Preparing for adventure

Have you ever agreed to do something only to realise that you have jumped head first into the deep end?

I’m in that position right now.

You see, after last weeks session of D&D, I asked my Dungeon Master Thomas if I could possibly run a one-shot some day. Not only was he up for it, but he also said I could run the next one this coming Monday. On top of that, he very kindly lent me his copies of the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. On the train ride home, I started writing down all my ideas for the one-shot. I was confident that I could do this.

I have one more day before the one-shot session and I am freaking out!

I thought I knew how much preparation goes into ruining a campaign as a DM, boy was I wrong. I am really out of my depth here since as I am writing my own adventure need to make almost everything from scratch from the location to the NPCs.

After realising there was no way I could do any of my ideas as a one-shot I ended up merging two ideas and cutting out a lot of filler. In our group, our sessions tend to be around four hours so I needed to create something that could be completed in that time but also interesting.

I am not going to reveal what the story is since I don’t want to run the risk of spoiling it for my players, despite the fact I’m fairly confident none of them read my blog, but I want to give you a hint what it will be about so I’ll reveal the title, You Meddling Kids.

Since the last couple of sessions have been very dramatic and emotional I wanted to come up with something a bit more light-hearted. However, the golden rule of comedy is that you can’t script comedy. So I am creating a rather stupid scenario and encouraging my players to go nuts with it.

The most fun part has to be making NPCs. I love some of the folk I have made so far and I will admit I am rather proud of them. They aren’t really anything to write home about but for someone who is new to this, I think I have done a decent job.

Honestly, my biggest concern is something I can’t really control. I am not a voice actress by any stretch of the imagination, so how am I going to play multiple characters?

Thomas, on the other hand, is not only a talented voice actor, though he will claim otherwise, he is also great at improv and coming up with stuff on the spot. I on the other hand simply panic. He is an incredible DM.

I really want to do well but I know that I can’t really compare to Thomas. No brainer really since he has been playing for years and I only have for the past nine months. Still, I don’t want to let him and the rest of the party down.

Wish me luck!