First Character - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

First Character

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Oct 03, 2003 8:53:02 I've got four first time players in my new 1e campaign. Three want to be Elven Fighter/Mu's while the other one wants to be a Dwarven Fighter/Thief. They got me thinking about my first time playing, and I wanted to be everything also.
Please regail us with stories of your first GH character so I can encourage some diversity within the group. Especially the benifits of single class humans. (I've pointed out the rapid advancement, but since they don't understand advancement, they don't care.)
#2
zombiegleemax
Oct 03, 2003 9:02:25 Why do you want to discourage them from playing what they want? The group is a bit strange, but why not let them do it? The group of Elves is a perfect starter - a group is sent out from the X Forest on a mission to Y - you just have to get the Dwarf involved at that point.

Paul
#3
Gnarley_Woodsman
Oct 03, 2003 9:13:55 Ahh.....the early days!

In the long long ago, In the beore times I was a newbie to the game.

I played a 1e Greyhawk game for the first time. My character was Garath Deathwarder. A True Neutral Human Male Fighter from the Safeton. I sought work as a mercenary on the Wild Coast. My compatriots and I served as militia, and roamed the plains with bandits. We crossed swords with orcs and men alike. We protected villages from certain destruction and helped raize others. We boldly rode with and against pirates on the Wooly Bay. If you had the coin the Wild Blades mercenary company was at your disposal. Ah memories.....

You don't live to tell tales if ye be dead. Early on in an adventurers career ye'd do better not to sread yerself thin... Aye, ye needs a couple o' good scrappers, a top notch magic user, and someone who knows how to handle locks and traps. No to mention either a cleric who's serves Kord, or plenty of healin' elixers. I canna tell ye how many of our original group couldna' pull thier weght an' either left or got killed. All because they were unable to do as well as a hardliner.
#4
Greyson
Oct 03, 2003 9:24:34 Wow, sounds cool Gnarley_Woodsman. Yes, the good ol' 1st Ed. days.

My first character was a human, neutral good fighter. Nothing fancy, just a simple sword-swinger. I remember the fun thing about playing an AD&D character in the 1980s was the PHB of the times had the different names for each class as they advanced in level, e.g., Swordsman, Myrmidon, etc.

We played the ubiquitous Temple of Elemental Evil and argued with Trader Jay at his crooked general store almost every gaming session.
#5
Gnarley_Woodsman
Oct 03, 2003 9:32:29 Carthage most certainly needs to be destroyed....Anyone have any salt?

We didn't hit the temple until our second campaign. By then Garath had retired at 15th level to lord over a small community north west of Safeton. My second AD&D character was an Slyvan Elf Ranger from the Welkwood. Zaerax Silverbow. He made it through to the Temple, but was killed by Slavers in the Pomarj....He took quite a few baddies with him though.

I' m starting to get the urge to Bring Grath out of retirement....
#6
zombiegleemax
Oct 03, 2003 9:44:12
Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman
Carthage most certainly needs to be destroyed....Anyone have any salt?

Ok, I was curious when I saw the sig, but now I just plain NEED to know. If you don't tell me, my head will explode. Do you really want my death on your conscience?

Oh, and 1st ed sucks. Why anyone would choose to go backwards is beyond me....
#7
Gnarley_Woodsman
Oct 03, 2003 9:52:23 Carthage was destroyed by the Roman Empire over and over and over. They kept coming back and rebuilding and harassing the Roman border regions. You'll have to forgive me for the lack of name but a popular Roman Senator decided that Carthage should be wiped out permanently. He ended every public speech with Oh, and carthage must be destroyed.

Eventually the Romans went back into Tunisia and spent three years destroying the capital. Once everythin was raized they salted the earth so that nothing would grow there again.

Its one of my favorite points of Roman History.

Edit:

It was by speeches by a Roman named Cato the Elder, who said Delenda est Carthago, translating in English meaning, "Carthage must be destroyed."

