Traveller Gathering

So, my path was set.  

With personal quest clearly in my mind, I ventured out and walked with determination into the very heart of Cardiff city centre, aiming for the wonderful Victorian arcades.  

These arcades were*, and in some cases, still are, one of the magical touches of shop browsing in Cardiff - flagstone-slabbed flooring, gallery-style balconies, ornate Victorian lamps hanging from the wooden vaulted ceiling and the thick, opaque glass block inlay of each arcade shop's cellar grating, worn smooth by the decades of foot traffic.

*(I say 'were', due to the fact that now an edifice of a mall-style shopping centre has been erected on the other side of town, pulling away all the shoppers from the Victorian arcades.  As a result many shops within the arcades are now closing down, leaving the once thriving, bustling arcades a former shadow of their glory days.  City Planners = sphincters.)

Snapshot arrives ... the birth of Evil DM?

It was Christmas morning, frost coated the inside of my bedroom window and the air literally froze you to the core.  Now you must bear in mind, this is a time when the family home I lived and grew up in did not have central heating, no double glazing, a fireplace in each bedroom, nor did we have a phone - and yes, our television was black & white, with access to three channels only.  That's the way it was.  But I digress.

With steaming breath, I peeled back the ten or so blankets pinning me to the bed to the accompaniment of a slapping, gurgling thud, as a stone cold water bottle falls from the release of blankets.  But to be honest, I'm all focused on the wrapped parcels waiting for me under the tree in the front room of our house.

*A little information regarding 'the front room': it was a 'special' room - a room kept for special occasions, for example, family gatherings like Christmas, but never to be used for any other purpose (although I do remember being locked out as a child when my father and brother were gluing together an Airfix 'Flying Fortress' model, much to my frustration and thumping on said door - although I do recall eventually getting my hands on said model, and oh, how it broke apart).*

Where it all began for me.

My very first contact with the rpg genre was at the tender age of seventeen.  I was working at a family run warehouse in my home city of Cardiff, where I met a fellow workmate of the same age, who seemed, initially, a pretty intense sort of individual--head always in a magazine about rock climbing.

During one lunchtime conversation, this particular workmate asked if I'd ever heard of 'Dungeons & Dragons'. I, for my innocence and ignorance combined, thought immediately of Victorian prisons and faeries. Only natural, having never encountered these two words placed together before in the same context.

An Introduction.

Copyright © TSR Games.

Welcome to this, my first ever blogging experience. 
Forgive any blogging faux-pax that may arise, your patience is appreciated.

My aim is to share memories of my own role playing experiences from the perspective of a Dungeon Master, and considering I've just over twenty years worth of DM'ing on the table (so to speak), I'm hoping to make this both entertaining and informative.  I would also like this blog to be a platform for the role playing uninitiated to garner an insight to a much maligned and misunderstood hobby/past time/activity.

Something I will always remember and value from my time running what seemed to be a never-ending campaign, are the friendships formed around the role playing table.  Some of those are long gone and just distant memories, whilst others are still current. Either way, they all served to construct the fantastic rpg tapestry of epic adventures, scenarios humorous and often fraught with danger, and in some instances, moments of unintentional pathos.

Ultimately though, it is the social aspect of the gathering of friends once-a-week, for a gaming session lasting from four-to-six hours of fantasy rpg that forms the backbone of pencil and paper role playing--no matter which rule system/setting is played.

And forgive any typo errors that might have slipped past me, I shall endeavour to track them down.

Once again, welcome, and I hope you enjoy :)