Welcome

Hello, and welcome to what will be a dedicated attempt to document and transform a Dungeons and Dragons campaign into a literary work and also entertain players and readers of said work alike.

For those of you that DO NOT play Dungeons and Dragons, don't click away from this page just yet. This is as much for you as it is for others. Six players and myself will be playing the game and telling the story together in the weird little way that D and D has of making that happen, all you have to do is follow along week to week and enjoy, as I will be attempting to make it a very digestible read for each and every reader. To do that I have infused this article with a little terminology, nothing heavy, but just a primer to help those out that don't play. You won't have to know the game or the rules to enjoy this series and you won't really have to memorize anything written here to get it.

For those of you that DO play, you may find this as useful as it is entertaining. I have read some stories about other peoples games in the past and I can say from personal experience, it often does a player good to see how other people play, so that you can get a reflection of your own tables dynamics. I also hope that my writing will be as entertaining to you as well.

So here's how it will work (with terminology notes!!)-

Every week (at least that's the usual plan) our game table meets and plays through a game of Dungeons and Dragons, continued from the same game from the prior week.

• This little saga is known by those that play the game as a campaign. Each of the six players plays the role (portrays in the game) of a character. They portray the same character all the time, this never changes, unless they die (irrevocably) or drop the character, which is usually a permanent thing. They choose (prior to beginning) the characters class and race, and any desired details of the characters origin, the rest is up the dice. The dice then decide what the characters abilities and therein, limitations will be, and other basic parameters (starting wealth, etc.) The class is essentially the characters job (be it a fighter, wizard, rogue, etc.). The race denotes the characters species of origin (human, elf, dwarf, etc). Just to clarify for those new to the game itself.

• I am the person known as the Dungeon Master, or the person that directs the game and sets the scene to help push the story. To simplify it, I am everything that is not the characters (other characters, people, monsters, traps, settings... nouns) and the communication of the characters senses to their players (I tell them what they see, hear, etc.). Seems like a huge job but I've been at it a while so I'd like to think I'm getting good at it by now. 

• The game does require imagination, and all seven of us have one. We do have some tools to help us out also: maps, a game board (a simple grid map with a glass surface we can draw on with dry erase markers and pawns to move around to indicate who is who; it helps a lot in combat situations). and each player starts the game with an in depth back story about their characters. The aforementioned tools aren't requirements of play but they help a lot. This is the first time I have included the extensive back story prior to the game. this serves a number of functions. It not only sets the story of the character and defines their past, what they came from and how they got to who and what they are, but also gives the player something to hang onto and go from. It shows the player the character is more than a sheet of paper with stats on it. The character is a vessel for game play and at some level a reflection of some part of the players psyche. that's a different discussion but you'll probably see what I mean as we go.          

After the game meets, I will post here about the game session in two ways:

• The first will be a reiteration of what happened in story form. This will probably be the more interesting part of things, and what most of you will want to read. In short it's essentially fan fiction of Forgotten Realms. FR for short, is a licensed campaign setting used for playing the game. It's a world prefabricated by a group of authors for use to play the game. The same authors write books based on their world and publish the contents in novels which are often best sellers. No, don't worry, I'm not copyright infringing, they encourage using their campaign setting to write your own story, that's what it's for. they always like to hear about how people shape their world and create their own story. as far as using their material goes, I don't use many of their penned characters in our games, but some of them have and do make important appearances in the games. I am precarious to be sure that I portray them correctly out of respect of how and what they were written to be. So rest assure if you are a reader or fan of FR, you won't be disappointed and if you are, I apologize in advance. 

•  The second part of each entry will be something of a commentary. Think of watching one of those movies that has the directors notes or commentary. It'll be a mash-up of what literally happened at the table (interesting stuff, not a boring play-by-play), my own reflections, tales of how the dice landed and reactions from the players. Kind of a behind-the-scenes look at things. If a battle gets intense I may take a pic of the game board so you can see the game state, etc.

• Players may find this even more interesting given the fact that we will be using the beta test rules and system for D&D Next (AKA 5th edition). 

Well that's the basics, sorry to stretch that out, but I wanted to paint a clear picture of what's to come. In my next entry, we will be meeting the players (and their characters) at the table. I think some introduction is in order...

DISCLAIMER-  I have to disclaim and refute that I own anything of D&D, Wizards of the Coast, or Forgotten Realms. I also do not claim ownership of any of the images I use here unless they are pictures I have taken or I say otherwise. I typically use Google images to find what I need to help with visual aid and use them directly. The images you see belong to their respective owners and not me, thanks.