Mike Mearls has posted on twitter the full character sheet of one of the Starter Set fighters. So, what has changed from the playtest? Here’s a list… Proficiency Bonus: In the playtest it went from +1 to +6. In the full game, it starts at +2 (and presumably goes to +6). The change to +3 happens at level 5. (Previously levels 1-2 were +1, levels … Continue reading Changes from the D&D Playtest: The Starter Set Fighter
One of the thornier issues in AD&D is on when a spell resolves in the round. There are – in general – two schools of thought on the subject. The first believes that spell-casting starts at the very beginning of the round and concludes in the segment described in its casting time. Thus, Magic Missile always resolves in the first segment of the round, and … Continue reading The Casting Time of Spells in D&D
A recent conversation made me interested in why AD&D initiative works as it does. Or at least, why the description is so darn complicated. In doing so, I went back to Chainmail, which has two initiative systems. The first is for regular mass battles. They work like this: Both sides make an initiative roll on d6, with the winner of the die-roll choosing to move … Continue reading The Development of AD&D Initiative
Yesterday, Mike Mearls previewed the map that is in the upcoming D&D Starter Set. For those who bought the Neverwinter Campaign Setting book – surely one of the best campaign supplements ever published – the map should be strangely familiar… Although the artwork, by Mike Schley, is unchanged, the labels on the map have changed. Here are a summary of the changes: Labels that have … Continue reading Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set Wilderness Map notes
This is a repost of a review I wrote back in 2011, but didn’t post on my blog. A long time ago, I was a Forgotten Realms fan. The release of the original Grey Box set was a revelation, and the ongoing series of FR supplements which added detail (and maps) to the setting were fabulous. Admittedly, looking back at them now, the quality could … Continue reading Neverwinter Campaign Setting (4E D&D) review
The D&D Encounters seasons Dead in Thay has now been running for six sessions at Goodgames Ballarat. It’s been a wildly successful season for us, with numbers consistently around 20. The last session saw one of our DMs ill and unable to make it, so I had to step in and run the game instead of co-ordinating, but we still had 21 people participating: three … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Dead in Thay – Half-Time update
After entering in 129 Armour Classes from the SRD into my spreadsheet, I’d gotten as far as “G”, so I realised there were a *lot* of monsters in the core D&D 3E monster manual! However, it was about the same number of monsters I’d added as part of the Monstrous Compendium Annual, so I decided to create some charts from the information so far. It … Continue reading Armour Class in 3rd Edition – a first look
This isn’t a very good analysis, and is not particularly deep, but seeing as I had the book sitting on my hard-drive, I decided to have a look at the Armour Classes of creatures within… Here’s the count of Armour Classes of each number. It’s a bit odd seeing the spikes on AC 6 and AC 0, mucking up what would otherwise be a nicely-shaped … Continue reading Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume 1 – Armour Class analysis
Armour Class is one of the more unusual of Dungeon & Dragons mechanics. As far as I am aware, it is a system first used in naval miniatures games, particularly by Fletcher Pratt and Jane’s Fighting Ships. Dave Arneson designed a naval game himself which used it, and from there it passed into Dungeons & Dragons. You’ll find no actual mention of the numeric Armour … Continue reading A look at Armour Class in original D&D and First Edition AD&D
Between the Monster Manual of AD&D and the Monstrous Compendium of 2nd edition AD&D, there are ten years of the game being played. There were some notable changes in the new monster lists, with quite a few omissions due to the Angry Mothers from Heck problem that was plaguing AD&D at the time; in particular, demons and devils don’t appear in the original two Monstrous … Continue reading A Historical Look at Armour Class – Second Edition AD&D
