DISQUS

C.C. Chapman · 1 year ago

- Bags of Holding

- When you get to the point where you laugh at a horde of orcs rounding the corner of a dungeon

- Gelatinous Cubes

Jason · 1 year ago

-Having great DMs to play with. This would make or break the whole game.

-All of the worlds and books that were created, esp Dragonlance series and Icewind Dale

Chase Tingley · 1 year ago

The 1st edition DMG has all sorts of bizarre stuff, including a 2+ page section near the front on the game mechanics for various diseases. It's some of the greatest bathroom reading material ever.

Jeffrey McManus · 1 year ago

Oh, man, love the gelatinous cube.

I have a copy of Dieties and Demigods, the first edition before they revised it to remove the stuff that they didn't own the rights to.

I feel like a lot of the stuff I use in my professional life (particularly writing and public speaking, but also more basic stuff like organization and leading teams) got started in fifth grade when I was playing D&D. I can't wait until the new edition of this comes out so I can buy it and teach it to my kids.

Restless · 1 year ago

But, but... halflings can't be magic-users if you play by the book. Reference the Character Race Table II: Class Level Limitations on PHB Page 14, for instance.

:-)

brianoberkirch · 1 year ago

Chaotic neutral. Which may be the alignment of most Coen Bros. flicks.

Jason · 1 year ago

The original AD&D? Wasn't there something about becoming a bard that made it totally not worth it? Like having to be a fighter for a few levels, then a thief for a few levels without using your fighter skills, and then you could be a bard if you passed a standardized bard test or something? Neither me or anyone I ever played with ever attempted that bard path, and I've never had anyone start telling me about their D&D character unsolicited by starting with "So I did all the work to become a bard," either.

Q-BAM · 1 year ago

Carnivorous Flying Squirrels.

Eric Gonzalez · 1 year ago

Boy does this bring back memories...

I laughed out loud at the 1 hp halfling mage with a dart.

chicken john · 1 year ago

I had a long, long discussion about evil with Donald Bruce on a drive across the country. We concluded that the purest evil was Neutral Evil. I went back and checked: all things that were lack of humanity were indeed Neutral Evil. Gary's Lich in the Tomb of Horrors, for example. Then we tried to figger out what kind of evil Steve Jobs was... or Hitler. Interesting game for a long drive.

Anyone ever play Verbosh?

Random Eric · 1 year ago

Holy Avenger FTW!

terry chay · 1 year ago

The original AD&D guides increased my vocabulary insane amounts, even though it didn’t help with pronounciation…

Two short stories:

A friend of mine won a class jeopardy contest because of D&D. "Trebuchet", which he pronounced "tray-bu-shet"

In third grade sunday school, we were talking on why we call Jesus "Lord". “Does anyone know what a lord is,” the Nun asked?

“It’s a ninth level fighter!” I responded.

One of the more traumatic experiences of my life. ;-)

Andre · 1 year ago

The first time you get to cast a fireball. All the awesome power of 6d6 damage.

terry chay · 1 year ago

Hmm some to add to the list

- Wandering monsters
- Modules S1-4. Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain…
- The loot
- Siege engine damage tables
- Any battle fought outside of the material plane
- The first time you read the first edition DMG from cover to cover (the one with the efrit on the cover)
- Dragon Magazine Issue #49 (those who know, know what I’m talking about)
- Grimtooth's Traps
- Carving out your own imaginary empire in the imaginary World of Greyhawk
- That 80's cartoon show (hehe)

Ned · 1 year ago

If you place a bag of holding in another bag of holding, you open a tear in the space time continuum which eats all your stuff in both bags. Implodes with a *pop*.

I miss playing all day D&D once a month with my friends.
Ahh..the salad days.

Mick Liubinskas · 1 year ago

This is great. I could sigh all day long.

My favs;
* "What's my TACO?"
* "This adventure sux, we haven't found any magical weapons."
* Monks.
* Getting a new set of dice.
* The four sided dice and laughing at people who didn't get it.
* Eating cold pizza the next morning and still playing.
* Minatures.

Favs from above:
* Bag of holding.
* 10 foot pole.
* The lord faux pas.

Nice one Scott. Let's hook up for a game. World of Warcraft lacks imagination!

Mick

Mick Liubinskas · 1 year ago

P.S. Have to add the Dragon Lance novels. They were awesome.

Sean · 1 year ago

I've been playing 3.5 for a few years now. I tried looking at some old AD&D books and was grateful for the changes.

Jason · 1 year ago

Now that I think about it, I remember when my older brother would DM back in the early 80s, and someone had a magic sword named Zaxxon which could cast spells like "Flying Fluorescent Mace Head" and "Invisible Stampeding Herd of Buffalo."

It wasn't exactly a rules-heavy game, no. Pre-teens for the win.

Chip · 1 year ago

Dancing vorpal

Bigby's Fists and other various body parts that did damage

Using the Giant-slayer hammer from one module to take on the 3 consecutive Giant modules. I remember the Trident was called Whelm, and the sword (Black Razor?) took souls--but can't remember the hammer's name (Googling is cheating!)

There was only one guy in the crowd who insisted on being a Paladin and then talking down to the group like he was the pope .

referring to 10-sided as "percentile" dice

Naming your dwarves after "Time Bandits" characters

Rolling for secret doors so often that the DM either says "fine--you find one" or "stop--there aren't any!@"

Infravision

Trying to integrate the word "Succubus" into every day life

and the #1 thing-- which is how you can code word new friends to see if they have ever played--- "DROW"

Eric Gonzalez · 1 year ago

I forgot to add an honorable mention..

Count Strahd Von Zarovich!

xian · 1 year ago

definitely character names. I had a female fighter called Bbbbbbbalqps (the last bit actually being the letter psi), and a paladin called G.R.O. LaSaller-Ingrate. A friend had a character named after the economist Biblabp das Gupta.

terry chay · 1 year ago

@Chip. S2. White Plume Mountain. The trident was “Wave”… ;-)

Anyone remember “chits” or rolling the 6 sider to determine the 10’s on their twenty sider?

You realize that according to 60 Minutes… by all rights we should all have committed suicide by now.

ttrentham · 1 year ago

I'm still kicking myself for letting my mother sell all of my old D&D books, dice, modules, etc.

And reading through the comments dredged three words from the depths of my memory:

Baba Yaga's Hut

John Hell · 1 year ago

Nothing. Nada. Caput.

I never have played. I laughed at people who did. I'm sure you all had a lot of fun not fitting in. Ha!

I do miss all the good drugs my D&D friends used to bring along though. Ahh, those were the days.

Attaboy · 1 year ago

I loved ignoring all the encumbrance rules.
and creating characters were like doing your taxes...heh!

Brian Stahl · 1 year ago

favorite (or least favorite, if you prefer) moment: a critical miss with a ranged weapon. you usually end up shooting your leg off.

Jason Beale · 1 year ago

Playing with my cousins from 9pm-5am - at age 29...

Chip's theme song of the evening

Rolling back to back 1's

Battling with foam swords, way too recently

Playing with the popular kids in high school and them requesting that it remained a secret

Gully dwarves named Scabris

Todd McFarland · 1 year ago

Some other great things:

Deck of Many Things

Wand of Wonder

My friends paladin we referred to as "the meat wall" because he actually never hit a single creature until he was past level 10 (thousands of upon thousands of monsters....first edition took forever to level) but he was good for soaking up damage so the other characters could survive to deal damage.

Crazy obscure weapons like harpoons, bill-guisarms, falchion-forks and lucern hammers

Getting screwed over by super difficult monsters and modules. Tomb of Horrors anyone??

sparky · 1 year ago

Module S3 - Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

Shannon Prickett · 1 year ago

+ Ioun stones
+ Artifacts, particularly the Vecna pair
+ The Twofold Talisman in Dragon #84 & #85
+ the Wish spell
+ Prismatic Wall, with the successive barriers broken by different counterspells
+ the Forgotten Realms, from the Dragon columns to the boxed set and now a succession of slick books

ON · 1 year ago

Oriental Adventures, Kensai, dual wielding katanas
2d10 baby

David Calkins · 1 year ago

* Waiting for T-2 "Temple of Elemental Evil" for years, and years, and years....
* Artifacts: The Invulnerable Coat of Arnd, Baba Yagas Hut, and Vorpal Blade.
* Hanging the Grey hawk poster on my wall and putting little flag pins in the places we'd had adventures
* Painting miniatures (wash and dry!)
* "What's New with Phil & Dixie" cartoon by Phil Foglio in every issue (and the tag line about next issue being the "Sex and D&D" issue - or the issue (64?) where there were dragons everywhere)
* The cool game pull-outs in Dragon (esp. issue #45)
* GenCon!

