| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| #1DetteretOct 17, 2011 6:36:37 | Hi; OK, it really isn't my first post - it is my second. I posted this same message in what I found to be the wrong place, so I am re-posting it here. I'm not being redundant - I'm diversifying...
Chapter 1: Freedom Isn’t Free. My most recent campaign grew from the remnants of ‘family game night’. I had heard that game night would be a great idea. It wasn’t – at first. It often turned into fights, pouting and general unpleasantness with my three kids daighter aged 10, and sons 13 and 15. In desperation I decided to try rolling out a game where nobody loses; Dungeons and Dragons. I dug out my old 2nd edition books, adapted the rules a bit, and created a world; Molior. I am pleased to say that the wife and kids have loved it. The older boys have even brought in friends from school to join us. Of course – to protect their social lives they just refer to it as ‘the game’ at football practice - so MUM is the word. We currently have seven adventurers in this party and I’ve had to cap it there to protect my own sanity. Rather than a random collection of adventures/dungeons for them to romp through I have created a story arc connecting each adventure in a logical sequence. Some adventures are good old fashioned hack-n-slash. Some are more puzzle solving. Some are task oriented. I try to have a fair amount of role-play always. I have given each character a specific type of role-playing task to perform each adventure for bonus experience points. (That idea worked wonderfully, by the way) I have a set progress of events in the world, but the characters will have many points where their decisions will impact the story line and series of adventures they go through. As you may imagine – the players aren’t always predictable. I have developed and continue to develop a roster of NPCs who they will be interacting with through the course of this story. I also have had these NPCs drop bits of information which the characters will need in the future, but I am not sure they will recognize or remember them. For that reason I figured I should create a log of their adventures for them to be able to refer to when they need. As I was drafting the log I got the idea I could create it in story format – I didn’t think it would take much more effort. I was wrong – it takes a ton more effort! But, I also find it to be interesting and fun to create. So far I’ve completed three chapters and am about half-way to where the adventurers presently are. There are some unique challenges to writing this and on occasion you may see evidence of that. However I like to think that it is still an interesting read. I’d love to hear an outsider’s opinion. The story opens with only four characters. I’ve not quite written up to where the next pair joined the group. I’ve tried to keep the writing clean and the story engaging, but I still keep finding new typos and other errors. Each revision I correct the ones I find. You may notice a few minor gaps where a 'real' book might have filled them it. This was done in the interest of condensing the text a bit. In a few places I take some other liberties also, but for the most part the story and dialogue are authentic to our Sunday evening game night. Here is a link to chapter one; Chapter 1: Freedom Isn’t Free. It is in blog format with an e-reader version (epub) that is downloadable from the site. (My wife loves her iPad) If you enjoy chapter one then you should know that in the same blog you’ll find links to chapters two and three plus the dossiers I gave each character (which includes their bonus tasks) I am a little nervous sharing this. It may suck eggs for all I know. But, what-the-hey, I’ve had fun with it. Just maybe someone will enjoy the read and/or find inspiration for their own adventure. If that is you then please leave a note – in the blog, here or both. If you think it sucks – well, you can leave a note too – just please be kind so I don’t cry myself to sleep every night. J -E |