In the last week of December, I decided to give Professional Dungeon Mastering a try
I’ve been Playing/Dungeon Mastering Dungeons & Dragons on and off for 35+ years, it’s one of my greatest joys
Being I’ve always Homebrewed (Created my own material), as opposed to using official or 3rd party books & material, I decided I would start by using a 5e (D & D 5th Edition) Module I wrote and published two years prior (2019)
That way I’d be super familiar with the material I was running
Image Credit MoodyBlue/DeviantArt
Generally I ran ‘Theater of the Mind’ when I DM’d (Dungeon Mastered) campaigns, but because it was Professional Dungeon Mastering, and people were paying me, I decided to also include Roll 20 so that I could include maps etc.
I started with a Thursday game, then a Friday game, but soon combined the two to make one Friday Game
In January this year I began doing some Professional Dungeon Mastering on a site called Start Playing
Fridays I have my first group, they’re currently in my ‘Frost Rhealm’ Module, but will then continue the Campaign in my Material World… A world I have been using for my Personal Campaigns for the last 4 Years
Lately, I’ve begun building New Realms, the first is ‘HAIKON’, a Campaign Setting/Adventures Module I started working on 3 years ago which I hope to Publish this year, and most recently, ‘THUNSORRA’
Thunsorra I began building for the purpose of having fresh material for a New/First Time Twich Campaign I planned on starting with my girlfriend who I’ve been running a 4 year Campaign with, but she’s at Level 27, and rather than ending it, we planned on starting a Second Campaign on Twitch
On Start Playing, I’ve been posting games starting…
After I stepped away from the ‘White Jade’ Web Series, and Filmmaking for the moment, I needed to chill out for a bit… In 2006, I did this with ‘World of Warcraft’, but this time, I’d do it with ‘Dungeons & Dragons’
I’d loved ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ as a kid, started playing in the 80’s, and again in the 90’s
It’s an awesome game to just let you imagination go
And after stepping away from Filmmaking again, I really needed to have an outlet to express my Creativity, without the pressure of Producing
The first thing I did, was get on my Twitter D & D Account, and began connecting with the Dungeons & Dragons Community
Little did I know, but the game had become more popular than ever, partly to do with a group of Voice Actors who started streaming their home game online
Maybe you’ve heard of them by now, ‘Critical Role’
Not only was it great to see a true group of friends together playing, but it exposed me to the new D & D 5e System, which they use
So I picked up the new 5th Edition Players Manual, and started to learn the new rules
I also approached an associate/friend from my Web Series (He was a Sword Trainer, and Actor from the Web Series), and asked if he’d be willing to run a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign
In the past, I’d mainly been the Dungeon Master (Person who ran the game/created the world the players inhabited/ran all the NPC’s (Non Player Characters) in the game
But with 5e, I wanted to start out as a Player to get used to the rules, before running my own campaign
The Group was called ‘The League Of Unity’
And I was a Paladin (Holy Knight), which had always been my favorite Class of Character in D & D, but like I say, I mainly ran games, so didn’t have much opportunity to play one
We played this game for several months, meeting when we could, but in the end, the group kind of fell apart (Which often does, good groups can be hard to find)
Also during that year, though I wasn’t being a Dungeon Master yet, I did decide to create a Dungeon Master focused Vlog, called ‘Doragon’s Domain‘
It was there that I was encouraged from members of the Dungeons & Dragons Twitter Community, to Publish ‘Frost Rhealm’
Though complimented, my initial reaction was, I don’t want to make D & D a job… It was my place to Create freely, without pressure to make money etc.
I considered it for several months, then life stepped in, and I took a break from D & D Twitter, and working on ‘Frost Rhealm’
I did, however, at this time, pick up the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, and started to learn the new DM (Dungeon Master) Rules
But because my group that year had ended, and I wasn’t yet running a game, I decided to write a Dungeon & Dragons Blog Series on this site, called ‘Magic And Light‘
A Story about a group of kids who got together to play Dungeons & Dragons…
…in that Story I’d write both the parts about the kids, and then I’d write about their Characters, blending reality and the D & D World/Campaign they were playing
It was then that my girlfriend (Who’d only started playing D & D in 2017 in the group that fell apart), approached me, and asked if she could create a character, and have me run a campaign for her
Most Of The Concept And Design For My “HAIKON’ Dungeons & Dragons 5e Campaign Setting/Adventures Module Is Written & Complete… Meeting With A D & D Buddy Next Thursday To Brainstorm/Refine A Few Elements… Also Keeping My Eyes Out For An illustrator
For updates you can follow my D & D Twitter Account Dragon_Ryder7
The Written Word 