Old School vs. New School RPG characters

[auronlu]

Above: My 30-year-old hand-painted D&D figures face off against my Final Fantasy figures for the last remaining die from my basic D&D set.

(heavenscalyx painted the woman in front center with the staff and hammer, my longtime fighter-cleric Moy Ruadh; to her left are a D&D Ranger (archer) whose name I've forgotten, a Magic User in blue named Gadrath the Unfortunate (Mom's main character), Dad's Haakon in full plate mail and shield at far left, and a bunch of fighters behind them including Gaon Birchlurcher the Elf in the blue cloak (my very first character), Raknar the Dwarf, my grog/retainer fighter Gregor Trueheart with the red-striped green shield, a couple halflings and a random fighter, and in the far back, my Aunt's thief Ralph Tharn beside my poor old cleric Brother Brussels (as in brussel sprout) with his vegetable coat of arms on his shield. Most of the better-painted figures were done by my mother — including Tharn, unfortunate shemagh and all — whereas the messy and garish monsters in the back are my feeble attempts.

Note: I've made a table of all the D&D monsters ported into original Final Fantasy bestiary. It's nearly everything except the bosses, and even some of those!

Comments

[cumuluscastle]

I love that there are so many memories connected to those figures. It's pretty cool.

[auronlu]

I'm shocked I can still remember nearly all their names. Apart from Moy Ruadh, all the rest are from my first tabletop game started by my family after Christmas in 1979, when I was 8 years old.

Yes, my family were all nerds. :)

Gadrath was indeed unfortunate. I remember he was our party's potion tester, and one day he spent the whole day with his lips disappeared after taking a sip from an invisibility potion.

Tharn was thusly named after the term in Watership Down for a rabbit freezing up in fear. I recall we gave him a bow and always kept him in the back with Brother Brussels, our all-important non-expendable but otherwise totally useless healer. (Our D&D parties tended to be six to eight characters, two abreast, in narrow dungeon tunnels with plenty of room to swing weapons, fighters in front and archers/spellcasters in back.)

Poor Gaon Birchlurcher did not outlive that campaign. We were playing strict rules in that first game, and dead was dead. Distraught, I had a long line of Elves of clan Birchlurcher, but secretly mourned him for years. My first roleplay character EVER.

Raknar Stoneheart I don't remember as well, but he had an incredibly detailed shield painted by my Mom, complete with R S norse runes. Later she later made me a wooden sword and a wooden shield out of a barrel-lid that copied the mini-shield on that figure. My best friend's Dad was a machinist who made her a clumsy suit of plate mail -- sort off -- and another wooden sword, and we used to whack on each other in the yard. (She had the standard freon tank helm; I had a hockey mask incongruously covered over with a mask made fron part of a milk carton painted silver, with silly cardboard wings on the side of my "helm." Because of COURSE dwarves have winged helmets. Er.)

[cumuluscastle]

Ha ha. So much fun! Thank you for sharing more stories.

Ah. My parents handed down their old copies of LOTR (which crumbled to pieces as I read them the first time), but apart from that, although we love board games, they were never fantasy games.

Will you believe I have never read Watership Down? I've heard about a zillion times though. I think I had better get on top of that!

[auronlu]

Heh. Good parents.

I had to comb scifi cons for a few years in the 90s hunting for pristine copies of the old Ballantine edition of LOTR with the psychedelic emu cover after wearing out my Mom's original copies. One of my earliest memories is her reading LOTR aloud to me when I was 7, before I was quite able to tackle it myself.

You should give Watership Down a try sometime. It is a difficult but highly original book, the favorite of some of my oldest fan friends, and there is a stunning animated version -- too scary for children, as I found out the hard way -- which I think you might appreciate. It's nearly Miyazaki-quality.

[melchar]

Seconded. 'Watership Down' had a very good, nigh anime quality adaptation - and the book is difficult to start, but gets easier after about 40-50 pages. Hazel and Bigwig are the best characters. ^_^

[cumuluscastle]

Well, two recommendations sounds like I should definitely add it to my next library request. Thank you!

[cumuluscastle]

Thanks. I will add them to my list. My list of books to read is atrocious though. I recently cut it back and it's up to 374 . . . Fortunately, I don't go in order. Ha.