Phil Dufault · 1 year ago

The Rod of Lordly Might!

Brandon · 1 year ago

Wand of wonder... Enough said.

John Reichel · 1 year ago

Thanks to everyone who posted above. I haven't enjoyed reading some random site I stumbled upon on the 'Net this much in a looooong time.

I got almost every reference, felt every emotion, laughed at the obscurities and bizareness, and felt kinship with total strangers I'll never meet, just because we shared what is was to play pen & paper D&D back in the days.

I salute you all! You've all collectively made my day and put a smile on my face.

Andrew · 1 year ago

Calzone Golems.

Also the first time you take a foray into Epic characters, there's a whole lot of "You can do -what- now?"

Simone · 1 year ago

Calkins first used his Rod of Lordly Might at Minicon, on his 16th birthday, with a random girl. . . In a stairwell, if I recall. . .

Matt · 1 year ago

"Hello! Dungeon Master?! I'd like to report an alignment deviation!"

/ah, the good old days.

Dan Shick · 1 year ago

I won the Sonoma County spelling bee in 1987 and went on to the state finals because, thanks to D&D, I knew how to spell "lycanthropy".

Thanks, D&D!

Sean Kelly · 1 year ago

Ok,

First to the dude who is complaining about halflings not being able to be mages. That's technically correct. I just looked it up in my mint-condition, 25 year-old, still-has-the-$12-sticker-on-it Player's. However, we're talking about a magical world where monsters that can turn armor into rust fight Elves that can see in the dark ... And so, I cast the non-existent illusionist spell Suspend Partial Suspension of Disbelief on you, thereby making it ok for you to be both a halfling and a magician. Also it's racist. Any race should be able to be any job. However, I must admit you totally faced a dungeon master in a public forum and won (technically), so the next bottle of Mountain Dew is on me.

And Calkins ... what you have revealed unto us about your teenage World of Greyhawk years is both beautiful and disturbing. It's a new word, beautisturbing. Or was that college. Nah, college was Shadowrun.

Liz · 1 year ago

Making up a "hooker" character class with my friend when i was in 5th grade. We wrote out all sorts of funny tables and rules for it.

Bobby · 1 year ago

@ Mick Liubinskas

Wasn't it "THACO".......

I remember playing in an old camper by gas lanterns....

Morry · 1 year ago

the dice. all of them.

Monster manual. best.art.evar.

maps. loads and loads of maps.

players who "honestly" rolled and yet seem to have all attributes over 12, and at least 2 17s.

Evilsoup · 1 year ago

Monstrous Compendium (binder and hole-punched expansions only, please), and imagining a comprehensive ecology where a tarasque might conceivably exist.

Evilsoup · 1 year ago

Cloak of scintillating colors totally gave me a leg up on the SAT's.

Dave · 1 year ago

-- How positively uber the original AD&D bard was-- by the time my primary character was a 5th level bard he had 117 hit points and was squaring up against Type VI Balors.

(In spite of what the poster above says, if you took the time to go through the fighter, then thief, then bard levels, you were a demigod before the double digits. Then, the bard was sadly-- but understandably-- gimped.)

-- The cavalier class (and anything in Unearthed Arcana)!

Matt E. · 1 year ago

Being the only one to survive in my party.. again.

Matt E. · 1 year ago

Oh and rust monsters!!!

20th level fighter encounters a 3 HD rust monster. 20th level fighter runs away screaming like a little girl!

Great stuff!

Brad · 1 year ago

reminded of a time before D&D was corrupted and it wasn't all about the power gamer.

Josh Weinstein · 1 year ago

One word. Ravenloft. My favorite.

Chris Milton · 1 year ago

I miss the Judges Guild and Arduin Grimoire trilogy. Young whippersnapers! I started playing D&D in 1978.

Ted · 1 year ago

Spending countless hours in class with graph paper, designing intricate maps, mostly mountain tunnels and dungeons, with devious traps and secret rooms.

Riding my bike a few blocks to my friends house to play. Learning about Vic-20, punk rock, and checking out my friend's older sister, things I would have never learned about at home.

-6 AC

The guy who was always the wood elf.

Wanting to DM, but the guy who owned the manual always did.

Going to the game store and staring at the dice.

Photocopying player pages at the local copy place with my allowance.

Drew Mooney · 1 year ago

Are you guys serious?

Dave · 1 year ago

On the way back from the Temple of Elemental Evil and encountering a lowly skeleton. And being too scared to fight it thinking it was a Wight or something.

Garnet Goodling · 1 year ago

Ice storm. Delayed Blast Fireball.

Rangers with Dual Wielding.

Fighters with 5 WP in a Two-Handed Sword.

Human dual classed Fighter 4 to Mage, with a specialization in Bows!

And Chaotic Neutral characters. Definitely playing the sociopathic CN's, that was the best, scamming or intimidating the rest of the party so much the adventure could barely move forward out of fear.

Don · 1 year ago

Firing a Wand of Wonder at a charging Red Dragon...only to have a cloud of 400 butterflies appear! (The DM rolled that they did obscure the dragon's vision long enough for the party to escape!)
Seeing the grin on my sister's face when her character beat the crap out of her husband's character...
Spending all my breaktime and lunch designing dungeons and NPC's...then the player's party choose NOT to check out that cave...
Trying to keep parties of Newby's alive (as DM) and still keep within the rules...if they don't have fun they won't be back next week..An engineer once gave me a formula to calculate how many coins would fit in a Portable Hole...DM is the key to a good game, and compatible players. Thanks for stirring up some good memories......Chaotic Good Forever!!
Redicilep,12th level Human MU

martin · 1 year ago

Breaking a Staff of the Magi
Fiend Folio (nilbogs, githyanki)
Explaining falling damage (30'pit =1d6+2d6+3d6)

Wandering what 'sans shield' ment...

Daeng Bo · 1 year ago

In seventh grade, I bought the old blue boxed set, before AD&D came out., simply because there was a dragon on teh cover and I thought it looked cool. I didn't know anything about the game or anyone who played.

Anyway, the best moment for me was that "eureka" thing after reading the game book cover to cover three times and finally getting the concept of the game.

I still sucked as both a player AND a DM. Didn't stop me from trying, though. I gave about 30 of my boxed RPGs to the RPG club when I went to University.

George Ruiz · 1 year ago

D&D was just a gateway drug to harder RPG games. Anyone remember Gamma World or Traveller? Mutants! Space travel! Blasters!

Phil Cox · 1 year ago

-My pimp set of clear gold metallic flake dice.

-Using a plastic Captain Crunch figure or a smurf when I "forgot" to bring my actual character figure.

- Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. 1/2 way through the module I drank some poison. The guys in my party, without me suggesting it, took me to the medical robot. They tried having my body replaced with an android body. The DM didn't really want to allow it, but he rolled 4 20s in a row! I ended up with an android thief!

-The spin-off, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi version-Gamma World, ruled! Rolling for mutations and 6' tall machine gun wielding jackrabbits among the highlights.

-Tom Hanks' best movie ever- "Mazes and Monsters"- a cautionary tale of the dangers of LARPing.

- Several friends and I getting our DM manuals confiscated by our teacher (I went to parochial school). We all got a looooong lecture by our pastor about the dangers of demon worship- it was pretty hilarious how serious they took it- and calls home to our parents. From then on we had to meet surreptitiously to play, adding to the experience immensely.
In retrospect, maybe they weren't so off the mark. It takes a wedding or a funeral to force me through the church doors nowadays, but whenever my old DM is in town I still look forward to the odd all-nighter.

Josh · 1 year ago

I am actually part of the new generation, I'm 19 and I play with my friends. I'm normally the dungeon master. I recently went away for the summer and now all my players claim that they are "level 70" and I have a mad power gamer who has a level 5 priest with all 20's for his stats "because it's part of his character" I destroyed all their characters in a level 10 dungeon just to prove that I could. that's why I submit

power gamers
DMing FTW

Thor · 1 year ago

Wand of Wonder.

Illusionary Gold.

Calculating where to conjure the Wall of Iron / Stone so it will topple and crush the most monsters.

