The last time I wrote about my D&D’ing, I said that making the characters roll straight 3d6 in order was a mistake. And I sort of still agree, but I am seeing some benefits – the players are very aware that their characters are relatively powerless.

This has created a situation which has made things interesting, in that the characters are fairly wary of engaging and are more likely to find ways to avoid combat. While it’s caught me off guard a couple of times, it has added an element of randomness to the game that I like, the randomness, for me, creating a sort of naturalism.

Of course, as the characters rise in level, that’s changing a bit… I may have to pit them against something really brutal…

I am still struggling, I fear, to paint a clear picture of the world. Partly, this is because I am not very good at drawing maps that could provide an overview of what the world looks. I did do one map, but it was laughably simplistic and bad. Simplistic, in that was I was clearly trying to paint over my inadequacies with crudeness. And bad, because, well, it was bad.

The consequence of this is that the players don’t have as clear a picture of the world their characters exist as they should.

I sometimes fear I am making the ‘plot’ too complicated. Partly, I have gone somewhat overboard in creating options. Having been too directed, at first, I go into each session with, in essence, at least three different adventures for the players to choose from.

The last time we played, I allowed a random dice roll to let them explore a tomb that opened up a whole bunch of plot options. This absence of direction, I think, sometimes makes it difficult for the players to keep up with what’s going on and who’s connected to who. But, then again, maybe that’s how life is?