attacked. Don't remember the fight after that though one of us (there where two players and a DM) got paralysed!

Well......put me down as a card carrying member of the Keep on the Borderlands club. This was my first real encounter ever, back around 1980. I had not even gotten to the Caves of Chaos yet, when I ended up in a dispute with the barkeep. ( How did I know the guy hated small beer?) Anyway, the argument ended in a sword stroke. I died shortly thereafter trying to get away from the keep garrison. A sad and meaningless death and the shortest lived character I have ever played..........Good memories

 

[Kanegrundar]

My first monster encounter was with the lizardmen in the Keep on the Borderlands. I was the only player of 5 PC's (having just graduated from Final Fantasy and happened to get a copy of KotB from my girlfriend's dad) and I lost three of them as I marched them one after the other to fight a seemingly endless wave of lizardmen. In fact, the first character I had to survive that encounter ended up becoming ruler of the keep after I decided I didn't like the castellan and wiped the guard out with him!

Fun times...

Kane

 

[Altalazar]

I can't recall for sure, but it must have been kobolds. Though for some reason I'm thinking it was really orcs. It was the trusty Keep on the Borderlands...

I made two characters. Boris, a fighter, and Altalazar, a wizard.

They walked into the A cave and Boris promptly fell down the pit and died. My first character (though really I made them together).

Maybe Altalazar ended up going and fighting orcs next. I really can't remember.

Years later, when I was in college, I started playing in earnest (and with real groups larger than just me and a friend) and I made two characters for 1E AD&D - Boris, a fighter, and Altalazar. Boris managed to last much longer...

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

If memory serves, mine was some skeletons and other undead in a dungeon. I was filling in as an NPC on the first night MojoGM invited me to sit in and watch his groups game. No one had any idea I was going to jump in and start playing the NPC after 15 minutes of watching. But I did.

I permanently joined the group as a PC and moved in with MojoGM shortly thereafter

Guess I did pretty good warding off those skeletons!

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

I really don't remember what my first monster was. The earliest one I remember was a 2e Bulette in a Red Steel campaign (first game i ever played in).

I do, however, remember later using an illusion spell on a bonfire to make it appear to be a pile of gold coins. The orcs? goblins? kobolds? (can't remember exactly) couldn't sacrifice themselves fast enough to get the treasure. Ah, the days of newbie dms and being a newbie player. Looking back, it was a terribly organized/run game, but i had fun. That's what counts.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

It was 1e. I was playing a fighter/wizard elf named Lucien. He was with a party of characters who were all 2-4 levels higher (my dad and his friends). We faught a basilisk. I remember trying to jump on its back.

I remember it died fairly quickly, after only a few rounds. However, escaping the dungeon with the treasure was another story.

 

[Pants]

It was either one of the following:
Rot Grubs
A Kobold
A Skeleton

I'm pretty sure it was a kobold. I stabbed it while it slept