My friend's gnome illusionist (he of the illusionary gold fame) and his giant riding skunk.

Wibble · 1 year ago

editions 3, 3.5 and now 4th are nothing like the previous versions.. everything that was D&D has been stipped away to favour powergaming idiots that can't count backwards.

Editions 1 and 2 FTW, the rest suck balls.

Josh (above post) you are a prime example of this.. LEVEL 70 WTF?

Level 20 used to be virtual godhood.. new D&D= WOW players. *puke*

David Calkins · 1 year ago

When it comes down to it, there's good reasons to roll 12+'s. I mean, who wants a character with 6 INT , 4 WIS, 3 CHR, and 8 STR?

I mean, besides Chicken John, who has a lifetime of experience with those stats...

Robert Warman · 1 year ago

I started playing in 1976. I still have a set of the original paperback D&D books. I remember rolling a d6 with a d10 to determine "to hit" rolls.(before d20's came into being.) I, on more than one occasion, played marathon games lasting for 72 hours or more while in the U.S.NAVY, while stationed on board the aircraftcarrier the USS Enterprise CVN-65. My fav character-(and 1st character) Dwarf fighter/thief named Kinak of Granite hill. Coming to the realization that dragons are not only intelligent but they can be reasoned with. Been a DM since 1978. Still playing.

Matt 10th lvl Dwarven Cleric · 1 year ago

My favorite spells were always command and Tasha's Hideous Uncontrollable Laughter. We were once fighting a horde of dudes carrying torches. So I told the one in the middle of the pack to throw. All hell broke loose. It was great.

Jeff · 1 year ago

For those of you concidering getting back into D&D, may I make a solic suggestion? The Ptolus book is about as big as a dictionary... and has EVERYTHING you'd need to have a very very fun and excitting game. My friend is running this for us, with the Night of dissolusion suppliment, and my god, it's fantastic ^_^.

http://www.ptolus.com/

I hope someone out there finds this helpful.

Jeff · 1 year ago

Spending my graduation money on dice and books.

Throwing a random biscuit into a portal... only to have it come back in every game randomly and hit one of us in the head >_>

Someo of the best days of my life spent with friends I will never forget doing things that we can only dream of.

FINALLY reaching level 20 with my monk.

Learning that I can DM without ruining peoples lives.

Jon · 1 year ago

Happy happy days...my top 5 memories:
5. Being kicked out of the house by the DM because I made a joke about using Cure Light Wounds after our characters had been riding for several hours...he let us all back in again after we apologised...
4. Creating charcters - drawing the pcture, finding a lead figure to match...
3. Making up physical items for the players when I was DM - parchment, strange jewels (marbles and tin foil), etc. etc.
2. Finally saving up enough for my own copy of the Players Handbook
1. Deathwish, my dwarven fighter, with his unerring ability to get drunk at the exactly the wrong time...

Mark · 1 year ago

What was the monster that was a mold or jelly? ochre something?

I remember branching out into whatever looked promising at the game store like the little sets of Car Wars or OGRE, or being the ultimate dorks and playing KILLER around school...

I fondly remember sitting around listening to bootleg led zeppelin and yngwie malmsteen cassetes while we were playing and the luxury of the store-bought screen to keep the players from scoping my awesome maps and NPC scripts...

Andy · 1 year ago

I remember one time getting ticked at a friend of mine while I was the DM. He had some cube of force that when used gave his favorite character a cubed shaped force field around him. He used it against a giant that was throwing boulders at him. He laughed because he said that nothing was ever going to kill his character because of the cube. Revenge was sweet. I had the giant do something smart and place a monster size boulder on top of the cube shaped force field and dared him to turn the force field off. Needless to say, his character got crushed. His character survived only because he sacrificed the cube of force.

Tim · 1 year ago

Ah yes, the long nights spent in a camper. :-D For anyone who has ever enjoyed paper and pen RPGs, you NEED to go to youtube and search for 'the gamers' . I promise you will laugh yourself silly. There are 4 sections, and they should be watched in order.

Dan Lodge · 1 year ago

I remember having to play mostly with my lil bro's friends because mine were "too cool" and stuff...

D&D instigated a creativity in me that has since thrived. I had alot of fun with it and hope to play it again. :)

Ps. Mages with Katana's!

Robb · 1 year ago

The "Head of Vecna" story. Possibly the best bit of gaming I have ever heard of

Jeff Erwin · 1 year ago

My standard 'use anywhere' password is still the name of my 9th-level fighter from 27 years ago...

-Discovering the concept of covering the table with clear plastic to write on. Changed the whole game for us.
- Pint containers of Hagendaz ice cream.
- Painting the lead figures
- Oh God, the dice! I still have them.

Mike · 1 year ago

First hit with the sword, follow-up with the buckler.
Dwarves Rocked.

Totally misusing the portable hole as a temporary refuge.

DM conveniently allowing us to bring our bag of many things into the hole without tearing the space time continuum.

- Bruce Dusan

Charles Dodson · 1 year ago

the illustration of Hecate in the AD&D Deities & Demigods (wicked sexy)

the ingenuity of players in defeating powerful monsters that the DM is pretty sure is going to destroy them

the Entangle spell

forddorr · 1 year ago

Fond memories...:

Bohemian Earspoons

Chaotic Neutral

Familiars

DMing

Recently my sister shipped me a few boxes of old stuff which included all of my RPG gear. Very nostaligic.

This is the most interesting random link experience I've had in a while.

Strange how familiar *ALL* of the above comments are.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Kurt · 1 year ago

Room / Monster / Treasure

Basic D&D set - where Halfling, Dwarf, and Elf weren't just a race but a class.

Module - Castle Amber (with the 300' guy that used a tree as a club 10-80 damage I think)

Module - Isle of Dread - I think we had about 5 copies of this one for some reason... came with the Expert set rule book that we always lost and had to re-purchase

Altopablo · 1 year ago

Mace of Disruption

Raistlin's Cursed Money

DEFINITELY Ravenloft

Rod of Lordly Might

Ahhh good times!

Wayne Hancock · 1 year ago

Pre-Generated Neutral-Evil Gnome Rogue/illusionist character at a convention, playing with 5 other Evil characters head to head with another table of 6 Good characters. Being the only one to leave the dungeon alive, and with the prize!! I took out 3 of the 6 good characters, and the last Evil character (Anti-Palidan) right after he finished off the Good Palidan. Loads of fun...

Jose · 1 year ago

-The DM shield - "Keep your eyes out!"

- OOC or "player-knowledge"

- Critical hits - "to the face!" >_ WOW

John Ling · 1 year ago

I loved it when a player in the game I was running, told me that his dwarf has a phobia of statues. They were fighting a Basillisk at the time and the party thief was turned. The Dwarf promptly hefted the statue and broke it to a million pieces. OUCH.

My other favorite was playing a Kender that kept wandering off. The party never did slow down to chat or think things through, because I never let the game bog down long enough.

Last favorite thing was a elf fighter/mage wearing a Helm of Brillance. A large blue dragon landed in front of him and I won init. I fired off three beams from the helm. It DIED on the spot. DM was so pissed that he made the dragon fall on me as it died.

The LingSter

Josh · 1 year ago

I too am part of a younger generation of D&D but I understand alot of the humor and stories presented here. My best memory is the DM who didn't think I would create a monk more powerful than the whole party. when I hit level 18 (mind you he started us at 15 because he was a pretty bad DM) my monk had 58 AC (Later recalculated to be close to 70 by a friend who played much longer than I and I guess I missed a step) Had vorpal hands, could make a wish per day and had not only used an iron palm against a red dragon, but killed the dragon with it. Needless to say, i'm not part of that group anymore. I have however been looking for more experienced people who know what they are doing.

Bruce · 1 year ago

Chip - the hammer in the giant modules was the hammer of thunderbolts.... instantly killed giants with a hit no saving throw.

Other favs:

displacer cloak
regeneration rings
rod of lordly might
figurines of wonderous power
Druids
wall of fire spell

Still have my original character sheets from the 80's

John · 1 year ago

Had a friend who always played a Paladin named Bayder - until one of the others kept calling him Master...

Noah · 1 year ago

-Fighting a beholder as a Samurai, getting hit with all ten of its spell like abilitys three times in a row, and surviving the encounter with only 1 hit point.

frank · 1 year ago

- Dark Sun in 2E. You could roll 5d4 for your stats!

- Ranger 2 weapon fighting- the envy of all.

