do u remember ur first pnp game?

[redneckdevil]

Forgive me im new at the pen and paper seeing how I just recently had my first game of it. Man! Its alot of fun! Well seeing how I read up thats to the pathfinder app, my charecter creation only took about an hour and a half. He had to explain alot of stuff for me. Well I thought id share my first game experience and hopefully others that remember their first game or one that sticks out. Well here I go.

 

First I created a half-elf rogue thats chaotic nuetral. I forgot the town but come to find out a dwarven cleric needs an escort for him and his donkey up to the mines to drop off supplys. The path has grown dangerous crom the goblins and....orcs?? Dangit I forgot...but anyway he pays half up front and I find an inn to drink and eat for the quest in the morn.

We get on the path and I decide to scout ahead. I roll for perception and I see a goblin a ways up the path. Well I xecide hes a ways off so I run 30 feet and then I was gonna sneak the other 30. Didnt happen. Unawares to me the goblin spots me before I can go in sneak mode. He comes up demanding a toll of 30g. I bluff and say that the goblin should run away because I got 10 guys behind me. I roll and success and the goblin says 5g and we can all pass. Well my rogues a tightwade and I intimidate and say "how would u like a dagger in ur throat?" Intimidation fails. 2 other goblins spring outta trees near me and start an attack. I shot my crossbow and kill one of them and one misses me. The other grazes me but im a glass cannon rogue with 8 health points and im yelling cor the fat dwarf to come to help. Battle insues, I atk with my daggers, I get heals, goblins end up dead. I get scolded by the priest BC I should be more sneaky while we load up his donkey with the armor and weapons from the fallen bodies.

Well anyway I dont take any chances. Im sneaky like panda and soon I spot a goblin taking a wizz. I roll and shot my crossbow. Crit and hit, goblin pinned to a tree.

Well we fight a couple more battles til we come towards a log. I use perception and notice a trap on it. I tell the dwarf theres a trap up ahead and he says I should disarm it. Im like screw that, hes wanting to pay me something right there so future wanderers arent hurt by it. I see he pulls out a great big bag of gold.

I tell the GM im roll for sleight of hand on the dwarf. He like what? Sure go ahead. I roll a 20 and his fat purse is mine. I lie to the dwarf and tell him to go up and ill go down to disarm, when really I sent him right into the trap. Well trap is sprung and dwarf almost dead and lo and behold goblins come out to investigate. I sneak away while the cleric and his donkey are killed and im not seen at all so I get away easily.

I have to say the GM was not expecting a neewbie as myself to do such so he was a bit flabbergasted and said he was noy expecting that at all lol. It was a shorter game than he had planned for but im happy I was able to surprise him and have fun at same time.

 

So theres my very first experience, whats some of urs or a memorable experience that u are willing to share?

[rjshae]

Hey, welcome to the hobby, redneckdevil! It's good to hear that you enjoyed the experience, and that new gamers are still joining PnP play. I had a blast back in the day when I played with a regular group. Hope it's just as fun for you!

[melkathi]

The other day I drove past where the house of my old GM from school once stood...

[redneckdevil]

The other day I drove past where the house of my old GM from school once stood...

 awwww =(

[melkathi]

 

The other day I drove past where the house of my old GM from school once stood...

 awwww =(

 

It was this tiny little house. Hardly qualifying for the term "house". All walls were clad in wood (except for my GM's room where the walls were covered in drawings of DnD monsters) really cozy. In the back there was a staircase leading to the roof, which in the summer was great for hanging out during a break or for waiting if the GM had to talk to some players without the rest of the party there.

Got torn down and an apartment building build there instead. My GM's mom apparently got locked up in the psych ward and he moved to a different city.

Yeah, going to that neighbourhood really does bring that "The good old days with no worry but passing a saving throw are gone for good" feeling.

