Stories from the Gaming Table

The adventures you go on during your life can be fun. They can be exciting, they can be eye-opening, and they can, of course, be challenging. Going on them with your loved ones makes it easier. A world-renowned gentleman and close friend of mine once said, "Life is easier with a tag team partner," and holy crap does that quote ring true.

I've mentioned that prior to this writing journey of mine, I had stacks of old gaming campaigns and story arcs for gaming adventures that were either incomplete or finished via an alternate route that I never envisioned. One gaming world that I had created at some point in the late 1980s or early 1990s was the Voltorn world. It was one-half Dungeons & Dragons knockoff and one-half Voltron. Yes, like robotic cats flying through the skies and space!

I really had a thing for flying cats growing up! But seriously, we didn't have a lot of spare cash for roleplaying games; it was kind of an expensive hobby. So, we would just grab loose papers, type up our characters, write bad guys, draw up maps and dungeons, and away we went! I had no idea that so early on we weren't only having fun, but also playtesting a world-building exercise—figuring out the right powers and hit points for enemies that would stop a party or give them just enough of a challenge to continue their quest and their stories.

These same elements continue in today's gaming, even if our ability to get together isn't nearly as often as we'd like. We've dabbled with post-apocalyptic westerns, some Vampire, Pathfinder, and Lord of the Rings most recently, and had a blast every time. I haven't DM'd in nearly five years, but all these notes I've compiled over the years sure do help when writing stories about a couple of city slickers running through a mystical adventure full of monsters and mayhem!

One of my favorite moments in a game night that I'm running is watching the players' eyes light up when we encounter a storyline piece that really connects—either that, or when they figure out a puzzle that I unknowingly gave them. I can only hope that a few of my readers will have those same experiences when reading the stories that I'm putting out there. I get all the warm and fuzzies just thinking of when I cross paths with someone who has read one of my books and wants to expand on a certain scene or encounter.

The best thing about surrounding yourself with amazing players is the stories we write along the way. In all seriousness, I've always thought I had some sort of story-writing ability, but the twists and turns that came from our game night really pushed the concepts to a whole new level. It's a pretty commonplace notion that I constantly reference the notes app on my phone whenever we get together—whether I hear a funny line or someone tries something crazy during an inopportune moment. I'd share some of those hilarious moments here, but then I'd likely spoil parts of future stories I write! Haha. I hope you found this interesting to read for this week's blog. I'll likely come back with some more stories from the gaming table in the future. And who knows, maybe I'll find inspiration from an upcoming session to write about!