While the Nottingham Roleplay Group has continued to meet over the past 6 weeks, today marked the return to the Fellmyr game. Gathering at The Dice Cup Café, we brought ourselves back to that realm of dangerous wilderness and forgotten mystery. Dusting off the character sheets, I found myself back in the GM saddle.

This morning was hard for me: I was feeling anxiety strong enough to make me feel like staying in the house; I wasn’t prepped beyond the roughest note from the end of the last session; I wasn’t even sure I could pull off running the table for a 4-hour session. But by 3pm, I had got to the venue, prepped enough to keep the game rolling, and was through the other side victorious.

I picked up my notebook at around 9.00am and located the last session’s prep, allowing myself to spend just shy of an hour getting some thoughts and notes prepped. Routines help: I have a simple process that has evolved over the past six months wherein I identify the player’s stated intentions and prep to challenge those goals with obstacles. From there, I created tools for the table, such as a quick random encounter table and a sketched map.

Arriving early, I had time to prepare the gaming table (and spill my Coke) before the chaps got on scene. Further ideas drifted from my mind onto the notebook page. I listened to two other D&D5e games that were going on at the neighbouring tables. These games sounded so familiar in tone and style that it somehow settled my mind that I could do this.

I’d made a decision to try and nudge the roleplaying to a slightly deeper and more developed level. Giving each player a “4 List Sheet”, I asked them to note down and collate details about four areas of their character: their Goals (Short-, Medium-, or Long-term), their sense of Rights and Wrongs (moral values), their Quirks and Traits (characterisation notes), and their list of Friends and Foes (named NPCs).

The “4 Lists” come from Jamison’s “Gamemastering” (2011) and are usually used pre-game to design characters prior to using the game rules to build them. In this case, I pitched this as a means to help me as GM by codifying what the players already know about their characters after about 8 or 9 sessions. The chaps were willing and discussion ensued, each of the chaps transferring notes and inventing details for later reference.

Once we began the session proper, I eased into our first wilderness journey (using some rules from DF16: Wilderness Adventures) and adjudicated travel four days north of Hargrave. Two encounters on the road fleshed out the events and eventually the party reached their destination: The Old Waypost betwixt Hargrave and Stalwart. Would Brother Paul retrieve Saint Bertram’s Mace from the church shrine?

A quick overnight rest in a cave was followed by a swift scout of the target location, itself quickly resolving into a stealthy raid on the church. Of all the moments at the table today, the moment I was most proud of was revealing the (apparent) return of the party’s first enemy: Aden Wretch, beheaded in their very first session. Observed from a distance, this NPC generated shock and surprise at the table… how could this be true?

Then I simply asked: “What are your intentions for next time?”

Game on!