[DeathCard]

Was forever ago.. mbe 1988 or something. A friend of mine's Dad tried to play dnd with us a couple of times. The story always went that we died at the beginning doing something stupid. A kind cleric resurrects us only go on about his payment for this deed and how we now owe his church many favors. Don't remember ever playing for more than an hour but a fun good memory. The Dad was definitely a hack and slash DM.. those were the old days before anyone knew what 'roleplaying' was lol. Glad we have gentlemens guide and similar to teach the old foggies like myself. :D

[Walsingham]

Playing at boarding school. Dwarven Trollslayer. You can't beat a trollslayer. They're the roleplaying equivalent of smores. See bad guy, run at bad guy with axe. See no bad guys, get drunk and sulk.

[sorophx]

I can't even remember my first character. was it barbarian? I do remember my first group, though. it lasted a month, and we never got anywhere, kept crawling through endless dungeons killing throwaway mobs 

[Keyrock]

I'm one of those weird folks that didn't play D&D as their first P&P game.  For me it was Space Master, the sci-fi spinoff of ICE's Rolemaster.  I played a Transhuman (genetically engineered human) Arms Tech who preferred rifles and was skilled in bypassing security systems as well as tinkering with weapons.  I was also the ship's main gunner and backup tech on all the non-weapon systems (obviously I was the main tech on the weapon systems).  Good times.

[Walsingham]

I'm one of those weird folks that didn't play D&D as their first P&P game.  For me it was Space Master, the sci-fi spinoff of ICE's Rolemaster.  I played a Transhuman (genetically engineered human) Arms Tech who preferred rifles and was skilled in bypassing security systems as well as tinkering with weapons.  I was also the ship's main gunner and backup tech on all the non-weapon systems (obviously I was the main tech on the weapon systems).  Good times.

 

When was that?

[Keyrock]

 

I'm one of those weird folks that didn't play D&D as their first P&P game.  For me it was Space Master, the sci-fi spinoff of ICE's Rolemaster.  I played a Transhuman (genetically engineered human) Arms Tech who preferred rifles and was skilled in bypassing security systems as well as tinkering with weapons.  I was also the ship's main gunner and backup tech on all the non-weapon systems (obviously I was the main tech on the weapon systems).  Good times.

 

When was that?

 

Sometime in the late 80s/early 90s

[Amentep]

My first character¹ was a (kinda dumb) human CG fighter who started up in the Keep on the Borderlands².

 

There was a fight with a shop keeper and we were booted from the city.  This became an ongoing grudge with the shopkeeper and one player that ended up with said party-member murdering the shopkeeper and getting away with it³.  This same player then kept murdering the various successor shop owners (all relatives of the original, brother, cousin, kids, wife) every time we returned until he did it while my character was actually there to witness it instead of waiting as he usually did and then we got into a fight that ran through the streets of the keep, up the walls and ended with the other player killing my character before passing a check and doing a spider climb down the keep walls to escape the city guard.⁴

 

The end.⁵

 

¹this is actually a bit more complicated then I let on, my first 20 or something characters were all pretty much the same guy.  We died a lot and sometimes lost our character sheets and re-rolled and ran with it.

 

²the 1981 revision D&D basic set, IIRC

 

³technically, there were actually two players who ended up playing more or less the same character so I may be confusing who did what to whom.

 

⁴the other player also liked killing the other PC's in their sleep and looting their bodies; to be honest I'm not sure if the monsters or the other players racked up more TPKs...

 

⁵I ended my human fighter streak by convincing the DM to let me play a Lizard Man fighter.  He rocked.  Well except that he couldn't actually go into the damn Keep on the Borderlands...

[ManifestedISO]

MERPS ... Middle-earth Role Playing System. Wasn't my first, but might have been my favorite. Top Secret, I think it was called ... a spy RPG. GURPS ... Generic Universe. Didn't play that too much. AD&D was the main platform.  The Forgotten Realms were well and truly remembered. 

[Tale]

Rifts. The first game was alright. I'd rolled a Crazy because I wanted to be random and wacky, but the rest of the group was being random enough that I didn't have the heart in me to add to it.

 

The first session was fine. It was around the 3rd or 4th session that I got sick of it. Our DM started getting a little too creepy for my tastes. "You're fighting a vampire, roll for sanity. Critical failure, you just bleep and bleep all over yourself." "Oh, you critical failed too, so now you're fleeing, right through that guy's bleep and bleep, you slip on it and now you're..." you get the drift.