Jason Grimes · 1 year ago

The modules.
- Caverns of Tsojcanth, that had no real thought behind dungeon ecology, just monsters upon monsters, in room after room.
- Tomb of Horrors, the ultimate total party kill adventure.
- Vault of the Drow, for 100s of Drow, armed with fungal poisoned hand crossbows bolts.
- Ravenloft, where I lost my best character go man to man with Azalin.

Half Orc Assassins, who always described themselves as "just a fighter".

Cavaliers, the original 'stick up the butt' class.

Mike · 1 year ago

-DMing and having a "rules lawyer" in the party. Ahhhh... the delicious arguments and whining!

Darren · 1 year ago

The illustrations in the first Monstrous Manual!

Tim · 1 year ago

Memories,
First game was a power game (the DM said so) i was an a half fiend mindflayer sorcerer, in the party were dragons,trolls and all kinda hybrid creatures as PC. The game was set on the first level of hell during the blood wars (between demons and devils).
I got to meet Tiamat and was the only person standing there after the dragonfear check.
Was a great time. For all those who thing players can be too powerful. We were in what should have been epic levels and the DM still caused us much pain and death.
Loss of party members was as often other players as it was the DM

Auggie · 1 year ago

How could nobody have mentioned the Deck of Many Things and the anxiety felt when(if) you pulled out a card?

Ahhhhh to have those wonderful, simple days back again....

Charlie · 1 year ago

My halfling theif liked to hid and throw things. Knives, rocks and stuff. He was low level and weak. My whole party was unconcious after a battle with an elder vampire. The only thing that could save the party was two thrown weapons from the halfling. DM said that I would need two consecutive nat 20s to defeat the vamp. Roll em up, shure enough 2 nat twenties. I ruined the campaign in one fell swoop. Saved my party and looted some Vampire booty.
Next week my DM sent a wererat after us. (and by us, i mean me.) The wererat could smell me and chased me down and ate me while the party tried to engage it in melee.

Ahh the memories.

ghs · 1 year ago

rolling a twenty when a battle was not on the line. Example:
player: "I want to steal her panties"
dm: "... okay, roll"
*rolls 20*
helarity ensues.

Bill · 1 year ago

Killing monsters that you weren't supposed to be able to

Getting slaughtered on a cakewalk surveillance mission

Being so in character that no one thinks to roll die

The moral and legal ambiguities that make playing to alignment so interesting

The Illithid Slayer prestige class

Ken · 1 year ago

Yeah, the crashed spaceship in module S3, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Dork that I am, I actually pulled that off the shelf about two years ago just to read through it again.

Judge's Guild stuff... especially the Tegel Manor Haunted House campaign. The haunted house was huge! As DM, I took parties in both HS and and college through it, and I don't think we got more than 1/4 of the way through it.

I tell my wife that I'm going to teach the kids (2, 4 and 6) D&D, and she starts to freak... she (mostly jokingly) says that if she knew I played D&D she'd not have married me. I actually made a Power Rangers game that we play a lot that is like very basic D&D boardgame, and I actually pulled out my old d20's to use, but wound up sticking with d6's. If I had time, I would actually play D&D with them. As soon as they learn to read, that is. ;)

Getting the new Dragon magazine... and the great comics in the back.

Jason Friesen · 1 year ago

I never really played D&D -- Palladium FRPG FTW.

I GM for my preteens now; spent all Christmas holidays running them through a "save the Wolfen's (think gnoll?) granddaughter from the evil summoner" adventure, with walk-on cameo from my wife. Good times.

Carl Lafferty · 1 year ago

Our group had a special 'deck of many things' that we used from time to time to liven up the game.

Meeting on saturday at our local library from 8:30 am (yes AM) till whatever time we could talk the lady that worked there to let us stay.

One member had nearly 100 MONK characters under 1st edition all named Armand Dragontooth.

Spending every dime I had on modules and then using the maps for other adventures.

Writing my first character generator in highschool in 1983 in TRS-80 BASIC!

JLK · 1 year ago

I had a DM running one of the D modules, upgraded for 2nd edition. We were confronted by an overwhelming force of fully prepped drow that he'd spent hours writing up. My 13th level wizard started the bidding by teleporting into their midst with a scroll of Mordenkainen's Disjunction. After he spent an hour or so recalculating all of his NPCs' bonuses, the monk in our party instant-killed four or five clerics in a row with his first post-Stoneskin hit. Yeah, it was just a 5% chance or so, but the dice were rolled in the middle of the table for all to see. The most dominating defeat of a DM's encounter I've ever been a part of.

Also, for those complaining about above-average stats, consider something a friend once told me. If I'm an average person, I'm not going on adventures. I'm gonna stay home and milk Bessie.

And while we're on that topic, Method V and cavalier paladins from Unearthed Arcana.

Ken Oberlin · 1 year ago

By far the best module ever made The Temple of Elemental Evil. After a long day and night of playing, I remember laughing my ass off when we entered a room, and the GM exclaimed, "Out from the pile of rubbish rises a HUGE TROLL!!!" We rolled around on the floor in fits of laughter, and I was stupid enough to go toe to toe with it in a fist fight - me and my 6th level Dwarf with his +2 Cestus on against a troll.. Hilarity ensued (and a near death experience for me).

The Deck of Many Things - I remember my friends and I daring each other to draw from the deck, "Draw!", "No, YOU draw!" I can't even count all the belongings lost to the talon card in that damn deck, or the levels gained from the deck.. We wasted entire nights doing nothing but drawing from that stupid thing, MUCH to the chagrin of our DM.

Larian LeQuella · 1 year ago

Ah, such fond memories. I don't think I could conceivably write everything I am feeling now, so instead I leave you with a funny link:

http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/page...

waderockett · 1 year ago

Coming home with a new book.

Blibdoolpoolp, naked lobster-headed goddess of the deep!

The Wand of Orcus.

Turning on one another halfway through the adventure.

(FYI, former Dragon magazine editor Wolfgang Baur recently started the Kobold Quarterly to fill the gap left by Dragon's passing.)

william boss · 1 year ago

For those of u complaining about how power gamers abound in D&D today , i submit the following :

Girdle of storm giant strength, Gauntlets of ogre power and
Hammer of thunderbolts

The bonuses stack and u could throw the hammer for a ranged stun attack.

There always have been power gamers :)

Bill · 1 year ago

I remember a monster from one of the old manuals. I think it was fiend folio. It was a 2x4 with wings. Or how about being a dwarf and falling into a lake that had a bunyip in it. My fondest memory has to be getting killed by a fellow party member for my cloak of the bat. Thanks Matt!!

Vicki Johnson · 1 year ago

For me (was & still a newbie) the best memory....getting into an argument with my DM, who had made up his own world using forgotten realm rules, & then tried to use a character that was a drow elf ranger. So not allowed. Rangers cannot be evil & all drow elves are evil. We had a long argument about that one. He still used his character but my character, a pixie of all things, plague his every step of the journey! I never did play with them again.....

Bill · 1 year ago

this is a funny collection of points - one of my fondest memories of D&D is when our DM let us mix and match any race for our characters and someone had a Yuan-ti/Drow mix. It had the ability to transmorgify things using a latent psionic ability. However, because he was a half-breed Yuan-ti it was very random and he could only really master changing things into one form - Bologna.

So, once we were getting our butts kicked by a troll and he tried to change it into Bologna - he hit a 1 on a d100 for success and bam we had trollic bologna.

We never went hungry again - my kender kept the bologna in his bag and would slice it up all the time for bait and dinner. It was troublesome a few years later though when he mixed it up with some manticore bologna.

Scott Beale · 1 year ago

Thanks Wade, I've added that to the update.

Restless · 1 year ago

@Sean Kelly:

Well, I guess you don't owe me Mountain Dew because it's a DM who beat a DM. But I have to admit, the whole idea that any character should be able to do any job is very third edition (loving referred to as "threetards" among my gaming friends). I guess racial level limits are "racist," too. [rolls eyes]

David Calkins · 1 year ago

I've been searching since this thread started for a tremendously funny video I remember about D&D. It was a cartoon, and all the players were monsters playing humans. There was a dragon digging through the fridge for Mountain Dew while a disgruntled Ogre DM kept trying to control the game - can anyone find it? I rolled a 1 on Google spell-casting and cannot find it.

