First, some history.

A friend introduced me to D&D (AD&D actually) when we were in the third grade. I’m not sure how closely we actually played to the rules in those days, but I loved reading the books and it was a great catalyst for what we should probably call “interactive fiction with dice”. I played with a variety of friends through Junior High School, and then maybe a little in High School.

Then, in college, I got involved in a game an upperclassman was running in my Sophomore year. We had a great time and by my Junior year, I was running a regular weekly game that peaked with 7 or 8 players. The party’s journeys were epic and there are moments that are retold to this day at reunions and picnics.

Fast forward to the present (I’m 38 in a few days) and I stumbled across the Penny Arcade’s Dungeons & Dragons podcasts… I’d never played (or even really heard of) 4th edition before listening to those sessions and they were a great introduction. They made me want to play again. So, with the help of a friend, we pulled together a few recruits for a new campaign. I’ve been working behind the scenes to prepare to DM the new game and we’re hoping to meet for the first time in December.

On this blog, I plan to do a couple of things:

• First, I’m going to chronicle the party’s adventures for friends of mine that might enjoy reading their (mis)adventures
• Second, I’m going to post thoughts/observations/ideas on the game itself and the things that I’ve been working on as a DM to make the play experience easy and fun for “grown-ups” that have a limited amount of time to prep and play

Well… I think that’s enough to get us started. First couple of posts will be about my prep work and I hope to have a report from our first session by the end of the year!