The release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set in 1987 marked a significant point in how wilderness maps were handled at TSR. Instead of providing a map overlaid with hexes, as had been the case in the World of Greyhawk sets, the poster maps of the new boxed sets were unadorned with any such marks. Instead, they just showed the land of the Realms. Included … Continue reading Entering the Wilderness: Going Gridless
The third volume of R&D Adventures Adventure Shorts provides five encounters that can be used in an ongoing campaign; they’re a bit too short to use as the basis of an entire session, and just running the five “shorts” one after another is likely to provide a very disjointed game, but they work well as side-treks to drop into or between adventures. They’re well-written and … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Adventure Shorts, Volume Three
What do you get if a party of adventurers meets a brave, independent woman in a ruined city holding a great treasure guarded by unnatural beasts? Well, it’s possible you have a Conan adventure, but it’s also possible you have Robert J. Schwalb’s adventure, The Watchers of Meng, written for the Primeval Thule campaign setting, but playable in many other D&D worlds. The chief NPC … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Watchers of Meng
Red Chains is the first 5E adventure designed for the Primeval Thule campaign setting. Its author is Steve Winter, who knows a thing or two about RPG design, having spent a very long time working for TSR and Wizards of the Coast. In this adventure, a party of 4th to 6th level characters is sent on a quest to rescue the son of a barbarian … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Red Chains
One of my new Adventurers League players expressed interest in playing a Tiefling Warlock belonging to the Zhentarim. As he’s new to the game, I volunteered to create the character for him. This is what I came up with: Tiefling Warlock For this character sheet, I’ve left off most of the personality details, feeling they’d be filled in by the player. (At some point, I may … Continue reading A Tiefling Warlock
The Haunting of Calrow Ruins, an adventure available through the EN5ider Patreon, is a delight: a horror-themed adventure for 2nd to 4th level characters with a great concept and excellent execution. The adventurers are hired by one of two competing nobles to clear a ruined castle of an infestation of gibberlings, strange monstrosities that jibber-jabber in a frightening manner as they rend the unwary apart. … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Haunting of Calrow Ruins
Argh! Editing! It is my fervent desire to review more adventures that are written well and have had a good editor working on them. Sadly, this is not the case for AAW’s recent release, Under His Skin. There’s certainly no editor listed, and the adventure shows the lack. This is rather a pity, because there are a number of good ideas in the adventure. The … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Under His Skin
Kobold Press’s latest 5E adventure, Tomb of Tiberesh, presents a group of 2nd-level characters the chance to explore an ancient, Egyptian-themed tomb. It’s also rather deadly; with one trap actually allowing the possibility of instant death. That trap is also interesting because it has a Stealth bonus; the DM rolls the Stealth check for the trap and compares it to the Passive Perceptions of the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Tomb of Tiberesh
Frank Schmidt has released a large number of adventures for AD&D and 5E under his Adventures in Filbar imprint; Putting a Krampus in the Holiday is his (free) 2015 Christmas special and is designed for level 1-3 characters. The adventure begins with the players asked to investigate the disappearance of a gnomish adventurer, who vanished after fiddling with some magical items he’d recovered from his … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Putting a Krampus in the Holiday
It seriously crossed my mind for this post to simply be “Dan Head has written a Christmas adventure. Go get it!”, but that’d mean I wouldn’t get to gush about the adventure a little. I mean, it’s not every day you get an adventure about helping an orc tribe defend itself from a dangerous predator! Christmas with the Orcs: The Red Man Comes! is a … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review – Christmas with the Orcs: The Red Man Comes!
