How deadly is your Dungeons & Dragons game? Do players go into each combat wondering if their character will survive? Do they avoid combat? Or do they rush in, knowing their chance of losing their character is very low? People enjoy different things. And, even in the early days of the game, there were varying desires for how deadly it should be. Consider that hit … Continue reading Deadliness, Options, and Risk
Players looking at the original form of Dungeons & Dragons may be surprised to discover how little Plate Armour costs. You could get the best non-magical Armour Class as a starting character. I find this interesting. In the beginning, a level 1 character had 1d6 hit points. If a monster hit you, you would take 1d6 damage. When you reached 0 hit points, you died. … Continue reading The Tension between Armour Class and Hit Points
Including monster statistics – stat blocks – in adventures is a challenge. The earliest adventures – the Giant adventures by Gary Gygax – listed the name of the monster and its hit points and nothing else. It’s a little hard to tell if this was an aesthetic choice or one born from the fact that the rules were still somewhat in flux (the AD&D Monster … Continue reading A Short History of Monster Stat Blocks
Until February 22nd, 2015, there’s a sale of Wizards’ D&D pdfs at DriveThruRPG. The discounts are variable – The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting (AD&D 1E) is $8.49, down from $9.99, while the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (D&D Basic) is $4.99, down from $9.99. Every title is at least 15% cheaper. Note that the “cover price” is the price the book was originally published with; a … Continue reading Sale of D&D pdfs at DriveThruRPG!
Last Friday, the Greyhawk D&D 4E campaign we began in June 2008 finished. Six years and over a hundred sessions since we started, the group stopped the cultists of Tharizdun from unchaining the Chained God, and thereby stopped the End of the World. Just as well – I’ve got another campaign running in Greyhawk on Saturdays. It would be a bit unfortunate for the other … Continue reading Finishing off D&D 4E in style!
In June 2008, I began a new Greyhawk campaign, using the newly released 4E rules. In July 2014, that campaign will end. It’s now less than a fortnight until that day. During the course of the campaign, the adventurers have delved beneath Castle Greyhawk (Zagyg), have fought the necromancers of the Shadow Forest, have discovered a strange, forgotten temple, have explored several versions of the … Continue reading Preparing my final D&D 4E session
This is a repost of a review I wrote back in 2011, but didn’t post on my blog. A long time ago, I was a Forgotten Realms fan. The release of the original Grey Box set was a revelation, and the ongoing series of FR supplements which added detail (and maps) to the setting were fabulous. Admittedly, looking back at them now, the quality could … Continue reading Neverwinter Campaign Setting (4E D&D) review
My D&D 4E Greyhawk group have reached the Demonweb Pits, looking for the soul of their bullywug companion (played by Paul). Yeah, it’s just another day in my Greyhawk game! Using this adventure out of the original context it was published in works well. Mostly. My group are not big mappers, especially as it’s rarely needed with the dungeons I use in this campaign. This … Continue reading Fun in the Demonweb Pits
Search for the Diamond Staff is the adventure that was used for the 14th series of D&D Encounters, which ran over eight weeks from the 12th of June to the 8th of August 2013. The adventure is set in the Forgotten Realms and was written by long-time Realms designer Rich Baker. The adventure follows on from the game day event, Vault of the Dracolich, where … Continue reading Search for the Diamond Staff – Review and Retrospective
My 4E Greyhawk campaign, which I’ve been running since 4E first came out in 2008, is moving towards its final stages. The characters are mostly 24th level, and the story we’re now running should end the campaign. Although the campaign is normally played fortnightly, there have been breaks in it due to illness and the other things that afflict long-running campaigns. Three of the six … Continue reading Tharizdun and Elemental Evil – my 4E campaign continues!
