Released as the first part of the Plague of Ancients series for the D&D Adventurers League, The Frozen North starts a group of new characters lost in the frozen wilderness after an avalanche and sends them on a desperate chase for survival. A four-hour adventure for level 1 or 2 characters, this is the second introductory adventure for Season 10, after Ice Road Trackers. As … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Frozen North
Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, one of the first “adventure modules” produced for Dungeons & Dragons, has many things that fascinate me. One of those elements is how it is presented: not as a scripted piece of action, but as an environment to explore and interact with. This is the format of many of the early adventures, which make few assumptions about the actions … Continue reading Steading of the Hill Giant Chief as an Adventure Environment
Ice Road Trackers is the first of the adventures for Season 10 of the D&D Adventurers League. Designed by Shawn Merwin, it consists of four one-hour adventures for level one or two characters. It occurs during the events of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden, but, as with most of the DDAL adventures, runs separately from the hardcover adventure. This adventure introduces characters to … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Ice Road Trackers
With Ballarat moving towards restarting public play of Dungeons & Dragons in our local store, Guf Ballarat, once again it has fallen to me to organise the events. More correctly, I volunteered to do it, because I much prefer organising an event to just participating in one. We are in an odd space where the store is still getting going again. Well, it always was … Continue reading D&D Adventurers League – A Look at the State of Play
Drums in the Marsh is a four-hour adventure for level 1-4 characters and part of the first season of the D&D Adventurers League. The adventure features an investigation into recent kidnappings and raids and then a trip into the Twilight Marsh to discover the perpetrators and rescue the victims. For a low-level adventure, this is very ambitious and gives many options for the players and … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Drums in the Marsh
Secrets of the Drowgar is a 28-page PDF supplement available on the DMs Guild that introduces a new playable race to the game: the Drowgar. What is a Drowgar? It is what you get when a Drow and a Duergar love each other very much. The trouble with introducing any new race into the Dungeons & Dragons game is that not only do you have … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Secrets of the Drowgar
You can play an entire Dungeons & Dragons campaign and enjoy yourself thoroughly without giving a thought as to your character’s past history. Likewise, you can find creating a detailed history enhances your enjoyment. Which one works is affected by the preferences of you and your group. It is well worth discussing how you wish to approach character backstories at the beginning of the campaign. … Continue reading Character Histories and the Campaign
I have been thinking about how combat works in Dungeons & Dragons 5e, and – as with many modern versions of the game – it is no longer a game of attrition. In the early editions of the game, healing magic was hard to come by. (A seventh-level cleric in AD&D with a 16 Wisdom can heal at most 7d8+1 hit points per day). And … Continue reading Combat, Vulnerability, and Hit Points
One of my worst experiences running Pathfinder came when we were playing the Council of Thieves adventure path. The adventurers enter a pocket dimension and have to fight their way out. Except that almost all foes have damage reduction 5; that is, they take 5 less damage unless struck by special weapons (I forget which type, likely silver or cold iron). The party didn’t have … Continue reading Foreshadowing, Research, and Retreating
Search for the Sanjivni is an adventure for 5th level characters that sets them on a quest to find an antidote to a poison that is killing the characters’ prince. Rakshasa and daanav feature as both friends and foes of the party on their quest. It is notable that the rakshasa are not the fiends of the Monster Manual, but instead draw more on their … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Search for the Sanjivni
