Of all the adventures I’ve run, Danger at Dunwater is one of the most difficult to approach. Why is that? It’s because it’s very hard to discern the shape of it. You’ve got an adventure that well could be entirely played as “you walk up to the lizardfolk, talk to it in Draconic, and part friends”. That’s what happened the first time I ran it. … Continue reading Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Danger at Dunwater
It’s a gift when you discover an NPC in an adventure that gives you great pleasure to roleplay. One that makes that list is Joy Hultmark from Lysa Penrose’s “Purging the Blood“. Lysa uses three paragraphs to describe Joy, and that’s what was needed. Joy has clearly defined goals, a personality, and a reason for interacting with the PCs that allows both the DM and … Continue reading A Few Thoughts on Designing NPCs
The rules for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition are quite clear (although often misinterpreted) about surprise attacks. Let’s restate them using other language: At the beginning of combat, each combatant that is unaware of all opposing forces is SURPRISED. Combat then starts as normal with initiative, and the normal initiative order. However, any character that is SURPRISED has these restrictions: A SURPRISED character may not … Continue reading Surprise Attack!
The finale of the Olma trilogy, What Lies Beneath Ylraphon is a Tier 1 adventure by Lysa Chen, which sees the characters defending the settlement of Ylraphon from an attack by a horde of undead. The adventure has a brilliant structure, where the players can choose which threats to deal with before fighting the Big Bad at the end, with the choice of threats (and … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: What Lies Beneath Ylraphon
Blood in the Water is the second of the Dreams of the Red Wizards series, written by Ashley Warren as a D&D Adventurers League adventure for level 5-10 characters. The characters attempt to aid the folk of Turmish in their preparations for a war against the nation of Thay. Unfortunately, after a promising start, the path for the characters becomes somewhat confused. The adventure begins … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Blood in the Water
Follow the Lights is a short, one-session adventure for level 3 or 4 characters. In it, the characters must overcome several traps, monsters and tricks as they accompany their patron, a gnome sage, into a dungeon as the sage attempts to recover a magic elixir. I appreciate a good old-school dungeon, and there’s definitely invention here. You’ll likely find a few encounters that you can … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Follow the Lights
Greg Bilsland had a long (nine years!) stint working at Wizards of the Coast on Dungeons & Dragons and other things, so now that he’s no longer there, he’s free to indulge his love of off-beat adventures, which brings me to his new adventure release, The Hangover – A Real Balor Party. Oh, boy! With plenty of suggestions for running this at a real bachelor … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Hangover – A Real Balor Party
Breaking Umberlee’s Resolve is the first adventure in the Dreams of the Red Wizards series, a season-independent storyline for the D&D Adventurers League. This first adventure, designed by Ashley Warren, is set in Turmish and the Sea of Fallen Stars, and sees the characters on a quest to save the missing daughter of local merchants, who has run off to sea and likely been kidnapped … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Breaking Umberlee’s Resolve
One of the issues that I (and many others) had during the Pathfinder 2 playtest was that wizards had been reduced in power to the level of ineffectiveness. I’m interested in how things have changed since the playtest, and so I bring you a selection of first-level Wizard spells, with notes on how they were changed from the playtest. With these spells, I’m looking for … Continue reading Pathfinder 2: A Look at some First-level Wizard Spells
My campaign of Ghosts of Saltmarsh has been one of the most disrupted campaigns in my DDAL career. Between Magic prereleases, me getting ill, and player unavailability for various reasons, I’m rather glad that it’s only a shorter campaign of levels 1-7 (or thereabouts!) As a result, my planned session reports are going to more look at the general themes and approaches of the various … Continue reading Ghosts of Saltmarsh: The Smugglers and the Sea Ghost
