Some crazy things went on in the early 1980s.
Not least of which was my introduction to role-playing games. D&D changed everything. My already over-active imagination found a vehicle that propelled me through realms indescribable.
Finding My Old D&D Characters
When cleaning out my childhood home after my father passed away, I made a discovery. Tucked away in a magazine holder with old Starlogs and Lucas Film Fan Club magazines was my first Dungeons and Dragons rule book.
I opened it, and out fell some of the first characters I ever created. I thought I would share them with you. The date range on these would be from 1982 to about 1985.
My First Dungeons and Dragons Character
“The Skull” was the first character I ever created. I was nine years old, and D&D was pulsing through my veins. If I remember correctly, I only played him a few times. I wish I could find the dice I used to roll his attributes!
How do you think he carried all that gold?
Dwarf Character with Unintentionally Cool Name
I only have vague memories of this Dwarven Fighter. I do clearly remember wanting to name him Gargoyle. However, my dyslexic third grade brain came up with Gorgile. Not a bad name, though.
I like how I put the lowest attribute score on constitution. I’m not sure of my reasoning with that choice. But hey, he has a million gold pieces, so who cares.
Long Live the King, “Evilish” Paladin
I have no memories of creating or playing this character named King. However, I do remember the day I spilled Pepsi all over the character sheet. I was very angry with myself. I thought the portrait I drew was awesome.
As you may have noticed, I had my own system for rolling attributes. I would make characters while watching He-Man or Voltron. I believe I just kept rolling until I was pleased with the result.
Evilish? Paladin? Nine million gold pieces? I don’t…
Thug Life with a Seven Foot, Two Inch Tall Cleric
Thug was my main character through tons of adventures. He was the right-hand man to my brother’s fighter/magic-user character who was called Flash.
Why was he named Thug? Well, I wanted a really cool name. I was wasting time and not picking one, so the DM said his name was Thug. Then we started the first adventure. After that, I always made sure to have a name ready to go.
Again, lowest score on CON for some reason.
Morgan the Price?
I’m guessing I meant to name this character “Morgan the Prince,” because “the Price” doesn’t make any sense.
However, I would not put anything past a kid who makes a 9’11” tall human and puts a “v” in thief. Must have been watching an Andre the Giant wrestling match when I made him that tall.
The Elf with No Name
Evilish shows up again on this character. I wonder where I got that from?
I made him awfully short. I remember having arguments with friends about how tall Elves could be. Looks like I was wrong. I hope I didn’t ruin a friendship over it.
Man, I spilled a lot of soda.
I Am Become Borg
I so remember creating this character. I was in the third grade, and I was very proud of the name. I will have you know this was a good three or four years before Star Trek: The Next Generation. Just saying.
(Since writing this, I learned that I ripped off this name from the D&D Basic Rulebook. There goes my claim to any originality.)
I was never able to play him, much to my sorrow and deep regret. Seriously, the guy had a hawk.
Dirk the Daring
No memory of this fighter remains in me. Though, I must have liked the name…
Dirk the Daring II
At first, I thought this was just a copy of Dirk I. However, there are some key differences.
While they are both 17 years old, Dirk II is five inches taller and more than a hundred pounds heavier. Plus two 16 attribute ratings got bumped up to 17.
Also, Dirk II lost the “Cheeze Stars.” (I assume I meant “Chinese Stars.”)
The Thief, Who Was a Dragonslayer
A wispy, smoke-like memory of this thief being hired to slay a dragon flits about the dark recesses of my mind. Apparently, he succeeded and was richly rewarded with magic items.
I’m a little disappointed with the name (My name is Matt, if you didn’t know.), but at least I grew out of that phase and thought of more robust fantasy names…
Joe the Magic Using Elf
Got nothing on this guy. It looks like he was a character I played at least a few times, though. I wonder why I erased all but two of his spells.
ORG, really?
This Halfling thief was decked out! Seriously, platemail, a shield, and a two “bladed” sword?
I was a confused child. I clearly needed a mentor who had read the rules. A thief with a 13 DEX and an 18 STR? I am ashamed.
Bobby, “Fighter-Assassins”
I may have created this character for one of my cousins, who never wanted to do any “work” in order to play D&D. Can you guess my cousin’s name?
Or, maybe I simply named the character after my cousin. I was prone to hero worship when I was a kid.
Atlas the Hardy Magic User
All I can say about this character is, at least I figured out that constitution was important. Hmm… I erased a couple of his spells as well.
Thorn the Incomplete
It looks like I never finished creating Thorn. No attribute scores or equipment. However, I was thoughtful enough to arm him with the most outrageous weapons possible.
