Well, it’s official. I am the nerdiest nerd I could possibly be.
I have come into this questionably awesome title by way of my boyfriend, and his nerdy, nerdy friends, and their decision to organize a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for the summer. Drew is the DM, and somehow I’ve ended up being co-DM despite never having played the game before in my life. So yes, I am now, officially, a Dungeon Master.
And it is super fun.
So far, this has entailed creating an entire nation, complete with history, religion, racial tensions, and most recently a full-color map, which I have spent quite a bit of time making beautiful today. I have to say, this is one of my favorite parts about writing: world creation. There’s just so many different directions you can take it, and ultimately everything you know about the world may not end up in the story, but just knowing it makes your world so much more interesting and fun to work within. And besides, who wouldn’t love inventing deities and mapping cities?
…okay, maybe the mapping cities is a uniquely me kind of dorkiness, but maps are so much fun! Seriously, I may have to start mapping all of my other fictional realms, like the island for Bottom of the Garden. They’re time consuming, but man are they rewarding.
What do y’all think? Have you ever made a map of a fictional realm? How was the experience?
Artistically yours,
M.M. Jordahl
“I have an existential map. It has ‘you are here’ written all over it.” -Stephen Wright
M.M. Jordahl 
;)
DMing owns. I doubt you’ll need telling, but remember it’s about stories, not statistics — nothing like an endless discussion about dice tables to ruin a fantasy epic :p. They’re necessary obviously, but best kept as background as possible. Have fun! (My favourite part of DMing was always making up completely open-ended obstacles with no ‘right’ answer, and seeing what plans the players came up with from there. Yearrrs ago, mind you…*ponders*)
Oh yeah, Drew & I are definitely all about the story. Although there is one campaign member who is definitely about the stats, and he and I have come into a little bit of conflict over it. Hopefully he’ll tone down once the actual story gets going, though. :\ Otherwise, he might have an unfortunate run-in with a dragon. Because I AM GOD!!! XD