I’ve just been checking the dates, and it looks like the best date for starting Waterdeep: Dragon Heist on Saturdays at Guf Ballarat is Saturday 3rd November 2018. The week before is PAX Australia, so a few of our DMs are away; I don’t want to start it the week before that and enforce a break, and I want to give every chance for the two … Continue reading Saturday Dragon Heist at Guf Ballarat
This weekend, we’re running the first adventure of the new season: Once in Waterdeep! (Dragon Heist is coming soon!) There are some interesting surprises in store! This session is best played by new characters, although it supports level 1-4 characters. If you’d like to play D&D for the first time, this is a good one to choose. DDAL08-00 Once in Waterdeep starts 8 pm Saturday … Continue reading Adventurers League Season 8 begins at Guf Ballarat
The D&D Adventurers League is an organisation that provides a shared campaign where players can take their characters from one game to the next, playing wherever suits their fancy. The players can play any of the official D&D hardcover campaigns as part of the Adventurers League campaign, or any of the one-shot adventures that are available on the DMs Guild and tagged as AL-legal. Most … Continue reading What You Need to Know to be a Dungeon Master in the Adventurers League
Bedlam at the Benefit is a 2-hour D&D Adventurers League-legal adventure for Tier 1 characters released as part of the CCC program. The adventurers are sent to raise money for a children’s hospital, but things go wrong, and they must rescue the guests and themselves from a chaotic incursion. This adventure is brilliant. The role-playing section that begins the adventure is glorious; it structures the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Bedlam at the Benefit
The Moonshae Isles Regional Guide presents an introduction to the folk (or Ffolk) and factions of the Moonshae Isles, a storied part of the Forgotten Realms. The Moonshae Isles are an archipelago inspired by British Isles mythology: Druids, fey and a lot of invasions. I was first introduced to them, as were many others, by Douglas Niles’ book Darkwalker on Moonshae. I revisited it a … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Moonshae Isles Regional Guide
Over the last four years, I’ve been running hardcover adventures using Adventurers League rules in our local store. Mostly weekly, though for a bit over a year, I was running twice a week. There’s not that much that would be *too* different if I was running them for home play. For the most part, the groups playing those hardcovers were constant throughout. Occasionally, a new … Continue reading On the Importance and Challenges of Organised Play
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
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)
