Don't Rush It

Song and Silence, a Rogue and Bard source book for D&D 3rd edition (not too hard to convert into 3.5) arrived yesterday. About time too; I had ordered it from Amazon some time at the beginning of the month. It has served only to distract me from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which is kind of a good thing because I really want to get my campaign fired up enough that the players remember it for a long time. Although the books seems to favour Rogues and Roguish skills/abilities (sneak attack, hiding, stealing things, picking locks, disarming/setting traps, etc.) over Bard specialisms it will still be a very useful book as the D&D party is formed of one Rogue, one Bard, and a Ranger. I was after the Ranger source book but had trouble finding a supplier. Hopefully this will be remedied soon.

I've been reading some on line Dungeons and Dragons material from games masters and players alike. I think this evening will be spent polishing my campaign material and preparing for the post-Windy Cross adventures as well as reading Song and Silence. Reading Shamus Young's D&D campaign on his website (the one linked above, he's the guy who did the genius DM of The Rings web comic) I've been... inspired to improve my own. I think that I might have the ideas to make this a good D&D campaign, but perhaps not the storytelling ability to convey them in a way that is best. Still, the players seem pretty excited about it and they have spoken to me in-between sessions about it asking questions and discussing ideas.

The big problem I see with my storytelling is what I've done in the past two sessions (our only sessions so far) at the end. I just can't help but rush the epilogue rather than take it at the same pace as everything else. At the end of last week's session the party had just survived what they called "two boss battles in one dungeon" and discovered the whereabouts of their benefactor's old friend. Then we had to stop because one player was going home early. I sort of just blurted out, "You get out of the caves, rest in the clearing and get back to the village to find that your benefactor is dead!" In response the players just kind of said "...huh. Really? Bang goes our reward then!" Rather than "What? No way! All this for nothing? I thought we'd saved his life!" It also meant that there was no tension leaving the caves they had explored. They were worried about giant spiders ("Haven't you read the example adventure in the Dungeon Masters Guide?") and some dire weasels that were following them through the tunnels.

So not this Sunday, but the Sunday after, when we next get together and play, I'll make sure to take everything slowly, get that laminated battle mat out of my wardrobe, and have a proper DM's screen between me and my players.