Monday, May 3, 2010

My First AD&D Character

The nostalgia continues.  Here's the character sheet of my very first character in any version of D&D I (1e AD&D, in this case) from almost thirty years ago:


I realize that this just slightly more age worn that say, the Dead Sea Scrolls, so I'll reiterate some of the key points.  The material document itself is a sheet of typing paper on which the layout of the official AD&D character record form has been re-created in blue ballpoint pen.  The character is Grimlin, a 13th level elven fighter whose hit points have seen a high amount of revision, but now number "1900."  I don't recall how that came to be, but I'm sure there's a story there.  Probably several.  All epic.

This character was inspired by the elven hero of one of the D&D: Endless Quest books.  He had a sword which would light up when he said "Sword of the Magus light this place!" or something similar.  He was definitely a "short" elf, not a tall Tolkiennian one.  I named him "Grimlin" because I had recently discovered the folklore creature of that name, and thought the name sounded cool--this was before the 1984 film.

Now let's take a look at the loot on the back:


I should explain that we played for sometime without a copy of the Dungeon Masters Guide.  The first one I'd ever seen was when I got it for Christmas the year I got my very own copy of the Players Handbook (the new one with the Easley cover).  I say that to illustrate that we had, therefore, never heard of a "Monty Haul campaign."  With that in mind, I'll let you review the list of magic items on your own.

Now despite the vast power of Grimlin and his companions, there was no "ascending to godhood" like I heard mentioned by other players I would meet at Boy Scout camp, or other summer programs, back in the day.  No, Grimlin and his gang were still schlepping it through dungeons--though dungeons which extended to the Outer Planes, admittedly (note that Grimlin had the Rod of Asmodeus in his possession).  Said schlepping required lackeys, and Grimlin has ten alignment-congruent henchmen--Hawk (named for the Slayer?), Taran (named for the pig-keeper?), Goan, Roland, Nordon, Pannon, Gord (before Gygax!), Nar, Jor, and Thor.

I actually have my second character, too--a bard named Robin Goodfellow--but that sheet is in worse condition than this one, and much less epic, as it comes from a less "anything goes" time in our gaming--which is to say still probably pretty damn "anything goes."

But we had a helluva lot of fun, and that's what matters.

8 comments:

Gothridge Manor said...

Wow, still have that after 30 years. I am horrible at keeping stuff. Very cool though to look back and see what was going on back then. I like in the experince section that he'd 'gone to college'. What did he major in?

bliss_infinte said...

Awesome! Now that's a character sheet! It's great you still have it.

Jim Shelley said...

That's cool you still have that! Is it me, or has your handwriting still about the same? ;)

Trey said...

@Tim - My keeping things is haphazard. I have this character and my second, but I'm missing quite a bit from that point through 1988-89. I don't recall the college thing, but I imagined he majored in Esoteric Adventuring with a minor in Magic Item Usage.

@Bliss - It is isn't it? :)

@Jim - Actually, I think my printing is worse since that time. Now, when looking at this sheet, some of the writing (the blue ink, definitely) is my cousin's, not mine.

Brutorz Bill said...

WOW,
That's really cool that you still have this!
Now you need to incorporate this character with Kazoth somehow!

Trey said...

@bill - I guess its my comic book-fan nature, but my campaign has always had a degree of continuity. Though the world has gone through retcons in several ways, Grimlin and his companions are always part of the misty "history" of the world.

The Frothy Friar said...

the good old days...when all you needed was a sheet of paper to make a character. And chances were you could remember everything you needed to write down without looking at a rulebook.

Roger G-S said...

1900 HP? Wausome! Would that I had even a tenth of the papers from olden days. Or any record of Newt Ralgud, my first character. And I really had some good adventure ideas in those lab notebooks ...