Dungeon Master

Race: Dungeon Master Sex: Male Class: Omnipotent Being Status: Active Strength: 5% abv Dexterity: More dextrose than dextrous Constitution: Oxlike Intelligence: Artificial Wisdom: Supreme and benign. (But see Strength.) Charisma: He's a Babe Weapons: Lots of Dice Armour: Yes, but a real softie inside :)

I've been playing AD&D since around 1982. For most of that time I have been DMing, although, particularly in the early days, this duty was shared among all the players in the group. Nick (whose character is Cethorlyn) was one of the players in this group, as was my brother. When we first started playing we never really played in a true "campaign": we would simply play a series of adventures with no real background to the whole. As we shared the DMing we all had a character. If you were being charitable you could say that whoever was DMing would run their own PC as an NPC. This was done completely impartially. Honest. Obviously we could never claim that this was AD&D of a "high standard", although we had a great time, so what the hell? Nevertheless I always had the desire to run a "proper campaign": one person as DM without a character and each player with one character each.

I stopped playing while I was at Medical school (1987-1992). It was during my final year there that I met Paul (whose character is Arakel) who is now my brother-in-law. He played AD&D also, having started while studying Zoology at Bristol University (where he met Rod - of whom more later). It was during this year that we decided to start playing again. The actual start of play had to wait until I finished at Medical school. The group of players at this time consisted of me, my brother Jamie, Paul and Nick. As we were short of players we still had the old problem of the DM having to run a character or a player running 2 characters, not to mention henchmen. As time went on Jamie found he had less and less time to play, so he sadly left the group. And then there were three.

We played on a little like this. By now we were getting close to my idea of how I wanted to run a campaign. I was doing 90% of the DMing and we were setting the adventures in the Forgotten Realms, more specifically in and around Waterdeep and Undermountain. While we were doing this we became aware that some of our circle of friends (yes, despite our collective interest in PCs and FRP games we do get out!) were interested in playing AD&D. Rod (aka Rufus), Simon (aka Breanard) and Christine (aka Raksha) had played before here and there, occasionally joining our group for a one-off session. Hilary (aka Nyota) had played before at University, but only for one or two game sessions.

Suddenly there were enough players for our needs. So now we have the necessary people to provide a truly independent DM and an adventuring company of six characters.

We all get along well (so well that Hilary and Paul are Mr & Mrs and Simon and Christine are Mr & Mrs) and have been friends for a long time. This means that playing sessions are big social occasions. As we all work full time and some (poor sods!) have, or are expecting, children we don't play frequently. On average we've probably played every five or six weeks. When we do get together we play for a weekend, maybe sixteen to twenty hours in total playing time. The only real problem we have (apart from the logistics of all getting together in the same place at the same time) is the wide degree of experience among the players. Paul and Nick are very experienced, Rod moderately so, while Simon & Christine were almost novice players and Hilary was pretty much a complete newcomer to RPGs. This mainly caused problems as Nick & Paul both play elven characters. They were keen to role play them to the hilt and many rude comments were passed between them in "Elvish" (well, scribbled notes anyway) the first time the two Elves met. This wasn't helpful in getting the new players into the game. After this session I had to do my best "persuasive DM" act to get Arakel to become slightly less xenophobic! Now he speaks more in common and is more forgiving of human frailties.

This was a combination of choice and TSR's marketing. I, as DM, and my players prefer the style of campaign that allows the emphasis to fall on the heroic antics of the players. We've dabbled with adventures in Ravenloft, but it wasn't really our style. So the Forgotten Realms suits us. I'd sold most of my stuff when I went to medical school, and hadn't kept up with the changes at TSR (2nd Edition and no Gary Gygax came as shocks to me!). One of the first things I bought was the Undermountain boxed set: we like dungeon adventures best. I expanded things from Undermountain into Waterdeep and on into the rest of Faerûn. The Righteous Fist started its career in Shadowdale out of convenience. I'm pushed for time and I liked the background as described in the Forgotten Realms revised boxed set (flame if you think I actually give a shit!). Apart from that Paul and Nick had already taken characters into most of Undermountain and Waterdeep, so I thought they deserved something new!

So that's why the Righteous Fist (as they were to become) was recruited into searching for lost children in Shadowdale… For the next episode, see their journal.

Sean

19th March '97

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