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 never played role-playing games - I was a boardgamer as a younger man and never found the opportunity to get into an RPG. But in the middle of last year, as I was meeting new people playing boardgames (I've started a club or two), D&D kept coming up in conversation. Older friends of mine started telling me stories of their old adventures, the lineages of their characters... and the whole thing sort of unfolded in front of me.

I got a hold of the old TSR publications and started reading, and was amazed by the scope of what Gygax had tried to do. I could see how the system evolved greatly since its inception, but saw the foundation Gygax had laid, and found myself equally marveling at the image of this guy working out probabilities and game mechanics, scratching them across paper notebooks while I was still a baby.

So the guys started hemming and hawing, and we started a D&D campaign a few months ago - my first RPG experience. We started with D&D 2E, and have been fine-tuning our campaign and are now running v3.5. I am still new to the world of it, but am loving every moment of it. The role-playing, the ridiculous laughter, and those great hours of sitting around with friends at the edge of our seats, wondering what's going to become of us as we find ourselves lost in space and time...

My character is Dog. He is a young, impetuous (possibly psychotic) Dwarf with a penchant for hot-headedness and cleaving things with his axe. His battlecry ("GGGGGAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!") has become a catch-phrase amongst our group of friends, and the campaign is rapidly taking on a life of its own.

I have only just begun to appreciate Gygax's work and contributions to the gaming world... and then he dies. Like others on this board, I am also surprised by how saddened I am.

Orcs will pay for this.

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