Review of I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is the adventure that introduced us to several classic D&D monsters: the yuan-ti, the aboleth, the mongrelmen, the bullywugs and the tasloi first see their adventure debut in this module. Any module that manages to have so many monsters that capture the imagination is going to be worth looking at, surely? However, Dwellers is not without its problems, and seems … Continue reading Review of I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City

MerricBSeptember 4, 2012May 31, 20171 Comment

AD&D, D&D, Session Report, Uncategorized

Magic Jars and Buried Alive – more Castle Amber

We had six players for the second session of Castle Amber (and I’ve lost count of how many session we’ve had of the AD&D campaign in general; it’s over 30 now). The group was: Dave, the C4/F4/M3 Tait, the henchman fighter 4 (as his main character died last session) Shane, the Magic-User 5 Jesse, the Magic-User 7, with his Cleric 4 henchmen Rich, the Thief … Continue reading Magic Jars and Buried Alive – more Castle Amber

MerricBSeptember 3, 2012Leave a comment

AD&D, D&D, Review, Uncategorized

Review of L1: The Secret of Bone Hill

Len Lakofka first came to my attention through his articles in Dragon magazine, many of which appeared in the ongoing column “Leomund’s Tiny Hut”. One of the traits that runs through his articles is a great attention to detail. There’s a real feeling of striving for “realism” and “simulation” in his articles, and thus it’s not much of a surprise that the adventure modules he … Continue reading Review of L1: The Secret of Bone Hill

MerricBAugust 23, 2012Leave a comment

AD&D, D&D, Review, Uncategorized

Review of U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is one of the true classics of AD&D adventures. Published in 1981, it was the first adventure released by UK designers – the “U” series code standing for United Kingdom. A short while later, we’d actually get a series of “UK” designated adventures, but this was back in the days of single letter series codes. Written by Dave J. Browne … Continue reading Review of U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

MerricBAugust 21, 2012February 26, 20192 Comments

AD&D, D&D, Uncategorized

Dragonlance Adventures

One of my at-yet-unrealised ambitions is to finally run all of the original Dragonlance adventures using the system in which they were designed. That would be the AD&D system, and it happens to be a system I’m currently running a campaign with (it’s been going about 9-10 months), although I’ve dropped down to fortnightly sessions to allow some other campaigns (Rifts, Fantasy Hero) to run, … Continue reading Dragonlance Adventures

MerricBAugust 20, 2012Leave a comment

AD&D, D&D, Review, Uncategorized

Review of Deities and Demigods for AD&D

Deities & Demigods is the second work published by TSR covering deities of different mythologies for the D&D game. The first work was Gods, Demigods and Heroes, which was the fourth supplement to the original D&D game. In the earlier work, Tim Kask, then rules editor at TSR, wrote, “This is our last attempt to delineate the absurdity of 40+ level characters. When Odin, the … Continue reading Review of Deities and Demigods for AD&D

MerricBAugust 14, 20122 Comments

AD&D, D&D, Review, Uncategorized

Fun with Mushrooms – A review of In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords

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, as it begins with the party, having been captured at … Continue reading Fun with Mushrooms – A review of In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords

MerricBAugust 14, 2012Leave a comment

AD&D, D&D, Uncategorized

A new spell for AD&D

A few weeks back, the group ran into an eccentric wizard, who gave the two magic-users with the group Brand New Spells. So brand new I hadn’t invented them yet. And I kept forgetting to create the spells for them. Well, Jesse is going to be happy next session, because here is my Brand Newest Spell for AD&D. Robur’s Remarkable Robes Level 4 Components: V,S … Continue reading A new spell for AD&D

MerricBAugust 13, 2012Leave a comment

AD&D, D&D, Uncategorized

Interesting aspects of AD&D combat

One of the interesting things about running AD&D combat after so long with 3E and 4E is how it allows simultaneous resolution of melee combat. In particular, when most of the group are just hitting monsters with their swords, hammers and axes, I’ve told them the AC they need to hit, and then let them tell me the damage (if they hit). There’s not a … Continue reading Interesting aspects of AD&D combat

MerricBFebruary 8, 2012Leave a comment

AD&D, D&D, Uncategorized

Saturday AD&D… and D&D on Sunday

The Saturday AD&D “Viking” Campaign reached a milestone on Saturday with 9 players participating (not including Josh, Adam and Rich who were all absent) and the evil priest finally slain. So was Reece’s character… sorry about that. The group also got to meet their local baron, who was a real bastard who took half their gold and cut off Chris’s hand. Despite that, it wasn’t … Continue reading Saturday AD&D… and D&D on Sunday

MerricBFebruary 5, 2012Leave a comment