Well, here we go! The long wait is over! The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons is going to be released in just a few months, and Wizards of the Coast have been busily released information on what’s coming up. The cost of getting everything is going to be quite high, though. $50 core rule books? One wonders what price they’ll be in Australia… Anyway, … Continue reading Lots of Dungeons & Dragons releases on their way!
One of the effects of mostly experiencing the playtest rules only through my weekly D&D Encounters sessions is that I’m now very familiar with low-level play in the game. And, likewise, I have no idea what happens at the higher levels. This Saturday, I’ll get a chance to see something new: play at the dizzying height of sixth level! Fifth and sixth level have generally … Continue reading D&D Next: The Dizzying Heights of Sixth Level
Due to our scheduling, this was the final session of Scourge of the Sword Coast before the Dead in Thay launch weekend on the 10th of May. It also turned out to be the second-most well-attended session, with three brand new players turning up; I handed them some of the pregenerated characters I’ve created for this season. They’ll make new characters for next week’s event. … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast finale
All of my regular table were able to make it for the eleventh session of Scourge of the Sword Coast. We only had one other table this week, but it had seven players and one DM. Personally, I would have preferred to split it into two tables, but we were missing both our regular third DM and our back-up DM, so Ben did a good … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast session 11
We’re moving towards the end of this D&D Encounters season, and this session began with Josh getting drunk. Well, Josh’s character at least. Returning to Daggerford, our half-orc bard felt that his best course of action was to find the owner of the Floshin estate (Darfin Floshin) and persuade him to hand over the manor to the party. Lily, Danielle and Josh had very much … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast session 10
This is a list of all adventures produced by Wizards of the Coast for the D&D Next playtest. Here is a list of adventures for the final 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. The Caves of Chaos (playtest packet, October 2012) A revised version of the dungeons in Keep on the Borderlands. The Caves of Chaos are filled with several different humanoid groups (kobolds, orcs, … Continue reading The D&D Next adventures – so far
The ninth session of our Scourge of the Sword Coast campaign saw us down a DM: Paul is on holiday, and his replacement (which we’d organised weeks ago) couldn’t make it. Thankfully, we were able to run just the two tables, with six players on each table. Strangely enough, seven of the players had played most of their sessions on my table, but as Harry … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast session 9
Dungeons & Dragons has an underlying tension between the power of the monsters and the power of the characters. There will be combat in a D&D campaign, and what happens then is of paramount importance to how the game plays. If every combat ends with the monsters being destroyed in one round, then it’s not a very satisfying game. Likewise, if the characters end up … Continue reading Monsters, Adventure Design and Balance
We had fewer players at Goodgames Ballarat this week, but it was still a healthy number with 17 players turning up. Tables were DM+5, DM+5, DM+4, and with the shop quieter as well, the games went by pretty smoothly. My own table was lacking Harry, but Lily, Danielle, Josh, Sondra and Tait were all present. I finally organised myself well enough to bring in miniatures … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast session 7
When you get down to it, the mechanics of D&D are firmly based around combat. This was a truer in the earliest versions of the game, where there were very few other mechanics, but there’s still a kernel of truth to it. The relationship between hit points, armour class, attack bonus and weapon damage is so key to the game. The relationship has been expressed … Continue reading Combat and the Fighter in D&D Next
