Animal companions have had a long history in D&D. The Animal Friendship spell was not part of the original game, but was introduced as part of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This spell was usable by low-level druids and high-level rangers, and allowed the caster to permanently gain one or more animals to act as friends or defenders. Exactly what an animal companion could do was … Continue reading The Ranger’s Companion
In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords is the final adventure in the four-part Aerie of the Slave Lords series. It was originally written to be the final round of the AD&D Open Tournament at Gen Con XIII in 1980. There’s no doubt that In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords was a tournament module; it begins with the party, having been captured at the … Continue reading AD&D Review – A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords
This was the first session where we split the Encounters groups so that five of the groups played at 5.30 pm, and the final group played at 7.30 pm. It worked pretty well, and Kris was glad to be able to hear his DM in the later session. Overall, we were a little down on numbers, but that still meant there were 36 people participating. … Continue reading D&D Encounters – Hoard of the Dragon Queen, session 5
The fifth session of Lost Mine was a fairly short session, delayed as we waited for people to return from dinner, and it was spent entirely in the confines of Cragmaw Castle as the group went through two rather big battles that used a lot of the battlemat. By the end of it, the party were rather hurt, but there were a lot of dead … Continue reading Lost Mine of Phandelver – Saturday session 5
After the first two modules in the series, it is a pleasant surprise to consider Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords. This is a module that rather exceeds the design of what has come previously. The first part of the module is the fifth of five opening tournament rounds, and involves the heroes making their way to the Aerie through a set of … Continue reading AD&D Review – A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
Most of the current releases from third-party publishers supporting D&D 5E are conversions of existing adventures. The first release from Genius Loci, Assault on the Southern Horn, is of that sort. In this case, it’s the conversion of an adventure written for the Swords and Wizardry ruleset (which derives from the original Dungeons & Dragons and its supplements). The adventure is presented as a 21-page … Continue reading Adventure Review – Assault on the Southern Horn
This session began with our heroes having been sent to the raiders’ camp to find out who they were, how many there were, what their plans were and – if they could be bothered – to rescue a monk who had been captured by the raiders. At the end of the last session, the group destroyed the raiders’ rear guard, and then convinced the one … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, session 4
Dungeon Module A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade is the second adventure in the “Aerie of the Slavelords” series. As I mentioned in my review of the first adventure, they were originally designed as tournament adventures for GenCon XIII. This adventure consists of two parts of the first round, but (somewhat confusingly) also follows on from the other adventure which would have been taking place at … Continue reading AD&D Review – A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade
One of the bigger changes to the game in the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons concerns Armour Class. It’s function hasn’t changed: the better (higher) your Armour Class, the harder you are to hit. When an attack is made, the attacker rolls a 1d20 and adds their attack bonus; if the result equals or exceeds the target’s Armour Class, the target is hit. Although its function in … Continue reading Armour Class in Dungeons & Dragons 5E
Slave Pits of the Undercity is the first adventure in the Aerie of the Slave Lords series. This series of adventures was originally designed for the official AD&D Tournament at GenCon XIII in 1980. It was a very unusual undertaking: the first round was actually five separate adventures, each undertaken by different groups. The semi-final was a sixth adventure, and the final round was a … Continue reading AD&D Review – A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
