Introduction

I first started playing RPGs when I was around 8 years old (which means around 1983). Y., a neighbour and friend who was about two years old than me, started talking to me about an adventure game he was playing with some of his other friends. I got curious and insisted so finally he obliged me, and we started playing the Basic version of Dungeons & Dragons.

Ah, the magical red box...

Everything started there. My character was an elf (and back then being an elf was a race and a class, which means that I had fighting and magic abilities), and I had a firm mental image of him looking like the elf action-figure which were being sold around this time, and which I had.

I didn't play for long with Y., maybe one summer, but I was hooked. I played with some other friends for a while, but they weren't as fond of the game as I was so eventually, for lack of fellow-gamers, I stopped.

A couple of years later, in high school, I started another campaign with two friends, using the 2nd Edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game this time, which lasted around five years. This time, I was playing Selak Clovox, a human mage. We would play almost every weekend, and we invested a lot of time & imagination in our games. Then, we graduated from high school and it got harder and harder to get together. Eventually, we just stopped.

A couple of months ago, my oldest son Xavier (six years of age) got interested in Baldur's Gate, a RPG computer game. The symbols, the mythology, the world. And the monsters, most importantly. He started asking me a lot of questions, so I retrieved my old Monster Manual for him.

He spent lots of time poring over every entry. Soon it wasn't enough, so I bought the new 4th Edition version of the Monster Manual.

Soon after, he started asking me if we could start playing the game for real, so I got the 4th Edition Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, and plunged into the new rules.

Having a full-time job and being the father of three young children, I don't have the same time and energy as I used to, but I managed to absorb all the material, and to put together a campaign.

I chose to set it in the Forgotten Realms, as it's the world I'm most familiar with, but it's a customized version of it. I left out the FR deities and kept the basic ones (simply because my son likes Orcus so much). I chose to keep the Spellplague which occurred a few years back in the FR timeline, as it had a lot of similarities with a major event which took place in my long-ago high school era campaign, where a gigantic magical thundercloud destroyed most of the world's magic (which was something I introduced because I felt there were simply too many magical items). Also, something which I plan to reveal gradually, now most magic-users and magic-wielders are viewed with suspicion and outright hostility, most people having reverted to old-time superstitions, and most Leaders & Kings now having a tight authoritarian hold on whatever grants any kind of power (be it magical or divine in nature).

Xavier and Colin decided who their characters were going to be, and it was up to me to incorporate them in my game.

My personal character, Kaleth Clovox, is the son of my former character, Selak. He doesn't reveal his magic powers to anybody, as he knows that it can lead to trouble.

For now, I plan on sticking to the official Wizards of the Coast adventures, as I don't have a lot of time to create my own.

Here are my latest long-term plans concerning the campaign:
1- Dungeon Delve 1 (level 1)
2- Kobold Hall [sample adventure from the DM's Guide] (level 1)
3- Into the Shadowhaunt [Game Day 2008 adventure] (level 1)
4- The "Red Box" adventure arc, which comprises: the Solo Adventure from the Box, The Twisting Halls, Kill the Messengers, Sunderpeak Temple, Ghost Tower of the Witchlight Fens and The Dungeon of the Ghost Tower (levels 1-2)
5- H1
Keep on the Shadowfell (levels 1–3)
6- HS1 – The Slaying Stone (levels 1-4)
7- Treasure of Talon Pass (Free RPG Day Adventure) [levels 2-3]
8- Storm Tower (level 3)
9- Loudwater Adventures (levels 1-5)
10- Menace Of The Icy Spire (level 2)
11- FR1 Scepter Tower of Spellgard [levels 2–4]
12- Reavers of Harkenwold (levels 2-4)
13- Cairn of the Winter King (level 4)
14- HS2 – Orcs of Stonefang Pass (level 5)
15- H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth [levels 4–6]
15- Madness at Gardmore Abbey (levels 6-10) [NOT YET PUBLISHED]
16- H3 Pyramid of Shadows [levels 7–10]
17- House of Pain (levels 8-10)
18- The Dark Heart Of Mithrendain (level 10)
19- Tomb of Horrors – Chapter 1 (level 10)
20- P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens [levels 11–14]
21- Revenge of the Giants [super-adventure, levels 12-17]
22- Tomb of Horrors – Chapter 2 (level 14)
23- P2 Demon Queen’s Enclave [levels 14–17]
24- Tomb of Horrors – Chapter 3 (level 17)
23- P3 Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress [levels 17–20]
25- E1 Death's Reach [levels 21–23]
26- Winter of the Witch (level 22)
27- Tomb of Horrors – Chapter 4 (level 22)
28- E2 Kingdom of the Ghouls [levels 24–27]
29- E3 Prince of Undeath [levels 27-30]