How It All Began

Well, I've finally got round to placing a presence on the web again after far too long an absence. Some of you may recall I actually had a website dedicated to roleplaying. Unfortunately, when I changed service providers, I had to lose my web page allocation, although I still maintain the Quillmaster domain name.

For those of you who haven't seen my web pages from the past, I'm what many would regard a role playing veteran, having joined the ranks when White Dwarf released issue number 18 (which is still in my collection along with many others, and no, they're not for sale). Some think role playing is about little more than combat. I see it as an opportunity to engulf the players in a story that happens to contain some action. I take great pride in my creations, so much so that my dedication to the hobby had me create a complete world with its own mythology, eventually forming the basis for the novel I am slowly putting together.

It all started back in the 80's, when I was quite possibly obsessed with Role Playing games, especially Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Having been in high demand as a games master, I had a dream to create an entire world where for once, rather than steer players in pre written adventures, I would allow them the chance to go wherever they wanted and do whatever they desired. I wanted the world to run in a manner that meant players would be in charge of their own destinies rather than have the referee dictate the direction and purpose of their actions, meeting people because they were genuinely met owing to circumstance, and not because I had simply put them there. Obviously, such a task would involve a great deal of preparation, requiring enough history and politics to make the game both believable and entertaining. Not only that, but I would have to have to generate ideas for locations that characters could stumble across regardless of their level. It seemed only natural to start from the beginning, and so, I set to work on writing my own mythology for the world I wanted to create, giving details of how the Gods came to exist, their roles within the land, and how they had come to shape it. In all, there came to exist seven known Gods, from whom power would be granted in the form of spells that fell within twelve categories, each with their own symbol and list of spells applicable. Once comfortable with the mythology, I then went on to draw a map of the continent on which the players would venture, and soon realised that I had perhaps bitten off more than I could chew, and so, reluctantly, the project was shelved.

It was some ten years later that close friends cajoled me into attempting what I had been told I do best. For years, players had informed me that my games should be converted into a book, and I had been harbouring a secret desire to attempt such a feat, but my old games, despite the protest of participants, were hardly novel material, being more orientated to entertainment with scant regard for feasible storyline. I needed the players to feel that they were part of something big, to exist in a land deeply drenched in a history all of its' own. It was then that I remembered my previous work, and concocted the idea of basing the novel on the real actions of players within a play by mail game which came to be known as "The Quillmaster". At the time, play by mail games seemed pretty poor, and my friends persuaded me that my writing skills and Role Playing talent could produce something far superior to anything else available at the time. With nothing to lose, I blew the dust from my previous work, and began creating a database to help keep track of game events.

The database alone became a massive project, incorporating the facility to print out players sheets and track both their possessions and position within the game world. Each location within the land had several sub locations with various personalities and backgrounds listed, and approximately fifty wandering N.P.Cs' were created. Each N.P.C. had a detailed background listing their motives and personalities, and wandered the land in a manner dictated by their objectives. These became the key to making the world feel real to all who wandered within it, and led to the development of several sub plots due to the circumstances and morals of genuine chance encounters between players and N.P.C's.

Using my talents in Desktop Publishing, I was able to produce a small book giving details of the history and mythology of the land, along with details on how to customise the player characters within it, and soon had the game up and running. With so much background information at the players' disposal, all who played quickly found a role within the developing story that they felt comfortable with, and role played their characters to the hilt, for the more they role played, the more rewarding their returned turn descriptions would be.

Turn sheets were in a story based format, listing the outcome of events based upon their actions and the actions of both N.P.C's and other players encountered on their travels. All the turn sheets were saved to act as notes for the developing novel, with hints to an underlying plot not mentioned in the rule book provided to players. Thus, over a period of time, players gradually became aware of unfolding circumstances that would effect the world they played in, and prove detrimental to their existence within the game world. At the end of the day, all choices were down to the players.

"The Quillmaster" was run in this fashion for approximately a year, during which time certain key players began to develop their own heroic role within the world, with circumstances culminating in their congregation into a party who desired to put an end to the unfolding events that threatened to terminate the world they had helped to develop.

At this stage, the continuation of the play by mail game became impractical, however, I was now in a position to continue building on the novel background by taking the formed party into a more conventional role playing environment, leading to one of the richest role playing experiences I have ever had the pleasure of being involved with. For ease of play, Quillmaster characters were converted to AD&D, with special rules being applied to take into account the unique magic system applicable to the world. Normal tabletop role playing sessions were then acted out every weekend, with the benefit of all participating characters having their own rich histories previously developed in the play by mail game, along with a deep knowledge of the world that they played within.

Alas, these role playing sessions have also come to an end, having developed enough storyline to almost complete my novel, although the option of continuing play within the land remains, which I know is a popular thought to the players who were involved.

As for the actual novel, it is slowly but surely taking shape. Truth be told, it has been much more difficult than I imagined, but most rewarding as it takes shape. I shall update this page from time to time with novel progress information for those of you who are interested.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people, whose encouragement has helped more than they possibly know through a particularly turbulent time:

• Mark Houghton
• Nicole Cooper
• Darren Cordery
• Michael Glossop
• Simon Court
• Frank Welby

Back to the present, I had long hoped that it might be possible to place the "Quillmaster" world (hereafter referred to as "Relbonia") into the Neverwinter Nights game engine, but various technical issues left me doubting it was even possible... until now.

Thanks to a growing comprehension of how Neverwinter Nights works, I'm now in a position to realise my dream, and have began work on "The Relbonian Chronicles", set to be a series of single player modules that reveal the unfolding story through the eyes of different characters. Watch this space for news on progress!