I wonder how I calculated his hit points? The world may never know.
What I Learned from My Childhood D&D Characters
I learned I was a dirty, rotten, little cheater. I learned I prized strength and size over anything else. Though, intelligence usually got an 18 as well, so that’s something.
I learned several of my characters had more gold than Fort Knox. I learned that I was in desperate need of spell check. What’s a Gen Xer to do?
I learned that my friends and I had incredible adventures, which created memories I never want to lose.
I am so happy I have these characters as reminders of the time when fun conquered rules and the only limit was a child’s imagination.
Do you still have any D&D characters from when you were a child? If so, let me know in the comments.
Who knew from these humble beginnings I would end up creating all of these D&D resources books?
“I learned I was a dirty, rotten, little cheater. ”
It’s a mark of maturity that you can come to grips with that. 18,17,16,18,17,16 – There was no shame in your game.
I figured it was best to admit it. 🙂
Hi Matt,
I started way back in 77 with the White Box and while I don’t have my first character, I do have the first real dungeon I made in 1979, “The Lost Arrows of Artemis”, it was released in 2007 as “The Lost Arrows of Aristemis” by Goodman Games.
Bruce,
That’s awesome. I’ll check it out.
Thanks for sharing Matt, really enjoyed reading this. Hope your fizzy drink spilling days are over!
No problem. Thank you!
Somewhat recently I stumbled across my first (and only) Gamma World characters! Slightly more legal as I was a bit older when I made them, but still some funny stuff! Thanks for sharing these!
You’re welcome! I bet you had a blast playing Gamma World.
This is awesome. These images bring back many happy memories for me!
I’m glad you liked them!
You, sir, have just posted the counterparts to my own early-to-mid-1980s D&D characters! Right down to the all-over-the-place categories, and impossible amounts of items. Plus, those ability scores — if I recall, for too long I was rolling 1d20 to determine them, and coming up with exactly the scores your characters had.
Plus, since I generally only played with one other friend who was the DM, we solved the problem of the one-player party by creating groups of ten characters… for each of us! Those 20-character adventures were something, let me tell you.
Here’s the cool part — I still have every single one of my (and his) old characters, both living and dead. Yes, they were AD&D. And they remain as a reminder of how it could be so, so cool to have that part of your imagination, that world, to yourself.
Well done, sir. Thank you.
Peter,
Creating 10 characters each sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing!
This was hilarious to read. Thank you for sharing your memories. That’s one of the things I love about D&D.
Jeff,
No problem. I’m glad it triggered your own good memories!
I’m so jealous. I was forced to burn mine in the Great Panic. More than one of my PCs was named Morgan Del Mar and all had stats like yours. 🙂
Oh no! I’m sorry. Hopefully people are over that.
I didn’t have the friends to make roleplaying happen until I was an adult. I’m so jealous when I see examples in media of kids sitting around a table being 10x more emotionally invested than anyone I’ve ever played with. Then I see these character sheets and I’m almost breaking down over here. This is magical. I hope you keep these protected.
Thank you for your moving comment.I plan on keeping them safe.
Great find! Thanks for sharing and my condolences for your loss.
Thank you!
My name is Dirk II!
That’s awesome!
Thanks for that. I started playing at around the same time (early 80s) with the classic “Red Box”. I recently looked at some of the old characters, and it was remarkably similar, with ridiculous stats, lots of loot, and magic items (and a surprising number of pretty mundane items from the equipment list mixed in). I even had a Dirk the fighter (I loved the Dragon’s Lair video game). One thing I noticed in particular was the age of the characters. Almost every one was 27 or 28. I think as a 12 or 13 year old, I thought that was “old enough for some life experience, but not TOO old”. It’s funny that as I have gotten older (44 now), the average age of my characters has risen with me.
While his character sheet is long gone, your characters remind me of my first character: Talon the Fighter. He had 900 hit points at 9th level, just to give an indication of my mindset at the time. While he had many magic items, his favorite was his 3-bladed sword that could shoot two of the three blades.
His companion was my brother’s thief, whose name I don’t remember, but his signature attack was dual daggers to the back, just like that little dude in Conan the Destroyer.
Yeah, our D&D games were a weird mix of Conan comics/novels/movies and The Sword & The Sorcerer. What pre-teen didn’t love that stuff? And what else was I gonna use for setting, seeing as how I only had the Basic and Expert box sets? The sets with the sweet Erol Otus covers, I mean.
Oh man, good times.
Still have most of my old PCs as well. Good times, and I was just a big of a cheater as you. 🙂