Cauldron of Sapphire, the penultimate Tier 4 adventure of Season 7, is a superb adventure. Robert Adducci crafted what I believe is the first regular-series DDAL adventure to get Tier 4 right – and yes, I do include my own efforts in that. (I don’t include the special Epics or Author-Only adventures, as I haven’t run those yet!) Cauldron, like my Eye of Xxiphu, mostly takes … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Cauldron of Sapphire
The Waterdeep Primer is a 24-page document compiled by Jason Hardin that introduces the reader to key facts about the City of Waterdeep, an important city in the Forgotten Realms. With the upcoming adventure season revolving around this city, this is a way to learn some lore before the official release. The primer covers the history of the city in four pages, the geography in … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Waterdeep Primer
Ghost of the Mere is an adventure for 12th-level characters, set during the time of the Tyranny of Dragons. It’s designed so it can be run as an additional quest during Rise of Tiamat. You’d benefit from owning Hoard of the Dragon Queen for information on Castle Naerytar. The adventure sets up an interesting situation where the characters are sent to stop the black dragon … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Ghost of the Mere
When I first played D&D, using the AD&D rules in the early 1980s, every gold you earned gave you XP, and thus gain levels. You also gained XP from killing monsters, but based on what I observed from the published adventures and comments in the Basic and Companion rules, about three-quarters of your XP would come from treasure. (Some players did away with this, but … Continue reading D&D Adventurers League Changes: Gold
If you’d like to pick a topic in D&D that has seen many varying viewpoints, try the awarding of magic items. How many? How powerful? If you read the old magazines and rulebooks, you’ll find a lot of advice about not giving out too many magic items. There were horror tales of “Monty Haul” games where everyone had vorpal swords and were slaying gods. It’s … Continue reading Changes to the D&D Adventurers League! Magic Items!
Once upon a time, players gathered around a table and delved into a dungeon. They slew and avoided monsters, and they came out with treasure. For this, they were awarded XP. Most of the XP was for the treasure they gained, but a small amount (one-fifth according to some advice) was for the slaying of monsters. In a recent session of Dungeons of Dragons, a … Continue reading The D&D Adventurers League is Changing! Don’t Panic! (Experience Points)
In The Golden Apple by Luciella Scarlett, a party of Tier 1 characters chase a rogue eladrin into the Feywild, get caught up in the machinations of the fey courts, and have an opportunity to stop the rogue causing a war between the courts. This is a great basis for an adventure, and I’m very fond of tales of the fey. The adventure begins in … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Golden Apple
Shawn Merwin and Chris Sniezak recently touched on the phenomenon of most groups always turning left when they came to an intersection in a dungeon, as part of their Down with D&D podcast. The decision to “turn left first” is one I’ve observed at many tables over the last couple of decades. My feeling is that it comes partly from the decision to take the … Continue reading In the Dungeon: Left or Right?
Ashley Warren’s A Night of Masks and Monsters is a single-session adventure for level 3 characters. Set in the city of Ibrido, the adventurers get to experience a masquerade party where the masks have unsettling, magical properties, and the host has unsavoury plans for his guests! This is an adventure with excellent ideas, which doesn’t always execute them well. That it lacks a synopsis is … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: A Night of Masks and Monsters
Greg Marks’ Oubliette of Fort Iron is a significant milestone in the D&D Adventurers League range. It was released in 2015 as part of the second season, and it’s the first two-hour adventure for the league, a format that has come to dominate the range. The adventure is mostly a linear dungeon-crawl, with encounters split between combats and hazards. None of the three combats is … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Oubliette of Fort Iron
