My first character was here at the inn (this is where I learned D&D) and was a monk in Ayrn's campaign. He was a crybaby. I don't remember his name, but his monestary was burned down in front of his eyes, and he was bordering lawful-evil with his scaredy-cat attitude. I remember he attempted stunning fist on an orc who basically laughed at him and sliced him for 90% of his hitpoints. He curled up in a ball in the corner and cried after that...

Then they completed the mission and he got cocky after dropping a few low-level enemies....Ayrn said he'd continue the game at some point...I can't wait to see him get his butt handed to him again.

After that, one of my other early characters was a cleric who retired at 2nd level upon entering a town that didn't yet have a temple to his god. He retired to set up the temple and build it to its fullest....very short character. It was funny actually ...though it seems less so now.

Lets see… my first D&D character was in 1976 under the original D&D game (the 3 book set) he was a basic fighter whose name I cant remember. He died after a few hours of play, so I made up another and jumped right back in. Character creation was simple in those days.

My oldest character who lived would be a wizard named YeOlde (hence the handle) he was made under the ADnD 1st edition about 1978 and continued through until he retired and eventually became an NPC in my campaign world.

Another one of my ADnD characters whom I use as an NPC is the current Emperor of a Country on my world. Those two are the oldest surviving characters from way back when.


TRAVELLER? OMG!

I loved that game and still have my traveler books in storage. Back in the 80s when tabletop RPGs were everywhere, I played just about everything back then. I sure do miss the table top play. :-/

I remember it vividly ...

The year is 1971. I go to a local rec center and see a bunch of people sitting at a table yelling at each other, although they're also laughing. It sounds like they are joking at the same time. I hear dice rolling constantly ...

So I go over to watch. I get interested (a sci-fi/fantasy fan for a long time). I get invited to join. I roll up a character with the co-DM (who is a player at the time).

Enter the dwarf, named Gorrtt. He is lost in their dungeon, separated from his party. He joins their group and they eventually find a small chapel in the cavern. Someone gets greedy and grabs a chalice from the alter, and we are all transported to another place -- minus any metal at all. No metal weapons, coins, buckles, armor, helmets, nothing metal. And who interrupts us while we're trying to figure it all out? A cave troll.

Now our party numbers 9 players and 12 characters -- well eleven and a stupid dolt: Gorrtt. Not having a clue, he attacks the troll using the haft of his now-headless morning star (club), bent on saving the party all by himself. He rolls a natural 1. The troll rolls a natural 20 and kills Gorrtt on the spot. Only 20 minutes have elapsed, but I am hooked. I cajole the co-DM into helping me create another character then and there (another story).

And role-played ever since. All 7 boxed sets, AD&D, 2e, 3e, 3.5e, Traveller (me, too! Mega- and -2000), and scads of others from Boot hill to GammaWorld, GURPS and MERPS to BattleTech, Champions to Marvel Superheroes, MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, and more ...

Loved 'em all, but have never abandoned D&D. Only one I play now, although I could probably fill a amall library with boxed books, accessories, and modules I kept from the different games I have played.

If you don't count the small handfull of never used d20 Modern characters (and in some cases, used but left after so long, such as Cieala, irritant of Black Dragons at 4th level, budding Telepath)

My friend who introduced me to a slowly growing love, d20 Modern, came over one night with a massive pack of new books, telling me: This is the Daddy of d20 Modern, this is the latest version of Dungeon and Dragons. My immediate reaction was: That still exists?!? (having seen older books from my other friend's mother's gaming days)

Up until that fateful day, I had always thought thad D&D had left us, but was still used in computer games and such. Here before me was proof that you could still play a kick-ass game on paper. But yet have I to introduce my first Characters under this game.

The friend who brought 3.5e into my life (I know a lot of peeps don't like it, but I was started with it) had a story that he had been working on. My brother and I played two characters that were needed to act out the next part.

Ca-pace, an High Elven cleric of the Twin Deities of Healing and Medicine was my character. She refused to weild weapons or armor, but we were in a town known as Mill, recently stuffed and overfilled with zombies. I immediately became very fond of my Turn Undead abilities. My bro played the brother who had adopted her, Garn, a Dwarven Prince (don't worry, the Elf-Dwarf friendship is NOWHERE near as cliche as it sounds, the cleric was found by dwarves when she got lost, and in turn introduced a religion for her goddesses into their society. It was great for a while, but she was still not my first creation, she was my friend's creation.

If you thought you were going to get away with reading about an Elven cleric, you were sorely mistaken, for I don't let anyone go without knowing the whole story, throwing in any other insignificant details.

