Zidovia: City in the Shadow: Prelude #1: Nevan the Bard
Character creation has begun!
As a first-time DM, I’m starting to get a little antsy. I’ve been tinkering with the main campaign for more than a month, and it’s time to get the ball rolling. Rather than just drop all of the PCs into the action at once, I’m going to attempt to construct a brief backstory for each of them to give them a reason for ending up in the same place and (hopefully) with a common goal.
This should also give me a chance to work on a little bit of casual DM-ing in a few one-on-one scenarios. For the longest time I thought a two-player version of Dungeons & Dragons wasn’t possible, but boy was I wrong. I really enjoy the mini-stories for getting characters in place and fleshing out their personality, motives, and playing style.
It also creates the opportunity to practice without just diving into the deep end.
My first victim is going to be Nevan, a half-elf bard and former spy. All I know at the moment is that things got ugly recently for Nevan and now he’s on the run. Apparently he’s acquired some intel that could really stir things up, and I’m assuming that there are people ready to stop at nothing to silence him.
I really like the idea of keeping some mystery to his character, so I’m not going to ask many questions and let things unfold naturally. Besides, I don’t feel that a DM needs to be some sort of omniscient being, just a referee.
UPDATE: Nevan’s first session is complete! Check out the Post Game Report.
“Nearly a month on the run. Nearly a month spent hiding in the shadows, and when there were no shadows nearly a month of trying to become a ghost.
It hadn’t been particularly difficult. Stay off the main roads, travel at night, and no matter what keep moving. He’d consider stopping to catch his breath, but not until he could smell the salt in the air of a busy port town. Here he could get lost in the crowds of merchants gathering from distant lands. No one there would recognize him, and if they did it wouldn’t matter. Nevan was young, able-bodied, and could turn on the charm in enough different languages to impress any world traveller. He’d find work on one of the ships headed across the sea, and only then he could think about his breath in terms other than it being his last.
Unfortunately Nevan had only made it to the mountain range that separated vast plains from the even greater body of water beyond.
Night comes early when you’re in the valleys, and with it a welcome darkness. But Nevan wasn’t the only one moving from shadow to shadow. Watchful eyes were not far behind as he entered the small town of Hull’s Basin.”
