Dungeons and Dragons; and experience in itself part 2

So from my previous blog you would have seen the first group of d&d-ers I played with. How there was a mixture of anxiety but also excitement before the game and how I wanted to create my own game. Now I didn't know where to start with creating my first game so I followed in some online D&D players footsteps, and began my adventure with the campaign The mines of Phandalin. This campaign was apparently the best first game to play with Dungeons and Dragons 5e when starting out to be a Dungeon master (DM), i was very anxious about running my first game and decided before I should run a game i should aske some D&D players that I know have been playing for a while, so I decided to ask the Yorkshirerolls crew (@yorkshirerolls on twitter and Twitch) when they did a Q&A session at the end of one of their games. They were so helpful! Especially when it came down to the similar advice as I got last time;

"don't over prepare, as if you do and the players say something else this could screw up the overprepared story and you have to make it up on the spot anyway."

This was some of the best advice I had received, of course I didn't listen too it when I had my first game. I planned everything to the T and ended up frustrated, as what the Yorkshirerolls crew said, happened. The players decided to go elsewhere, as it was my first game that I was running, I was still unsure as to how the campaign worked so let information slip that shouldn't have been told to the players. An honest mistake, but one of my players interrupted me and led me back on the right path. Now I started off with 3 players, then 3 turned into 5 and 5 turned into 7, I had a HUGE party for my first game, and one problem player that was a rule abider of D&D. I was upset and downhearted as my players seemed to be having less fun, and the rule follower kept interrupting the game play to say what is right and wrong. I wasn't having fun, my players weren't having fun and i got overwhelmed.

I let the problem player be a problem player for too long rather than calling him out and explaining the rules are down to the DM (yes, some rules are there for a purpose bonus actions etc but most rules are there as guidelines). I pulled this player to one side and had a chat with them, explaining that they need to take a step back from the bombarding of rules and if we as a party ask for help then that is when they could throw in the rules. For a little time this worked, I actually crafted some homebrewed missions within the campaign, and we had some chaotic fun and laughter, we had Jabba the huts hit single CD come into play - this was pure chaotic meme content! We were having so much fun!

We then moved back to the story campaign but then SURPRISE there was an underground gladiator ring that the orcs had crafted and kidnapped the players to fight in the ring. The chaos then again began, they battled many a monster but were rewarded with their freedom of the ring and treasure chests.... what... did.. did you just say chests?

Yes reader, I did just say chests, I'm a nice DM, I like to reward my players after a good ol' battle. However, I did go a little op with the rewards but hey ho, shit happens, eh?

We played this game on and off for a few weeks but then the problem player began his rule abiding laws again. Again i pulled him to one side but this time was a little tougher, I said something along the lines of; "Dude, I understand you know a lot about the game but you gotta stop interrupting, when we're trying to play, the rest of the players aren't having as much fun and to be honest, neither am I, you gotta sort it out or I will ask you to leave the game." The player understood what needed to happen but it just didn't work out, the game unfortunately fizzled out and I was only playing with the original crew that Xander was running.

I went to the OGs that I played with and asked for some advice, I wasn't sure what to do, and quite frankly lost motivation to play the game. They chatted with me and we all eventually realised I had come to a DM burn out, and just couldn't cope with the BS anymore. So I explained to my players that I don't know when the game would be back, and that I'm sorry but I can no longer DM this game, and with that my first DM experience fell flat on its face.

As there was no longer any D&D that i was playing i turned to watch the Yorkshirerolls crew on twitch, and my gosh! I thought Xander was good in a campaign game of Phandalin, he is INCREDIBLE at his homebrewed material, there was and still is so much more sustenance into the game, laughter, crying, tears of hope and sorrow as players fell.

