The Queen of Spades is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure for level 7 characters that should last from eight to sixteen hours. At its heart, it is an investigative adventure set in the Forgotten Realms, where the heroes must face a force of chaos and – especially – bad luck. The adventure does a lot of things very right. I am particularly impressed by how … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Queen of Spades
My Waterdeep campaign keeps going in strange directions. It began as a Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign, but it has become a Waterdeep sandbox campaign. The characters keep on going off and doing other quests. The characters have just spent a couple of sessions out of Waterdeep saving merchants from orcs, then exploring the very unusual dungeon the orcs lived in. The initial caves were fine. … Continue reading Tales from my Waterdeep Campaign
In 2008, much to our surprise, Wizards of the Coast blew up the Forgotten Realms. That’s not literal. Rather, Wizards of the Coast took a setting that had been happily available as a published setting for Dungeons & Dragons since 1987, and decreed that it was now 100 years in the future. Almost everyone you cared about was dead, and the world had significantly changed. … Continue reading Once upon a time, Wizards blew up the Forgotten Realms!
The Moonshae Isles Regional Guide presents an introduction to the folk (or Ffolk) and factions of the Moonshae Isles, a storied part of the Forgotten Realms. The Moonshae Isles are an archipelago inspired by British Isles mythology: Druids, fey and a lot of invasions. I was first introduced to them, as were many others, by Douglas Niles’ book Darkwalker on Moonshae. I revisited it a … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Moonshae Isles Regional Guide
The High Moor is a 28-page supplement for the D&D game that offers information on a section of the Forgotten Realms, drawing on information presented in previous books and updating it for use with the current edition and the current date in the Realms. It is nicely written, and gives a good overview of this wilderness area. The High Moor is not known for human … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: The High Moor
The Claw of Winter is an adventure for 8th-level characters written by John Prichard. It is set in the kingdom of Cormyr in the Forgotten Realms. The presentation of the adventure draws very heavily that of the D&D Adventurers League adventures, even to having a similar format of rewards, monster statistics and encounters. It even includes downtime days and renown, although this is not an … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Claw of Winter
The fifth release in the Forgotten Realms line of novels, Azure Bonds, is the first book in the line that I consider an unqualified success and, indeed, one of the best fantasy novels that’s been written. It had been about 25 years since I last read it, and in that time I forgot how good it was. Rereading the book was an absolute pleasure. This … Continue reading Book Review: Azure Bonds
With the advent of the DM’s Guild website, the D&D Adventurers League adventures (once known as D&D Expeditions adventures) have become available to everyone to play. It’s worth writing a word or two about what they are and how they can be used. Each adventure is a complete adventure typically lasting 2 or 4 hours (a few are 1 hour or 8 hours in length), … Continue reading About the D&D Adventurers League adventures
The fourth novel set in the Forgotten Realms, Spellfire, was released in July 1988. It was the first novel of the creator of the Realms, Ed Greenwood, and it would prove to be his only novel for six years, as he was kept rather busy writing gaming material for the Realms. (Since 1994, he’s published quite a few more books…) Spellfire exists in two forms: … Continue reading Book Review: Spellfire
Douglas Niles’ second book in the Moonshae Trilogy, Black Wizards, was first published in April 1988, as the third release of the Forgotten Realms novel line. It continued the story of the Prince of Corwell, Tristran Kendrick, and his friends. With the Darkwalker defeated, the relationship between Tristan and his father has returned to its natural state; that is, not a very good one. When … Continue reading Book Review: Black Wizards
