On Friday, February 2, 2024, we got together to play the latest session of our World of Greyhawk campaign. Characters are around 10th level at this stage, and in the previous session, they’d obtained the Staff of Xan-Yae, which when taken to her holy shrine far to the west would allow the goddess to protect the Paynims against the great horde coming towards it. And, … Continue reading Adventures in Greyhawk: The Plains of the Paynims
We played our eleventh session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, December 18, 2023. During our last session, the group had fared very poorly in their first expedition into Zorzula’s Rest (part of Chapter 5). Simeon, the fighter of the group, had been captured. And for this session, one of our players couldn’t make it. I typically play Simeon as an NPC, so that just … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 11
We played our tenth session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, December 11, 2023. This was our first session comprised entirely of new material, as we continued through Chapter 5: Paths of Peril. The party had found a long tunnel leading away from Phandalin that some of the goblins had used to flee, but they quickly abandoned their idea of following the tunnel when I … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 10
In Dungeons & Dragons, there are dungeons. And in those dungeons are doors. Doors were tremendously important in Classic D&D (the term I’ll use to describe the original, B/X and AD&D versions of the game), and I have a few thoughts I’d like to share with you about them, and how you can use them well. The basic purpose of a door is to divide … Continue reading D&D Procedures: Doors
Set in the realm of Lamordia, one of the domains of Ravenloft, The God Engine is a horror-themed adventure for level 1-2 characters, with a suggested running time of four to six hours. There is a distinct steampunk vibe to the proceedings, and it contains adult concepts. The plot concerns a fossilized elder brain which gains control of a researcher and forces him to create … Continue reading D&D 5E Review – Lamordia: The God Engine
We played our ninth session of The Shattered Obelisk on December 4, 2023. We’d left the session on a cliff-hanger as ash zombies rose in the building the party were exploring in Thundertree and moved towards them. Now, the thrilling continuation! They slaughtered the ash zombies! Did you expect anything else? A shatter spell from Vel’rari, a thunderwave from Nymia – it turned into a … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 9
Our eighth session of The Shattered Obelisk took place on Monday, November 20, 2023. We’d had another week break as a player was moving. At the time I thought we were back for an extended run. Little did I know! A reminder of the party members at this point: With the Lost Mine and the Spider dealt with, the party returned to Phandalin to deal … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 8
Our second session of the Greyhawk campaign in 2024 took place on Friday, January 19. The characters are all about tenth level at this point. I was using an adventure by Troll Lord Games, The Ebon Staff, as my basis for the session. The ideas behind the adventure are fantastic, even if I have a few issues with its implementation. The characters are investigating a … Continue reading Adventures in Greyhawk: The Staff of Xan-Yae
We played our seventh session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, November 6, 2023. You may notice that this is three weeks after the last; we were about to go through an erratic patch of play. The party had obviously had a very long rest! Nothing disturbed them during their rest, and the party returned to where they left off – the cavern with the … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 7
I was watching Justin Alexander’s stream yesterday when one of his watchers lamented that newer players didn’t know about all the tricks used in the old days. Such as using marbles to test if a passageway sloped downwards, or a ten-foot pole to test if the passageway ahead had a pit trap in it. Justin replied that it doesn’t take much for that sort of … Continue reading Using (Your) Marbles – Decision Making in RPGs
