Is it Realistic? Right down to the weapon.

In our adventures we always strive for realism, even though it's a fantasy game. We're always asking ourselves, questions like: Would this monster or animal really live here? How would the weather affect the PCs in this situation? If a wizard has set a magic trap could he have used the spell to set that trap at his level? What would that weapon really look like?

As you’ll come to find out as you continue to read our posts, we're very visual. It’s really helpful and fun for us to visualize the game environment on many different levels of detail, from the layout of a town, down to the appearance of a specific weapon. In our game universe we imagine the world to be as it was in the Middle Ages in Europe. We don’t mind if players choose weapons or gear from any period up to the renaissance (excluding firearms) but we like to visualize them, as they would have actually been, for realism. We can appreciate other people’s artwork with spikey armor or unusually large, ornate swords but we prefer a more realistic approach.

I guess you can call us old-fashioned, or unimaginative. We think visualizing the game this way brings a level of realism to a game of otherwise unlimited fantasy. When thinking of all the potential for imagination with fantastic creatures, powerful magic, forgotten places, and strange characters there has to be part of it that relies on real world rules.

When creating or drawing a special weapon for an adventure one of our favorite web sites for doing research is My Armoury.com (http://www.myarmoury.com). It contains a massive amount of information on weapons (and armor) of all types. There are also forums and reviews about their physical properties. You could literally spend hours, days or months looking through all the information available on this site. After doing some research it’s much easier for me to create a weapon using information from a specific period about its dimensions, proportions, and physical characteristics. Again, this is because it's fun and interesting to mimic real designs.

Something else that’s really fun is naming special weapons. Once we’ve determined what special properties the weapon has it's fun to come up with a name that describes what it does. For example, one of the weapons we created was a holy short sword with the property of giving +2d6 extra points of damage to all enemies of evil alignment. We decided to call it Light Bringer, but didn’t stop there. To add another layer of interest we used Google to translate the name into German and came up with Lichtbringer. This extra layer adds a special quality to the game experience. If you remember in the Fellowship of the Ring when Elrond translates the ruins on the blade of Glamdring as, “Foe-hammer that the King of Gondolin once wore” it made the weapon seem that much more special.

When used sparingly through your adventures you can award your players a few very special items that could become heirloom quality pieces in their character’s collection.

Note: This weapon has no relationship the the sword of the same name in the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. It just goes to show you that it’s a challenge to come up with an idea that someone hasn’t thought of already.

There’s only one place to start. The beginning.

Somewhere back in time a friend’s wife was back in the states visiting family. His small home in the German countryside was the prefect opportunity for some of us that were housed in the barracks to “get away” for the weekend. Our weekend plan was simple, to play the game Dungeons and Dragons. Of course I’d heard of the game before when I was younger, back in my hometown, when the game first came out and no one my age really knew how to play. But the game intrigued me then and now there was the chance to learn it from someone who knew what he was doing. I was hooked, the only problem was that life soon changed, there was no one to play with anymore and the game was put on the shelf. That was 1988.

Fast-forward 25 years.

One day last fall I picked up my nine year-old son from after school care and he told me that he’d been playing Dungeons and Dragons. When we arrived at home I rifled through some old boxes to see if I still had some of the maps and notes that I had made when playing all those years ago, and amazingly enough, I did.

It started slowly but gradually that old fire I had for the game has returned. Inspired by my son’s interest and my own interests in medieval history and weapons, archery, fencing, architecture, map-making, and drawing. I picked up a pencil and started planning adventures for us to share. It’s been a year now and there’s no turning back.

I dedicate this endeavor to my son Rowan and the inspiration he has given me and continues to give me on a daily basis. Without him there would be no new adventures.

In the posts to follow I hope you’ll find some insights, answers, inspiration, and maybe some of your own adventuring spirit as well.

Let’s play.