You can see i have followed the Yorkshirerolls crew for quite some time and they are all so awesome! I started to watch their world a little after they started the characters and dm we had

Dungeon master and story teller; Xander (@vmprbt)

Hadley played by Andi (@Unamipatch)

Herbert; Played by Nathan (@Osjiwarrior)

Tazdok; played by John (@therobotfrom94)

These players created the beginning of @yorkshirerolls

I have NEVER experienced heartbreak, laughter and all of the emotions from Dungeons and dragons before, and these guys made it look easy. I was (and still am) OBSESSED with them, they create stories so vividly, so exciting, so watch worthy that I just became obsessed and basically became a fangirl of the cast and crew. I turned up to every game I could do and watched them, I spent lots of money on Bits (currency of Twitch), and followed them and subscribed with my prime membership, I re-watched their streams on their Youtube channel (yorkshirerolls) and tried to add all the players on Facebook and twitter- I think it was safe to say I am obsessed.

It was a strange start to wonderful friendships, I already knew John and Xander as we had already gamed together and had a friendship, Andi and Nathan we're wonderful surprises, all of them fit together like a jigsaw and made an amazing D&D adventure not just for themselves to play but for us as viewers to watch and experience. It wasn't long before we started conversing during the game and afterwards too, and they helped me realise what I wanted to do. To create my own Homebrewed world.

The whole crew of Yorkshirerolls showed me that I have the confidence and creative freedom to create my own world, gods, goddesses, towns, NPCs, the world, everything was in my grasp and man was I excited. I spent close to 6 months crafting a homebrewed world called Bedarth, and that was just the maps and ideas of missions (even now I still haven't finished the maps and missions), Ideas kept pouring out of me. It came to the time that i was really excited for, finding some players to try out my game.

As all of this crafting was happening, I had become pretty close to Andi, he helped me through struggling to get the ideas down on paper and helped keep my confidence up, he helped me set up my own twitch platform to stream on, helped me set up twitter and all those good things, and in turn we became really good friends, and I am happy to say we still are good friends.

Xander was a huge help, as he himself crafts his own worlds too i was able to aske him specifics like what lore and such I could use, what rules he finds make the game better and more "real". I also asked him what's the best way to make sure I find a perfect D&D team to make the game just as exciting as the ones he runs. Xander said to do a trial game just to see how the players gelled, to see if they worked well together - and so I did, and it was a hilarious and wonderful game that we played.

The players we had were some of the people I got to know in the online community of Twitch and discord. We had;

Andi who played Ug-sagi - a magic girl, warlock, orc princess. (that looked suspiciously like a sailor moon character)

Jimmy who played Oust Von Claw- a badass human monk

Remi who played Barton Copperbags - a halfling arcane trickster rogue (and a very good rouge at that)

and Finally John who played Agnetha (Aggie for short) - a mysterious Human Bard.

I enjoyed every minute of game played with these players immensely, they were the pun lords of our game, to the point where I almost had to tell them off for *punning* too much, which, of course, just made them craft more puns to torment they're poor DM, Me. It was all fun and games, we again had wholesome goodness, Laughter, tears, we had so much fun.

I got stressed when setting up games, but the crew knew how to keep me calm and confident, I had many chats with them all, we chatted about everything and nothing and got hyped for future games.

Suddenly out of nowhere, my laptop died a painful death (I had had her for 8 years), so we could no longer play anymore D&D until i bought a better laptop. I was sad, my players were sad, but we still had the comfort of being able to watch Yorkshirerolls on twitch and Youtube.

Now you might think this is the end of the story, you would be so very wrong, as i have a new laptop now and am planning away and hoping to be streaming again soon, in the meantime I am running another game within my homebrewed world which I will be telling you all about and keeping you updated!

I just want to give a MASSIVE shout-out to Andi, Remi, John, Xander, and Jimmy for standing by me and helping me when the going got tough. I also wanna thank Yorkshirerolls, for helping me to continue my love of Dungeons and dragons when I could no longer run my own game, but I could partake in your games and felt like part of your family!

Thank you again for everyone that reads this! I Can't wait for you to see/hear/read my next blog, The next blog may be a little different as i am hoping to get a few personal life things in a blog too, but there will always be more D&D content thrown your way!

Until Next time readers! Peace out!