Link to Roman History Page
#8
zombiegleemax
Oct 03, 2003 10:41:34 That's just cool. Thanks for enlightening me.
#9
Gnarley_Woodsman
Oct 03, 2003 10:45:25 That's just cool. Thanks for enlightening me.

Yeah, I liked it...and No problem
#10
Gnarley_Woodsman
Oct 03, 2003 11:01:38 Another statement from history that I love is:

Molan Labe

King Leonides and 300 Spartans are besiged by 2 million Persians at Thermopylae. The Spartans fight so well that King Xerxes the Persian Emperor offers a truce. "Surrender your weapons, and you will not die. I will take you as personal slaves." King Leonides responds with 2 words Molan Labe...roughly translated "Come and take them"....

Probably the first use in history of Come get some!!

It was said that the Persian Archers were so numerous that thier flights of arrows blocked the sun when they flew. The Spartan response was....Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade!
#11
Greyson
Oct 03, 2003 11:35:42 LOL, Yes, it was Cato the Elder. He hated the Persians with an undying passion. He ended all of his speeches, no matter what the subject or occasion with, "Besides, I think Carthage must be destroyed." Hanibal Barca really gave the Romans a scare during the Second Punic War. Even though Scipio "Africanus" Amelius defeated Hanibal at Zuma, it was not until 148 BCE that Rome finally made Cato's dream come true. Were talking about full-on looting, burning, vandalism, ****, slaughter and peeps sold into slavery.

You gotta love good, old fashioned brutal Roman warfare. Those freaking Romans were mean as Heck.

Good job Gnarley ;) I had no idea you were curious Delgath.
#12
Gnarley_Woodsman
Oct 03, 2003 11:43:24 And of course....SALTING!!!

Thnx, nice to know there are other Grecko/Roman history enthusiasts on these boards!
#13
zombiegleemax
Oct 03, 2003 12:39:39
Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman
Probably the first use in history of Come get some!!

Heh, it's personal stuff like that, that I think is somewhat missing from most setting histories. Heroes of the moment. The only example that comes close in GH is Osson as detailed in the Greyhawk wars.

I'd love to see more stories like that, using current canon to draw upon.

Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman
Thnx, nice to know there are other Grecko/Roman history enthusiasts on these boards!

I love history. Especially military history. I am, apparently (if my father can be believed) descended from Prussian knights... war is in the blood

Originally posted by Greyson
Good job Gnarley ;) I had no idea you were curious Delgath.

Heh, I'm curious about everything, but history in particular and I knew Carthage was a real place, just not the history behind it.

Just because I absolutely adore the series and think everyone should see it, I'll once again advertise Micheal Wood's 'In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great'. In it, he retraces the journey Alexander took with his army, from Greece, all the way to India (IIRC). He goes to the very places where battles took place and recounts the legends of those battles. Not your normal documentary, it is thoroughly immersive and by the end of it you're quite literally left breathless in amazement at the legend that is: Iksander.

