The Chronicles of Barak

A few years ago, I had my dream job. I got paid to travel the world, and play Dungeons & Dragons with the people I encountered.

You did not read that wrong. I got paid to play Dungeons & Dragons,the game that pretty much saved me from a spot in a rubber room.

One of the first things I did when I became RPGA Network Coordinator was throw myself into the Living City Campaign. I’ve not linked that, because while I did my best to save it from death, I indeed was the one holding the reins when the cart plunged off the cliff.

But for the intervening four years, my characters were the stuff of legend. As a powergamer, I probe every nook and cranny of the rules for advantages. Barak! was the first, greatest, and altogether the most broken character I created. I’ve still got all of my old character information, and while lying in bed reading one of my friend’s novels, I realized that I never did get around to writing one dwarf’s journey though the Living City Campaign.

The Project was a simple one. By the time the campaign (and I) moved over to OrganizedPlay, I had pretty much absolute creative control and access to the entire tournament library. Why not play every adventure (all 600), from start, to finish, and document the journey like a Fantasy novel? Sure, I wouldn’t be the primary author of this , but players could enjoy both my character, and the early scenarios of the campaign. At the same time, it was my intention to reformat each adventure into the most current rules set, and offer them as introductory scenarios for new players.

Of coure, that never happened. I was far too busy running the campaign itself, and reformatting each new adventure into the most current rules set. The work of an editor is never done and having to develop each scenario as well takes more time than you’d think. We did good work, and people were happy. But sometimes, things just get left behind.

Like Barak! . I still used him to test out scenarios, because at that time in his career, he was so insanely overpowered, he could take on a scenario designed for 6 14th level characters by himself. But I hardly ever got to play with him, and my friends from the road.

So I’m going to do it now. I’ve got the library here, and I invite you to come along on the journey with me. There will be no copyright isues, as I’ll be relating my personal game experiences. Things will be told from Barak!’s perspecitve, and he rarely, if ever, remembers people’s names.

Those of Humans, that is.