 

That wasn't even the first time that stuff started coming up. The previous session had ended up with people basically abusing one of the AFK player's characters in manners unspeakable. I had asked if we could cut back on that, but the next session was just as bad.

[Azdeus]

My first pnp game was'nt really so much a game as it was a "tryout".

 

When I met the people that still are my friends and PnP players and GM's some 13+ years ago, they really did'nt know who I was and only heard about me through my class-mate that was in their group. I had spoken alot to him and after me mentioning Fallout, he told me about real PnP rpg's, and I wanted in.

It took them two months before they decided to let me try out, and see if I knew what roleplaying was, so we sat down in the cafeteria in school and had a 30 minute session of EON. I passed their little test by running around in the woods, and not attacking every moving object in sight.

 

 

The real first game though was in the same game, as an mercenary named Dirk Mikal from the city of Anlon in Drunok. He deceided to travel southeast to the lands of Asharien, where he eventually ended up in the coastal regions, and eventually the capital. Entered a bar, ended up in a barfight with a couple of locals and some Tirak ("Orks") pirates, quickly got sent to the stockades where he met the captain(PC) of the sailors and the badly beaten fiddler(PC) of the bar and a friendly smith(PC).

 

A few days was spent in the stockades, trying to remain chaste and in one piece, building some comraderie in the group before we were released. From there we searched through the town for a couple of missing people and lost objects.

 

The least interesting parts of our games were the actual fights, since it's a low fantasy, though gory, game. I could tell you how teeth flew everywhere in the barfight and there were quite a few broken ribs and a shattered leg, but the best parts of the game session was the humor and interplay between the characters.

 

"Hey, this inn's pretty good, smells nice"

"Smells nice?! The straw on the floor looks sentient. And carnivorous!"

 

The jester failed walking on a rope and crushed his balls against it, the player shouted out "But my balls!" to wich all the others replied "Not anymore!" in a choir.

 

 

 

Rifts. The first game was alright. I'd rolled a Crazy because I wanted to be random and wacky, but the rest of the group was being random enough that I didn't have the heart in me to add to it.

The first session was fine. It was around the 3rd or 4th session that I got sick of it. Our DM started getting a little too creepy for my tastes. "You're fighting a vampire, roll for sanity. Critical failure, you just bleep and bleep all over yourself." "Oh, you critical failed too, so now you're fleeing, right through that guy's bleep and bleep, you slip on it and now you're..." you get the drift.

That wasn't even the first time that stuff started coming up. The previous session had ended up with people basically abusing one of the AFK player's characters in manners unspeakable. I had asked if we could cut back on that, but the next session was just as bad.

 

 

AFK? You were playing over some IM system or such?

Edited June 26, 2013 by Azdeus

[Stephen Amber]

We played Keep on the Borderlands in '86 or so.  I was a wizard and got less xp as all I was good for was a once per day sleep spell.

[Walsingham]

We played Keep on the Borderlands in '86 or so.  I was a wizard and got less xp as all I was good for was a once per day sleep spell.

 

You should have polished shoes to try and snaffle more.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

AD&D in 1990. Played a Halfling Thief. With a group of 5 other guys (including the DM) who were playing Elven Mage, Human Cleric, Human Paladin and Dwarf Fighter. Always had a soft spot for the Halfling Thief/Rogue and is my favourite character to play.

[TMZuk]

Oh my.

 

It was way back in 1988. MERP. Middle Earth Role Play. I made myself a Rohirrim ranger and wauw, I was in love with the concept from the very beginning. He's long dead, and I'll be damned if I remember his name but I've been an RPG fan ever since. My next character was a Dunlending rogue, with a wicked warhammer, an uncanny climbing ability and a barbed wit. His name I do remember: Moch Gunnach. I've forgotten what became of him, though.

 

Good times! So I hope you'll get experiences as great, funny, horryfying, epic and hillarious as I've had. Enjoy!

