Back in the Game!

Hey, it’s only been about six months since last I posted anything here. After spending all of my available nerd energy playing Magic: the Gathering over most of that time, I’ve gotten the itch to run some D&D again, but it has to be in a way that works for our very large and busy family. Magic: the Gathering has been perfect for us, as it satisfies the fantasy cravings while being quick to just pick up and play when I have even a little bit of time with one of the kids.

D&D, on the other hand, required me to spend a good deal of time during the week preparing for the weekend session. These sessions often devolved into contests amongst the children of “who can be the silliest and garner the most attention at the table” to the endless frustration of myself and my father-in-law.

So, something different is in order. We need something that I can just pick up and run when I have a spare hour or two with a couple of the kids, because that seems to be about all I ever get. Basically, it’ll be a blend of the D&D Adventure System Games (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizz’t) and Microlite74.

The system will build on what I started with Hyrulian Adventures (see my last half-dozen or so posts). Hyrulian Adventures, by the way, went well, but our increasingly busy family schedule kept us from having a free Sunday afternoon for a while, and then it became harder and harder for me to get refocused on it enough to start it up again… along with the aforementioned behavioral issues with the children at the gaming table.

I’m currently working on putting it all together. The basic idea is that I’ll be able to use the tile based dungeon-building mechanics from the D&D Adventure System for a good number of quick, short adventures when I don’t have something bigger ready to go.

The setting is going to be something the children are already quite familiar with: the plane of Innistrad, from the recent Magic: the Gathering set. Particularly, the province of Stensia, which is ruled over by powerful vampire clans. This, of course, works pretty well with a lot of what already comes in Castle Ravenloft. It also provides a decent amount of pre-built setting that the children know well; well enough they will be excited when they find certain artifacts they recognize from the cards they play with, or likewise meet certain characters, many of which I will be sure to weave into the story. 

 

All in all, I think it's a good start. I've got a good bit written up to get it all started, and I'll have it posted up here in the next couple of days. It's been a while since I've even cracked open the old D&D tomes, and it feels good perusing these old books for inspiration once again.