ddt58 wrote:I'm not sure this will work, but I am uploading a picture of a couple of my friends playing D & D in about 1978. It was in the FIT newspaper office. I know I was there because my Judge's Guild map is on the table. I suspect I am out of the picture to the right. That's probably my Eldritch Wizardry to the right. I am pretty sure I am playing old Father Vlad there.

http://horizon.ucsd.edu/miller/photos/spring_1979/sword.jpg

I thought you might enjoy seeing what we were playing with back then.

Maybe its just my imagination, but the guy on the right looks suspiciously like he is getting ready to behead the guy on the left.  8O

If I am not mistaken, the first character I rolled up was a magic-user by the name of Dagon.  What was I thinking naming a skinny, pathetic, 2-hp mage after an ancient demi-god?  The other members of the party included a thief, ranger, and a fighter.  The first bit of trouble our party got into was attempting to rid a small town in the Archbarony of Ratik of a nasty cougar that was killing their livestock.  It was pretty pathetic.  The ranger used his woodland skills to set a trap and we all sat around waiting.  Finally the cougar shows up but instead of setting off the trap, decides to come after us instead.  I had climbed up into a nearby tree thinking I would be fairly safe from the jaws of the beast.  Nope...the damn thing started climbing up the tree after me.  I used my magic missile which just pissed it off more then attempted to "push" it back down the tree.  The fighter and ranger finally came to my aid and killed the damn thing.  The thief was off hiding somewhere.  :x

Several years later after our gaming group had broken up, I retired the character after he had reached 12th level.  I still have his character sheet along with a list of everything he killed along the way.  8)

ddt58 wrote:I'm not sure this will work, but I am uploading a picture of a couple of my friends playing D & D in about 1978. It was in the FIT newspaper office. I know I was there because my Judge's Guild map is on the table. I suspect I am out of the picture to the right. That's probably my Eldritch Wizardry to the right. I am pretty sure I am playing old Father Vlad there.

http://horizon.ucsd.edu/miller/photos/spring_1979/sword.jpg

I thought you might enjoy seeing what we were playing with back then.

Cool pic, I'm sure a lot of us wish we had pics of the old playing group, but who knew at the time?
I dig the lawn chairs, and the guy on the left looks like a young Dan Ackroyd.  

I started with four instead of one.  A magic-user, fighter, cleric, and thief.  All the basics.

silver_beetle wrote:My first was a Magic User, I think named Steve. We were going to the Caves of Chaos in B2 and I was killed by a wandering orc on the way. I had only rolled 2 for my HP, and really had no idea what I was doing, so the DM took pity on me and let me live. We were playing the red dragon basic set, ca. 1981 or so.

After that, I started getting the AD&D books, and started DMing, and haven't looked back since.

Heh, fondly recall my first character death was in B2. Our party was attacked by all of the undead and the evil priest in the shrine of evil chaos. Imagine our surprise when we couldn't turn the zombies and skeleton as easily as we thought. It was ugly...

The gray oozes helped eliminate some of our items too.

MShipley88 wrote:The other time, our entire campaign came to an abrupt end when the entire party teleported out of a dungeon together....and came in low. We were never seen or heard from again.  :cry:

That really, really sucks.  As DM I'd be tempted to fudge that one in some fashion.

This is the funniest thread I've yet read on this forum. Great pic, btw...wish we had taken some...

VermilionFire wrote:I was thinking the exact same thing. It could have been the start of a cool new campaign... on the other hand the DM was just being a realist I suppose.

well yeah there is that, but man! its hard enough sometimes to hook a group of PCs down the way you want, when something like that comes along that provides you with a perfect opportunity and there aint a thing they can do about it!

i've done that many a time.

thats kinda how i roped the PCs into B4 - they got lost in the desert and sought refuge in a massive sand-storm....perfect.

Al

bbarsh wrote:The thing I most remember was being bored as hell. Character had virtually no hit points (1d4 with no constitution does not go very far, even at second or third level). AC was around 7, but certainly no better than that. The only option was to hang around the back of the party and pray nothing attacked me in hand to hand. Yep, throw your one spell and sit back and watch...the good old days...I love them.

Darts!  Darts!  That's why it's best for low level magic-users to pick darts as their first weapon proficiencey... they don't get another one until 7th level if I recall.  One of my early magic-users was famous in the party for using his darts to take out injured and staggered enemies, freeing up the fighters' next attack opportunity for less damaged foes.  It's 3 attacks per round with the darts and I had a bag full of them.  I would always remember to pick them up after every battle, and the DM would roll for how many had been destroyed after usage.  The staff looks cooler, but the darts are more useful.   Long live darts!  8)

Yep, the old dagger, dart or staff choice. Darts are hard to pass up. Three attacks per round. Problem is you are never going to find magic darts and they are useless in hand to hand.

Daggers are probably the best choice; two attacks per round if throwing and you have something for hand to hand. You also have a higher chance of finding a magic dagger.

The staff does the best damage. That is it.

Non prof. is -5 and you get your second one at 6th level.