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Hi Again everyone !

Well as promised in my last post i'm posting the first part of my sons (aged 13) character background for the new D&D campaign. We spent some time last week with the other players developing ideas for character backgrounds and below is my son's. Now let me explain why i'm posting this.

My son has played RPG's for about 4 years now on and off. During that time he has never really roleplayed as such. I appreciate that might sound harsh but we have both acknowledged that what he called RP and what I call RP are, or were, intrinsically different. He likes to simply shoot guns, swing swords and blow stuff up. He really is not interested in background. With the help of one of my experienced gaming buddies I think we might have now created a RP Monster. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did in helping him define it.

William “Gloom” Hollow

William Hollow was born in the city of Neverwinter in 1445DR. His parents were simple folk making the best of what the gods had thrown at them and their once fair city. His mother worked as a seamstress and his father was a stonemason. At the age of 7 though William’s family, like all other Neverwinter families were caught by the huge explosion and rain of fire created by Mount Hotenow erupting. The rain of fire crashed down upon the city and more importantly for William directly onto his home. Although his parents and his brother Devlin escaped injury William was not so fortunate. As the fire’s raged William suffered horrific burns to his right arm leaving it to this day as a scarred, maimed and practically useless appendage.

As the city attempted to recover from the disaster William spent his childhood moving from house to house around the city as disasters befell the city. Like all boys, despite his injury, William was expected to learn the usage of a sword in order to aid the defence of the now shattered Neverwinter when called upon. William was found to very adept with a short sword and developed a fine reputation amongst his peers despite only being 13 years old at the time.

As he came of age William applied to join Neverwinter’s city guard and although disabled due to the withered right arm his skill with the shortsword convinced the “Sergeant at Arms” that he would be a fine recruit. For several years William wore his uniform with pride and served his city well. His parents and indeed brother rightly proud when the now Sergeant William marched passed their home with a small unit of guards in formation.

The city stumbled between crisis for many years. The city had been devastated by the volvanic eruption, the huge chasm that had opened up in the south side and the orcs that had moved into the south east quadrant simply added to the problems. The constant stream of refugees increased social problems to an unbearable level and all looked lost for the once grand city. Then, a beacon of hope arrived in the city in 13685DR. Lord Dagult Neverember, a Lord of Waterdeep arrived with an entourage of soldiers and civil servants to help re-establish the city.

William, now 23, and his guards were now commanded by Lord Neverembers right hand man, Mayor Soman Galt. A harsher line and militaristic rule was applied to the city in order to bring control and stability back to the city. For the next 4 years William worked diligently to deliver the control and stability to help in the re-construction of the city. Now a Captain of the Guard William was promoted to the personal bodyguard unit assigned to protect Lord Neverember. It was during this period that William really got to the “ruthless” approach that Lord Neverember and indeed Mayor Galt were taking in their “management” of the city. Being a good soldier and firmly believing in the direction the city was going William did not however see anything inherently wrong with this and argued on several occasions with friends and family over the concerns. It was during one such fight with his father that tragedy and a life changing moment caught up with William.

As was common William had returned home for a family meal and an argument had broken out between William and his father over the harsh rule of law being applied by Neverember and Galt. Fueled by beer William’s father grabbed a hot poker from the fire and went to attack William threatening to beat the boy into understanding his point. William’s instincts ‘kicked in’ and he drew his sword to fend off the blows. In an attempt to end the fight William slammed the pommel of his blade against his fathers head who subsequently collapsed to the ground. Williams father clutched his chest and struggled to breath as he tried to again stand up for the fight and died cursing William’s stupidity. In a tragic twist of fate Williams mother charged at William and proceeded to run onto the blade of Williams still unsheathed shortsword. Like her husband she too collapsed with a mortal wound. It was at that terrible moment that Shadow flooded into Williams soul.

William had never even realised he too had been wounded in the fight and to this day he still sports a scar down the left had side of his face. His life as he knew it was over. The shadows feasted on his very soul and a deep set loathing of his own self worth set in. Within days William had left the city, despite being pardoned by Mayor Galt personally for what in the Mayor’s eyes was simply an accident William quit the guard and set off into the wilds surrounding the city.

Over the past couple of years i've attempted to write a blog post on a few occasions. I never really met with any success though and if i'm honest with myself the post's were not particularly good or even worth reading, at least I believe so, until now.

I recently took a vacation to Scotland with my family and prior to setting off I treated myself to the new Neverwinter Campaign guide and a the novel "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. The vacation was a great success on soooo many levels. Not only did my family and I have a great time we all came home completely relaxed. I also managed to read both books from cover to cover - awesome stuff in both cases.

Now a little bit about me might be helpful here I think. I have been playing RPG's since 1983. Started playing at high school here in the UK and i've played most of the mainstream and even some of the lesser known games since then. I've also played every version of D&D and played or DM'd in every campaign setting as well ! (Pretty scary when I consider how much of my life has been spent playing what my mum used to call 'silly games'.) I guess roleplaying and especially D&D have played a major part in my life. Over the last 2 years or so however my love for the hobby has been sorely tested. My job has me travelling a lot back and forth across the Atlantic which is not conducive to good RP. It has resulted in the collapse of at least 2 gaming groups, possibly 3 (in part if not in full) and my lack of chances to actually play Dungeons & Dragons has been pretty much zero. I had honestly thought at one point that my gaming days were over. Over the past few years I have almost religiously purchased every release for 4ed and each time fell more in love with the system. Its elegance and balance made DMing a dream and i've felt from the first day this would be an ideal game to teach my son how to Roleplay.

My son is 13 almost 14. He has been playing and indeed running RPG's since he was 10. Never really though has he wanted his 'old dad' to cramp his style and get in the way of a good yarn. His games have involved everything from Stormtroopers to Daleks, Dragons to Transformers and all whilst using a hybrid of SW Saga rules, D&D 4ed and Savage Worlds and often all at the same time ! His friends seem to like it and as roleplay has mainly consisted of -"ok I pull out my blaster and cut the guy in two" it has never really concerned him that their might be another side to the game.

Whilst we were in Scotland we had a "lad's day out" where we spent some time visiting Castles etc. Over a tuna sandwich we got to talking about the cool looking books that "dad" was reading whilst on holiday. A connection was made. Never has a better phrase been said than "dad could you run that, you know, like a real roleplaying game, for me ?" 

On returning from vacation we contacted a couple of other folks, 1 of his friends and 1 of mine and offered them the idea of forming a new gaming group. Kind of like old meets young so to speak. Everyone seemed up for the idea and the first session was held. 

So a few night's later I have had time to reflect a little and write this blog. Something I actually think i'm going to continue doing whilst documenting their stories in and around Neverwinter. The party consists of the following:-

• A Shade Blackguard
• A Shade Nethermancer
• A Moon Elf Swordmage

At first I was concerned there may be too much dark undertones but once the discussion started re their characters my fears were quickly put to rest. Yes one of them accidently killed his own parents, one is an outcast from his own people and the other has a dark past yet to be fully revealed BUT all have good hearts and desires to do the right thing. (I will add more details re the characters over the next few days). 

For the first time in..well a long time, I am soooo looking forward to running a game. I am returning to a campaign setting i've not been near for many years and i've got a group of people who have some great ideas and hooks (that will be revealed) from their character backgrounds.