New Group, New Game, New Blog

By way of humble introduction, this blog is meant simply to house my various thoughts and notes concerning a half-baked semi-retro D&D campaign I call Tøtenwäld. Recently, I began a new game with a group of people who had never played before. I have been playing on and off for about 10-12 years, and I always jump at a chance to DM. Three sessions in, and things are going swimmingly. In the coming posts I intend to outline my campaign and setting notes.

The setting's primary influences will become apparent as time goes on, but they variously amount to an amalgam of Ravenloft, Sanctuary, Middenmurk, Cörpathium, and the Old World. I am sure the poor pastiche jobs and outright theft will be readily apparent to most every reader.

I have been using a homebrewed system I whipped up essentially on a dare, that distills Microlite74 into a 1-page system; I had no idea my players would outgrow the simple rules so quickly. They immediately balked at the lack of character creation options, were almost never confused as to which dice to roll, and clamored for more ways to make their characters and actions unique and mechanically meaningful. I have to say that I was quite happy and humbled as a Dungeon Master to be able to game with such an eager and receptive group, and I believe that says a lot about them. I will close with a quote from an awesome blogger by the name of Ben Lawrence:

Now, introducing someone to D&D isn't like sending them a board game. A proper introduction to our hobby is an initiation. So much of the game is in the sense of how it's played. I thought, if I do it, I want to do it right, the way I wished I had been introduced to the game.

I think I may have accomplished that. Thanks, guys.