The next day, when another of my friend's came over, and two of my brother's friends. We left the story campaign aside in the presence of more players, most of which didn't know the Story. When I came home from Gr. 11 Registration, my friend had created a Half-Orc Barbarian by the name of Keiji (who later tore a crocodile in half through DM's discretion over a really nice Grapple check, with two others of us floating unconscious in the water) My younger brother had made a Half-Elf Sorceress by the name of Kendra, who was looking for 'shiney rocks' in the grass at Keiji's orders when I arrived. I was immediately inspired to create yet another female character (I like to stick out of the norm sometimes, even if I always do it the same way) Miranda, human (the first yet) Monk.

The campaign continues on still today, both my friend Keiji (who had the first taste of this here too) got books later, my brothers friends also both took up initiative to get books too. I have taken over the campaign (albeit VERY slowly considering we don't often get much done during 'sessions' and I forget to think up plots and dungeons before hand. In spite of a burning urge to keep talking about Keiji's wonderfully hilarious antics (the fact that he didn't swim, he leapt off the sewer platform all the way to the above mentioned crocodile) but I should let you go. After all, there is a quote out their about the length of a report defending itself against the possibility of being actually read.

After searching through my pile of old and now unused D&D char sheets, I think I've found out my oldest one.
If you go by the d20 system, which was the first system I played, my first character was an intellectual human soldier named Gen Kian Mera. She was involved in a one-shot mission, and hasn't been in anything since.
But, if you go by D&D, my first character was a Drow Rogue named Kenaria Jevaf Goerh, made for Sibelius's campaign (at the time).

She was raised into a family trained as either mercenaries (mainly assassins, which was for the male side of the family) or clerics (which was for the female side of the family). The assassins all named themselves Jevaf Goerh, in order to prevent anyone from distinguishing between a single assassin, and to continue their legacy. Kenaria took the name and the role of the assassin, much to the disgust of her father and brother, and was shunned by both of them as a result, failing to see their equal in her. She is in the midst of proving them wrong, as well as proving her worth.

The campaign she was in is no longer running, but I still have the character sheet, just to remember it by.

Sui, your monk's name was Chale. And he was definitely fortunate to survive the little adventure.

Not sure if I will ever come back to those character... although I may come back to that campaign setting.

Anyway... my first character ever would have been a... ? I do remember it as being AD&D 2ed though and I started back in high school, in the same room as my accounting class... probably back in grade 11 (junior year, for those of your in the States)... 1993, I think. We used to play on saturdays at the DMs house. It was very much the whole sterotyped D&D experience... right down to the Mountain Dew.

First character here at the Inn was my namesake, a human wizard (w/ the witch kit), who first starred in the Webmaster's game "Meanwhile", before moving into Olan's other campaign "A Separate Thread." Super fun character.

So my first was only about 3 years ago. She was a 2nd edition neutral totemic druid. Nehima was half elf (1/2drow raised by a foster mother also a druid) I know its cliche. I had little experince sense before her I had always been told about the evils of D&D. However when I finally became comfortable with the idea that my soul was damned to the role playing world I jumped in head first. Not to mention that's how I managed to unintentionally steal myself a boyfriend turned fiance out of the whole deal. We more recently took those 2nd edition toons and translated them over 3.5 for the hopes of more role playing wonders in the marital years ahead.... If I can get him to stop playing 10 other games all at once. He also managed to get me hooked up with you all here in the RDI. yay

This sad threat died with my first ever post. Hope that's not a sign of things to come.

It is not dead but probably like many of us who have played a long time, since 1976 for me too, I have forgotten my first character I ever played except she was an elf.

But I can't remember anything else.

My first D&D character was created in 2001 when a guy I worked with at wal-mart invited me to a game he was running. It was at the eve of the 3.0 edition so Chris ,the guy who invited me, DMed his game with a fused system of 2nd and 3rd edition rules. Being that this was my first character, ever, I created a 5th lvl male elf wizard named Solstice.

Since I was, at the time, a D&D virgin due to my religion's belief that D&D was an evil game, Backgroud stories for a character was a foreign concept to me (not to mention my first introduction to RPGs was through early video games on the NES like Dragon Warrior, Ultima-Exodus, and Magic of Sheherzade).
Solstice was cocky and self assure (and to later find out, very un-elf like), which that got him in plenty of trouble for he was no where near ready for half the crap he got himself into. It's a miracle he didn't die. Because Solstice's traveling companion had a bad habbit of falling behind (the player didn't show up for sessions), Solstice wound up doing a lot of fighting solo, which toughened him up quite a bit. Solstice never really died, but his adventuring career was cut short at Level 8 and faded into the back of my mind and into forgetfulness for everyone else that knew of him.

