As promised, I've completed the first document in a series I'll call "Sidequest" which features a small primer on some of my current campaigns material.
Click here to view the content on GMBinder.
Sidequest aims to deliver to you a small nugget of world building which can be used to accent your existing worlds regions with adventure, intrigue or character.
If you have any questions about the material I've produced, don't hesitate to email or message through any of my existing...
After years of leaving it derelict, I've decided to update my Dungeons & Dragons portal.
I've removed a few old bits, such as the XP Fairy, Injection System and other facets.
I've removed these things as they are no longer relevant to the sort of game I'm running.
I was once asked, "What sort of story are you trying to tell?"
I've never forgotten that question and ask it of myself when ever I'm preparing a session.
The injection system was a method for audience participation in an open ended story line and it had some merit when I wasn't telling a story,...
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So the pandemics still here, summer's come and gone, and I'm operating a few campaigns.
I still miss some of the old crew but here we are. Completely new groups, chemistries and adventures.
The current campaigns are Iron Guard, Black Thumb and Waterdeep Stories.
Iron Guard is a mish mash of dwarven elements comprising Citadel Adbars Iron Guard in Underhome (The Great RIft post apocalypse). It's been a good romp of dungeon crawls, light political drama and a range of combat.
Along the way I operated and concluded the storyline to a campaign I called...
Read More"How's it going, Doolz?"
It's alright.
We had a pandemic. I went online. I met a whole new group of people.
My campaigns have been going strongly with the new online group as an excellent assembly of passionate individuals who were present and able to play a mean game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Insofar as campaign ideas go, this has to be one of the simpler ones I've devised, but it is easily one of the most mentally prevalent I've had in a while. Based in a song that I heard by Barns Courtney, I was inspired a long time ago and with each listen of the song since, I've had ideas of how a story could develop around a dwarven empire.
After some quick research, I decided to base the story line in the...
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Feldspar is the name given to a group of minerals distinguished by the presence of alumina and silica (SiO2) in their chemistry. This group includes aluminum silicates of soda, potassium, or lime. It is the single most abundant mineral group on Earth.
'Shnike' is the sound I imagine leather makes as someone wearing lots of it moves around. Like wudwudwud that cordrouy makes.
This last week was a good set of sessions.
Story's developing; objectives are being achieved; questing's being done.
The 'Cormy.' storyline is based in Malorens Rest at...
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I don't know that I'd ever say I'd bombed on stage in the past.
Monday, I bombed. I bombed in no small fashion, completely unable to maintain myself towards a goal.
I'm really ashamed if it, because at the beginning and end of the day, I'm master and commander, I'm the writer, the director, the producer, and I'm the dungeon Master.
Not the dungeon practitioner, not the dungeon casual; the dungeon fucking master.
Monday was a lesson learned. Two actually:
#1, I got detailed, but I didn't take it far enough.
#2, I didn't rehearse that shit.
...
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While the title is a play on romancing the stone, the playership is anything but stone like.
Mondays playership is vivacious, exciting and inspiring. How refreshing to be faced with such passion in the game.
The story line is developing and characters are growing in my notes. As it goes, I'm aiming to keep things in short cycles, with growing stakes over each iteration.
Something leads to something a bit bigger, rinse repeat. Now that they've retrieved Jasper, they can play escort mission which should present a neat combat scenario.
I've got to...
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It's been interesting, spending the last few nights writing on my phone; notating ideas and directions for the upcoming Monday.
I have a plot and closure for the current 'thing' that will include whatever new people arrive. That's all in the can, but what comes after?
I have an idea of what I'm doing with the introductory splash of magic, but how far do I want to take that?
I have an idea of how I can make that an episodic piece, although I could argue that I've already failed to address my need to conduct episodic sessions.
So long as I plan ahead, I can have...
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So, I've decided to drop Curse of Strahd for a while.
In short, I need accessibility and Curse of Strahd is not dynamic enough. CoS demands that the players be familiar with the story up to the point they're at. Dropping people into the storyline does not go well, especially given how open ended the game tends to be.
With that said, I decided last night that it was about time to dial it back to a more grass roots approach. So it was that last nights game explored a more vanilla side of D&D and a more robust role playing experience.
It felt a lot more natural and...
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