The skill system in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons says only a little about what each skill can do, certainly when compared to previous editions. 3.5E, for instance, was very detailed about what skills covered. However, with that lack of definition comes freedom – and confusion. Especially when one player moves to a different group and discovers that the skill does not do what they … Continue reading Thoughts about Skills in Dungeons & Dragons
In the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, the rulebooks gave various methods of determining what monster was randomly encountered. The earliest tables used a flat roll – roll a d6. On a 1 it is an orc. On a 2 it is a goblin. And so on and so forth. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons gave a more nuanced approach: Percentile tables, with different probabilities … Continue reading Random Encounters: 1d8 + 1d12
As I continue to examine the older documents of my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns set in the World of Greyhawk, I discovered this oddity – a list of rumours assembled after the fact to describe what happened for several years of the campaign. It is a long document, so here I present only the events described for 581 CY. This is in the period leading … Continue reading Rumours from the World of Greyhawk – 581 CY
Examining my old archives, I found the following entries relating to campaigns played 20 years ago or more… We played the events in 578 CY in 1997-8, if I recall correctly, using the AD&D 2nd Edition rules (using the Player Options books). The later events came from a campaign begun in 2000, in the weeks leading up to the release of D&D 3E and beyond! … Continue reading Memories of Greyhawk
Bigby’s Handbook of Creative Spell Use is a 76-page supplement that describes techniques of using and combining spells to get more out of them than might initially be apparent. The supplement uses the landscape format, to the joy of some of my friends, and presents 50 spell-casting combinations. They range from gloriously off-the-wall and brilliant, to mundane and obvious, and there are a few hopelessly … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Bigby’s Handbook of Creative Spell Use
I recently participated on a panel on boxed text in PAX Online. Before that, I asked some of my twitter followers questions that they had about the use of box text. We did not get to most of those questions, so I am using this article to answer them! A reminder: I am in favour of boxed text, when used well! “Would your approach to … Continue reading Boxed Text Q&A
My home Greyhawk campaign continued with the characters seeking the third part of the Rod of Seven Parts. The group teleported back to Brusinton, a small town in the west of Veluna, after slaying the dragon. This has been their home base for several months, but it was now under occupation by the Shadow Fey. Checking in at Home The Shadow Fey had concluded an … Continue reading Adventures in Greyhawk – The Company Goes South
I have recently been thinking about why I prefer using Experience Points to Milestones. There are a few reasons, and this article covers my thoughts on the benefits and problems encountered by both approaches. I do believe, very strongly, that there is no one right way, but – in the main – Experience Points are superior for my campaigns. And the reason for that derives … Continue reading Milestones and Experience Points
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is out! And immediately, the main thing some of my good friends have focused on is the difficulty of one of the opening quests. This quest pits the characters – quite likely four level 1 adventurers – against a Challenge 3 opponent. Usually, this would outrage me. I have a low tolerance for narratively-required encounters where there is a … Continue reading How Difficult is “Too Difficult”?
Play in my Sunday night Waterdeep Dungeons & Dragons campaign has been somewhat erratic of late, as real life shows lots of ways it can intrude. Our previous session saw the group head north from Waterdeep to deal with a threat at Black Marble Quarry, as I mentioned in my review of that product. That saw some incredibly reckless actions from the paladin that resulted … Continue reading Waterdeep Tales: To Helm’s Hold
