With the passing of Mr. Gygax and all the emotion that is going on from it, I thought it would be a nice tribute to him to post some of your very first characters you used for his masterpiece creation.

When I started with the Red Box, I found the Cleric to be quite interesting. That was the VERY FIRST character I ever made. I remember I named him Rastof, I had just seen Invasion USA a few days before, lol. I don't rightfully remember what happened to him but I believe he is now an avatar for his deity.

I've always loved animals so when I got the hardcovers and saw the Ranger class, I knew it was a perfect fit for me.

He is a Chaotic Good Human Ranger by the name of Korthal Felnek. I still have that character and I'll post the stats as soon as I dig it out. In the meantime please feel free to honor Gary and post the stats of some of your original/most memorable characters!

The legacy lives on, Gary!

**This thread inspired by the post of ctalbot. Thanks Chris!**

As you noted in a different thread, his passing brings us all together (even if we are fans of vitriolic rivalry).

At the age of 8, some 24 years ago, I began my adventures into Gygax's world by creating two characters for D&D basic. The first was a male human cleric. Something about being able to help and heal others drew me to the class. The second was a halfling who I thought would be great for sneaking around. I never really played with those characters, but I'll never forget creating them and day-dreaming about the adventures they would have.

Well, it ends up that I am the one living the adventure and Mr. Gygax was one of the people who showed me how to live it fully.

Henry R.

I remember I had this half-elven bard named Silan. I'd played him a few times as a tween, with a local game group at the college in my town. During one session, Silan's hand was severed from his body. I was stunned; went pale.

I was involved quite vicariously in Silan's adventures. My poor hand!

edit: ranger -> bard. Whoops!

My brother first introduced me to Basic D&D back in the late 70's. My first two characters were a Fighter named Rogan and a Cleric named Geonfrey. Still have the character sheets believe it or not as well as most of my early D&D material (I'm a hoarder when it comes to my gaming stuff).

The early years of my life were definitely impacted by the hobby and believe it or not, D&D helped my brother overcome a lot of difficulties that he had with reading and writing due to dislexia.

I never met the man but I feel like I have lost a good friend. Kind of strange how I feel really.

Another ranger joins the list. My first experience with D&D was AD&D, 1st ed.

Talonas, elven ranger. My first campaign didn't last very long but that was the first of many other ranger characters to come.

I have ALL my original characters as well, I'm a bit of a hoarder myself, lol.

Post those stats when you get a chance!

Twenty-odd years ago, in the wake of Willow, I rolled up a badass Chaotic Neutral fighter which went by the name of Madmartigan.

I remember I couldn't get to sleep that night, replaying all the cool action and fights that took place that afternoon. Plus, I learned what a morning star is (and used it to a remarkably crunchy effect on a bunch of orcs).

Wonder if I can still track down that character sheet...

I don't remember the character's race, but I remember it wss a magic-user.

I think we ran into a wandering monster in the dungeon we were in, and it turned out to be a fire giant. I remembe being very happy that a sleep spell could fell a giant.

at least, it did that day.

Just before someone else threw a fireball. At a fire giant.

Favorite character is a dwarven fighter with a juggling skill and a pair of dwarven throwers.

Nowadays, we'd call it munchkin gaming. Like everybody else, I remember some late night to early morning sessions.

Gratifix, half-elven druid. AD&D first edition - still have he original handbook and DM's guide. He started everything. I was 8 or 9, they had modules you could play Saturday's at the library.

Thank you.

I made a human Monk
called Bruce Flea

then a ranger called Paxo

I'm actually atypical for this thread. You see, ever since I started playing RPGs 20 years ago I have never played a single character. Been always a GM in all the different systems I played.

The first RPG I GMed was AD&D1st and I loved the challenge and creativity one must come up with in order to play, be it a GM or a player. I fell immediately in love and have never looked back since then. From AD&D to Paranoia to Earthdawn to Kult to Empire of the Petal Throne, I played them all. And loved every single moment.

Thank you Mr.Gygax for giving me access to RPGs. Thank you for partly creating and shaping this industry. Thank you for all the good times I had and will have.

Farewell Master, it was a pleasure.

Recall playing everyday at lunch at school in Jr. High School some 27 or so years ago. Rolled myself up a fighter and named him Jacques Strappe. hahah. What a dork.

I went on to buy my own copy of the "basic" set, then AD&D, and so on. I fondly remember all of those basic modules, then Tomb of Horros, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc. But there really was nothing as good as that first experience, though. When your first level character's knowledge matched your own. When you really didn't know that the cube of Jello cruising down the cooridor was dangerous or that the disorienting cave maze meant minotaur. When you didn't have any magic weapons and when your magic user tried to solve all of your problems with a lousy ventrilloquism spell (when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!).

I had the privilege of DMing my kids through their first games and loved watching them make all of the rookie mistakes...sleeping outdoors without taking turns at watch, trusting bad people with their stuff, staring right at a Medusa....repeatedly.

