Board Game Review: Dungeon Mayhem

Dungeon Mayhem is a small card game released by Wizards of the Coast that allows two to four players to attempt to defeat each other in an everyone-for-themselves brawl in the D&D world. It’s fast, furious, and quite random, playing in about 10 minutes or less. It’s entirely the sort of filler game I tend not to play. However, upon watching my younger friends playing … Continue reading Board Game Review: Dungeon Mayhem

Board Game Review: Vault of Dragons

I had a chance to play the new D&D-themed game Vault of Dragons from Gale Force Nine on the weekend; some friends played it just before. All of us found it a tremendously frustrating experience, partly due to a poor rulebook, but mostly due to tedious game play. The concept of the game is that you control one of four factions racing to find a … Continue reading Board Game Review: Vault of Dragons

5E Adventure Review: Purging the Blood

The finale of the Folded Time trilogy, Purging the Blood, manages to provide a conclusion to the overall story of the trilogy while being an entertaining adventure in its own right. This time, the adventurers are sent back to the newly formed Waterdeep as the citizens vote on the names of the various wards, while the nobles pursue a new fashion craze: having their blood … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Purging the Blood

Exploration and Making the Mind Work

Some of my favourite Dungeons & Dragons encounters have consisted of a very simple challenge, but, because the adventurers didn’t have the right tools available to them, they needed to improvise and come up with another solution. Give me a stream with a slippery log over it or an open pit just too wide for all the characters to jump and I have a situation … Continue reading Exploration and Making the Mind Work

5E Adventure Review: Hero of the Troll Wars

After the disaster of A Wrinkle in the Weave, it’s a relief to say that the next adventure in the trilogy, Hero of the Troll Wars is quite playable and entertaining. It isn’t without flaw, however. In particular, its links to the overarching storyline are weak. There isn’t an introductory segment where the rules of time-travel are explained and the characters are given their mission. … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Hero of the Troll Wars

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist opening stages

I’ve started running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, the recent D&D adventure for level 1-5 characters. I have a group of five or six players – one is finding himself very busy in the end-of-year madness – who are proceeding through the adventure. Of particular note amongst the characters is a gnome fighter called Dysnomia, who was once part of the City Watch of Waterdeep. This has … Continue reading Waterdeep: Dragon Heist opening stages