I’ve been suffering with some indigestion/heartburn nonsense the past few nights and one night while being kept up by it, I found myself thinking how cool it would be to run the 5e official adventure modules in order to experience the Forgotten Realms stories in the most fun way possible. I laughed myself off and the next evening the thought returned. Gulp. See, I already run one homebrew campaign on Tuesdays and play in another on Mondays, and they’re both weekly. Surely running another game wouldn’t be a good idea? These games drain me. I love them to pieces but I am a spoonie and I run out of energy very easily. I shouldn’t… right? But what if…

I tried to talk myself out of it, dear reader. I did. I’m just not very good at doing so when an idea really gets its claws in and I start fixating. It’s something I’ve wanted to do really since I started playing Dungeons & Dragons back in 2018 (according to Amazon, January 2018 is when I bought the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook, thanks Capitalism!), and well… I’m at a point now as a Game Master where I feel confident enough to do these modules justice and really have fun with it!

Origins of a Hyperfixation

Wondering why this urge came back up so strongly? It may be of no surprise to hear that the D&D movie trailer got me in a hold. I was eagerly curious about it for a while, thought expecting something a bit pants because… I am embittered, plus I really don’t tend to get “hyped” about things anymore. But man, the trailer just hit me in the right spot. Familiar monsters with incredible CGI and lore accuracy, a party of recognisable classes, what looks to be a really interesting story and that fun vibe that the Thor movies have really embraced. I’ve watched it like 3 times already I think? I’m excited.

Then I watched Bob World Builder‘s video going through all of the things he spotted, which followed another of his videos about Vecna (this one has spoilers for some modules and season 4 of Stranger Things), and I realised just how little I know about the Forgotten Realms and well, thoughts spiralled and here we are.

I tried to talk myself out of it but all I did was convince myself to dive in. So I asked others to talk me out of it and let’s be real, once you reach this point you’re asking for somebody to tell you to do it. That’s exactly what happened and this whole thing has just… yep. I’m fixated. Hyperfixated. And I can’t stop myself now. Whether or not it’s wise for me to run two games right now doesn’t matter anymore, the train has left the station and the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is on its way… sometime in August. It’s second hand.

Running Sword Coast Adventures

I’ve already run a decent chunk of the Lost Mines of Phandelvar so I do have some familiarity with running Sword Coast adventures and some vague lore, but as I said, I’d like to go somewhat in order. Yes, I’m aware that’s a lot, the idea would be to start and just go where we go until we don’t anymore.

Thankfully, some wonderful people have done a lot of great research and made timelines that aim to set the official modules in chronological order. I’m working off of this one from Alpha Stream which puts Out of the Abyss as chronologically first, followed by Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat).

I have a physical copy of Rise of Tiamat already as I had planned to run it with the previous Lost Mines group, and physical is my preferred format, so I could do the opening timeline a little wonky. They would be separate campaigns, after all. Though I’ll need to wrap up a few things first and get other things stable and do some reading about Toril and the campaign I start with, so waiting to pick up Out of the Abyss isn’t impossible. Campaign one will be one of those, which really excites me as I’d love to explore the Underdark and Abyssal things, but I also can’t wait to run a dragon campaign and meet Tiamat. I would really like to run OotA first, I’m a weirdo who demands things be done in order. It’s all very exciting!

So exciting that I already have most of a group of players (3 confirmed, 1 pending, and I’d like 1 more to start with) and I almost picked a few books up today with Klarna (OotA, Monsters of the Multiverse, Return of the Lazy DM). I must wait until I’m paid, so I’m sitting on my hands. Oh it’s tough, though… I had to make my husband talk me out of it because my finger was literally hovering over the button but even split over 3 months it’s a lot of money right now, and I have just picked up SCAG so… let’s give it a couple of weeks if I can.

Books and Video Games

Alongside all of this, I suppose it’s time I started reading the R.A. Salvatore books, beginning with Homeland, the first of the Drizzt Do’Urden trilogy. I shall finish my current read first but these books should give me a good look into the Forgotten Realms and some of its notorious heroes. I always have a book on the go so I hope I enjoy them! We shall see how Homeland goes.

I also need to give the old PC RPGs a go. I have Baldur’s Gate 1, 2 and 3, as well as Neverwinter Nights, so I’ve installed the latter to explore Neverwinter a little and see if the co-op still works. Someday I’ll pick up Icewind Dale as well but no rush, at least.

In conclusion, Bob World Builder has a lot to answer for.