Kenneth D · 1 year ago

The fact that the 2nd edition book had Capons (castrated roosters) specifically listed in the animal section of the equipment chart, seperate from other chickens.

Buying a few chickens (or capons) to load up on the pack mule in case we found any potions and needed something to test them on.

Losing a character to one of the above mentioned chickens because the potion that we poured down it's throat was giant strength...

Having the party's halfling thief get ripped limb from limb early in an adventure and having to drag his corpse along "to get him rezzed later", then having to repeatedly ask the GM how much of him we needed for the rez...

I remember as we went deeper we kept having less halfling to carry. A leg went to distract some wargs; the arms were lost skipping them down hallways to check for pressure plates; and his torso being used to prop open a door or hatch...

Being the only honest player at pickup D&D games at the local gaming shop... My stats... 6-13. The rest of the party's stats... 16-19. Amazing how they always managed to get one of their three lucky 18's on the stat their race had a bonus for.

And for the true geeks...
Gencon
Mecca ( I have a chunk from the demolition)
Sandburg Hall
Killer Breakfast (aka who can bribe Hickman to let them live the longest)

Ethan · 1 year ago

+4 Defenders

+ 5 Holy Avengers

Dragon breath damage equaling their hit points

Umber Hulks

Githyankis

Hot Pockets

Mountain dew

Cheetos

Blink Dogs

Colleen · 1 year ago

I got the basic red box when I was 12, worked my own way through the first adventure and got killed by the rust monster. So I threw it under my bed and never played it again.

Fast-forward to moving out of my house to a big, filthy punk house in Seattle where we organized a group game. I rolled and got a lot of gold, so I bought as many chickens as possible to become the Master of Chickens. DM wasn't amused and killed all of my chickens, then me.

I'd like to try again someday, but I'm afraid that the more advanced players would be mean!

Ken Oberlin · 1 year ago

Not sure if anyone here ever played the Gold Box games from SSR - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Secret of the Silver Blades. They were AD&D games for the computer where you could create your character and eventually have an entire party to game with (before the internet), and could transfer your characters from one game to the next. Anyways, Minmaxing abounded in those games, and at the time (man I'm old) I couldn't play Pool of Radiance because I couldn't see anything on my monochrome monitor.. So I started out with CotAB. I created a party with a decent mix - 2 paladins, a cleric, a thief and a mage. When I played Curse of the Azure Bonds, just before the final battle I cast the usual spells - growth, haste etc., and saved the game just in case. My characters were lucky and stomped Tyranthraxus into the mud right away. When I transfered all the characters into Secret of the Silver Blades, all of their movement was double (thanks haste), and their strengths were sitting at 23 (thanks growth).. Silver Blades was the easiest game in the world with stats like that. There was some bug that gave them permanent scores above anything you could ever get naturally.. Running through that game with a Long Sword +3 Flametongue, and the +3 Longsword Frostbrand didn't hurt either...

Sande Creakbed · 1 year ago

Great stuff!

- Pulling Chain Lightening from a conjured 8hd air Elemental
- Lightening bolts that rebound off of walls
- Fighting amongst our own party at higher levels
- Malmsteen's "I Am a Viking" was the perfect opening song tot he evening soundtrack.
- Having to use another character sheet because the current one has too many eraser marks on it
- Salvaging meat and acid glands from Ankegs, not to mention the customary search for magic rings in the digestive tracts of each monster
- Rolling 00 on a slim chance at slaying an escaping druid shapechanged into a hummingbird.
- Treants do not make good firewood

finally

- LEVELING UP

Monty Haul · 1 year ago

"Not sure if anyone here ever played the Gold Box games from SSR - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Secret of the Silver Blades. "

- Those were excellent!

And then much later, along came Icewind Dale, IWD 2, and of course the 2 Baldur's Gate games, perhaps the pinnacle of which was the characters interacting and fighting with you and other party members, the side quests, the romance quests - trying to woo Viconia the neutral evil Drow was such a blast.

The Neverwinter 1 & 2 games never appealed the same way as the Baldur or even IWD games. I just reloaded and played the original Icewind Dale earlier this year. Still holds up, despite the cruder graphics and the like. Way more fun than Neverwinter.

The Elder Scrolls series, Arena to Daggerfall to Morrowind and now Oblivion, are also fantastic, among the most fun and immersive games I've played... but its still not good ol' fashioned D&D. Pity to see D&D usurped so throughly by those games.

Helen T · 1 year ago

I am so jealous of all you people. I'm 16 but I would love to have a bunch of mates who would play table top games with me... It just sounds so fun. I remember when I was little we were clearing out the house and I found an old D&D guide. Dad said that it was no fun if you got bogged down by the strategy guides, there were better D&D books you could get. We got rid of the guide and I sure wish I had it now so that i could try my luck. Come to think of it... if I could get everyone over at once for an organised game I might still get the chance... It's just occured to me that if my Dad had an old guide then my Dad must have played. He'd be a good DM.

Kaelaru Poysk · 1 year ago

For those interested in the old books, you can find them easily on Amazon.com or other on-line book websites. For example, the Monster Manual shown at the top sells for as little as $3.50. http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Manual-Advanced-D...

Of course, I still own the books I bought in 1979, plus all the books and modules in between. Great thread, I love the memories.

Some of my best friends today I met playing D&D. It is my gaming friends that I have been able to count on to help me move, when needed.

Mark Green · 1 year ago

Judges Guild stuff--a very different flavor, very early-D&D. City State of the Invincible Overlord!

Bob Jones · 1 year ago

You people actually played D&D? Pretty much the most I did (though enjoyed a lot) was reading the manuals and creating characters. And cheating, truth be told.

Oh, we'd get together intending to play.. We'd start off goofing off, then eating pizza, then watching a few music videos.. We'd get ready, get our characters together, and before long it would degenerate to either random goofing off, drinking and goofing off, or smoking some pot and goofing off. Or some of each. It didn't help that nobody, nobody really wanted to DM. Everybody had a character or 10 they'd rather get loot for.

The most successful session was me DMing a spoof module I got from Usenet. Wish I could find that again.. It had things like The Cape of Letterman (You take the B off your cape and turn the fox into a box...) and a room with a basketball in the center and two baskets at each end. The DM counted down from 10 and the players would scramble.. You pretend to roll dice to see if they make the baskets, but always get to 0 and ... nothing happens. Had them SO confused I thought it was a failure, but in the end they said it was really great.

Jaryd Fletcher · 1 year ago

It started with Basic D&D where it was about what you could cook up with rope, a torch and an iron spike.

Then AD&D came along it changed to inventing crazy misuses of items to drive DM's nuts.

Like using Daern's Instant Fortress as a 10d10 hand grenade or serious abuses of the druid's spell thornspray.

After that it was just every thespian roleplayer & midget-rules-lawyer for themselves.

Good times...

Witt Sullivan · 1 year ago

When blowhard Billy Badasses use Rings of Many Wishes to boost their stats instead of helping the quest move along, run into a red dragon and get seriously raped by the DM in the process. The Dm gives, the DM taketh away, with relish.

DM's who let you roll 3d6 for stats and pick the best of two rolls.

Maniacal laughter from behind the DM's screen as you hear dice rolling. You ask,"WTF, dude?" He goes,"Oh, nothing."

Ozzy · 1 year ago

Playing randomly generated dungeon crawls (no dice fudging, so if you encountered a werewolf at level 1, you'd better run like hell), with the whole party descending into a brawl because the barbarian was smashing all the loot... Our characters rarely made it past 4th level, but the party infighting was a blast!

Years later (3e), only 2 of us from that group still played together (the rest moved away), and we were so excited when it looked like the entire party was going to get wiped out, then totally disappointed when it didn't happen...

"Rocks fall! Everyone dies! See, says right here."

Laura Rajsic-Lanier · 1 year ago

Thank you so much for the memories.

I remember Memorial Day and Labor Day Weekends starting play on Friday and ending Monday. :)

Our DM's excitement when the DMG came out in hardcover.

Adjusting 2nd Edition back to 1st Edition.

Trying to draw maps on graph paper from the DM's description and rarely getting it right.

Trolls go left. When those words come out of your mouth, hordes of trolls appear and attack. (I heard this went down to main campus -- Purdue -- with one of our group.)

Slews of materials shared via Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). TSR refusing anyone to share their materials on the Internet and the revolution against it.


And more recent memories:
Reading the v3 and v3.5 PHB and trying to figure out how everything worked *now*.

