When I was younger, I wasn’t that impressed with The Isle of Dread. I purchased it as part of the Expert D&D set, and although the idea of going to an island inhabited with dinosaurs sounded pretty fun, the actual presentation did not inspire me very much. I was very young at the time. Many years later, during the 3E era, I took a party … Continue reading D&D Basic Review – X1 The Isle of Dread
Until February 22nd, 2015, there’s a sale of Wizards’ D&D pdfs at DriveThruRPG. The discounts are variable – The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting (AD&D 1E) is $8.49, down from $9.99, while the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (D&D Basic) is $4.99, down from $9.99. Every title is at least 15% cheaper. Note that the “cover price” is the price the book was originally published with; a … Continue reading Sale of D&D pdfs at DriveThruRPG!
B1: In Search of the Unknown was written in 1978. This makes it one of the earliest adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. Mike Carr was the author, and the adventure was included in the first printings of the Basic Dungeons & Dragons game. Later on, it was replaced in that boxed set by Keep on the Borderlands, but it was still available as a stand-alone … Continue reading Basic D&D Adventure Review – B1: In Search of the Unknown
There seems to be a trend starting of Old School products advertising themselves for D&D 5E on DriveThruRPG despite the author spending no time to familiarise themselves with the 5E rules or, indeed, even offering any 5E-compatible rules. Starter Adventures, by Tim Shorts, is in that category. The rules are pure Swords & Wizardry, a variant of original D&D. Interestingly, it bears the copyright date … Continue reading OSR Review: Starter Adventures
For those players who haven’t been involved in the D&D playtest and are coming to the new rules with knowledge of earlier systems, it’s probably worth discussing how the system works. As with 3E and 4E, the new combat system uses Cyclical Initiative. At the beginning of the combat, each combatant makes a Dexterity check and then everyone acts in that order, from highest check to … Continue reading A Primer on Combat in the new Dungeons & Dragons
The new edition of Dungeons & Dragons continues the trend of having a list of Conditions that can befall characters and monsters. Conditions provide a useful shorthand for the game, allowing the designers to create spells, powers and rules that share a common language. The list of conditions in 3E and Pathfinder is quite long, but the list was pared back in 4E, and the … Continue reading Basic D&D: Changes to Conditions
If, like me, you’ve been happily playing with the interim Dungeons & Dragons rules included in the recent Scourge of the Sword Coast, Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle and Dead in Thay adventures – or with the public playtest that those rules are drawn from – you are probably wondering what has changed. What do I need to know as I adapt to the new version … Continue reading Basic Dungeons & Dragons: Combat changes
As previously related, early forms of D&D had trouble clearly describing an initiative system. Original D&D used the Chainmail initiative system, and other versions or clarifications were proposed in Eldritch Wizardry, The Strategic Review and The Dragon. As the Eldritch Wizardry system seems to be missing some key information, Eric Holmes had something of a problem when he was designing the initiative system for the … Continue reading Initiative in Basic D&D
The adventure in Temple of Death is the second and final part of the Desert Nomads series. I mentioned in my review of the first part, Master of the Desert Nomads, how that adventure felt very much like a classic Swords & Sorcery tale. This adventure continues in that vein. However, whilst Master was primarily set in a barren desert, much of this adventure is … Continue reading D&D Review: X5 Temple of Death
David Cook had previously shown his love for Sword and Sorcery tales in the first couple of Slave Lords adventures and, especially, in Dwellers of the Forbidden City, which has a specific debt to Howard’s Red Nails. Master of the Desert Nomads is, for me, Cook’s most successful venture into the Sword and Sorcery genre. Conan or Hawkmoon could quite easily be imagined as the … Continue reading D&D Review: X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
