Are you ready for a D&D one-off? I am! My DM has organized an epic one-off D&D campaign, and we will gather together and play in person, whilst enjoying snacks and drinks! We have a group of five players of all different classes and backgrounds. We’ve prepared our characters in advance and we’re psyched to play. I will, of course, post a recap of the session after it’s complete as well. (Stay tuned for that!)

But who is my character? I wanted to have a little fun with this, since it’s a one time thing and not a long campaign. Since D&D is basically set in the same sort of fantasy realm as the Lord of the Rings series, I thought it would be fun to create a Strider character for the one-off D&D campaign.

Do you remember who Strider is? Maybe you can recognize him as Aragorn, son of Arathorn? Isildur’s heir? Viggo Mortensen??

Yeah. This stud muffin. I based all of my character traits to closely match the character from LotR. Of course, I had to take a few liberties, but I think I made it work. Meet Strider, the Half-Elf Ranger!

Strider’s father, Arathorn, was killed by orcs when he was a baby. He was raised in foster care by the elves of Rivendell, where he learned elven magic and how to fight. He didn’t learn of his true lineage until he was in his 20’s, when he was barely old enough to understand that his blood line was that of the great king. He knew that his father had been targeted and killed because of this, and Strider swore that he would hunt every last orc to avenge his father’s death. He also knew that the weight of the realm was on his shoulders, and that one day he would have to re-forge the shards of Narsil and recreate the sword of his ancestors, defeat the evil Sauron, and take back the throne.

With all of that stress on his mind, Strider also met the love of his life, Arwen, in Rivendell. She was a beautiful elf who was daughter of King Elrond, and their love was forbidden. Fighting with the emotions of wanting to be with his love, and the pressure and stress of his own heritage, Strider decided to escape the pressures of the elf city and live with the Rangers of the North, called the Dunedain. Living among humans, he learned to perfect his hunting and fighting skills. Strider continued to hunt and slay orcs, now his favored enemy. But he was constantly haunted by the responsibilities thrust upon him from his ancestry, and haunted by the lost love that he had to leave behind.

Strider always hides his inner darkness by doing good deeds. He is constantly looking for an underdog to defend. After meeting Gandalf the Wizard, he led some of his Dunedain brothers south to guard the innocent, defenseless people of Eriador… such as the cute little hobbits of the Shire, who otherwise wanted to live in peace and quiet. This is when Strider received a note that his help was needed in a far off land.

Always on the move and ready to help a stranger in need, Strider jumped at the call. He left his Dunedain brothers behind to set sail with a strange party to the coastal city of Monte-Nesko. Strider rode his horse across miles of green fields to reach the ship where he was destined to meet a strange group of people that he had never met before…

So that’s my back story for the one-off session. I envision Strider’s D&D side quest to take place before the Fellowship of the Ring in the LotR timeline. Since we’re playing the session IRL, I need to have a token to use for my character on the board. Well, it just so happens that Carney got me an awesome mini figure of my Danaeryzard character from our main campaign for the holidays! Isn’t it cute? We’ll just pretend the Dany figure is Strider for the D&D game.

I’m excited to play IRL with a group! Can’t wait to report back!