First Setting – Day 9 D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop

This is day 9 of the of d20 Dark Ages’ D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge! Based off of the challenge’s prompts I will be sharing personal stories about my history with Dungeons & Dragons every day in February. You can hop to another participating blog by using the links at the end of the article or click here to see my previous answers.

Day 9: What was the first campaign setting that you played in, be it homebrew or published?

Believe it or not, the first serious game I played in was within the halls of the World’s Largest Dungeon. The World’s Largest Dungeon was a single 1000+ page tome that contained sixteen (!) poster sized maps detailing every chasm and chamber. While some may call the Dungeon a “module”, it’s designed to take players from levels 1 to 20 in two years of regular sessions, doesn’t allow players to leave its bounds, and has a world-saving plot all of its own. I consider it a “setting”.

It’s the Dungeons & Dragons version of Epic Meal Time. It’s an unnecessary feast for D&D gluttons where vampire lairs reside next to dragons and bands of bugbears engage in wars with illithids on a lower floor. The setting is as superlative as the 6 pound hardcover book itself: massive, clunky, and one of a kind.

Unfortunately the game was a mess. It had the usual suspects for a game set up to fail: antagonistic players, dysfunctional characters, and a setting that required the players to create their own investment. It was my first game, I had no idea that PCs throwing daggers at each other while we were engaged in battle with dungeon denizens was a red flag. We argued and flailed until we prudently decided to move on to Midnight.

I would go back to the World’s Largest Dungeon but there’s a 50/50 chance that no matter what the players did it would be hollow, strange exercise in embracing the tropes of D&D.

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