A Simple Start
This is a brief history of my first six months as a dungeon master. I hope it gets across the highs and lows, and the start of events that gave me more confidence and a new group of friends. I highly encourage anyone who even is tempted to run or play D&D to do so. The in-jokes, the bonding, and experiencing a true team game is something that everyone should try at least once.
The Discovery
I learned about being a Dungeon Master randomly. I had heard about D&D before but a random Eurogamer video about tabletop RPGs was what intrigued me. After watching it You Tube decided I liked tabletop RPGs and introduced me to Critical Role and Mathew Colville. The duality of those influences made me into the DM I am today. I care about the emotions and feelings of my players and their characters from Mathew Mercer, and I learned how to run a game and prepare an awe-inspiring adventure from Mathew Colville. I would highly recommend you to watch both of these fantastic creators.
The Group
In running a game, Deadlands drew me in. It was mentioned in the Eurogamer video, and I loved the idea of the Weird West. For months I tried to get anyone in the area I lived in to join, but none of them wanted to. While doing this I did meet a veteran DM who helped me with questions, but I was not able to join his group as times didn’t work out. So I started asking my online friends, pitching everything from Adventures in Middle Earth to D&D. I was always drawn back to Deadlands. I started my session of Deadlands with 4 players using the Roll20 platform. Of the four players, only Drago has stayed with me to this day. Looking back its interesting how the first group really didn’t fail, it just grew apart with time.
Deadlands To D&D
Now the actual game of Deadlands the players enjoyed. They robbed a bank, where hired by a bandit crew, infiltrated a manor, found unique magic items, fought off a skeletal T-Rex, and won a duel. It lasted four sessions and was fun. I’m sure I ran it horribly, in fact, I know I did. I made all the NPC’s sounds the same, wasn’t confident doing strange voices, did not understand spells or combat that well. My players didn’t seem to care though because they enjoyed it. But due to losing two of the players I ended it there.
This is where D&D comes in. I decided it would be easier, and hopefully, more fun to run than Deadlands. I created an island called Fair Isle using ideas from Matt Colville’s videos, and thus the Fair Isle Campaign was born. Drago said he could get one of his friends in, and Lost Writer joined. He has become one of my other regular players. We started again with three players and ventured into D&D. Running the game wasn’t much easier, I barely ran combat, and when I did it kind of sucked. Enemies did too little or to much damage, or the players steamrolled it in one round. But they didn’t care, and neither did I.
The players could be described as a handful, but a very fun handful.
The Players of the game were amazing. The three of them were some of the craziest people I’ve ever played with, Drago, Lost Writer, and Pagano. A Dwarf Cleric, Halfling Rogue, Half-Orc Barbarian trio. They were an absolute blast to watch. From yelling “combine” and stacking on top of each other, the Dwarf always yelling hammer time, the Halfling taking a servant for each letter of his name, and the Half-Orc always saying “I’m a royal bodyguard get off my back!”. Most of us had no idea what we were doing but that didn’t stop us from having fun.
My Favorite Memory From D&D
My favorite D&D moment came from this Fair Isle Campaign. The players took an assassination mission, tasked to kill the King of the local kingdom by the Elven Necromancer Kaleral. Thus began the best night of rolling they ever had. Lost Writer was a noble so they got in easily enough to the Winters Feast going on. They found the King during the feast they found out he was racist against Elfs. A simple way to get players to hate someone I know. Lost Writer and Pagano went to the bathroom, while Drago stayed and talked to the king. Lost Writer prepared the vial of Wyvern poison they had gotten several sessions earlier. He used his ring of invisibility and went to work. A few natural 20’s later, with the Pagano leaving the bathroom and distracting the guards, the invisible rogue snuck up and poured the vial of poison into the king’s mouth as he drank.
Bluffing to Victory
It worked. The King was old and frail he died instantly, and the players all acting distraught. Lost Writer returned to the bathroom and came back before anyone asked any questions, they spent the night in the castle and mourned the passing of the King with the rest of the castle staff. This moment is what sticks out to me when I ended the game all of them asked if they could keep going. This was the first time I remember all three of them being this invested in the game, and it made me feel great. That feeling of accomplishment is what made me realize maybe I’m good at this. That moment is what hooked me into being a Dungeon Master.
The Problem Player
During this time we got two new players, one who stayed until this day, and one who lasted a month. A emotionally manipulative player, who complained whenever they didn’t get attention in-game and wasn’t interested in anyone else. It was awkward and I handled it terribly. I felt too awkward to kick them from the discord server even after they got the message and left the game. The biggest regret of mine is that this derailed the Fair Isle campaign, as I didn’t realize how much this player was ruining the fun for everyone else. The player was barely there for a month but it was enough time to mess up everything. Fair Isle was over and left a bad taste in my mouth that lingers to this day.
The Conclusion
The first six months of being a dungeon master taught me so much about life and how to overcome failures. Most importantly is that my players seldom noticed when I made a mistake. It is absolutely amazing looking back and see where I started. The second part is up now, and after that, I’ll start writing about different things. Maybe more D&D maybe not, but I have plans for this blog and I hope anyone who reads this enjoyed it! Subscribe below or follow me on twitter to stay updated on Posts!
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Welcome to the club, both as a DM and as a blogger! That emotional investment is great when it finally gels, and I’m glad you got the not-quite-fitting-the-party player off your team. It only gets better from here!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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