Rise of the Drow (Monday)

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Bilbo Baggins The road awaits… I've been a professional Storyteller for almost four years now, and making a living from my creativity is a lifelong dream. I've recently been more and more interested in telling stories utilizing the SWADE ruleset. I want a more dynamic and narrative game, one wherein the players have a considerable amount of control over the story. I strive to make my table a safe and inclusive space for everyone. I will not tolerate bigotry, hatred, or intolerance (it's a paradox, look it up). As an incredibly neurospicy transwoman educator I want my players to have a safe space to play and explore. To tell the best stories we have to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable we have to feel safe. All of my tables are neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ inclusive and friendly. Like all good stories, mine has a beginning. So how did it all begin? I first set foot on the road when I was but a wee lass. I grew up on the stories of Bilbo, Frodo, and the Fellowship. My father and I bought the old (somewhat new at the time) red box D&D on a lark for my older sister. She never really played, but fast forward a couple of years and her boyfriend played, and I was interested, so he ran a couple of games for me. Before I knew it, my feet were swept out from underneath me. Already hooked on science fiction and fantasy (think Heinlein, Asimov, Le Guin, etc.), I had found a new way to explore the worlds I loved. I quickly moved from D&D Basic to AD&D (1st edition), as I wanted more complexity and options in my stories. When AD&D 2nd ed. came out five years later I balked and grumbled, and then saw that they fixed many of the glaring problems that we had been band-aiding for years. AD&D 2nd edition has always been my game, and I spent many glorious hours trekking across all the known realms. In between I played a multi-verse of other games, but most especially G.U.R.P.S., Champions, the Worlds of Darkness, Shadowrun, Middle Earth (Rolemaster), as well as Robotech and Rifts. I found D&D 3.x and 4e much too crunchy for me (I know, I played Palladium games), but 5e helped me fall in love with D&D all over again. I have also done a lot of free-form online roleplaying, back in the bad old days of AOL chatrooms and IRC. I love playing, but I have always been a DM at heart. A good game, as a player or DM, is a special type of magic. For many years I was a performer in Castleton, at the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, and I learned how it really feels to wear armour and wield a sword, not to mention a thing or two about creating magic. I try not to bring *too* much of that realism into my games, but some of it I just can't leave out. During COVID I found myself craving D&D, and found an online pick-up game on Roll20. I still game with some of those nerds today. Of course I quickly got the Storyteller bug again, and started running a game. Then I heard about pro-DMs, and I scoffed, like many others. But bartending was slow, I needed money, so I posted a couple of games. Next thing I knew I had two campaigns in full swing, both of which lasted over 3 years and only recently came to an end. So, I started doing this crazy thing, and in April of 2021 I quit my bartending job and starting running games full time. And here I am today. "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost;" J.R.R. Tolkien