So I'm going to be DM'ing a D&D game for the first time since the 80's.  My players will be my wife, brother, sister in law, and my eldest nephew, who has never played D&D before, though he's no stranger to video game rpgs.  I bought the 3rd Edition "D20" rules when they came out back in '00 since I was actually still playing occasionally back then, but this will be my first time to run a D20 game, so I have some studying to do.

In the "who thinks who is geekier" continuum, the RPG players and miniature wargamers both think that they're less geeky than the other.  "I know I wrote down grey but I want her eyes to be green..." or "Everyone knows that the 18th Hussars changed their turnback colors to Red after the battle of Leuthen".  Take your pick, they're both pretty geeky.  So to cover all of my bases, and solidify my position as a ubergeek, I'll be in both camps for now. :-)

The characters my players want to play was frankly a bit of a surprise to me.  My nephew, who I took to be a "Thrudd the Barbarian" sort wants to play a Legolas type character (elf archer).  My brother has agreed to play a "Rogue Dwarf" (ought to be amusing), my wife (another "Me Crush!" sort of player) is taking the Cleric (though she wants to be a Battle Cleric, of course), and who knows what my sis-in-law will pick, though the best bet is some kind of Sorcerer or Mage.

I had actually though that I'd get a Barbarian, a Ranger, a Fighter, and maybe a Cleric out of them, almost all human.  Instead, I'm now worried that they won't have enough melee punch to get through their lower levels intact, and that I'll have to worry about racial tensions both inside the party and in my planned setting.

My original plan was to go pretty "low magic", but I think I'll stick with the standard D&D Greyhawk sort of setting.  I'm going to start them off on the border between human and goblin lands, and my current plan is to run them through a series of premade modules, since I don't really have the time to do any world building.  I will be trying to get some miniatures painted for them, and to do some neat visual aid dungeon things because I'm a visual gamer, and I always liked it when my DMs had figures and props.

So, wish me luck.  I totally don't need another hobby project, and anyone who reads this blog knows.  I know I could go down to the local Game Shop and get into a D&D game there, but the idea of actually getting to do some RPGing with people I'm fond of has me pretty excited.