One day, I'm going to make the definitive movie of Alexander the Great...
#14
Argon
Oct 03, 2003 13:42:59 Believe it or not my first character was a trollborn barbarian. His namw of course Argon. I was alone in the beginning because I couldn't play on the same days as the rerst of the group. It all worked out in the end. Because the party was very diversified in it's dynamic. A Grugach male ranger named Grimm, a Human ranger named by the goblins in his area as Death Dealer, a human fighter named Tavis Dilk, a female cleric that went by the name of Ectos, a half-elven paladin named Rudolf Hawkeye, and a gnome illusionist named Skywise.
Yeah, big party of which I was with only half the time. One of the main villians was actually the father of Tavis Dilk. Ectos died about eight times when we played and I refused to keep bringing the dead back but no one would listen.
Tavis eventually unsurped his fathers position and took over leadership of Thermia. Rudolf Hawkeye was granted the title of Duke of Laragund by Tavis. Ectos and Skywise meet there end in the Thermia wars. Grimm, Argon and Death dealer had meet the fabled Aegir and were taught the ways to defeat Hrrondal (Green Dragon) Argon was given the Silver Moon Battle Axe by the Aegir as he was the only one in the party strong enough to wield it.
Well these three Argon, Grimm, and Death Dealer continued their adventures in the Gunre woods and fought the dreaded goblins, Tutara, and the rest of the forces of Hrrondal.
It was shortly after this that I took over dming and thing's changed drastically. We eventually switched things from homebrew to Greyhawk and many thing's that were created by myself in our homebrew world were changed over to our Greyhawk campaign.
This was good old first edition, I changed several of the rules back then and the party consisted of mostly human characters. But this was my introduction into the game. The only bad thing is from then on I was the DM for good unless I found another game to get involved in. But that only worked short time as every group I got into eventually wanted me to DM them.
I currently DM a group of four and don't want any more player's. In the past I had dm'ed groups as large as 16 player's. This is very diffficult and time consuming as many different personalties come into play. A group of four to five is plenty and I wouldn't recommend larger groups.
#15
cwslyclgh
Oct 03, 2003 14:31:06 hmmm... my first character was human fighter who made it to 12th level eventualy... I still have him (or at least a copy of him, his original character sheet is long gone) around here someplace...

my second character (who I played at the same time, becuase we were short of players back then) was an elven fighter/magic-use ;)
#16
samwise
Oct 03, 2003 15:21:48 On history:
Rome only defeated Carthage three times, that being the number of Punic Wars. It was after the last that they made it "beyond permanent" by salting the land and placing an official curse on it.
So it was only over and over again. :P
And indeed, you can't beat real history for some truly awesome sayings. Don't forget good old Caius Julius and Veni, Vidi, Vici.

