Meet the Mages: Eric Hitsman
Get to know the people running the Marathon
Eric Hitsman is one of the Dungeon Masters who will take part in running Dungeon of the Mad Mage during the Paladin’s Archives 600 hour livestream event. The Paladin’s Archives news team interviewed Eric to get to know him a bit better:
PA: How long have you been Playing/DMing D&D?
Eric: I was introduced to D&D back in the 90s starting with AD&D 2nd ed. From my good friends’ older brother. I still remember the first session he ran for us when I was 10 years old – and the excitement and sheer awe I felt throughout the game. After that first game, my friends and I became those people that played on the school playground at recess – you know the cool kids. That baseball diamond in the school playground is where I became the forever DM. Players and friends have changed over the years, but I have continued to play consistently throughout the years over all the new editions that were released. So I’ve been playing and DMing for roughly 20 years.
PA: What do you like about D&D?
Eric: I am a big fan of the role-playing elements to the game. As a DM it is really fun for me to think about how certain NPCs would react in certain situations – and having to improvise these reactions in real time. I also really like seeing player character innovations. I got a piece of advice about DMing a long time ago that basically said … “you don’t need to figure out a solution, just make a puzzle, and let them figure out how to solve it”. So…sometimes I make a problem that I think is virtually unsolvable – but player characters always surprise me – if its a really innovative and unique solution, then it works; I really love watching things like that happen in games. There is really nothing else like D&D that is so open to possibilities, and I find that to be truly great.
PA: Do you have a favorite character you’ve played?
Eric: When I do end up playing D&D, I’ve brought back a recurring character named Fengel – the Half Orc Fighter/Warlock; He is not the smartest of creatures, but he absolutely loves being the leader. If he happens upon a village, he is absolutely certain they need new leadership and will work tireless to convince the people of the village that he is actually their new Mayor… and he’s not lying, he truly believes this to be the case. He doesn’t understand how politics work. I’ve played this character in a few different campaigns over the year, and he has been very fun.
PA: What is your favorite module?
Eric: Over the past two years, I’ve been working my way through most of the 5e campaign modules with different groups and my favourite module that I ran was Rime of the Frostmaiden. It helps that the first D&D books I ever read were set in Icewind Dale, but I also really enjoyed how the module is set up to be played over time (trying to not spoil anything here). It helps that I had a really awesome group of players to run the game for.
PA: What got your interested in MotMM?
Eric: There was a time a year ago that I was running 5 different games per week, and I had blast playing so much D&D – so it just felt right to put my name into the hat in to run 5 games sessions a week as part of a huge record breaking game.
PA: What’s something interesting about you?
Eric: Much like Neal, I also host Trivia nights at my local pub – but I also play live music at these local pubs.
PA: Any social media you’d like to mention?
Eric: I've been a musician just as long as I've been a DM, most recently with a band called Mosely – so I’ll leave the social for that: https://www.facebook.com/moselyband/
Eric Hitsman goes by DM-Eric#7444 on Discord.