Joining a group of *experienced* gamers who've played since 3rd edition.


Man, am I old! LOL

Avi · 1 year ago

Magic Missile

Oriental Adventures

James Patterson · 1 year ago

My first adventure in DarkSun. All the PC's started as escapees from a slave caravan. In the middle of the desert, with nothing but loin cloth's, armed with 2X4's, a broken cross bow, and sharp rocks. We fought our way through the desert, battled beasts of all kinds, kicked butt and took names, beating things above our level the whole way. We finally made it to town and bought real weapons and armor... and got whipped by the first weak random encounter after that.

Actual incident in a later game. The mage casts Blink on himself , but gets knocked unconcious before he can escape. The unconcious mage proceeds to blink around the room nearly bleeding to death as the cleric couldn't get to him fast enough to heal him before he blinked away.

Deck of many things: After the entire party and the adventure itself gets horribly waylayed by drasticly bad draws from a 'deck of many things' (lost levels and lost lives both) the last person gets a single Wish... and wishes the party never found the deck in the first place, thus creating the first 'save point' in a game :)

Matt · 1 year ago

10. Consuming a pint of Ben and Jerry's, half a pizza, 2 bags of chips, and a gallon of Mountain Dew over the course of an evening and thinking nothing of it
9. The Maul of the Titans
8. Recurring NPCs (one of mine was Murray, proprietor of "Murray's Discount Magic Emporium")
7. Singing the music in "Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home"
6. NoGard
5. Using "The Arcanum" as a supplement (now THAT was a classic)
4. Making a loaded 100 sided die
3. Starting bar fights
2. The "Castle Greyhawk" module
1. Unabashed rulebending: Umber hulk barbarian PCs, creating races w/ innate magical abilities, importing characters from other games (Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, etc.) and not letting the rules get in the way of the fun

B.J. Johnson · 1 year ago

1: A natural 20 on a diplomacy roll when my lizard man character deliberately drew the attention of a passing black dragon so that he could pay his respects to an honored ancestor. (Gave her my gems and one of the party's mules and groveled, while the party hid in the rocks and bushes. This totally threw the GMs, who'd just wanted her to be sighted from a distance. Did it totally for roleplaying's sake, and if it hadn't worked out I suspect my fellow players would have beaten me with folding chairs.)

2: Killing a storm giant mounted on a giant griffon with a pocket knife. (used a flight spell, and took out the saddle strap with a natural 20)

3: As DM, having an ogre die from a 20/20/kill from a rat swarm. Played it out as a rat biting the big guy's toe, and having him fall off a catwalk as he grabbed his foot and hopped in pain.

4: Gelatinous cubes and 10X10 corridors.

5: WG6 Isle of the Ape

Coleman · 1 year ago

I have that edition of the monster manual.

Odessa · 1 year ago

Owl Bear. period.

Stephan · 1 year ago

I didn't see it, I can't believe no one posted it.

One word: gazebo

people who never played the 1st, or even 2nd editions don't seem to understand the heart of the game. Playing a fighter with an awesome strength, and a few other stats, but practically nothing for intelligence can be a lot of fun for the player, and the whole party.

Mitch · 1 year ago

Finally getting some sweet EQ, only to get to 0 exp and waking up in a jail cell with nothing....

then busting the door off the jail cell, and getting 2 fighters wielding it as a weapon to bust our way out, the magician using a femur as a dagger...

Oh... and having to physically restrain the level 2 Paladin to stop him from charging the demi-god....

Mitch · 1 year ago

Oh... and I also forgot:

- Critical Hit Table...

Johnny Bozack · 1 year ago

waking up in a jail cell is pretty awesome

A. Watson · 1 year ago

Wow, what memories.

having a Hell of a DM who went all out on preperations.
The all niters.

My wife found a couple of my pewter figurines recently, they are around 22 years old, and one of them was my Mage ( i saved for 2 weeks to buy it) with the staff still intact!
She looked at me like I had lost my mind when I got so excited.

Jim L · 1 year ago

Gentlemen please.

Who can forget?

Slovenly trull
Brazen strumpet
Cheap trollop
Typical streetwalker
Saucy tart
Wanton wench
Expensive doxy
Haughty courtesan
Aged madam
Sly pimp
Rich panderer

And a bronze zee who can name the guy on the horse on the next page!

Levi · 1 year ago

Having a PC atack a guard because he hit on the PC's girlfriend (mind you both chars were played by the same guy). This led to the jailing of the PC and his execution the following day, while the rest fof the pary watched and laughed at him for being dumb enough to attack a city guard.

Ben · 1 year ago

The Succubus illustration.

Don · 1 year ago

OMG! people,do you realize how many dead websites there are out there yet this topic on this site has gotten as of this post 143 comments, and very passionate comments, in just one week?
Somebody, please! figure out a place and a way that we can all meet and hopefully PLAY this game. I think D&D is the best RPG ever and it should be possible to play it without changing the format or the rules to accommodate the on-line mass game craze..maybe a password-type entry, with a designated DM and a limited # of PC's in a game..I can't do it, but somebody out there with the money and the bandwidth might be able to..I would subscribe!!!

Ray Irwin · 1 year ago

Ahh Ravenloft and House on the Hill. I remember those well. Playing a Dwarf with a 18 99 Str, with a Dex of 10 and a CON of 19. (after of course my halfing was fleeing back out the main entrance... just to be killed by the gargoyles. (getting in was the easy part).

Then entering the Krypt for the first time.

Then there were always the H series. Blood Stone mines, Thone of bloodstone... Fighting Orcus anyone?

Patrick · 1 year ago

What a nice random find. My top 5

5. Having to use random "Blue Bolts" from the heavens on characters that have clearly gotten too big for their britches.

4. The endless laughter as the Dwarven character in our party outfitted entirely in gear to thwart off poison rolling a 1 on four seperate occassions when he only needed a 2 to save save vs. poison.

3. In the later stages of our campagin I had one of characters be "adopted" by Baba Yaga and taken to her hut. He loved it until I turned her into the doting mother who would not allow him to leave the hut without an infinite series of questions and then only letting him go if he wore some rather "gay" looking magical armor that numerous funny side effects like always making his share of monetary treasure mysteriously disappear into his "college fund".

2. My friend's Gnome Thief (he called him a finder of lost goods) who he named Indiana Gnomes armed with a whip and outfitted in a cute little miniture version of the Harrison Ford gear.

1. Again, later in our campaigning days, having Asmodeus , who the characters had pissed off early in their careers, planting "listenin devices" on the characters so that he always knew what was going on and creating an endless amount of paranoia within the party as to which one of them was a spy.

Yeah I know I may sound like a mean DM but much of this was necessary beccause we were one of those adventuring groups that were very lacadaisical when it came to the rules and thus the characters were very powerful so they had to be put in there place. It came to a point where store bought adventures had to be drastically altered to even allow for the characters have the chance of being defeated. GOOD TIMES!!!!

Ken Oberlin · 1 year ago

Even MORE memories: My best friend (who was our DM) had an NPC character appropriately "Dwight Miller". Whenever we were too stupid to figure something out in-game, or were off on a side quest that had absolutely nothing to do with the adventure, he would send a friendly reminder our way - in the form of a flaming sword that fell from the heavens with a message attached to it. After many a PC was killed by these flaming swords (and we started to figure things out on our own), he changed things up a little by sending flaming anvils from the heavens with the messages attached.

I remember on incident in particular. While trying to cross the River Styx, the boat keeper (a Charon demon) held out his open palm to us. I decided to get off the boat (not knowing what he wanted - DUH!!), and carried on with my quest. He kept following me - all along with his palm outstretched as if wanting something (double duh!!). I tried fighting him off, but he kept coming. I tried running away, but he STILL kept coming. Then a flaming anvil falls out of the sky (luckily I made my dodge roll!!), and lands in front of me with the message, "Pay him you idiot!!"
I proceed to pay him, and he immediately leaves like nothing happened.

Classic gaming hilarity right there folks...

Scion · 1 year ago

Dungeon Majesty was awsome, in a weird sort of late-night-tv way. Gawd, haven't thought about that show for a while, cool that they have a web site.

Jakarta Tumacoccarri · 1 year ago

Does anyone remember the side effects in the list tat went with the DM guide of artifacts? I remember only 2:

Body odour noticable within 10 feet
and item changes characters sex.

