Becoming a game master in my own D&D campaign is a recent goal of mine. Last Saturday, I was fortunate to be included in a one-shot campaign using the rules from Monsters and Other Childish Things. Players take on the role of children whose best friends are monsters as they play through a custom story about surviving the school day. Ironically, our story didn’t even occur on school grounds instead our story took place at a sleepover at my character’s house. This campaign can be adapted into a longer campaign or a one-shot which is what my group did on Saturday.

One-shot campaigns are campaigns that begin and end on the same day. Most D&D campaigns I have heard of continue for weeks or months. I like that one shot is short because if your schedule is as chaotic as mine is, it’s difficult to carve time for a D&D campaign weekly.

Ellie Ferguson is the character I created myself. She’s a sassy 7th grader living with her dad, little sister, and her monster. Unfortunately, her mother passed away when she was young, so her dad struggles to put food on the table. This circumstance has influenced Ellie to be overprotective of her little sister. Ellie’s monster is named Mr. Waffles who is an orange tabby cat when he’s happy. If Mr. Waffles is threatened, he turns into this raging orange lion monster complete with a sword. Mr. Waffles also has menacing claws that when he scratches his opponent, an ooze leaks from his claws that causes his enemies to hallucinate.

Over the course of the story, Ellie’s father starts dating a woman who turns out to be a witch. The big conclusion to this story is when Mr. Waffles is fighting her in the house, Mr. Waffles constantly scratches her head causing her to hallucinate because of the ooze that leaks from his claws. Also, Mr. Waffles can breathe fire so the house burned away ultimately collapsing on the evil witch, and killing her.

D&D is a way I can express my creative side by envisioning Mr. Waffles walking alongside Ellie. Monsters and Other Childish Things can be found at a local game store that carries D&D handbooks. Otherwise, the book can be found online in paperback and PDF format. Hopefully, the more experience I get role-playing, the more comfortable I would be in being a game master.