Edited May 20, 2016 by TMZuk

[Sensuki]

AD&D 2E in 1999. Dark Sun campaign, characters and storyline borrowed from The Verdant Passage book by Troy Denning. I played a Half-Elf Fighter and much like the video game Shattered Lands I was a gladiator and escaped the Slave pens and set off into the desert. I made it to Level 7, but unfortunately I was killed by Ettins that waylaid a Caravan I was guarding. I killed one of them but the second one killed me with a minimum damage hit with his club, and I think he was only a hit or two away from dying too.

[ShadySands]

Sadly, I've never played PnP.

 

I was close to playing DnD once and had just started to create a character with some friends who played it quite a bit when my mom walked in and asked what we were up to. Upon hearing Dungeons and Dragons she immediately thought of Mazes and Monsters or something and thinks I'll start worshiping the devil or sacrificing virgins or who knows what. I tried to explain to her that wasn't what I'd do with virgins given the chance and not to worry because I already worshiped the devil. She wasn't amused. When she finally came around the DnD friends had moved far, far away and none of my other (lamer) friends were into it and so it never happened. 

 

The end

[melkathi]

Oh my.

 

It was way back in 1988. MERP. Middle Earth Role Play. I made myself a Rohirrim ranger and wauw, I was in love with the concept from the very beginning. He's long dead, and I'll be damned if I remember his name but I've been an RPG fan ever since. My next character was a Dunlending rogue, with a wicked warhammer, an uncanny climbing ability and a barbed wit. His name I do remember: Moch Gunnach. I've forgotten what became of him, though.

 

Good times! So I hope you'll get experinces as great, funny, horryfying, epic and hillarious as I've had. Enjoy!

 

MERP was great. Pitty that Christopher Tolkien and that bunch pretty much forced ICE to close shop. Not a good thing for pen&paper RPGs or fans of middle earth that a bunch of talented, enthusiastic fans were forced out to make room for the merchandising lot.

Basically the reason I just couldn't get excited about any of the recent movies.

[Walsingham]

 

Oh my.

 

It was way back in 1988. MERP. Middle Earth Role Play. I made myself a Rohirrim ranger and wauw, I was in love with the concept from the very beginning. He's long dead, and I'll be damned if I remember his name but I've been an RPG fan ever since. My next character was a Dunlending rogue, with a wicked warhammer, an uncanny climbing ability and a barbed wit. His name I do remember: Moch Gunnach. I've forgotten what became of him, though.

 

Good times! So I hope you'll get experinces as great, funny, horryfying, epic and hillarious as I've had. Enjoy!

 

MERP was great. Pitty that Christopher Tolkien and that bunch pretty much forced ICE to close shop. Not a good thing for pen&paper RPGs or fans of middle earth that a bunch of talented, enthusiastic fans were forced out to make room for the merchandising lot.

Basically the reason I just couldn't get excited about any of the recent movies.

 

 

I hadn't heard that. But the new (ish) films brought bucketloads of new people to the hobby. You can't hate them for that.

[Amentep]

The MERP thing was weird, as I understand it. I can't imagine the Tolkein estate got what they wanted out of that deal.

[melkathi]

The estate didn't make buckloads of money out of that deal. What they did get though was the ability to have full control over everything; and through that ensure that not even a bit of money could be made. Iron Crown Enterprices had trouble meeting deadlines and bringing out any product as they went through such a long and ardeous control process by the estate. Even with the "Kuduk Lore" convention that ensured that anything not directly quoted out of the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings would be clearly labeled as such for the fans.

The estate didn't care. They were not about money - they were there to safeguard a legacy. And if that meant throttling enthusiastic people and a good product, unfortunate but necessary to preserve the integrity of J.R.R's vision.

But when Hollywood came aknocking, and the trickle of money they had been nonchalantly waving away, promised to turn into a flood, then all of a sudden Tolkien Jr. changed his spiel to say that fans should accept a more liberal adaptation. There is a word that described a person like that: whore. Or politician. Ok, two words. And I'll stop before I turn this into the spanish inquisition.

 

 

edit:

and it doesn't help that I had the wierd luck to actually, completly randomly and unexpectedly end up playing the CCG with someone who worked for ICE

Edited July 11, 2013 by melkathi