Being the DM is tough work

All kids are germans. Not as in country of origin, but as in spreaders of sickness. Hoarders, too, I think, as they just pass their colds around amongst themselves and anyone else worn down enough to get in on the fun.

“At least it’s not the flu” has little meaning at this point, as once again, the kids are getting sick after a week’s respite. I’d almost welcome a bout with something more serious over these terribly inconvenient bugs they keep catching. As if maybe one good one would harden the immune system against the lesser ones and let them get through the rest of the winter in peace. India’s feeling it the worst this time around, throwing up again last night about 10 minutes before I was to leave for Acentos. It was all of the food she’d just eaten but no phlegm at all which didn’t bode well as Salomé was battling some stomach bug the day before. After cleaning off my shoes and pants, I decided to stay home, half-expecting a phone call that would end the night early anyway. As it turned out, she fell asleep normally and slept relatively well, only waking up a couple of times thanks to a dry, hacking cough.

On the bright side, I got some more writing done, tweaking the end of the first chapter of The Merchant’s Friend a bit more and beginning the second chapter, which is now posted. This marks the first time in a looooong time that I’m actually having fun with a writing project as I’ve got most of the first arc plotted thanks to the concurrent DnD campaign I created that it’s based on. Not having the pressure of creating the entire world from scratch (as with the NaNoWriMo/Oniat project) helps a lot as I can just let the story flow and turn to my DnD supplements for quick answers to background questions. At the same time, by choosing the little-used setting I have, there’s plenty of leeway to be as creative as I’d like.

Speaking of the campaign, I’ve gone from being worried about finding enough people to play to possibly having more people than I can handle! Being the DM is tough work, especially when you’re creating the campaign yourself, and I realize my initial hopes of playing twice a month are crazy unless I can alternate as a player in someone else’s game. I created two new characters on Sunday – a Wild Elf Bard and a half-Wild Elf/half-Rakshasa Barbarian – that I’d love to get into a game sometime soon. Even developed a whole backstory for them that I’m going to expand into another “novelization” involving the circus, terrorism and some serious father issues!

Speaking of issues, I joined my first LiveJournal communities a week or so ago, Roleplayer’s Community and DnDFanz, and got into an interesting discussion about some guys’ reluctance to play a female character. One of the comments that caught my attention was a DM that said he discouraged the playing of the opposite gender, explaining:“We’re already messing with so much, gender is one more thing to juggle, and it’s one of the few things we all have real world experience of. Who can say if Dave is playing an elf realisticly? Not me. But I can say that his response to a situation, or his conversational style or whatever, isn’t convincingly female.” I replied: “How exactly do you do that? I mean, seriously, this suggests females are somehow less complex than males and can be easily categorized. Which, of course, is ridiculous, among other things.”

We went back and forth on this a couple of times, as did many others and, as of this morning, there were 71 comments made. I think I may have found my slam list replacement! 😉

Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.