D30 Day 4 - My Favorite Setting

I DMed two long-running campaigns set in the Forgotten Realms, and the Realms certainly holds a nostalgic allure for me.  Nathan and I bought the Grey Box Forgotten Realms book back when it came out, and Grunt Norak and Hadian Joyce, the dwarf berserker and half-elf bard traveled the length and breadth of the Forgotten Realms.

In university, the Mithril Gauntlet adventuring company, chartered out of Silverymoon, fought drow, orcs, giants and duergar.  They even defeated the Demoness called the Floating Dancer and battled the invasion forces from Hellgate Keep to a standstill.  The Savage North was their stomping grounds, from Luskan to Anauroch and south to Baldur's Gate.

So I am very fond of the Realms.  But after I ran the Realms campaign I fell in with another gaming group.  Nic, Greg, Tobe, James, Marc and I (with occasional cameos by a number of others) played Vampire, Warhammer and quite a bit of 2e D&D using my homebrew Celtic-inspired world.

At the time we just called it "Celtic", but in my mind it's always been called Aemere.  Aemere is post-apocalyptic iron-age and low-magic, with a setting inspired by the Chronicles of Prydain, the Mabinogion, Irish and Norse mythology and generous dashes of other stuff.

The original and best cover.

The party, led by the Bard/Ranger (he rolled REALLY GOOD STATS) Gaelan dan Brennan, fought against an evil king, led refugees, battled the Coraniaid (the Huntsmen), the Fire Mages, werewolves and demons.  I eventually screwed up so badly as a DM that the campaign fell apart, but Aemere will always be my best homebrew, and my favorite setting.

D30 Day 3 - My Favorite Class

Day 4 and I'm behind.. story of my life, I suppose.

What goes with dwarves like chocolate goes with peanut butter?  Thassright!  My favorite class.  Fighters!

Heavy Armor, Shields, ALL THE WEAPONS!  I love fighters.  Despite the fact that the fighter has always been the red-headed stepchild of D&D, especially in the 3e era (part of why I dislike 3e), I've always loved the plain old vanilla warrior.

So many cool historical characters were fighters.  Robert the Bruce, El Cid, Hector, Gustavus Adolphus, Richard the Lionhearted.  Lots of cool fighters all over the place.  When you've studied as much history as I have, the fighter really comes to the foreground, since really, it was pretty much the only class available for most of the time.

There haven't been as many great fighters in my campaigns, but Nate's Elf from high school, Galadan and Ivan from Celtic Campaign in university, and certainly Hilbo Huggins from the current Dwarves campaign all make the cut.

So let's hear it for the fighter.  The man in the trenches - taking the hits and throwing himself in front of arrows while the wizard and the cleric get all the big, showy stuff.  My favorite class.

D30 Day 2 - My Favorite Race

I like dwarves, as should be fairly obvious from the nature of my current D&D Next Playtest Campaign.  I've always been fond of dwarves, as far back as I can remember.  Heck, one of my first characters was a dwarf.  Of course, the other one was an elf, but he got eaten by a giant rat and anyways that was years ago and the girl is dead now...

Dwarves!
Maybe it's because I live in the mountains, surrounded by old silver mines.
Maybe it's because I am fond of facial hair.
Maybe it's because we owned a Jack Russell Terrier (whom I wanted to name Thorin).
Maybe it's because of Gimli, son of Gloin, or the charge of Thorin Oakenshield against the Bodyguard of Bolg.
Maybe it's because I always secretly wanted to be a blacksmith.

It's all of these things.  I like the fierce, proud, doomed lords of the mountains, with their secret crafts and hidden wonders.

Although I don't get to actually play characters much - I'm the DM, mostly - there has almost always been a dwarf PC in the party.  In high school it was Grunt Norak, the dwarven berserker, and Splint Sharpeyed, the dwarf sharpshooter.

In university it was Dobynor, the dwarven Champion of Moradin.  Our friend Dwayne has a magical RPG ability.  He can look at a pile of books, pull out one at random, open it to a random page and make a character based on that rule.  And that rule in invariably the most overpowered, munchkin-y rule in the ENTIRE SYSTEM.  The Dwarven Champion was just one example.  This 2e Kit allowed you to make a cleric with weapon specialization.  So basically a fighter who could also cast cleric spells, without having to bother with multi-classing.  So broken, but he played so recklessly that it was OK, because he did so many cool things that it was worth it.

Ahhh, dwarves.  You will always be my favorite race in D&D.

D30 Day 1: How Did You Get Started

When I was about 8, I met +Perry Jones, who has remained a friend lo these many years (about 30 years).  We went to school in Edgewood, BC - which is about as small and isolated a place as you will find, short of the Yukon or Alaska.

Edgewood school was renovating at that time, and they dumped a huge pile of dirt and rocks along one side of the playing field.  Perry and I began adventuring on these 'mountains', and explored back and forth for a big part of that year.

Later that year, I got the Dungeons and Dragons Coloring Book, which was the single most awesome thing 

that any human has ever produced.

We became really interested in D&D, but I don't think we ever actually played a game.  Until...

The next year I moved over the ferry to Fauquier, BC, where I met the Klopps.  Specifically Mike and Tony Klopp, who actually PLAYED D&D.

I wasn't the DM, so I don't know what version of D&D we were playing.  I do know that the first adventure I went on was Blizzard Pass, so I assume it was Mentzer or Holmes Basic, since it was about 1984 at this point.  I might even have been the original Basic Edition, though, since Mike and Tony had 2 older brothers who had both played too.  I made 2 characters.  A dwarf named Chainmail and an elf named Whiplash. Whiplash fell down a pit and got eaten by a giant rat, but I'm pretty sure Chainmail survived.  I was hooked.
Perry and I played lots of D&D in later years, and kept up our friendship even as we moved around.  Sadly, I've lost track of Mike and Tony Klopp, but I still remember playing D&D in the back room of their house.

A few years later I moved to New Denver, BC, and Rayn and Nathan Butt lived across the street, and they were into D&D too.  I DMed, since I was the most interested, and we played with a rotating cast of others for many years.  I still see Rayn pretty regularly, although gaming night is board games now, instead of D&D.

Starting D&D wasn't something I was introduced to.  It was something I was waiting for my whole life, without ever knowing it.  So thanks Greg Irons, and +Perry Jones, and Mike and Tony Klopp, and Rayn and Nathan Butt, and +Nic Morgan and the gaming group from university.  I'm getting towards my 4th decade of gaming, and I still have a great time each and every session.