Dungeons & Dragons: The Rise of Tiamat – The Journey so Far
Hello everyone,
I’m writing this post to give y’all an update on my D&D campaign so far, and how my journey as a Dungeon Master has changed my life—as a professional writer and a person—for the better. This blog post will also highlight the first three seasons of my campaign, and how I fulfill my duties as a Dungeon Master and a storyteller.
Here’s some exposition first.
I’m Aaron Ngo—a professional writer, aspiring novelist, and currently a novice Dungeon Master—and I started playing Dungeons & Dungeons back in March 2019. A good friend from my old Writers’ Group invited me to play with him and his players, so I took the opportunity to learn what the hell this game was all about. After a three-hour session where my friend—the DM—guided me through literal everything from character creation to virtual dice rolling, I fell in love instantly.
Now I’m a Dungeon Master with 3 regular players. We play on a weekly basis and have done one messy campaign that lead into another one. Our time playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen throughout 2019 and January 2020 was us learning the ropes of how D&D actually worked, so there were a lot of mistakes being made. The rest of 2020 was dedicated to The Rise of Tiamat—an official D&D campaign that succeeded HotDQ.
New characters entered The Rise of Tiamat, but we used the same sandbox so the events of the previous campaign were used as a basis for lore, world-building of the multiverse, and exposition. I’m really proud of this world I created with my players. It’s truly a team effort to make everything in the world function.
First season—I broke this D&D campaign down like television seasons—centered around the characters Kai-Ku, Killion, and Gundam. They were heroes-in-trainings going to HERO Academy, ready to learn how to become heroes. The plot of the first half centered around missing students that escalated quickly into a teacher wanting to end the world by releasing a monster from Ninth Hell called Great Demon, Lian Yu. As a result, redeemed villain turned hero teacher Mas O sacrificed himself by going back to Ninth Hell to reseal this Great Demon, Lian Yu.
The second half of the first season had the characters learn from teachers like Gen Kai—going to Urameshi City and getting addicted to gambling—to pass the Mid-Term Exam and fighting Undercover Villain Toguro in order to qualify for his Undercover Internship, which kicked off season two.
The second season’s first half took the characters to Baldur’s Gate—the most corrupt city across the Sword Coast—where they had to save Eri Menos from a Dark Tournament ran by corrupt businessmen. The characters also had to deal with a vampire virus, child trafficking, and a speedster trying to conquer a city with an army of XerX-Eggza Chimeras. The second half had them winning the Tournament—at the expense of Toguro and Gen Kai’s lives—and saving Eri Menos, but they found themselves finding little to no reason to resume schooling with all their new hero experience.
Gen Kai—in her last will and testament—gave a strong recommendation for these characters to participate in the Pro Hero License Exam. All the characters returned to the school first though to report what happened during the Undercover Internship, but they were immediately met with Dai Li agents—sent by Killion’s father Gilgamesh, the King of Epic Heroes—who had taken over HERO Academy. K-Krew fought to escape—with the help of multiverse traveler Cent Kelsier—HERO Academy and head toward the Vanishing Point, where they will take the Pro Hero License Exam.
However, Kai-Ku left the team early to pursue his own personal goals on route to the Pro Hero License Exam. Gundam and Killion met a new character named WIFI at the Vanishing Point, who they quickly took in as their new teammate. The rest of season two had this new K-Krew participate in the Pro Hero License Exam and acquiring their HERO Licenses. Season two ended with Killion, Gundam, and WIFI becoming Pro Heroes.
Season 3 showed the newly licensed K-Krew going on multiverse adventures, starting with Gundam’s home world. After a horrible experience fighting against the sentient planet Cybertron and a demonic stowaway, K-Krew went to Cent Kelsier’s home world next for food, money, and preparation—not expecting to get thrown into another war between the Fire and Water Genasi species.
After ending that 100-year war, K-Krew finally dealt with the rescued Eri Menos in their care and dove into her mind—entering a virtual data world inside her brain. They encountered Data versions of the Enforcers—their previous characters—and a Data version of Vin Menos, a corrupt data antagonist keeping Eri asleep. K-Krew—now known as New Gods Organization or NGO—pushed through and saved Eri Menos.
Eri Menos immediately manifested a Data Menos, sending him and NGO into Ninth Hell to finally save Mas O. After this long-awaited rescue, Mas O revealed Gilgamesh is working with the Dragon Queen Tiamat and the prophecy from the previous campaign had changed to reflect this new plot development. Swinging back into what this campaign is all about, NGO decided to join forces with Data Menos, who will be taking the empty HERO Captain 2 position that the real Menos left behind.
Mas O, on the other hand, decides to kick off season 4—with new characters and a rebooted plot in the same sandbox—to find the heroes shown in the prophecy. The prophecy is a group of heroes joining together against the Dragon Queen Tiamat for the fate of the multiverse. Season 4 will start fresh with different concepts—like Heroes for Hires and political battles—being incorporated into the narrative.
I’m excited to see where season 4—ten episodes are planned—goes and how that will affect the build-up to the showdown against Dragon Queen Tiamat and all her cronies. Thanks so much for reading this thought-piece on The Journey so Far! I really appreciate y’all for following our epic hero’s journey so far! The players and I are having the time of our lives!