Breaks Happen

By RJ on 26 March 2023.


It has been 85 years! My table is dusty, notes dried up, and my mind muddled. Of course, that's an exaggeration, but it has been quite some time since I last ran a game; just about two months. While this isn't my longest break from wearing the Dungeon Master mantle, due to the absolute whirlwind of family, work, and lack of creative time it feels far longer than just a winter break. As I sit here typing this article, I yearn for an exciting three-hour session in either of my current campaigns...

Does your mind ever wander likewise?

Let us leap back into the world of Golgifell and the treacherous battle in a cultist's cavern. Their dark ritual halted, the party engages their alien elf leader, a man who can wield both sword and arcana with the utmost skill. Will half the party still retreat as planned, leaving their companions to fight the malevolent elf? Will Revan Talo slay the elf, one of the nine Ular who walk the surface of the world? Will Mia Stark succumb to the vile desires of her sentient blade? When will the entire group discover what happened to the city of Wintermount?

As a Dungeon Master, I cannot wait. I'm giddy to get back to Golgifell...one day. Hoorah, for its return land soon, sooner than I think. However, my other campaign might take a tad longer to land.

Caught in Galen, I've not run since October of 2022. October. 2022. Its return is likely to arrive around July of this year, but I'm ready to return to Eldar as well.

68 sessions in, the group of Galen, sometimes called the Heroes of Below, work to keep the world afloat. A hurricane of a monster, Loogodramin, plucks the strings of existence with his abberant spawn, the most malicious among them being his first children: Arzkel, Gorlat, and Nailen. With one of them supposedly slain and Loogodramin's initial plot of worldshifting Eldar into other planes of existence, the Heroes of Below are on the winning side...most think. Alas, those aware of universe-shaking tremors know that's not the case; the party's actions have caused a ripple effect across the cosmos. Now, no one knows which side shall benefit, or if Eldar itself will survive.

The core characters of the story are:

  • Jason Urso is a mastermind rogue with a pension for consuming the bodies and memories of aberrations. This desire has caused his own, human mind to twist, corrupting it with the influence of at least four other sentient, insane entities.
  • Luna is a transmutationist who has cast off the chains of her tortured past and embraced a new life in a new place with new people, consequently becoming one of the biggest movers and shakers of the world of arcana. She witnessed the destruction of her former home, the annihilation of an entire plane of existence, and the cancellation of an epic spell thought long forgotten.
  • Rev is a paladin sworn to an Oath of Redemption who survived the unbridled apocalypse of his home plane: Vapoa, the Plane of Water. Though he is a recent addition to the Heroes of Below, he has already been thrust into the center of a universe-threatening danger kickstarted by the vile Entropic Enclave, the all-consuming Loogodramin, and the party themselves.

Oh, and we return to the campaign in a pocket-dimension housing five pages of the Book of Vile Darkness while the group fights a trio of huge beholders! Hopefully the campaign's "new beginning" isn't a swift end...

For a bit more insight into the campaign, I wrote two pieces of fiction:

Simply typing about Caught in Galen reminds me of the amazing times that group has had at the table. I'm ready to return.

Have you ever had an extended break from your game? How do you cope? Does your mind often wander into the realms of those games? Do you prepare for future sessions, plot out various parts of your setting and campaign, or pause worldbuilding entirely?

Unfortunately, I've done the latter for most of this break. I would like to return to crafting Eldar and Golgifell, though. 

I will.

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As always, thanks for reading. Please send all inquiries to rjd20writes@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

2 comments:

  1. Life challenges can make one take a break, even from something we love and hold dear. Wise words here, RJD20, sounds like a young man becoming a wise man to me:} the good news is we always return when time permits and start right we we left off!

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    1. Correct, correct. Perhaps engaged in a life-threatening battle with a malevolent elf?

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