On characters:
Just tell your players you want them to play humans with only one or two demi-humans allowed. That's what I did for my current campaign, and nobody had a problem with it. Later I will do a game with mostly or only demi-humans allowed.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Oct 03, 2003 8:53:02	I've got four first time players in my new 1e campaign. Three want to be Elven Fighter/Mu's while the other one wants to be a Dwarven Fighter/Thief. They got me thinking about my first time playing, and I wanted to be everything also. Please regail us with stories of your first GH character so I can encourage some diversity within the group. Especially the benifits of single class humans. (I've pointed out the rapid advancement, but since they don't understand advancement, they don't care.)
#2 zombiegleemax Oct 03, 2003 9:02:25	Why do you want to discourage them from playing what they want? The group is a bit strange, but why not let them do it? The group of Elves is a perfect starter - a group is sent out from the X Forest on a mission to Y - you just have to get the Dwarf involved at that point. Paul
#3 Gnarley_Woodsman Oct 03, 2003 9:13:55	Ahh.....the early days! In the long long ago, In the beore times I was a newbie to the game. I played a 1e Greyhawk game for the first time. My character was Garath Deathwarder. A True Neutral Human Male Fighter from the Safeton. I sought work as a mercenary on the Wild Coast. My compatriots and I served as militia, and roamed the plains with bandits. We crossed swords with orcs and men alike. We protected villages from certain destruction and helped raize others. We boldly rode with and against pirates on the Wooly Bay. If you had the coin the Wild Blades mercenary company was at your disposal. Ah memories..... You don't live to tell tales if ye be dead. Early on in an adventurers career ye'd do better not to sread yerself thin... Aye, ye needs a couple o' good scrappers, a top notch magic user, and someone who knows how to handle locks and traps. No to mention either a cleric who's serves Kord, or plenty of healin' elixers. I canna tell ye how many of our original group couldna' pull thier weght an' either left or got killed. All because they were unable to do as well as a hardliner.
#4 Greyson Oct 03, 2003 9:24:34	Wow, sounds cool Gnarley_Woodsman. Yes, the good ol' 1st Ed. days. My first character was a human, neutral good fighter. Nothing fancy, just a simple sword-swinger. I remember the fun thing about playing an AD&D character in the 1980s was the PHB of the times had the different names for each class as they advanced in level, e.g., Swordsman, Myrmidon, etc. We played the ubiquitous Temple of Elemental Evil and argued with Trader Jay at his crooked general store almost every gaming session.
#5 Gnarley_Woodsman Oct 03, 2003 9:32:29	Carthage most certainly needs to be destroyed....Anyone have any salt? We didn't hit the temple until our second campaign. By then Garath had retired at 15th level to lord over a small community north west of Safeton. My second AD&D character was an Slyvan Elf Ranger from the Welkwood. Zaerax Silverbow. He made it through to the Temple, but was killed by Slavers in the Pomarj....He took quite a few baddies with him though. I' m starting to get the urge to Bring Grath out of retirement....
#6 zombiegleemax Oct 03, 2003 9:44:12	Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman Carthage most certainly needs to be destroyed....Anyone have any salt? Ok, I was curious when I saw the sig, but now I just plain NEED to know. If you don't tell me, my head will explode. Do you really want my death on your conscience? Oh, and 1st ed sucks. Why anyone would choose to go backwards is beyond me....
#7 Gnarley_Woodsman Oct 03, 2003 9:52:23	Carthage was destroyed by the Roman Empire over and over and over. They kept coming back and rebuilding and harassing the Roman border regions. You'll have to forgive me for the lack of name but a popular Roman Senator decided that Carthage should be wiped out permanently. He ended every public speech with Oh, and carthage must be destroyed. Eventually the Romans went back into Tunisia and spent three years destroying the capital. Once everythin was raized they salted the earth so that nothing would grow there again. Its one of my favorite points of Roman History. Edit: It was by speeches by a Roman named Cato the Elder, who said Delenda est Carthago, translating in English meaning, "Carthage must be destroyed." Link to Roman History Page
#8 zombiegleemax Oct 03, 2003 10:41:34	That's just cool. Thanks for enlightening me.
#9 Gnarley_Woodsman Oct 03, 2003 10:45:25	That's just cool. Thanks for enlightening me. Yeah, I liked it...and No problem
#10 Gnarley_Woodsman Oct 03, 2003 11:01:38	Another statement from history that I love is: Molan Labe King Leonides and 300 Spartans are besiged by 2 million Persians at Thermopylae. The Spartans fight so well that King Xerxes the Persian Emperor offers a truce. "Surrender your weapons, and you will not die. I will take you as personal slaves." King Leonides responds with 2 words Molan Labe...roughly translated "Come and take them".... Probably the first use in history of Come get some!! It was said that the Persian Archers were so numerous that thier flights of arrows blocked the sun when they flew. The Spartan response was....Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade!