Christina · 1 year ago

I just started playing D+D last week actually... and I must say it's a TON of fun. :)

Since I don't have ENOUGH experience I'll give you some of my avorite moments from my first D+D session:

1) My DM letting me re-roll a stat of two by saying she "never saw it".

2) In-game, the DM rolling three successive 20's for the tastiness of teh food we were eating... and then her rolling low numbers when it really mattered to us.

3) The NPC of the fighter's guild leaving teh room to obtain goat's milk... and hearing a strained bleating from outside. (he was picking the goat up and wringing it out over a bucket... much to the dismay of the timid mage who had asked for the milk in the first place)

4) Playing a character that has almost the opposite of my natural personality

5) My DM's squeals as I showed her a picture I drew of my character and the backstory that went along with it.

6) When Our DM descirbed an NPC as "built like a refridgerator" and I promptly asked "So he holds a lot of food?"

7) Heaing castinets play every time Serio would announce his name orhave a thought (castinets courtest of bottlecaps played by random members of the group)

8) Serio's trip to the local brothel... and having the only patron there being a very rough female dwarf.

9) having the dwarf brought up over a series of times as Serio's mind was being read.

10) A member of our party getting stuck with a number... and having that number rolled to determine who was gonna be stuck with a dragon spirit in their head.

11) Our DM describing buildings as "well-made" and her boyfriend laughing as I promptly drew a comic of a well building a house.


I can't wait for more hilarity to ensue. ;)

Steve Vitka · 1 year ago

LOOKING FOR DM for San Francisco meetup group. We have 24 members but no one wants to/has time to DM. We can play at my house 1/2 block from N stop. We'd love to play twice a month on some sunday or weekday night. email me schemeartist@gmail.com with a time you'd like to talk. I'm usually available.

jay · 1 year ago

great stuff happens great questions are asked and i miss the old stuff sometimes...
magic missile always hits ....
first level mage can and usually does have less hit points than a broken chair
using the term double ought
finally kowing now after many years of playing why my pound of dice had a 16 sided die in it(the whole d10 plus d6 thing)
dm needs a drink....5 people stand up and pull out a dollar and fight over who can get to the soda machine first...crap it won't take my dollar now im gonna die and you won't even though i got here first bu#hole
whats the elf's charisma? is she hot?
what does charisma mean?(pronounced char eye smuh)
dude do you have my character or do i because if you dont have me then i gotta havea new me cause i can't find me i hope you have me cause that new sword rocks and that sucks if i lost it now!
ok i get the half elf thing now but whats a fling i cant find it in the monster manual(reffering to hafling)
the wizards name is elminster? thats a silly name try to attack him with my short sword what happens...ok dude well you die!
people that dont get it ....don't all dice have six sides?
20 gp holy crap that ogre was rich compared to now only 20 gold what a ripoff
and the thing i miss most...... the adventures had dungeons and once in a while ....dragons imagine that...whats the name of this game again?

Mahkno · 1 year ago

Nilbogs !!! (fiend folio) Player: I cast fireball on the group of goblins (really nilbogs), DM: The goblins seem to grow larger and appear unharmed (gaining 6d6 hitpoints each), roll for init.

1% chance that uttering the name of a divine being will result in the personal intervention of that deity (deities & demigods). Asmodeus anyone?

Tony · 1 year ago

Starting a character from level 1, using the actual stat rolls you got the first time.

Said character's first found item that he/she can use.

ender · 1 year ago

Funny you should mention head of vecna and dread gazebo...

Anonymous La Paz · 1 year ago

The greatest of all things

2nd edition Ranger

3.5 edition DuskBlade

XD

Clarence · 1 year ago

I'm a closeted gamer.
I have been for several years now.
It started in college. On the evening when I brought a girl to my room and sitting there was my Players Handbook. She looked down and said, "Dungeons and Dragons? You play that?" I was face to face with a hard decision. Either betray my favorite hobby or be a social outcast and pariah like Drizz't Do'urden. I took the coward's route and blamed the book being there on my roommate. It was clear for me then (as it is now) that if I was to get bootie (not booty) that night (and every night since then) i would have to take my love of DnD underground like a bunch of drow and treasure. And there I have remained.

But I do miss the game.
It was how every Saturday morning and afternoons should be spent. Around a table with friends, caffeine and the most unhealthy of foods.

That said, here are my ten AWESOME things that I love(d) about this game:

10. Terrible Trouble at Tragidore

9. Mages with hourglass eyes

8. Anti-Paladins (I call BS on anyone that says they cant exist!)

7. Unholy avengers in the hands of an Anti-Paladin

6. The original Barbarian Class (as found in Unearth Arcana)

5. 18:00 Strength

4. Your character scoring with that HOT Grey Elf babe in the tavern.

3. The look on your friends face when you loot his now deceased character for all the cool magic items he has but didn't want to share.

2. Bracers of Defense

1. Drow Rangers

Scott Brown · 1 year ago

My gnome fighter/thief and a pymgy barbarian tipping over the lamp the lizard men worshipped in front of the lizard men after the party finished looting the temple and the party barely escaping into the river only to discover none of us could swim so we had to empty wine skins and blow them up to use as life jackets.

Spiking rooms shut and eating the party member who didnt make itand creatures we killed so we could heal up and continue adventuring.

Taime Downe · 1 year ago

MIND FLAYERS

jay · 1 year ago

Mr . E.Gary Gygax (creator of this great game and pretty much rpgs) rolled a natural 20 to decide to go with his god after death yesterday, he d ied 3/4/08 in his home at age 69....He was running games weekly in his home until january of this year.......This makes me sad and i have cried some too.....I wnder if thier will be a public fueneral ???? Goodnight forever Mr. Gygax Rest in Peace

Ian · 1 year ago

Yeah this brings back memories.

In no particular order
-Deck of Many Things
-One character (anit-paladin) seducing a woman on three different occasions that was really a shape changed Ogre Magi (definitely became a running gag).
-A bard and halfling thief that double crossed the party by stealing the idol they had recovered. (and the party never wondering why they did not want to come to get the reward from the king). Ended up with the bard being hunted down and severely punished.
-Having a group of players 'zen walk' through a complex mapped 4 level dungeon right to the end boss with all resources and fully healed--and I was damn sure they had never seen the module before (It was Mordenkain (sp?) Adventure.
-Keep on the Borderlands---took that keep over so many times.
-Slave series of modules--yep waking up in a cell and beating things to death with femur ftw.
-Having a whole party (except for my dwarf warrior) die in a an Inn to a super magical strain of herpes.

Andy Adams-Moran · 1 year ago

Tarrasque! The mighty, unkillable Tarrasque.

Dan Boyle · 1 year ago

My first and favorite character called "Animal" who HATED druids!

A low level druid NPC cast a "Hold Animal" spell when I was in the vicinity, and the DM ruled it worked on me, not the intended target! (No he wasn't stupid about the rules, he was just having fun...). From then on, every campaign I was in, every Druid spell with an "animal" in the name personally worked on me.

I remember being picked up by the scruff of the neck by some invisible force and dragged several hundred yards to be dumped at the feet of a very surprised Druid - he had cast a "Summon Animal" spell, and there I was! He even dragged me OUT OF THE BAR!

Boy was that character paranoid, he thought Druids had developed an entire line of spells just to flummox him.

Ahh! The role-playing opportunities! I started my own organization called the ASPCA - the Associated Societal Persons for Protection from Cruelty to Animal! Had little magnetic membership badges (stick to metallic armor) for party members and everything!

From then on, whenever a Druid appeared, I immediately charged and attacked - no reaction roll allowed. Dm never killed me when that happened, though, we just had too much fun roleplaying it, but I remember always having less that 10 hit points when the #*#* druid died.

Some years later, the character retired and ended up marrying a Druid (with an 18 CHA). She cast an altogether different "Hold Animal" spell entirely...

LONG LIVE ANIMAL!

I miss those days.... You really think you'd get that from WOW?

Greg · 1 year ago

The critical fumble table and the time a friend managed to cut off his own head. The laughter went on for about 20 minutes.

Darin · 1 year ago

I started playing D&D in 1980. Fell into Gamma World (the original) , and Top Secret.

The old school Bard in the back of the Player's Handbook was kick butt. If you could survive making it through the fighter and thief levels required, you picked up Druid skills (spells included) plus got charm bonuses and kept all your old skills.

I always felt that when the PH2 came out, the Bard had been neutered in the name of toning down a powerful character class.