My first just so happened to be a kobold rogue by the name of Shensing. He followed the typical story of the beaten down adventurer. Orphan, street child, formed a group of friends so that they could survive, captured and tortured, escaped, etc. But then, I just so happened to fit right in with our groups other rogue... and the fighter... and the BBEG (which I didn't know at the time.)

So then I proceeded to get adopted, left right and center. I went into the game being Shensing. I came out being Shensing Forgingaxe-Tossocobble-Blackthorn. The BBEG of the game adopted me last... then one time, my character said he was glad to have three parents... And the group just so happened to wonder who the third was. When I happened to say it was Mr. Blackthorn... well. Hell and high water happened. I received many verbal lashings from my other "parents", but I couldn't turn my back on him. I actually ended up convincing him to join us... and then another BBEG took his place.

Needless to say, it was an incredibly fun time.

First character... Now that's a tough one. Though not quite as old as some of these grey-haired people in here, it's still been a while. Guessing a year here... I'd say it was around 1986 or -87 making me 13-14 yrs old. (We weren't fortunate enough in Finland to get the games in the stores in here much earlier.)

Oh I now suddenly remembered a neighbor kid asking my mom to bring him the trio of Ad&d books (1st ed ofc) a few years earlier from London, but him being three years older than me, I never was accepted to take part in the fun.

So my first character was probably in M.E.R.P. or Traveller. Can't remember which one. Actually it must've been MERP since I didn't know the guy running the Traveller game at that time. But try as I may, I cannot come up with more details for the character. Were I forced to guess, I'd say he was an elf and probably a ranger, but really can't remember.

The first one I can remember was one I created a few months later. He was a Wolfen Long Bowman (yes it is long bowman, not longbow man or longbowman) called... called... Hell! can't remember even him. But it was a campaign not created by our DM, but an older friend of his, and boy was it good! Always loved Palladium RPG btw. Excellent game.

First one with a name? It was Dungeons and Dragons: Basic Rules Set 1 (I know, since I checked from the web) The second red box with a red dragon fighting a warrior or something. (Larry Elmore's art ofc) The campaign or probably a single adventure was a simple dungeon with nasties inside.

My character was Gortag the dwarf (the name is still in use in WoW, though no longer a dwarf, but a troll instead) He was the only good character in a group of evils and hence didn't last long.

I can remember the four characters entering a room, a bedroom of sorts, and the group's thief attempted to pocket a ring he found from a drawer. Gortag noticed the attempt and naturally didn't like it at all. He challenged the rogue with the issue and the foolish human denied everything. Angered beyond control, the first level dwarf threw an unarmed punch at the rogue and killed him on the spot... Not exactly a good character's behavior, I know.

Well in the end the rest of the group got out, but on the way home met a Carrion Crawler (if my memory doesn't fail me) and Gortag got paralyzed by it. Well the evil mage in the group cast a Sleep spell on both my character and the monster. (not sure if it should've worked on the CC) Then he and the eevil fighter killed us both.

My first character was randomly generated in the Cyber Punk 2020 system. He was Asian, and had glowy implants in his hair, I think he was a techie. After that I made a Full Conversion Borg because I spent most of the first character's time running away from Borgs and Power Armor. That was back in the early '90's seventh grade. In high school I turned to Rifts and played a Burster for long time named Nar Tur, which in the Tolkien elven means Fire Master. Late in College, 2000 or 2001 my roommate had a DnD 3.0 set, and I'd never really played, so I read the players guide and created an Elven Wiz/Ftr named Iolloken Gallenodel. I'd never DMed before, but I had a bunch of ideas, and the DM (my roommate) was enthusiastic, but not a lot of imagination. So I was basically spoon feeding him the plot between sessions. Then we played another game with another DM and I was an Avriel (winged elf) bard. And I had a lot of cool ideas, but the DM wouldn't let me use any of them. So I started my own game, and have been DMing or GMing or Storytelling ever since. I still like being a player though, just doesn't happen very often.

My first character was a Halfling Rogue named Zane. He was the prince of a kingdom named Coldwave looking for the ancient weapon to defeat the darkness that destroyed his kingdom. He was 3.5 version.

...I kind of thought I'd answered this one before but I guess I haven't, eh? Hooodathunkit?

Anyhoo, if I remember correctly my first character ever was an AD&D thief (not rogue, mind you, I said thief) named Shadowjack... that was like 30 some years ago so about all I can tell you about the character is his name, the fact that he was a thief, and that he likely died a horrible, horrible death.

Discovered Gamma World shortly thereafter and played a mutant mountain-lion... that's a different thread though.