This D&D Game is... Rolling!
Jan. 17th, 2026 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerToday I started my latest D&D game. This one's based on some ideas I've been kicking around for a few weeks. At its core is a stupid simple premise: I just want to game! I want to roll dice and work the mechanics. I want to open the door, fight the monster, and discover the treasure. But since I'm a forever DM I'll have to settle for creating the game and running it rather than merely playing it. (Either way, the monster gets killed... but it's my monster!)
A few weeks ago Hawk and I got a quartet of players organized. I mean, it's her plus three others plus me as DM. Finding the right set of players was only medium difficult. Finding a time that works for all of us was the hard part. We figured out that Saturdays 2-6pm would work for everyone, for the most part. Today was our first game.
I always start roleplaying games now with a Session Zero. It's a time for us to get aligned on the broad storyline of the game, the style in which we want to play, some ground rules for the table, and, of course, our characters. In this shorter form game, like the last one I started a few years ago, I offered a set of pre-generated characters. Once again, the players were happy to choose from the pre-gens— I worked on creating them to be balanced, unique, and interesting, not just sheets of stats— and they quickly picked out different characters from one another and each felt they'd gotten one of their top choices.
Next I worked on introducing the players to the game setting and helping them describe how their characters fit into it. The game is set in the fantasy setting of Durendal, a once-grand city hundreds of years old that is now only half full and in decay. It's a place where ghosts of the past linger and anything can happen.
The players had a leg up on reading about the setting because I put several documents about it in a Google Drive I shared a week ago. Some of them even read all the docs! 😅 After aligning on the background and answering questions about it I challenged each of the players to tell me why their characters would be on a particular street near the city center and "Billionaires' Row", an area where some people with family wealth dating back 200+ years live.
I thought all this Session Zero stuff would take up the whole 4 hour bloc today. Alas the players aligned quickly on gaming style and on picking characters. There was still an hour and a half left, and they were itching to roll some dice. I decided, Fuck it, let's play!
Getting the game rolling felt a bit reckless to me. I didn't have any detailed notes prepared. I didn't have any picture cards for monsters. I barely even had a map drawn out. But I've been DMing so long (remember, Forever DM) I knew I could handle it.
The characters were in various places within about 1/2 block radius. They rallied to the call. Though the stout warrior, who's part Jersey Girl, was over in a public park like, "Heyyy! I'm on my lunch break, here. I'mma finish my sandwich over here then see why youse got a grizzly bear in your house there." 🤣
The group assembled on the steps of the urban mansion, made quick introductions, and took stock of who had what skills. There were two warriors, a cleric, a mage, and a small team of city guards led by a swashbuckling nobleman. The casters cast a few buff spells while the warriors sprinted up the stairs and into the dimly lit foyer beyond the half-open doors.
Some of the group had gotten a better look at the brown, furry creature. It wasn't actually a grizzly bear but an Owlbear.
For those who don't know, Owlbears are a classic monster dating back to the early days of D&D. They combine the body and strength of a grizzly bear with the head/beak of a giant owl. They also have feathers in odd places. There are a number of different interpretations of what this creature looks like in different games and editions. The picture I'm using here is adapted from the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual published c. 2003. The caption with a roar-hoot is my contribution to the lore. 🤣
The group tracked the monster's trail of destruction— not to mention the distant sounds of ROAR-hoo-hoo-ROAR!!— a short distance to the great hall at the center of the mansion. There the 5 players engaged to rescue the victim, who was lying limply, possibly dead, on the ground at its feet.
Now, I said above we got the game rolling with 90 minutes left in our session. We already went over by 15 minutes, with everyone's agreement, and we only got through the first full combat round of engaging the owlbear directly. (There were several pursuit rounds before the fight became... well, a fight.) We'll begin the next game session at the top of the initiative order in the middle of a pitched battle. GRAAWRhoooWRRR!
A few weeks ago Hawk and I got a quartet of players organized. I mean, it's her plus three others plus me as DM. Finding the right set of players was only medium difficult. Finding a time that works for all of us was the hard part. We figured out that Saturdays 2-6pm would work for everyone, for the most part. Today was our first game.
I always start roleplaying games now with a Session Zero. It's a time for us to get aligned on the broad storyline of the game, the style in which we want to play, some ground rules for the table, and, of course, our characters. In this shorter form game, like the last one I started a few years ago, I offered a set of pre-generated characters. Once again, the players were happy to choose from the pre-gens— I worked on creating them to be balanced, unique, and interesting, not just sheets of stats— and they quickly picked out different characters from one another and each felt they'd gotten one of their top choices.
Next I worked on introducing the players to the game setting and helping them describe how their characters fit into it. The game is set in the fantasy setting of Durendal, a once-grand city hundreds of years old that is now only half full and in decay. It's a place where ghosts of the past linger and anything can happen.
The players had a leg up on reading about the setting because I put several documents about it in a Google Drive I shared a week ago. Some of them even read all the docs! 😅 After aligning on the background and answering questions about it I challenged each of the players to tell me why their characters would be on a particular street near the city center and "Billionaires' Row", an area where some people with family wealth dating back 200+ years live.
I thought all this Session Zero stuff would take up the whole 4 hour bloc today. Alas the players aligned quickly on gaming style and on picking characters. There was still an hour and a half left, and they were itching to roll some dice. I decided, Fuck it, let's play!
Getting the game rolling felt a bit reckless to me. I didn't have any detailed notes prepared. I didn't have any picture cards for monsters. I barely even had a map drawn out. But I've been DMing so long (remember, Forever DM) I knew I could handle it.
The door of a city mansion on Billionaire's Row bursts open. A middle aged man staggers out, calling hoarsely, "Guards! Guards! Someone call the guards!" A moment later a pair of huge arms covered in brown fur grab him and drag him back into the darkness behind the door.
Roll initiative.
Roll initiative.
The characters were in various places within about 1/2 block radius. They rallied to the call. Though the stout warrior, who's part Jersey Girl, was over in a public park like, "Heyyy! I'm on my lunch break, here. I'mma finish my sandwich over here then see why youse got a grizzly bear in your house there." 🤣
The group assembled on the steps of the urban mansion, made quick introductions, and took stock of who had what skills. There were two warriors, a cleric, a mage, and a small team of city guards led by a swashbuckling nobleman. The casters cast a few buff spells while the warriors sprinted up the stairs and into the dimly lit foyer beyond the half-open doors.
Some of the group had gotten a better look at the brown, furry creature. It wasn't actually a grizzly bear but an Owlbear.
For those who don't know, Owlbears are a classic monster dating back to the early days of D&D. They combine the body and strength of a grizzly bear with the head/beak of a giant owl. They also have feathers in odd places. There are a number of different interpretations of what this creature looks like in different games and editions. The picture I'm using here is adapted from the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual published c. 2003. The caption with a roar-hoot is my contribution to the lore. 🤣
The group tracked the monster's trail of destruction— not to mention the distant sounds of ROAR-hoo-hoo-ROAR!!— a short distance to the great hall at the center of the mansion. There the 5 players engaged to rescue the victim, who was lying limply, possibly dead, on the ground at its feet.
Now, I said above we got the game rolling with 90 minutes left in our session. We already went over by 15 minutes, with everyone's agreement, and we only got through the first full combat round of engaging the owlbear directly. (There were several pursuit rounds before the fight became... well, a fight.) We'll begin the next game session at the top of the initiative order in the middle of a pitched battle. GRAAWRhoooWRRR!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-19 08:58 am (UTC)(If so, I wanna rub her head for luck, but only after I wash any cat dander off my hands!)
no subject
Date: 2026-01-19 05:42 pm (UTC)