Early Campaigns: Early World Building

It is no coincidence that so many people working in Hollywood today are coming out as long time players of Dungeons and Dragons: The game embodies acting, story telling, and the creation of fabulous characters and worlds.

For me, gaming and writing have always gone hand in hand. Elements of gaming have always gone into my writing and vice versa.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the person most responsible for the creation of the campaign world is the Dungeon Master. For those who may not know, players of the game create characters with a specific class, like fighter or magic-user, and race, like human or dwarf, but that is only the beginning. Player characters can be as simple or detailed as the player wants. Most people who play the game go for detailed, with elaborate backgrounds and personalities. But it is the Dungeon Master who creates the worlds and adventures the characters engage with, and is the arbiter of all interactions with that world.

Creating worlds takes time and tons of work. Therefore, my first effort was to take The World of Greyhawk Campaign Setting created by the game's creator, E. Gary Gygax and to make it my own. This sort of hybrid is a great option for new DMs. One can easily take an existing framework and make it their own. I played a long running campaign in such a setting.

Once you've gotten comfortable with this it is time to create your own world from the ground up. Next time we'll look at a few strategies on getting your game world started.

Role Playing Games: How I Began

I remember camping with a friend and his family in Findlay, Ohio. I was nine or ten years old, call it 1980. My friend had an older brother who asked us if we wanted to play something called Dungeons and Dragons. Right away, the name spoke to me. I was a voracious reader in elementary school, and my favorites were all fantasy authors like Lloyd Alexander, J.R.R Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis.

We never actually played the game that trip, but I heard enough about it to be hooked. A few weeks later, I convinced my grandfather to take me to a hobby shop in Berea to get this game that would allow me to journey to Middle-Earth or Prydain and go on epic quests like the heroes of the books I loved. I had no idea there was such a selection of material already: the Basic Rules, Expert Rules, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and the many adventures that were in print at the time. I was not sure what I needed to play. I opted for the Red Box Basic Set. My grandfather splurged on a box of lead miniatures from Ral Partha as well.

I got back to my grandparents' house and tore open the box set, which included dice (complete with crayon because, hey, we colored our dice back then), the basic rulebook, and the Keep on the Borderlands adventure. I could not wait to get to school Monday and get my friends playing this game! I did. And 35 plus years later, still have never stopped.

Volo's Guide to Monsters - Review

Since Wizards of the Coast released the 5th Edition of Dungeons &Dragons a few years ago, I've been back into the game that has been hugely influential on me since about age ten, call it 1980 or 1981. So far, I've been pretty happy with the new edition and it has enjoyed some success as a new generation of gamers take some time away from their consoles and pick up paper and dice and engage their imaginations. It has even found some semi-mainstream attention with the help of celebrities such as Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton and the others at Geek and Sundry (check YouTube if you don't know what that is) leading the renaissance.

That being said, I decided to make my second installment of my revived blog a brief review of the latest Dungeons & Dragons hardcover release, VOLO'S GUIDE TO MONSTERS. This is basically the Monster Manual II of the edition, but only about half the length of the Monster Manual (but at all of the price!).

Right away, the title tells us that the book is nominally set against the backdrop of the Forgotten Realms Fantasy Setting, as so much of WotC D&D has been. I have always been a Greyhawk man myself, so I would rather get a setting free book. But the Forgotten Realms flavor is kept minimal so this was not much of an issue. The book is then set into three chapters - Monster Lore, Character Races, and Bestiary. The first chapter gives detailed looks at the societies, psychologies, motivations, and more of some of D&Ds most iconic monsters, like Beholders, Giants, Hags, and Mind Flayers. Then they give each main humanoid race their own write-up. Really, when they only detail nine monster types, do we need separate entries for Kobolds, Goblins (actually has info for Hobgoblins and bugbears too) , Gnolls, and Orcs? Anyway, some may find this material useful. There are not stat blocks here, but a lot of ideas both for stories and role playing the monsters.

The second chapter has rules for rolling up player characters of various monster or at least non-standard races. I'm a big one for house rules, so I viewed this as pretty unnecessary but I know of some who like it. I won't comment too much on their selections, whether you like or dislike an Aasimar, or a Firbolg, or a Kenku, or any other is purely a matter of taste. There are about eleven of these monster race options in Volo's.

The last chapter contains the monsters themselves, the stat blocks. Most of this old material, monsters that have been around for decades that were not included in the first MM and now statted out for 5E. I was happy to see some old friends like the Froghemoth (The stats I had whipped up for the one kept as a pet by a local hag were pretty similar though), the Quickling, and the Catoblepas. In particular, I liked the number of fey monsters included, as I will probably be able to use them in the near future in my current campaign.

Overall, I am happy with the book. I've already used it in converting A2 for 5E (the boggles!). The best material is old material now made 'official' for 5E, but the original material isn't bad. The price of the book new is steep at $49.99 (really? I mean my old DMG with the Efreeti on it, which I still use, cost $12 and all the other hardcover books were $9. Modules were about $6. I'm old).