Best experience...when my best friend was DM for an adventure where my character encountered the Drow for the first time...not knowing what a Drow was. That had a huge impact on me.

R.A. Salvatore rocks!!!

larry · 1 year ago

This all brings back thoughts of good times....I found all my old stuff to include a class that I had created

The Anti-Ranger, it was pretty cool...like it says it is the total opposite of the ranger......

I loved playing 1/2 orcs and the deck of many things. I had a friend who created a deck with 2 or 3 decks of cards ....it was unreal.............. to bad i had to grow up or I'd still be in the basement rolloin my life away

GRUUMISH LIVES

Nick Kelley · 1 year ago

Playing DnD, getting drunk, and ordering a pizza with Bugbear meat.

Boris · 1 year ago

the very terror of the Rust Monster right after you finally got your platemail and magic two-handed sword.

DMs that haphazardly put giant monsters in 20x20 rooms without thinking it through.

Keep on the Borderlands

wrongfully thinking translucent dice were great and ruled over the opaque plastic ones.

Strength scores with the slash numbers like 18/43 and trying to get gauntlets of ogre power and a girdle of storm giant strength so you would have a strength of 25/00.

the utter ridiculousness of the Comliness stat to see how good looking your character was instead of just using charisma

Jack Sisco · 1 year ago

Yeah, giant monsters in 20x20 rooms........ We've had worse. Two ogres, somehow crammed into a room that's about 5x5, feet that is.

Paul Roe · 1 year ago

1- The City State of the Invincible Overlord: though Mark Green already mentioned it in comment, I must restate- The City State of the Invincible Overlord was the home base for almost 2 years of wacky campaigning. Was awesome.

2- Star Wars. Yes, I don't know how many others incorporated star wars into D&D homegrown-style, but I did it while in 7th grade...using, of all things, a pylon, a la Land of the Lost, to bring party to Star Wars universe.

3- Demogorgon, Bahamut, Indra, Asmodeus, Primus, Fraz Urb Luu (or however its spelled)...and any other number of super beings from the Monster Manual and Deities and Demigods.

4- Power Word Kill, Finger of Death, Creeping Doom, Wish, TIme Stop, Bigby's Crushing Hand..and all other mega spells.

5- Wow, I can go on and on and on.

Paul

Paul Roe · 1 year ago

Quick note to Boris:

Storm giant strength was 24.
Titan strength was 25! :)

Happy gaming/reminiscing.

Paul

Alex · 1 year ago

The bag of holding would be something that will stick in my mind forever... being able to cary as much as you want just seems like such a cool thing to be able to do. oh yeah, that and an invisibility spell of course ...

team king · 1 year ago

D&D is the best rpg that is not on a computer or any thing like that

Stephen · 1 year ago

Thanks for bringing up many memories!

I haven't played in over 10 years, but our group decided to get together in remembrande of E. Gary Gygax passing. Most of us are traveling 4.5 hrs by car and another guy is flying in to spend a weekend playing like kids again under 1st edition rules plus some house rules if we can remember them (from Unearthed Arcana). We will most likely spend the time reminiscing on the past adventures we shared and telling all our secerts of the game. We had some great adventures together for 15 or so years "real time" to recall. But, as always if things get boring we just get into a fight with each other... It all started on the first adventure of the campaign when things were rather disappointing after the return to the town and someone in their frustration picked a fight with a city guard, so I took a swing at them to end up being the sole survivor of the adventure - I was after all a Half-Orc assassin looking out for my own health. We had nights with the deck of many things, wands of wonder that petrified a red dragon - a most notable landmark in future excursions, dragon taming contests, and a tournament of 100 warriors just to name a few of the more meaningful events. We had a powerful group terrorizing the landscape called "the dark score", and a classic struggle between good and evil manifested in a face off between ego driven lords from each side. There was a temple of the gods called Ur where characters could go and leave valuable gems, jewelry and gold for powerful magic items, but each visit released demons from their imprisonment. In Ur there were thrones of magical powers - the throne of knowledge - the thrones of doing and undoing - greed took hold of characters in that place, and sitting on the thrones allowed for otherwise unfathomable power and information, but there was a considerable risk with demons running around. You quickly found out who your friends were when you were trapeed on a throne for a turn with a demon bearing downon you! I will never forget the lessons learned from my imaginary experiences...

Dave A · 1 year ago

@Jim L

Emirikol the Chaotic right??

Bronze Zee?

James Hutchings · 1 year ago

Hi,

Did you guys know that you can download a free version of the Basic D&D rules called Labyrinth Lord ( go to goblinoidgames.com ) - the same site has a version of Gamma World called Mutant Future, which is compatible with the D&D rules, so you can have mutants and wizards in the same game.

There's also a free version of the 1st edition AD&D rules called OSRIC.

Ellie · 1 year ago

I've only just started playing DND. I had no idea it's been around as long as it has. I really enjoyed The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo and The Head of Vecna that my DM related to me and my group.

AJ · 1 year ago

I miss clever combinations of spells to evoke awesome results.

The best one I ever saw went sort of like this, involving a magic user and a cleric, backed up by a fighter. A bunch of bugbears were holed up in a cave, waiting for us, and the odds were not good so..

Disintegrate, creating a big hole in front of the cave
Stoneform, creating sharp stalagmites in the hole
Wall of Wood across the cave entrance
Disintegrate on the Wall of Wood, turning it into a pile of sawdust
Mage casts Fireball on the pile of sawdust, while cleric simultaneously casts Create Air opposite the pile, so the air pressure would blow the smoke into the cave..

Bugbears were smoked out, fell into the hole, and died atop the stalagmites. Unfortunately getting past our own makeshift deathtrap took some work, as we were out of useful spells, but we had all the time in the world at that point.. ;)

Tel-Sereg · 1 year ago

Ive Been playing D and D for 5 years and i love it, but i think 1st edition is the true version, and its a helluva lot more fun than the others. And if any of you folloiw the Arthurian module, my characters Tel-Sereg, GET IN

rippy · 1 year ago

I am playing 3.5 but I've had tons of fun! I am DM. Some af my favorite things are as follows:

1 Having one of the popular kids call me a doofus for playing but still tries it out and ends up playing for a good ten months.

2 Having our party cleric of St Cuthbert get a 20 on a diplomacy check and convert a Gnoll, who is I think, Nuetral Evil, to Lawful Good, just to have his companion kill him on the spot .

3 Having the same cleric walk in to an evil wizards tower and yel "Honey I'm Home" just to have a gargantuan frog fall from the cieling and eat him :D!

4 Having our knight kill the major NPC bad guy I was going to use for six months because he kicked a beggar (not fun).

5 This one was when someone else was DM. Our main fighter had become tied to a painting. Whenever he got hit, the painting got mauled instead. Then our guy felt a painful stinging on his ear so I go and slash up the painting thinking that it was effecting him. Turns out a moth was nibbling on the painting right where the ear was...

CFK · 1 year ago

Best things?

Shooting a wooden spike from a crossbow with a dwarven sharpshooter trough the heart of a vampire in "night of the vampire" on round 1.

As a DM putting a cockatrix in front of 10th level characters, "what a sweet ugly chicken... AAAAAGH..."

a 6th level priest-monk with all 5 WP's on martial arts VS powerplay barbarian of 6th level... no chance!

Drow with "the ring of Lolth"

Cursed, intelligent items...

NOT FUN: A kender who says "oepsie"

kevin · 1 year ago

when i was little having my dad fight pokemon as monsters and using the damage and hp on the cards

fighting juju zombies and in the same round everyone in the party fumble and then roll a 20 and do massive amounts of damage to each other

getting a belt of hill giant str w/ a str bow

having the party knocking the dwarf out just to give him a bath

being an unfair DM

fighting kobolds and being extremely cautious when u had no clue what anything was

having no cleric but yet somehow living

bluffing your way into an ogre fort who then kick your ass

getting reduced to below 0 hits every encounter or so and yet living becuz the monk w/ the rod that allows her to fly has about 60 ptns of healing

And getting yelled at for charging the monsters with out a plan

K'arn · 1 year ago

my fav would have to be playing a druid. constructs use to kick my ass every time till i got real creative and high enough level dr 50 is apparently useless against a reverse gravity spell while out side. A druid flying as an eagle above an enemy wildshape rhino 20d6 instant damage. city guards are lifting you up into jail carriage wildshape rhino and run like hell. I sware to god its like astrix and oblix all over again.