Writing a D&D Quest

Okay, I need to step back and take a break.  Another one.

Back in 2002, I wrote a Dungeons & Dragons quest for myself to DM, using the 3.5 edition rules.  I had a physical copy that I printed out after I had completed that story and I've been schlepping that physical copy around with me for the last 13 years.  Earlier this year, I decided that I should make a digital copy of the story so that I wouldn't lose it because I liked the story so much.  At the time, it was in a fictional world that wasn't associated with any existing realm (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Planescape, et cetera).  So I sat down and started transcribing what I had written with the plan to convert everything to 5th Edition rules.

That was the plan.  That plan happened, more or less.  That plan is still happening.

During the process of typing out what I had previously written, I decided to expand on some story ideas that I hadn't been 100% with, such as the main antagonists motivations for doing what they were doing.  I didn't do anything like make them a more sympathetic character even if their motivations were, in their own mind, completely justified.  Their actions were still very messed up and always in the chaotic evil realm.  What happened was that I started expanding on the other characters in the story and when that happened, I ended up taking different routes then the ones I had at first intended.

These people (who shall continue to go unnamed) started having their own motivations for doing things, which in turn fleshed out the geographical region that I had created.  A town that I had placed next to a river turned into a small fishing village and that village needed a temple to a god.  But which god?  So after some research I found the perfect one, which then made me think about the different deities that the other villages/towns in the region would have.  As it turned out, that first deity seemed to fit with a number of the villages, so I placed temples in the other towns as well as clerics and acolytes to man those temples.  

Then I saw a picture of a hooked Chinese spearhead and thought that that would be a great weapon for a character to have.  The unnamed character that I thought might have that type of spearhead ended up with an entire backstory that I hadn't even considered the day before; such as why did he have that type of weapon when everyone else around them had the more conventional sword?  That lead to more backstory.   I then wanted to play this character because I liked him, but I also wanted to see how he fared in combat.  Sure I could just run a mock combat by myself, but I felt like I wanted to show off this character.  I don't want to give more away, so I'll move on.

There was one town that all I had was a numbered map without any of the descriptions.  I know I had typed it out back in '02 because I recall one of the features I put in the town, but I lost the papers along the way.  So I started in coming up with the descriptions again.  This town ended up having a very involved backstory and before where there were not any named citizens, I now had at least ten because they needed names because shops needed owners and those owners couldn't simply be "Barkeep Bob" or "Bar Wench Wendy."  I had also looked up what types of occupations would be present in a 12th century English village because I felt like too many of the towns were made up of sundry shops, taverns, blacksmiths and a temple.  I needed some variety.  And in the process of looking for that variety, I found an occupation that I hadn't considered, which forced me to reconstruct the history I had previously come up with for the entire town, alter some of the relationships in town and then go back to mentions of this town earlier in the story and alter those descriptions to make sense with how the town was to be constructed.

The point is, the little bits started filling themselves out.  All I did was ask "why is that there?" or "what would the populace's reaction to this be?" or "how is that thing done?"  So I decided that I would take a break, to let my brain calm down and then come back to the story with a fresh mind.  That plan was working until I let another story idea get into my head (this was back on Tuesday September 8th) and by the 9th, I had most of the storyline completed.  Once I started typing everything out in an outline though, that was when things started to change and flesh themselves out in ways I hadn't thought about.  Characters were given names and reasons for doing the things I wanted them to do.  But after just a bit of naming and giving them occupations and even the slightest bit of backstory, their motivations changed and could no longer do the things I wanted them to do, so I had to create new characters for that purpose.  I'm sure I look like a half-obsessed person to Conklederp as I sit here in the mornings, afternoons, evenings flipping through pages in the DMG, PHB and MM, as well as through online sources for which god-like deity would possibly be mentioned based on certain characteristics and beliefs that people might have.  

Unlike the previous quest, this one does take place in Faerûn so I felt that I had to do some research into the world.  I found out that in the present D&D setting, the year is 1481 DR and in order to make this story not clash with  Faerûn's history, I needed to do some/a lot of research into specific areas.  Okay, I didn't have to, but I wanted to because I couldn't justify changing a fictional past.  That lead me to introducing some new characters which have taken the PCs away from their main quest and are sidetracking them, because I feel that is what might happen under the circumstances that are a part of the main story.  

If there is a massive increase in the number of Orc raids on settlements around Neverwinter, wouldn't the citizens of Neverwinter and the surrounding area be wary of even half-Orcs?  And wouldn't that mean that there might be lynch mobs out looking for Orcs, even half-Orcs that are part of an adventuring group?  And now those citizens, who previously were unnamed, unnumbered and simply "Commoner" have a small background and motivation for their actions in attacking the PC adventuring group with a half-Orc in the party.  All because I wanted to write a story about a Hobgoblin warlord (who is not actually an Orc, but the masses haven't had much time to compare Orcs and Hobgoblins) who is trying to steal magical weapons so that he can become the leader of all the surrounding clans.  That might have been the plot, but now that angry citizens are involved, the PCs are in a more complicated position.  And what about those magical weapons?  Are they really magical?  Where did the orange glowing greatsword that Garthyung the Hobgoblin acquire it?  Or maybe the acquisition of magical weapons is part of a larger story involving demons or undead, that can only be harmed by magical weapons?

This is why I now need to step away from this new story now.  Maybe for the weekend anyway.  Until I feel the stories tugging at my brain again and I have to come back.  Because I know that it will happen.

It always does.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Jungle Is Alive