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Nov 29 2021

NaNoWriMo 2021 Completed

, Writing , ,

I decided to write a novel in November. I've tried this before and my previous effort only yielded 33,000 words. It was always painful frustrating and a little humiliating since I know a lot of people (including Heather) who have completed this challenge (she's done it twice!) . But I had an idea, a strong one, and I had a feeling I could do it.

I play a D&D character named Umbra Luna. When I made the character I set out to create someone who had deep roots in the Forgotten Realms (the "official D&D setting" ) and so she had a lot of story hooks already published in novels, game materials, and adventures. Then I played her in an ongoing game with a small group that only deepened her personality and nuances. I **know** this character. But during an adventure, for some reason I did something even I didn't expect.

I let an enemy go free. I could not explain to you why, at the time I did it, why I did it, but it was just the character asserting itself. And it left me with this huge gaping hole in my understanding of this character. It made me (as her) doubt her own motivations. It, in short, created a crisis for her. This, my friends, is the stuff of great fiction. But the campaign did not seem likely to veer into my navel-gazing self-reflection of this character. But I wanted to know the answers!

WHY did she let the enemy go. WHAT happened as a result of that rash decision, WHEN was it going to come back and bite her, HOW was it going to affect everyone around her. I started to think about these questions and that's when I saw the NaNoWriMo Announcement. And so that was the novel. I seized the opportunity and started making notes. I announced my intension of writing this book and on November 1, 2021 I started typing it out.

I can write pretty fast when inspired and so my stats speak for themselves. I wrote on average 65 minutes a day, at 3 words per minute. I averaged about 2000 words a day and hit my "par" goal to keep ahead of the writing curve all but 3 days of the days I worked on this project. The only days I didn't hit par, I didn't write for various reasons.

I actually hit the NaNoWriMo goal of 50K words on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I finished the novel on the 29th. It was just under 60,000 words and has 12 chapters. You can read the novel here.

Moonlight  (Google Drive)  (PDF)  (EPUB)

I hope you enjoy it and don't be too critical, I did it because even I had to know the answers to the questions.

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Feb 5 2020

Adventure a Day 2020

, Gaming , ,

As a personal challenge I decided to write an adventure each day of the month of February 2020. These will primarily be D&D adventures although now that I think about it other game adventures could be cool. I am creating this page as an archive of the adventures.

I am doing this to help spark creativity and to build a library of adventure nuggets that can be expanded into a campaign should I choose to. But I am taking a "shotgun" approach and have imposed a few rules to make it work. I am trying to keep the adventures under 2-3 hours run-time. I chose to limit working on each adventure to one calendar day., If it does not get done by midnight it does not get done.

I plan to go back and edit, complete and compile these into a more thorough collection but right now it is just a case of vomiting out the ideas. These initial files are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You are free to use and remix these to your heart's content as long as you acknowledge me as the originator of the idea. They are also covered by the SRD 5.1 Document and the Open Gaming Licence 1.0a.

When all is said and done. would you consider taking a survey about these adventures? https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QFJYRRS

It should go without saying that there aren't any disclaimers on these adventures and I am not seeking profit here. But still...this needs to be stated explicitly. Any possibly infringing materials are being used under fair-use as "draft materials" and may be changed when or if they are presented as publishable product. I am not going to threaten your product market, people. I am not ripping anyone off. This is a creative, not monetary, exercise.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, D&D Adventurers League, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast.

EDIT. As a final close to this effort I compiled all of the adventures into a single PDF Adventure a Day 2020 which is 48995 words (not counting diagrams, monsters, and images) and 20mb (give or take) and includes all of the adventures (even the unfinished ones) above. Please consider filling out my survey if you download this, I am interested in your opinions. Thanks!

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