Welcome to the Archive of Adventures. I am writing this blog to document the progress of my first Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I have only played D&D a few times in my life and I have never truly taken on the role of Dungeon Master before so this should be...interesting... This blog is to serve as a place for sharing ideas. If you like something I use, feel free to use it yourself and, in that same vein, if you have tips or suggestions, let me know!
I am building this world from the ground up. It's an awful lot of work for a beginner, but I've always liked doing things my way so, to me, this is more fun than tedious. I plan to build the campaign in "chapters" where each session should tell a short story from beginning to end that will ultimately affect the overall story arc. At this time I have ideas for four different chapters and the more I read the Dungeon Master's Guide the more ideas start forming in my head.
However, I don't really want to get bogged down with the rules. I have chosen fourth edition for exactly that purpose. I know there are some D&D buffs who might say, "Well, that's dumb, because you have more freedom in third edition blah blah blah", but I don't think that's true. I think you have too much freedom in third edition and it leads to people arguing over relatively unimportant things like alignment and what exactly they're carrying. Hell, I'm not even playing with an experience system. When I feel it's time to level, my players will level.
At this time I am also creating all of the encounters from scratch. Using the basic knowledge I have, I am attempting to work out all of the necessary numbers to make fun, but challenging fights. I am trying to create encounters where the players will really have to think their way through what they are doing. Too many times have I played in campaigns where it is just one battle to the next with maybe a little basic role playing in between to break things up. I don't want that. I am not going to just have my players wander through a forest until I decide they've found their destination. I want the forest itself to be a sort of mini game. Navigating a dungeon will be a challenge unto itself; broken up by encounters to keep things lively.
I have no idea if any of this will work, mind you. And I can only share so much with you prior to actually running the campaign. I don't want to risk one of my players learning about things too early. But I do intend to do my best to record the events of the adventures and show what the characters have accomplished. At present, the players have not finalized their character choices so I am at a bit of a standstill. I am mostly finished with the first chapter and am steadily working my way into the second, but without characters I can't really finish building encounters that will be appropriately balanced.
I will post more as soon as I am able, but, for now, that is where I am in the process of building my campaign.