#11 Greyson Oct 03, 2003 11:35:42	LOL, Yes, it was Cato the Elder. He hated the Persians with an undying passion. He ended all of his speeches, no matter what the subject or occasion with, "Besides, I think Carthage must be destroyed." Hanibal Barca really gave the Romans a scare during the Second Punic War. Even though Scipio "Africanus" Amelius defeated Hanibal at Zuma, it was not until 148 BCE that Rome finally made Cato's dream come true. Were talking about full-on looting, burning, vandalism, ****, slaughter and peeps sold into slavery. You gotta love good, old fashioned brutal Roman warfare. Those freaking Romans were mean as Heck. Good job Gnarley ;) I had no idea you were curious Delgath.
#12 Gnarley_Woodsman Oct 03, 2003 11:43:24	And of course....SALTING!!! Thnx, nice to know there are other Grecko/Roman history enthusiasts on these boards!
#13 zombiegleemax Oct 03, 2003 12:39:39	Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman Probably the first use in history of Come get some!! Heh, it's personal stuff like that, that I think is somewhat missing from most setting histories. Heroes of the moment. The only example that comes close in GH is Osson as detailed in the Greyhawk wars. I'd love to see more stories like that, using current canon to draw upon. Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman Thnx, nice to know there are other Grecko/Roman history enthusiasts on these boards! I love history. Especially military history. I am, apparently (if my father can be believed) descended from Prussian knights... war is in the blood Originally posted by Greyson Good job Gnarley ;) I had no idea you were curious Delgath. Heh, I'm curious about everything, but history in particular and I knew Carthage was a real place, just not the history behind it. Just because I absolutely adore the series and think everyone should see it, I'll once again advertise Micheal Wood's 'In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great'. In it, he retraces the journey Alexander took with his army, from Greece, all the way to India (IIRC). He goes to the very places where battles took place and recounts the legends of those battles. Not your normal documentary, it is thoroughly immersive and by the end of it you're quite literally left breathless in amazement at the legend that is: Iksander. One day, I'm going to make the definitive movie of Alexander the Great...
#14 Argon Oct 03, 2003 13:42:59	Believe it or not my first character was a trollborn barbarian. His namw of course Argon. I was alone in the beginning because I couldn't play on the same days as the rerst of the group. It all worked out in the end. Because the party was very diversified in it's dynamic. A Grugach male ranger named Grimm, a Human ranger named by the goblins in his area as Death Dealer, a human fighter named Tavis Dilk, a female cleric that went by the name of Ectos, a half-elven paladin named Rudolf Hawkeye, and a gnome illusionist named Skywise. Yeah, big party of which I was with only half the time. One of the main villians was actually the father of Tavis Dilk. Ectos died about eight times when we played and I refused to keep bringing the dead back but no one would listen. Tavis eventually unsurped his fathers position and took over leadership of Thermia. Rudolf Hawkeye was granted the title of Duke of Laragund by Tavis. Ectos and Skywise meet there end in the Thermia wars. Grimm, Argon and Death dealer had meet the fabled Aegir and were taught the ways to defeat Hrrondal (Green Dragon) Argon was given the Silver Moon Battle Axe by the Aegir as he was the only one in the party strong enough to wield it. Well these three Argon, Grimm, and Death Dealer continued their adventures in the Gunre woods and fought the dreaded goblins, Tutara, and the rest of the forces of Hrrondal. It was shortly after this that I took over dming and thing's changed drastically. We eventually switched things from homebrew to Greyhawk and many thing's that were created by myself in our homebrew world were changed over to our Greyhawk campaign. This was good old first edition, I changed several of the rules back then and the party consisted of mostly human characters. But this was my introduction into the game. The only bad thing is from then on I was the DM for good unless I found another game to get involved in. But that only worked short time as every group I got into eventually wanted me to DM them. I currently DM a group of four and don't want any more player's. In the past I had dm'ed groups as large as 16 player's. This is very diffficult and time consuming as many different personalties come into play. A group of four to five is plenty and I wouldn't recommend larger groups.
#15 cwslyclgh Oct 03, 2003 14:31:06	hmmm... my first character was human fighter who made it to 12th level eventualy... I still have him (or at least a copy of him, his original character sheet is long gone) around here someplace... my second character (who I played at the same time, becuase we were short of players back then) was an elven fighter/magic-use ;)
#16 samwise Oct 03, 2003 15:21:48	On history: Rome only defeated Carthage three times, that being the number of Punic Wars. It was after the last that they made it "beyond permanent" by salting the land and placing an official curse on it. So it was only over and over again. :P And indeed, you can't beat real history for some truly awesome sayings. Don't forget good old Caius Julius and Veni, Vidi, Vici. On characters: Just tell your players you want them to play humans with only one or two demi-humans allowed. That's what I did for my current campaign, and nobody had a problem with it. Later I will do a game with mostly or only demi-humans allowed.