Where the Adventure Began…

Andy’s Story

As with a lot of people who have an interest in Table Top Role Playing games, Dungeons and Dragons was always on the periphery. Knowing people who played in school, having a flick through the Players Handbook when I came across it in the library or games shop but not fully grasping what D&D is or how it worked before putting the book back on the shelf and going about my day.

Eventually I stumbled across Critical Role and something clicked, I was watching the story unfold the passion of the characters and the next thing I know Campaign 1 is coming to an end and I’ve powered my way through hours and hours of 7 people sat around a table talking. Then I thought… I can do that…

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 2016 going to my then local games store to drop in games with pre-made characters, where I learnt the rules and how a session was run. It was fun the players were great and the story was engaging. I eventually built the courage to run a 1 shot game and I was hooked on the Dungeon Master way of working. What started as a 1 shot game, turned into a fantasy world, complete with history, lore and cities waiting to be explored, but it was missing 1 thing. Players who could write their own stories in this fantasy land. I stayed playing but still felt that I want to take a stab at being the head of the table.

2019, I relocated across the country (UK) and my TTRPG space was empty, so I looked to find a group that were local, using group finder tools, I was advised that there was a 6 week wait to play… so, I saw my chance.

“What about If I DM’d?” I asked tentatively. The next week, I found myself in a pub in Surrey with a table of strangers, with nothing but character concepts and anxiety. These strangers became some of my closest friends, we have shared laughs and losses though out the years but 1 thing has always brought us back to the table. Our love of TTRPG’s and we have been playing together ever since.

In 2023 after absorbing a lot of D&D content, playing Call of Cthulhu, Urban Shadows and dabbling with other systems. I decided to give Startplaying.games a try, I posted up a known D&D module to see if my game style had any merit for others and so my first purely Online Game came to life. My Strixhaven Campaign has been running successfully with players, worldwide, coming back week after week excited to see what happens in the story I am telling. I then had an idea of carving out a corner of the internet which was dedicated for like minded people who like the world of TTRPGs, a space where anyone can feel welcome, learn about TTRPG’s and do so in a way which promotes safety, inclusivity and fun.

Roll on (pun intended) 2026, the work started getting 1801Adventures off the ground, and if you’re reading this, that means you’ve found it. This pocket of the internet is designed to be a great place to start getting involved with table top games, with educational workshops covering different topics which can be challenging especially to new games masters and players, games to sign up to and get involved with and thought provoking content for characters, quest design and anything else which may help support your own Tabletop game.