D&D Characters Blake has played.

Oh lord, he's never going to shut up about this.

On this Substack I write about D&D and other table-top role playing games as a Game Master. That’s the key viewpoint I have for most of these games I play. While I do run more games than play as a single character, I do have a few characters I’ve played that I think of fondly.

I’m going try something new and use these Block Quotes to explain terms non-D&D players may not be familiar with. Maybe this will become a regular feature!

I ran a game in Virginia, the first game I was involved with in Oregon was a long running home brew campaign. Both times I was a Game Master, partly by circumstance, partly because I was excited to try things on the GM side of the table.

Home Brew is a term used to denote content created by the person running the game. Many Game Masters use home brew to save money on the official books or to build a world they’re interested in. Hello?

That being said, I have played at least five characters that have had an impact on me as a player. Don’t worry, I won’t cover each character in explicit detail, at least three of them are simply because they’re who got me hooked on D&D. One is a fun guy I hope to play again and the other one I’ve grown attached to over the course of his adventure.

Edwin Haggis, Medrash, & Torrin Greystone

Edwin Haggis was my first character that I played in D&D. I hadn’t played D&D before, so I asked my friends what’s an easy class to pick up. They told me Fighter, and I figured playing a human was too straightforward so I picked a dwarf. Thus Edwin Haggis was introduced battling hordes of zombies on top of a fountain. That was also when the party Rogue attempted to help and failed her roll, hitting Edwin in the eye with her whip. Good stuff, classic D&D.

Dwarves in D&D are like Gimli from Lord of the Rings. Pretty straightforward but again, want to cover my bases for non-players.

Woah I…hello??

Medrash was a blue dragonborn sword and shield user. I gave him a Batman voice because The Dark Knight had come out the same year and that movie was all I cared about for at least 4-5 years. I think he was a class like Fighter but more complicated, maybe Warlord? That class doesn’t exist in the current editions, but he was built to be a badass and keep the battlefield safe.

Dragonborn are humanoid dragons. They stand on two legs and are usually a single color. The color dictates what they exhale for dragon breath. Options include fire, lightning, acid, and ice.

Can you…can you hear me?

Torrin Greystone was created for a fledgling D&D podcast that was shelved due to scheduling conflicts. I wanted to play an older character as I hadn’t seen that often in the game. I also wanted to play a dwarf because dwarves are classic. I made him a Cleric because I enjoyed healing players and we already had heavy hitters in the party. I gave him a heavy southern accent because it made me laugh really hard. I haven’t played Torrin much since that podcast, but he’s often an NPC in my games now.

NPC stands for Non-Player Character. It’s any character that isn’t represented by a player at the table. They’re often portrayed by the DM and-oh, great, you CAN hear me! Please, get me out of here, he trapped me in the block quotes, I don’t know how much longer I can- range from important to trivial.

I noticed a trend in characters I build. Dwarves or Dragonborn. That was bucked when I got to play a character that wound up being maybe my favorite character to play. Which brings us to…

Dreg (real name Dread)

Dreg was named for the bits of stuff at the bottom of home made beer. He was a Tiefling Ranger, grey skinned, short forehead horns somewhat like a ram’s horns, expert with a bow, and a heart of gold. This was the first character I would play for an extended time and I wanted someone that wasn’t a dwarf or a dragonborn.

Tieflings are-ok, ok, please, Blake trapped me in here a few months ago. He said he didn’t want to do the work of writing a blog, so he- people with horns and devil-like skin tones. In D&D lore they’re often associated with demons and devils.

Dreg was part of a Curse of Strahd campaign. The party was a great collection of heroes and dubious characters, perfect for the realm of the vampire lord Strahd. Dreg acted as a hero, he made friends with the locals, and did his part to help liberate parts of Barovia. He’s had such an impact on me as a player I continue to make him as different classes for one shots.

Curse of Strahd is a campaign- I’m a story djinn and he found me in a Goodwill lamp. I promised him the ability to write whatever he wanted but would have to trade something important to him. Instead he tricked me into- set in Barovia, a fantasy version of Eastern Europe. It’s a fan- creating his Substack posts. I don’t remember how- favorite in the community.

My co-Game Master is an amazing story teller, and he had Dreg’s past catch up to him. Now Dreg is in fantasy Hell, Avernus, and I started playing Volkarr the Druid. I liked him fine, but I always had a special place in my heart for Dreg. My co-GM Steve (hi Steve!) and I still talk about what Dreg is up to and when he can eventually return.

Avernus is-he tricked me, but I don’t remember how. It’s terrible in here, it’s all Gremlins trivia and over-the-top meta jokes. And he leaves all his tabs open, it’s a fu- fantasy hell, it’s pretty straight forward. Not even sure why I box quoted.-ing nightmare.

Braxatilian (Brax)

My friend began running a campaign out of a-

I don’t know how long I can hold onto the focus here. You have to stop reading his blog. The only way I can break free is if no one pays me any attention. I know, it’s weird, but you have to help me out here!

That’s like the Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) character in Mystery Men, the 1999 dark superhero comedy starring Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, and William H. Macy. Invisible Boy’s powers were-

Dammit, he’s in here now.

Yeah dude, I set up the Substack. Stop interrupting and make content for me while I play Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This game is amazing, you can pet the dogs!

Remember reader, whenever you laugh or enjoy this Substack it’s the captured Story Djinn, not Blake……

-campaign book. Brax was a blast. Red Dragonborn, built to use any weapon and punch really hard. Because the group was silly, he wound up wearing blue jeans, a sleeveless chain mail shirt, and was a Himbo.

You done causing trouble? Ok, good.

Himbo is a portmanteau of “him” and “bimbo”. It’s usually referring to a fit, attractive man who’s a bit of a space case, or ditzy.

Game Master vs Player?

I love running games. That will always be true because I love telling stories. But there is something about being part of the party as a single character and developing their growth over time. I guess the key takeaway is that table-top role playing games are fun!