Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Another One Bites the Dust

One year and three plot rewrites later, another successful D&D campaign is laid to rest.

I just finished up my weekly D&D game with my friends, and with the last session of another long game (this one set in Eberron) come the familiar mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I'm glad I'll have some time off from the work and writing/plotting required to host a weekly D&D session. It'll be nice to PLAY again for awhile, since two of my friends will be picking up the mantle of DM and alternating turns in the seat. No more will I have to handle the curveballs and plot rewrites that happen when a character does something completely unexpected and blows up everything I had planned.

On the other hand, I know that in a couple of months I'll get the itch again. I love playing D&D, don't get me wrong... but I like being behind the DM screen even better. D&D is collaborative storytelling at its best: the players help you make the story as good as it is, and I'm lucky to play with so many friends that I know well (this was the fourth campaign I've run in the last several years, and I've been playing with these guys since college). But in the end, it is the DM's show... and the game will either be great, or totally suck based on the work and thought the DM puts into it.

All good stories have to end, and this one was no exception. But just as reaching the last page of a book or the final scene of a film can leave you with a little sense of loss, so can ending a campaign that has been running as long as this one.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sad I never got to be a player in one of your games. I would have loved it, I'm sure. You were always one of my favorite players!

Yeager said...

I learned a good deal about how to tell an engaging story from you, Mr. Cross. You know how to spin a good yarn.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I really appreciate that. ;)

Do you still have a copy of the collection of journals we put together from my 1999 campaign? It's always fun to go back and read those notes.