Wally DM

I did not choose to run the Lost Mine of Phandelver for my first time running a tabletop game. Nor did I choose popular adventures like Rise of the Runelords or the Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I chose to dive into homebrewing straight away, and mostly taught myself how to be a Dungeon Master the long hard way. Why?

Well, I thought I had a story worth telling.

Delving in Deeper

I have, for decades now, enjoyed worldbuilding and storytelling as both an unpublished author and Dungeon Master. They both go together, hand in hand. There was this itch, an all-consuming desire to share this story, this kingdom I was writing about with my friends at the time. I didn’t want to write what was going on in my books, but what happened afterwards. I didn’t want to follow predestined adventures, but to let the players see what I saw in my books: floating islands, kingdoms in peril, a dragon and a phoenix, magic, redemption, and love.

The setting I call Alamer is her own character. She’s been through several iterations, even a case of a manuscript being torn in two.  Her story was mine, in a sense. I started writing back in middle school, just after Christopher Paolini had released Eragon and the movie had been made. This was during a rather tumultuous time, where books and video  games were my escape.

The first book attempt was horrible, cringy-worthy, and poorly structured. The main character was definitely a Mary-Sue self-insert into a world I didn’t know how to write about. A female assassin, a handsome prince, an ancient evil named only the Dark One. Classic good vs evil, heroes chosen and foes to face. 

Tragedy and Conversion

I kept writing until the script was torn apart. The tearing was heartbreaking, the sound haunting. The pages of that draft were wrinkled, smudged, heavy with hope and determination, and the protesting scream they made as they were destroyed was gut-wrenching. For a time after, I didn’t dare pick up a pen again.

I never forgot about Alamer, even as I progressed through school. Eventually I started again, moved from handwriting to typing. The flash drive where that new script resides was hidden and safe, and is still being worked on to this day. Even then, I was too cautious, and avoided working on her too much. By the time I was introduced to tabletop games, what work I had done for Alamer had started to shift.

Instead of a self-insert, I started the story with a completely different set of characters. Where there was once an assassin with no knowledge of her lineage, a young woman is freed from imprisonment and given the freedom to step into her role as Champion of Magic. In the place of a handsome prince, a wandering wizard confronts the darkness within his lineage. The princess and the prince still exist, but they no longer were the sole focus of the story I wanted to tell. The story of the Champion Alyssah is just one of five for the first part of the series. I know, as a storyteller, where these stories converge, and the results of the trials and tribulations of the five Champions. I had little plan for what came after.

Forging Forward

When I finally started trying tabletop games, I started with in person sessions. A school friend wanted to try DMing after several mutual friends expressed wanting to play more. We started with Pathfinder 1e’s Rise of the Runelords. We were quite determined. I still remember snippets of the first session we did.

I was a cleric of Sarenrae, a fiery youth filled with determination. She was participating in festivities as a member of the church. Goblins attacked. A handful of citizens, the other players’ characters, jumped into action to protect the people. The people were grateful, and suddenly we became a ragtag group of adventurers that the town turned to for help.

After my very first session as a player, I knew I wanted to be a DM. It is difficult to express the exact sensation of when you just know you’re going to do something. I remember the sudden click, the clarity and the dam bursting, releasing a flood of creativity I had once thought was permanently lost. It was then that I instantly fell in love with every aspect of the game without fully understanding anything about it; I was ready to dive in blind and just learn on the go.

I had a fantasy setting already established. I knew the history and details of the world in my head. I had barely anything written down, a general idea for a campaign plot, some websites to navigate, and a ton of inspiration.

Thus Chronicles of Alamer: Aftermath became my first campaign.

Rediscovering Hope

There was a resurgence of hope and determination when I laid out the campaign idea. I captivated my friends as I described the kingdom of Alamer still healing from the defeat of the Dark One, being met by travelers from the unknown desert country to the north. I was focusing on telling a tale of redemption for the campaign while also turning the story to be about the players’ influence upon the world around them.

In a way, the story of Alamer was reborn from the scraps of the torn manuscript through the hope of incomplete drafts and friends interested in a world that was new to them.

Being a Dungeon Master can be a daunting task, but one full of adventure, inspiration, passion, and determination. I learned quite a lot along the way, and made plenty of new friendships too! And so, I wish to share with you all the journey I took to get to a completed homebrew campaign with this series of mine. I desire to share the resources I used, my experience with tabletops in general, and the many facets of inspiration that guided me through achieving that dream goal of a completed campaign.

Find a cozy spot, grab yourself a drink and a snack, enjoy the warmth of the hearth, and let me share with you a story worth telling.

Please, stay awhile, and listen.