Some Background Information

So let me give you a bit of background, before we get into the gritty events of the current campaign.

Two years ago I attempted to DM my first ever campaign. I came up with a world for the PC's to explore, an overarching quest and mystery for them to solve, encouraged unique and elaborate back stories, and attempted to cater to the whims of each player.

The game failed spectacularly. Partly because my father got sick and I just didn't have time to coordinate a game, partly because there were too many players with conflicting timetables, but mainly because I just didn't have a good enough grasp on the rules of D&D. It took me much too long to prepare each encounter from scratch, trying as I was to fit monsters into my own kooky world, and I found myself dreading each session and the preparation work that would accompany it.

Things have stabilized in my life a bit, and I found myself wanting to have another crack at being a DM. I decided to make it easier on myself this time, and rely on material from published adventures. I signed up to D&D Insider, which has given me access to all the back issues of the Wizards magazines, and gone through and picked out a couple of encounters that I think my players might be interested in. I've also used these back issues as a database of information, printing out issues that pertain to the classes or races that have been chosen. For instance, one of my players has decided to play a Shadar'Kai, of whom not a lot of is written about in the Players Handbooks. Luckily there is an issue which deals almost exclusively with the Shadow Realm and its denizens.

I also found the character building software to be immensely helpful! It does all the calculations FOR you, which is great when you're starting a game with players who have never played D&D and when you yourself are a bit fuzzy on all the individual modifiers. You also get a nicely organised couple of pages with your powers described and calculated for you, which my players found very handy when trying to decide what to do each round.