I wish I still had all my old character sheets, but I think they're all long lost -- probably thrown out at some point.

I've been RPing since 1986, and for most of that time, I've been the GM/DM. While I don't recall anything about the first character I played during that very first session of D&D, I do remember that when I got a chance to actually play, I favoured the thief class, with the cleric class coming in second.

The earliest character I can remember was what I would consider the first character that ever had a true personality (read: he wasn't just me). Father Edward was a 1st level cleric originally (I think he gained a couple of levels during that campaign) in a D&D Red Box game that my younger brother ran. This likely would have been in the late '80s -- or maybe 1990.

My goal with Father Edward was to be a pious, monk-like man who had spent his entire life in a monastery (these weren't the AD&D monks; I pictured him in a habit and mostly being unexceptional when it came to violence). I had a couple of quotes I regularly used for Father Edward (I think I called the others "my son" a lot). He often talked down to the other adventurers in the party, but he was a loyal friend who spent most of his time pulling clean-up duty after battles.

Another early character I remember was a thief, originally in D&D Basic and then later created again for AD&D 2nd ed. (I never played AD&D 1st ed.). Einar Lightfingers was named after a thief character in a fantasy novel called The Sleeping Dragon, which I discovered in 1990 when I entered high school.

Lightfingers, as he was mostly referred to, was the type of thief you didn't want in your party. Like the character he was named after, he had a habit of stealing from whoever he could -- even his own adventuring buddies. He was a greedy, little worm of a man.

Ah, good times.

Chris

Great Idea for a list! I started playing in 1982 at Central Michigan University. It was a fantastic eye opening experience! I never had time in high school due to sports...but I was always interested. My first Character was a Neutral Ranger named 'Sillious'. I still have all my character sheets in my D&D folder in my collection. I really enjoyed roleplaying and meeting al ifferent kinds of people! I wish I had more time to play D&D more.

I actually remember the first character I rolled up. This was from the era where you just rolled sets of 3d6 and took what you got. Here's what I got:

STR 17
INT 5
WIS 3
CON 17
CHA ? (around 12 I think)

I named him "Mugwort". With his INT and WIS scores, I decided he shouldn't be let out into the world on his own, so I created a cleric "Dagin" who was his companion and tried to keep him out of trouble.

My first Character that I kept was a Human Wizard called Zagar the Wize. I had rolled high Wisdom on him and mis-spelled the word wise.

As I recall, my first character was determined by rolling the dice about 50 times. There was no second character.

My first D&D character was an Elf named Vilto Consirian, rolled-up way back in 1978. The blue box (with the red dragon on the cover) was my first introduction to the game and my brother was my first Dungeon Master (with my mother and father rounding out our adventure party for the exploration of 'B1 - In Search Of The Unknown').

Vilto survives still, living inside some of my favorite MMOs!

My first character was created when Gary Zipfel brought the gray box to a friday night wargame session during my highschool days. He was a wizard, that didn't make it out of the chaotic fun of dungeon delving.

I then bought ADD, and created Morgan, a cleric. He made it to tenth level in which my little bro Bob (all of 7-8 years old!) wanted to run a campaign.

Good times and thanks Gary for all you did here.

Godspeed

Off topic...yet strangely on topic...

I have a theory that all drug companies are currently run by D&D players. They then name their latest drug after their original D&D character. I present the evidence:

CLARATIN (Wizard of light)

LEVITRA (Cleric of the nine moons)

ROGAINE (THE BARBARIAN)

VIAGRA (Elf Lord of the Petrified Forest)

LUMINESTRA (Sorceress of CHAOS)

PRILOSEC (Dwarf of the Ironhills)

I rest my case...

My first real D&D character was a half Orc Cleric by the name of Mulahey that I played in a group at the local library when I was about 14. I had a lot of fun with that group and the characters that were created. Eventually our group dissolved and a lot of our group went to work at Bioware. A lot of our characters (including Mulahey and my Dwarf Yeslek) were in the original Baldur's Gate game.

I don't remember what my first D&D character was, because I think I leapt straight into DM'ing for my friends. They then did the same for me using other systems. Their characters were Keolithius the Cleric (named using fanciful changes to the player's real name, Keith) and Brimax the Fighter (name taken from one of the book publishers we could read from a nearby bookcase).

My first character was in 1982 at age 9. I was introduced to D&D by some cousins at a family reunion.

I rolled up a wizard because they sounded powerful and mysterious to me. When I rolled the d4 for his Hit Points, I got a 1. I was devastated, but when I recovered a little I accepted my fate and named him "Dead Duck". Amazingly, he managed to survive his first adventure (mostly by being a coward).

Ah, good times!

That's funny! I had a friend who had a Fighter that he had named "Legrande Fromage". Good times.

My first character was a Lawful Good Dwarf fighter whose name excapes me. The blue boxed basic set I believe. My DM was very strict about 1 character per player and only of good alignment. When I found out that you could play neutral or even evil characters, I went berserk making up thiefs and assassins for a while (Original AD&D)! Man those were the days.