The Efreeti is Out of the Bottle

Update #1 for the Ultimate DM Blueprint book

🤙🏽 Welcome to the first update for the Philosopphy of DMing. The official, behind-the-scenes newsletter for the “Dungeon Master’s Ultimate Campaign Blueprint.”

I’m glad you’re here.

For this first update, I’m sharing with you an excerpt from the book’s introduction.

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Update #1 but excerpt #2?

Although this is update #1 for the newsletter, this exceprt is technically #2 because I previosuly shared a free chapter linked from the book’s website.

Go check that out as well if you haven’t already.

An excerpt from the introduction

I met the magnificence of D&D when I was 9 years old. My cousin JoAnn (who’s 10 years older than me), told me about it one day when visiting my Uncle Donald.

JoAnn was a geek. I related to her immediately because I was into many geeky things as a 9-year old.

My geeky world contained many things. Including dinosaurs, comic books, video games, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Thundarr the Barbarian. Anything geeky was my domain.

I wasn't into sports or music like my older brother Glenn. But soon, rolling dice and exploring dungeons would become my new obsession.

JoAnn told me D&D was a game where you pretended to be someone else.

My eyebrows raised and I waited for her to tell me more.

“You pretend to be a character, like an elven fighter, or a pointy-hat wearing human wizard. You can explore caverns deep underground and fight orcs, goblins, and sometimes dragons.”

“How do you win?”

She paused and then said, “It’s not that kind of game. There’s no end.”

There’s no end to the game kept echoing in my mind. “Whoa. Tell me more.”

I didn’t understand quite what “no ending” meant back then, but I do now. I kept asking her questions to find an answer.

On some unknown Saturday in 1979, I played D&D for the first time with my cousin and her friends.

JoAnn picked me up and drove us over to Steve and Carrie’s place on a little dead end street near Kailua beach. They lived a rock’s throw from Saint Anthony’s church, where I went every Sunday for mass with my brother and parents.

Steve and Carrie were brother and sister, and my cousin’s close, also geeky friends.

My memory of that day still gives me goosebumps.

Before arriving, I had no idea what to expect.

I asked myself questions like, “How does this work? If there’s no game board, how will I know where I am? What if my character dies?!”

My mind filled with questions that seemed imposible to answer.

When my cousin and I arrived, Steve and Carrie greeted us in their front yard. Some of the other players (I mean, characters) were already there.

We gathered in a circle in their yard and Carrie held up a book. It looked familiar. A hardcover copy of the “Fellowship of the Ring.”

She started reading a passage, “Three Rings for the Elven-kings…”

What?! This is how you play D&D?! I'm confused. And a bit disappointed.

After a few seconds, I realized that Steve and Carrie liked to start their D&D sessions with a ceremony. A geeky, Tolkieny ceremony.

After Carries’s ceremonial reading of the One Ring’s inscription, we all walked into their dining room. I walked in last.

Steve stood at one end of a large dining room table. A DM screen perched in front of him. He was holding a book. The first edition AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide.

I stared at the cover. The red, devil-like Efreeti on the cover burned itself into my psyche. I can still see it as I type this.

Once I saw that book I said to myself, “Holy crap! What is that beautiful book? I must have it. I must.”

The rest of the day is a blur, but the books, dice, pencils, paper, and laughter is something I’ll never forget.

My first game of D&D is something that would forever become a part of me. My imagination leveled-up that day. And does so again, every time I play.

When was your first session of D&D?

A few closing items

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