Okay, let's do this - how it all began

Hi there, so this is a bit weird, got to be honest. I always considered writing but for the longest time, had no consideration of what to write about. Is this cliche? Feels cliche. Okay, let's do this.

Hi, my name is Ollie Murphy, I am a 24 year old Video Editor from London, England and I love Dungeons and Dragons. I really couldn't tell you when D&D came on to my radar as it has always existed in my lifetime. What I can tell you however is that I have played it since late 2019 and have been utterly obsessed ever since.

Let's start with the basics. In a time before COVID-19 and lockdown, a group of friends and I decided to start playing Dungeons and Dragons. One member of the group, who suggested the idea, became our Dungeon Master and we set about making our characters. So there I sat, one evening, thinking to myself 'What am I doing? What do I want this character to be?'. Now I must say, when it comes to fantasy I have played more Skyrim and watched more Lord of the Rings than is probably considered healthy. As well as a bout of Witcher 3 and Game of Thrones, I had the outline of a character.

I then considered the character type I usually play in Skyrim, I go for a Nord usually, I wield the Daedric sword Dawnbreaker, wear the Blades armour as well as Dragon Priest mask and I rely on the dragon shouts a touch too much. Now, at this point I'd played this character type for around 8 years, had I worn it out? It turns out I had. Let's move on.

I turned next to Lord of the Rings, which I oh so adore. I considered my two favourite characters; Aragorn and Legolas. Nice, that'll do. Wood Elf ranger? Cool. Let's do this.

I got on D&D Beyond and set about making my Level 1 Elven Ranger. Was that enough for me? Absolutely not. I knew of this website called 'HeroMachine' which I used extensively when I was younger to design 'custom' superheroes. They were basically Batman but whatever. I effectively made Legolas but called him something else, which in this case, was Sedruid. Okay, so, character sheet? Done. Cheesy 2D mock-up made on a website designed for making superheroes? Done. Time for a tragic backstory.

Has anyone noticed that a lot of insanely popular characters in pop-culture have horrendously tragic backstories? Batman? Parents murdered in front of him as a child. Harry Potter? Also parents murdered in front of him. Luke Skywalker? Uncle and Aunt burnt to a crisp and mentor killed in front of him. I think you're getting the point. I had to make Sedruid so vividly damaged as I believed that it would make him a tad more compelling. Is that misguided? Who cares, I did it anyway.

Now I gotta say, I went too dark too quickly. So here goes;

As a child Sedruid had a very happy life, his Mum and Dad, Ophinay and Alidathin, loved and cared for him and his two siblings, Sandaril and Prisathine. His dad was a merchant and his mum was a seamstress. All was well. That was until one night when Sedruid woke in a start. A storm was in full force, but that wasn't why he woke. He heard screaming from the living room of his home, he went to investigate and will never forget what he saw. He saw his family being beaten and killed. His Dad was beaten and murdered, as was his Mother. His brother and sister were watching. Before he could intervene there was a violent explosion.

The next morning he awoke a few yards from his house, now a burnt husk. The corpses of his Mum, Dad and Sister lay there. His brother missing along with the bandits. He stood there and vowed vengeance. His life then became a vendetta to find the people who did this and save his brother, any way how. He became a ranger, learnt the necessary survival skills and thus his life truly began.

So, yeah, that's that. Bit dark I know but there we go.

If you've made it this far I sincerely thank you. In the next post I will give you a brief outline of what happened next to Sedruid and why I decided to start hosting my own D&D campaign. Thanks!