The Black Ruins is a short adventure written for old-school D&D (that is, AD&D 2E and before). It contains no monster statistics, only including the number and names of those encountered. In theory, it could be used for 5E play, although the suggested monsters would have to be modified to fit the level of the 5E party – a berserker means a very different thing … Continue reading OSR Adventure Review: The Black Ruins
The Tomb of Gardag the Strange is a short adventure written for the Labyrinth Lord system (a variant of the 1981 Basic & Expert D&D set edited by Tom Moldvay and Dave Cook). The adventure contains seven first-level pregenerated characters, so I presume that it’s a first-level adventure. The adventurers are hired to discover the remains of an assassin from the tomb of the warlord … Continue reading OSR Adventure Review: The Tomb of Gardag the Strange
Winterheart is the second adventure to be produced as part of EN5ider, a patreon-backed magazine produced by EN Publishing. The adventure is designed for a party of 4th-level characters, and is written by Esper. The adventure takes inspiration from the film Frozen and sets the party the challenge of rescuing a kidnapped girl with the mystical power to unleash winter on the land. At that … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Winterheart
Frigga’s Chosen is an adventure by Johua De Santo for 2nd-4th level characters. It’s presented as a 23-page pdf, nicely illustrated. My major problem with the production comes from the computer-generated maps: they look great, but the grid pattern is nearly invisible, making it very hard to judge their scale. Indeed, the scale of the maps is very interesting: if the grid is 5 feet … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review – Frigga’s Chosen
Red Larch. The Dessamber Valley. 1st Mirtul, 1491 DR. Adventures begin in small places. As these things happened, it was in the small town of Red Larch, in the Dessarin Valley, that a group of six adventurers met and began their investigation into the rumours of trouble that had been coming from this land. The adventurers? Their names and stations? Let me lay out for … Continue reading Princes of the Apocalypse, session 1
Xonthal’s Tower, Mount Hlim. 1489 DR. Beneath the tower, the adventurers were soon attacked by a number of elementals – earth and fire elementals – which attacked as soon as they came into the chamber. Music and Mordechai, both tieflings, scorned the scorching touch of the fire elementals, with the doughty eldritch knight engaging all three of the elementals and swinging about lustily. When naught … Continue reading The Rise of Tiamat – Session 10
Storywise, this chapter is all about giving information to the players: letting them know about the cloud giant’s castle, giving them the pass phrase to sneak aboard, and giving them background on what the cult is up to. Continue reading Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen – episode 7
Xonthal’s Tower, Mount Hlim. The adventurers could see the tower, but they were getting no closer to it, having been returning to the glade where a sundial with three shadows stood again and again and again. They headed off once more, taking a path they’d taken before, no closer to finding the solution. This time they ended up in an area of giant mushrooms and … Continue reading The Rise of Tiamat, session 9
I’ve seen a bit of confusion about exactly how many attacks a character can make on his or her turn, as well as how some spells or abilities interact with the attack action. This article will attempt to clarify those matters. The most important thing to know is this: The Attack action allows you to make an attack, but not all attacks require the Attack … Continue reading Attacks, the Attack Action and Extra Attacks
Castle Naerytar is a good example of an adventure locale that will challenge DMs and their players. It’s at this point that Hoard moves into the territory where a DM can make or break the adventure. Better be prepared! What’s going on here from a story perspective? The adventurers are continuing their investigations into where the treasure looted from the Sword Coast is being taken. … Continue reading Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen – Episode 6
