A couple of weeks ago I noted that our numbers had been dropping. They surged back this week with a vengeance; two new players and a lot of returning players meant we had three tables each with a DM and six players. That’s 21 people playing D&D! Logistically this was a challenge, because the store also had (unusually) people playing Attack Wing and Magic, taking … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast, session 6
There isn’t a cleric to be seen amongst the current players of D&D Encounters at my FLGS. There has been in previous seasons, but this season is heavy on the rogues, rangers, paladins and mages for some reason. As a result, the groups are struggling somewhat to heal between encounters. It’s a dynamic that is unfamiliar to the 4E players of the group. Of course, … Continue reading D&D Next: Healing and the playtest Cleric
Over the past few months, I’ve seen a fair deal of the playtest rogue from D&D Next. Tait’s been regularly using one in our D&D Encounters game, and it hasn’t been unusual to see another player with a rogue at the same time. Mechanically, it reminds me of the way D&D Essentials handled the thief. I’m very fond of the Essentials thief. You’ve got a … Continue reading D&D Next: The Playtest Rogue
No new players turned up to this session of Scourge of the Sword Coast, but we had a number of returning players who had missed a session or two, and a few regular players who couldn’t make it. All of which conspired to allow us three tables, one with three players, one with four players, and one with five players – with a DM at … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast, session 5
One of the best feelings I have when reading new material is when I see an innovation which makes me think, “Why hasn’t anyone done this before?” I got that feeling when initially perusing 3E on two matters. The first was Armour Class scaling upwards and being the target number. So obvious – so brilliant. And the other was the 3E Wizard being able to … Continue reading D&D Next: The Wizard and Spell-casting
I have mostly kept out of the online debates on the future of D&D. The basic problem is not that I don’t care, but rather that many of the debates are completely and utterly pointless, there simply as an exercise in breeding ill-will. The other problem with engaging in the debates is that, quite simply, I don’t know enough about the final form of D&D … Continue reading Thoughts on D&D Next
Our last session had seen four players clearing up the rest of the goblins in Julkoun. This session saw the roster change again – we were joined by two new players, Sondra and Lily. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to walk them through character creation, so we used a couple of pre-generated characters for them; an Elf Ranger for Sondra and an Elf Wizard for Lily. … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast, session 4
This season has been quite unsettled for player attendance at our store, with a number of new players trying out the game and then deciding it isn’t for them. Understandable, but when coupled with quite a degree of irregularity of attendance from the “regulars”, it’s made running tables rather tricky, especially given the wide variety of approaches to the game. My table had two new … Continue reading Scourge of the Sword Coast: Session 3
Various factors combined to have us with fewer players this week than last week, which left my table of keen D&D players with only three players: Tim, playing a paladin, Tait and Harry, both of whom were playing rogues. As Tait and Tim were using characters they’ve played in previous Encounters seasons, that meant we had a 2nd level rogue, a 5th level rogue and … Continue reading D&D Next: Scourge of the Sword Coast, session 2
And so it begins. The third part of “The Sundering” series of adventures started around the world this weekend with the D&D Encounters Launch Event for Scourge of the Sword Coast. We at Good Games Ballarat had our largest turn-out for some time: fifteen players and three DMs. And we were still missing potential players who couldn’t attend! All the tables were running D&D Next … Continue reading Scourge of the Sword Coast: D&D Encounters launch event report
