Hello all you wonderful people! I hope you’ve been well in this first month of 2019. I’ve been busy, and haven’t put any content out except for one post (I believe), and for that I’m sorry. On a positive note, I’m doing great. Better than great, actually—I’ve just been exhausted lately so I haven’t had much energy.
I hope all you people in the southern hemisphere are enjoying your summer, even if it’s deathly hot and humid and whatever else it could be, and for the people in the northern hemisphere (like myself), I hope you’re not too cold. Michigan weather has been brutal lately and for the last few days it’s been just above zero degrees Fahrenheit (no lip from you Canadians, your cold is too absurd!) or even below. Honestly, I have no idea what that is in Celsius, so I apologize to the more normal countries out there. So, I’ve been stuck inside watching television to keep myself busy and as warm as possible.
And now, without any further rambling from me, let’s actually get into this post!
I got something amazing! It’s something that I’ve wanted since releasing in 2017 and I finally have it: the Dungeons & Dragons adventure Tomb of Annihilation! I’m so excited! However, I’m not excited for the reasons I usually am when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons; no, this time I’m excited because I get to run the campaign! Instead of being a player I am now the Dungeon Master and I get to craft the story through the campaign book…in a way.
In truth, I’ve wanted to be a DM for a long time, but I always enjoyed playing a character myself because I could immerse myself into the role and do whatever I wanted. Now, though, I’ll get to guide the narrative in a minor way while letting others craft their own adventure. I honestly believe this is going to be the most fun I’ve had in my years of playing Dungeons & Dragons—even though I’ve only been playing for four years.
I remember first hearing about the world’s most popular role-playing game when I was younger and thinking: That sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever! Who would play something where all you do is sit around a table? Nerds! And then I learned my dad played when he was in college and I started playing not long after. And I loved it. I fell in love with the game so fast I couldn’t believe I dismissed it so quickly when I was younger.
In total I’ve played three different games and when I talked to my dad about it he said I would make for a great dungeon master, so I went out and got an adventure book and began taking notes and learning about the setting of the campaign; I began trying to find out what I could do with it; I thought about how the players might react to certain areas of the adventure; and really I began immersing myself into the world to better understand where I am and how I’m going to tell the story for the players. Now, I realize that the players make the story in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, but still…it’s fun to think about what I could do to them. You get a trap! You get a trap! You get a trap! You lose your money betting! You lose! You lose your money on this race! Oh, look out! The collectors are after you for not paying! They’ve got clubs and swords and shackles! What do you do?
Ahh…sorry, I’m getting a bit carried away. Storytelling is something that I’ve always enjoyed, and creating worlds or diving into them has always appealed to me, so with that I’m excited to finally be able to play again and watch as an adventure takes place before my eyes. It’s going to be a blast!
I have no idea when we’re going to start playing, but I’m ready, I’m excited, and I even have notes on the first chapter and a few of the other aspects of where the adventure begins. In all, I just want to play and have fun with some friends—which shouldn’t be too difficult. D&D has a magic to it, I think, once you start playing. Everything sort of disappears and the game sucks you in and you’re focused on what’s going on in-game instead of what’s going on out-of-game.
So yeah, that’s it for this post! Just a small thing about me about to become a Dungeon Master for the first time on a campaign that none of the people I’m going to be playing with have done before! I’m looking forward to it!
(P.S.—maybe I’ll even log the sessions on my blog to the best of my ability. Who knows…)
Thanks for reading!
Alexie 🙂
Alex's Arena 