A Life Full of Adventure

A new character is a blank slate. You don’t want to fill that slate before even setting out on your first adventure. You want to keep room on that slate to write as much as possible about what happens. What your character experiences through play. What your character learns. What your character does.  But a goal or two does help. Even if the goal is to accumulate gold. Then many players ask themselves why? Why does this character want all this gold? That’s how you start filling the blank slate before your adventures even happen. Maybe the why is better left until later. Until you get to know the character. Until the adventure fills in some blanks. Is your goal to be the party protector? Do you need to know why? Or will you find out why during the adventure? Perhaps you find out why when that other character you protected does some great deed in the future.  Play to find out. Play to flesh out. Play to explain those short, one-liner goals. Each play is likely to bring different...

Here’s how it usually starts for me: “I’m tired of playing the magic user. Next time I want to be the brainless fighter.”  I don’t mean that I always play a magic user, but it’s an example of how I often decide what type of character I want to play in the next new game/campaign/adventure. After a while I just get sick of always having my head in books, looking for the best spell to cast in a specific situation. After playing so many magic users in a row or after playing so many rogues…I just want a change.  Clerics. Clerics, too, keep me busy a lot. It’s no wonder I wanted to be the fighter when we started rolling characters for a recent game. It’s really too bad that game didn’t take off; we had quite the group of halflings ready to take on the big world.  I know others will say we should just roll in order and play whatever character the dice decide. That’s not usually the way it works for our table. We get together, mete out the roles, and roll up some characters....

I play a lot of clerics. I know that may not be a popular position…I read a lot of blogs as well. Each deity has strictures that are just different enough to capture my attention. And they make the characters different enough so the class never quite gets old to me. Sure I take breaks, but I’m always ready to roll up a new cleric or go back to an old favorite. What the running of clerics gets me also are holidays. There are certain days of the year that are holy to the cleric or to the church. Some could even be considered a New Years Day.  These holy days, besides possibly some specific clothes and proscribed festivities, should come with an opportunity for the cleric to do some introspection. Is the cleric following the strictures of their deity? Is their focus wandering? What sort of goals should the cleric set for themselves in the coming month/season/year to get closer to their deity? Does the cleric need to renew some oaths? Those are all questions that could be asked through...

Registering as a magic user really put me in a conundrum as a player. Actually history, as well as nerd history, has multiple instances where registering a number of the population did not turn out well. The Jewish people were registered by Nazis. Mutants were registered in X-Men. The Avengers were torn apart, Captain America vs Iron Man, by the thought of being registered by the government. History, real and imagined, has taught me to be wary of registering. Memberships, on the other hand, include multiple privileges. The membership in this game gives one access to sleeping quarters, spells, components, peers, and a mentor, should the character need one.  I want to feel, in my heart of hearts, that the Game Master really plans to lean on the membership aspect of this wizard registration act. However, he has seen all the movies and read all the comic books I have, and I know he understands the potential pitfalls of making yourself known to the government. Giving yourself a number. ...

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune Noofie -- Gnome Illusionist In one sense the party was depleted. In another, it now had wondrous items that would make further adventures all the easier. They retraced their path back to Schladel. In Berrymore, Zak was able to replace some of his missing spells from his new friend Noofie. All he needed was a new spell book of his own. There was also a philosophical discussion of what exactly evil was and how anyone could know if they were a demon in disguise or not. In Schladel they learned that the Baron currently took a position against magic users, and he was making all users register in order to practice in the city. This came after a minor mishap against the Baron’s belongings. Zak and Noofie started a philosophical discussion about registering as a wizard. Zak ultimately took the offer, as he was currently starting over his magic career. Noofie took a wait and see approach. Registering to be ...

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune Noofie -- Gnome Illusionist The party ran into the mining camp to find the three dwarves fighting a large fire elemental. One of the dwarves was down, and Boroth was standing over him. The other dwarf fought a losing battle against fire. The party joined the battle, but things went almost as badly. Multiple party members were set on fire by the large elemental, losing all combustible materials on their person. That meant backpacks, coin pouches, arrows, clothing, hair, and a spell book. Through the fight, the party fighter took a dive into the camp’s well to try to combat the fire of the elemental. She didn’t find anything to help, but she found a strange current in the well. Otherwise, her aid was pulling up buckets of water to put out party members that had caught on fire. After the elemental had caused enough damage, Boroth, the king’s military advisor, revealed he was actually behind summoning ...