Richard Rouillard

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1983, back when a fellow classmate at the end of a school year showed me a copy of TSR's first edition, _Monster Manual_. I've been hooked since, following the game through its ever-changing editions.

Although I've been a Dungeon Master (DM) most of the time, I started out as a player. I have fond memories of my first characters, Goldentag (a Ranger/Bounty hunter who shot golden tipped arrows) and a monk named Amsorak. I named Amsorak, I think, after a lake in Gary Gygax's Greyhawk campaign. Amsorak was in a Greyhawk campaign created by a high school acquaintance. It was from this DM that I realized the potential and the shortcomings of what a DM can offer.

After the campaign died out, I tried starting my own campaign which was pretty inconsistent for years. In the early 90s, some friends and I started a Forgotten Realms campaign with me as the DM. Set in the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr, that campaign started family names like Crestkeeper, McClure, Theoff, and characters like Jorrond (Lil' Jon), Syn Darkblade, and Goldentag--inspired by my first D&D character. Although the campaign lasted only for a few years, it was that campaign's well-developed characters and rich storyline that has since evolved into what would become our current award-winning campaign, Legacy of the Realms.

Over 13 years ago, a fellow coworker and I started talking about Dungeons and Dragons after sharing views regarding a Forgotten Realms novel. That conversation led to the creation of the character, "Zaachaeus De'Barronn, which relaunched the Forgotten Realms campaign I started years before. Other friends joined in throughout the years as we played through 2nd Edition D&D up to its current 4th Edition system. Now, we have a great cast of characters like Caldreas Arannis, Lo-kag, Kel'tvyn Armaugh, and Deb Merryfoote IV, who will help continue the story that was started nearly two decades ago.