From Draft to Publish: My First Dungeons and Dragons Module

Hello dear readers,

Recently I alluded to a little writing project and now I can finally talk about it. In early July, I saw an advertisement for a free writer’s workshop hosted by DMS Guild and the awesome Ashely Warren. Thanks to lockdown, and my love of Dungeons and Dragons, I figured “why not?”.

I’ve been writing books and stories and such since I was probably 14, but the truth is, most were terrible, and I often never finished them. I always wanted to finish and publish ONE THING in my life, and rather than trying to write yet-another-failed story I figured I’d try something different and write an adventure module instead based on an adventure I had with my kids a year ago regarding a lost elven kingdom and the refugees who wanted to reclaim it.

The workshop was tremendously helpful because it made me realize that having good ideas is not enough: you need training and discipline about how to formulate ideas, good techniques for writing, building up villains, and so on. These were things I never knew about. I learned so much from the workshop, so my original story idea, which was fine for home-play, started to grow and morph into something that actually looked like cohesive story that I could sell online. I pretty much did everything myself, including drawing the maps and such, so it was at times a painful, but educational, project. The only exception is the cover image, which came from pexels.com and was beautiful photo of a marsh in Latvia by Martins Krastins.

And after 30 days of hard work and many late nights after the kids went to bed, I finished my adventure module! It is titled For King and Crown:

I can’t express how much of a relief it is to finally finish it, warts and all, and publish it. July was a busy month, but now it’s all done and for better or for worse, it’s out there for others to enjoy. If you are interested, please checkout the product page on DMSGuild.com, send comments, let me know what you think. I am already working on episodes 2 and 3 of the series, which I’ve titled The Restoration of Min-Tirion.

My belief is that the more I do this, the easier it will get, and the sharper my skills will become. I am looking forward to future adventures.

Thanks everyone and happy adventuring!