“The Shattering” is the new campaign world I've begun to design for an eventual return to in-person gaming. Here are my base points:   -- I’ll run some flavor of D&D, most likely Moldvay B/E. Initial design will be version (and system, I guess) independent.   -- PC level independent, at least in initial design. Populating the encounters will need to wait until it's decided if the players want to start with fresh PCs, or continue with developed (and at this stage, probably ridiculously equipped) PCs. The PCs in my group are always happy to dungeon delve, so those subterranean complexes can be designed now, and stocked later.   -- The actual "world" will be designed as a network of interconnected locales. Completing the scenario in the current location will provide clues/quests for choosing the next course of action. As the PCs explore the setting while gathering information along the way, they can choose whichever opportunity looks most attractive to...

Long ago, in ancient days, a tremendous cataclysm shook the land. A vast expanse filled with hills and valleys, cultivated fields and wild woodlands, with isolated hamlets and vibrant cities was transformed into a warped and shattered landscape. Tales and legends of that event are innumerable, but they differ with every teller, particularly on the event’s cause. Was it Wild Magic gone berserk? The anger of the Gods? A fragment of the Celestial Sphere crashing to Earth? But every loremaster has come to name both the event and the blasted land as -- The Shattering. The long-lived elves, whose memories span millennia, say in ancient days an Elven kingdom rich in wealth, exalted in culture, and strong in magic brilliantly shone in a land filled with beauty and wonder. That land was one among many that disappeared from history, lain to waste by The Shattering. Still, to this day, whisperings among the elves say it is not so. Long have elven adventurers searched, but they have found no evide...

40 years of Playing and (mostly) DM-ing the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game When I started playing D&D in 1981, I was already an adult.  I was a Tolkien fan, had read LoTR several times by then, and also some of high-fantasy pastiches the Sci-Fi paperback houses had started publishing in the late '70s. What little I knew about the game sounded intriguing. About the only other awareness I had were the reports about some D&D playing kid named Egbert disappearing in the steam tunnels. Some friends I was working with at a NASA facility were starting up a game, and I wrangled my way in. We were all newbies, starting with the Moldvay Basic rules, then picking up the Expert rules as we rolled along. At some point, we bought in to AD&D and played a mash-up of the two rule sets. We eventually ended up with a solid group of five. Our friendship pre-dated gaming and, particularly through the '80s, D&D was only a small part of our social interaction. We never play...