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
Two tournaments, three sessions of D&D, and several odd plays of board games; it’s been quite a week! One of the tournaments was the first of the monthly X-Wing tournaments. We had five players, with Garth playing whoever had the bye, as he was learning the game. Sarah played a build of three TIE Interceptors and I played the championship team of two X-Wings and … Continue reading A Big Week of Gaming
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
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
The up-and-down numbers of my AD&D player base saw only four players attend this weekend’s session. I wouldn’t be utterly surprised if I’m dealing with ten players next week; it’s that sort of campaign! The regulars of Jesse and Tait were there, along with Tim and a new player, Mike. Mike rolled up a fighter, and so we had characters from 1st to 9th level … Continue reading AD&D – The Frost Barbarians – session 65(ish)
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
If there is one adventure that really shows how different and ambitious the UK division of TSR were, it is this one. Published in 1983, Beyond the Crystal Cave is notionally in the World of Greyhawk, although the world it evokes is one that would be unfamiliar to most players of D&D at the time. Indeed, the entire adventure would feel unfamiliar, as it moves … Continue reading Review of AD&D module UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave
One thing was certain, that the rules of naturalistic adventure writing had nothing to do with it: — it was Gary Gygax’s desire to do an adventure based on Lewis Carroll’s works, and Lewis Carroll’s best writing came from taking ideas found in his (and our) world and twisting them to be amusing and possibly satirical. And, when Gary Gygax became involved you got an … Continue reading Review of AD&D adventure EX2: Through the Magic Mirror
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
Horror on the Hill was published in 1983, and is one of Douglas Niles’ early works for Dungeons and Dragons. Niles, a wargamer, would contribute significantly to the Dragonlance series in a couple of years, and then write several Forgotten Realms novels. I’ve already covered two of his adventures, Against the Cult of the Reptile God and Curse of Xanathon. His early work has a … Continue reading Review of B5: Horror on the Hill
