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
Candlekeep Mysteries is out! Hooray! While you could use all the adventures in the book in a campaign that you link together, I am not sure that you would want to. Each adventure is about a (magical) book and a mystery connected to that book. It really depends on your group, but I would likely use no more than one or two of the adventures … Continue reading Prepping A Candlekeep Mystery (Extradimensional Spaces)
One of the early Dungeons & Dragons adventures suggested a ratio of 40% fighters, 30% magic-users, 20% clerics and 10% thieves for a good proportion of character types on that adventure. It is a ratio and a concept that has stayed with me: the ideal of the party that can take on all challenges! Back in those days there was a smaller selection of classes, … Continue reading The I in Team
I recently finished running my players through some of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, which I had used as part of our campaign quest to find the Rod of Seven Parts. In the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, the designers expected the players to create a map of their explorations. (The DM could gain much humour by comparing the player map to their own). … Continue reading Empty Rooms, Mapping, and Pacing
Adventurers in Dungeons & Dragons come in all shapes and sizes and can have any number of backgrounds. However, for the purposes of many published adventures, designers tend to assume a certain type of adventurer. That type is the mercenary adventurer. That is, an individual who makes their living by selling their services. And their services are their strong sword arm or their ability with … Continue reading Who is the Standard Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer?
