A whole world, in your hand.
When I was in middle school, I had already started exhibiting the signs of being a giant nerd. Back then, unfortunately, it wasn’t as cool as it is today to like reading comics, playing PC games, and playing D&D. I was only missing one of the trifecta - but not if my father had anything to do with it. I had just started, and subsequently stopped, painting WarHammer minis (they were a bit out of my price range in 7th grade). But you know what game lets you paint just 1 mini AND had a bunch of crunchy rule books to read? You guessed it, Dungeons & Dragons.
Well my dad had guessed it too, and he has a load of D&D Advanced books from when he was younger and suggested I try them out. He used to be a Dungeon Master back when he’d play with his friends in college and offered to get a game together for me and some friends. Only catch was that D&D wasn’t really the fast track to making friends in the early 2000’s. Unfortunately, to make a long story short, my first time I could get a party to actually play with until I was out of high school. I’d carried those old, well used book to school to leaf through more times than I’d like to admit, which definitely didn’t help me get any dates. Luckily the offer stayed open and I still had my first games all DM’d by my wonderful dad, but lord knows how many characters I’d made by myself up until then.
Sometimes I wonder what all my dad had had cooked up for our games when I was younger. I know he must have played some sort of games before I came along and took up all his time from. How would those adventures in D&D advanced be from the 3.5 and 5e that I’m so used to? So naturally when I wanted to try my hand at my first hard cover book with my custom art and notes in, I knew exactly where it would be going. Just the right size to fit in a standard Dad’s pocket, and with over 100 pages of blank notes and maps I thought it’d have ample space for all the adventures I’d missed. I hope maybe some day I’ll be able to sneak it away and take a peak like I’d do with his old PHB. Until then, I need a new place to keep the world I’ve made, and I’d bet some other people need one too.