::A Geek in Korea::

So, the last D&D game we played ended up taking place in my house. Our DM had made up a quest that sent us to a far reaching area of the map of the world, and we fought cultists and demons. We have TWO assassins in the party that poison everyone in sight now, and my Warforged Juggernaut has acquired one of his new parts to allow for new followers to join his growing army.

My character even put the finishing touches on a demon with a new über-powerful sword I wield. This new sword is totally bitchin’, and really, really evil. It compels my character to slaughter my victims and harvest their souls, or face madness and rage. How awesome is that? Hell, it’s +3, so it’s worth the evil madness from time to time. Just stay back if I start shooting demonic steam out of my body and get out of my way.

Anyway, our DM was dropping hooks into the game for all sorts of different adventures in the future. Since the game sort of revolves around and people take turns writing the next chapter, I thought I’d give it a shot. Since we’ve only got one other player that regularly DMs, it’s usually between the two of them to write the next chapter we’d act out. I decided that I liked one of the twists the DM thrown in for the last game (I totally called what the twist was going to be!), so I could write a sort of “mini” adventure that would get us to the next level. That way I could get my feet wet into the process of being a Dungeon Master for the first time, and if it went well I could do something in the future more easily.

Right now, I have the general idea for the adventure, and the “hook” to get the adventurers into the area we’ll be exploring, but I don’t know how to actually PLAN, SET UP, or EXECUTE my idea fully. The real “DM” said he’ll help me with the mechanics of running the campaign while setting it up so that I don’t kill all of our characters accidentally with an out of depth monster beyond our skill. I don’t know everything that goes into planning an adventure, but they make it look very easy. I think I’ll try integrating a few of the puzzles and word tricks I enjoy into some traps. Some of the matchstick puzzles give me a really interesting idea about how to set up a dungeon already.

Right now, I’ve got to read the Dungeon Master’s manual, get a grasp on the basics, and start customizing my adventure. This is a first for me, so I’m not sure how much of a task I’ve bitten off for myself. I’ve got a four day weekend coming up to get the stuff set up, so hopefully I’ll make an entertaining story that keeps us occupied for an afternoon. I’ll still learn the mechanics even if I fail at setting up the entire adventure by myself, so hopefully there won’t be anything too bad about the whole process.

Right now, in the Writing and knowing nothing of the details stage, I’m totally excited to try this new thing out for the first time. I’m not exactly sure how strong my story telling, dice rolling, and “filling in the gaps as I go” skills are at the moment, but I’m going to do my best to tell an interesting tale.