Recently I’ve started playing Dungeons and Dragons again and
I’ve decided to honor this event by recording my experiences and stories
here. I know that this blog is
meant to capture the perspective of a game watcher, but I think it’s fair to
include many types of gaming experiences for the sake of variety and
freshness. I’m not going to go and
make a blog for every type of activity I do or else I’d have at least 37 blogs
half of which are about My Little Pony (I’m a girl, don’t judge me).
 |
| Khala - A Shadar-Kai with a quest and a plan |
I have played Dungeons and Dragons before as an eladrin
rogue named Arianna. The game
lasted for about four months. That
game had one consistent DM (Dungeon Master), but I always yearned to take a
crack at telling a story. This new
game finally gave me my chance as we switch DM’s often because of busy
schedules.
I’ve seen a good D&D game before. I’ve seen amazing storylines with deep
investments for the characters. I
wanted my game to contain something engaging where the players actually had to
make tough decisions. For my first
time Dm-ing I think I was pretty successfully.
My game centered on that a strange Shadar-kai named Khala
asked the players to retrieve her ruby from an eladrin named Greyson. Upon returning her possession to her
the players would be handsomely rewarded.
Pretty standard adventure, right?
Well I can’t resist adding a twist! I’m not going to give too much away, but let’s just say that
the players were after a lot more than they realized.
The most important thing for me was providing my characters
with choice. I wanted my players
to be invested in the story and I felt that giving them choices would help them
feel connected to the story. It
wasn’t just the outcome that was given to them it was there decision. Of course I could only provide them
with three possible outcomes, but I feel that was better than just placing them
on a straight line and telling them to follow.
It is wonderful to look at your players and see that they really
are thinking about the decisions you are offering them and how to go about
things. Sure, I’m playing with all
guys so you get interrupted by bodily function jokes and comment about whether
or not they’d “bone” the female characters you’ve introduced, but that just
comes with the territory. Anything
beats being in a room full of 6 men all smoking multiple cigarettes, cigars,
and pipes through out the game (as I dealt with in my last group).
Anyways, being a woman in a dominantly man’s world is another
rant for another day. It’s
great when you can see a group or people just looking to have fun really invest
in your story. I know that I didn’t have specific stories to offer this time
around, but I hope you enjoyed hearing what I’m up to. I’m looking forward to
Dm-ing more games and collecting stories to tell you. This certainly won’t be my last thought on the matter.
Toddles!
