I finally have a copy of Ghosts of Saltmarsh; strictly speaking, I have three – Special, Standard, and D&D Beyond versions. Hooray! (And yes, I paid for each of them). I’m starting a campaign of the book on Saturday, so I’m now perusing it, trying see how everything fits together. Although I’ve run The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh before, the original adventure didn’t describe the … Continue reading Ghosts of Saltmarsh – Looking at the Town
When a group starts a new campaign together, one of the players’ first tasks is to create characters. Dungeons & Dragons is a team game. It requires the players to work together to overcome the challenges posed by the Dungeon Master. If you have a group that is lacking core skills, or whose abilities don’t fit into the context of the campaign, your experiences may … Continue reading Creating a Character – for a New Campaign
One of the fun things about Dungeons & Dragons is its system of other realities. Apart from the world you play in (often termed the “Prime Material Plane”), you have a selection of Inner Planes, Outer Planes, Transitive Planes, alternate realities, and other random planes that seemed like a good idea at the time. All of these give a lot of adventuring opportunities for players … Continue reading What’s an Avernus?
This is the first of a series of articles on D&D Adventurers League play, looking at the opportunities it provides and the challenges it faces. All of this is my opinion and may vary from other people’s perceptions! Dungeons & Dragons is a game played by millions of players around the world. A significant number of those players play under the aegis of the D&D … Continue reading D&D Adventures League Play – Conventions, Stores, Home, Online
My happiest experience writing adventures for play in the D&D Adventurers League came courtesy of Robert Alaniz in 2017. He asked me to be one of a team (along with himself and Richard Jansen Parkes) to write the fourth (and final) trilogy of adventures set in Phlan for Baldman Games. On Good Friday, 2019, I finally had the chance to run the entire trilogy of … Continue reading Good Lord, Deliver Us! – Adventures in Phlan
Into the Border Kingdoms is a two-hour adventure for level 1-2 characters by Dave Zajac, and the first of the DDAL-adventures produced by GameHole Con in the Border Kingdoms region of the Forgotten Realms. The plot is relatively simple: the adventurers are in a tavern interacting with locals when it’s attacked by undead, then they go to the source of the undead and deal with … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Into the Border Kingdoms
My recent Greyhawk sessions have been dominated by the brewing war between Ket and Veluna, which was provoked by the death of the High Priestess of Xan Yae on a trip to Veluna. I’ve been drawing on some Kobold Press products to find foes for the characters, and I settled on using the advanced Shadow Fey found in the Creature Codex. Xan Yae, as the … Continue reading Greyhawk – Invasion of the Shadow Fey
The Skull Square Murders is a level 5-10 adventure by Paige Leitman for the D&D Adventurers League. It is written in the 2+2 format (two hours of main adventures with two 1-hour bonus objectives) and demonstrates all the problems that the format has when it comes to writing investigations. The central concept is that you need to find a key, and you discover that the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Skull Square Murders
Boxed text is used to provide an initial description of an encounter to the DM and players, with the intention that the DM read or paraphrase the information to the players. It has the following benefits: It alerts the DM and players to what’s important in the room. It conveys the author’s intention for the initial stages of the encounter. It can set a mood. … Continue reading On Using Boxed Text
Citadel of Vlaakith is an adventure for level 1-4 characters. In it, the characters are sent to investigate a strange structure that has crashed in a nearby swamp; all reports indicate it came from another plane of existence. The characters are not the first to investigate: another party of adventurers were sent but did not return, and there is also a hobgoblin tribe in the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Citadel of Vlaakith
