My happiest experience writing adventures for play in the D&D Adventurers League came courtesy of Robert Alaniz in 2017. He asked me to be one of a team (along with himself and Richard Jansen Parkes) to write the fourth (and final) trilogy of adventures set in Phlan for Baldman Games. On Good Friday, 2019, I finally had the chance to run the entire trilogy of … Continue reading Good Lord, Deliver Us! – Adventures in Phlan
Into the Border Kingdoms is a two-hour adventure for level 1-2 characters by Dave Zajac, and the first of the DDAL-adventures produced by GameHole Con in the Border Kingdoms region of the Forgotten Realms. The plot is relatively simple: the adventurers are in a tavern interacting with locals when it’s attacked by undead, then they go to the source of the undead and deal with … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Into the Border Kingdoms
My recent Greyhawk sessions have been dominated by the brewing war between Ket and Veluna, which was provoked by the death of the High Priestess of Xan Yae on a trip to Veluna. I’ve been drawing on some Kobold Press products to find foes for the characters, and I settled on using the advanced Shadow Fey found in the Creature Codex. Xan Yae, as the … Continue reading Greyhawk – Invasion of the Shadow Fey
The Skull Square Murders is a level 5-10 adventure by Paige Leitman for the D&D Adventurers League. It is written in the 2+2 format (two hours of main adventures with two 1-hour bonus objectives) and demonstrates all the problems that the format has when it comes to writing investigations. The central concept is that you need to find a key, and you discover that the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Skull Square Murders
It’s the start of day 3 of the Conquest Games Convention in Melbourne. It’s Easter Sunday. It’s a slow start for the day – I assume some people are going to church, while others are sleeping in. The main action at the convention at present is the gaming going on at the D&D Adventurers League tables. This pleases me, as I’m the one who organised … Continue reading Conquest Games Convention – midway report
Boxed text is used to provide an initial description of an encounter to the DM and players, with the intention that the DM read or paraphrase the information to the players. It has the following benefits: It alerts the DM and players to what’s important in the room. It conveys the author’s intention for the initial stages of the encounter. It can set a mood. … Continue reading On Using Boxed Text
Citadel of Vlaakith is an adventure for level 1-4 characters. In it, the characters are sent to investigate a strange structure that has crashed in a nearby swamp; all reports indicate it came from another plane of existence. The characters are not the first to investigate: another party of adventurers were sent but did not return, and there is also a hobgoblin tribe in the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Citadel of Vlaakith
Using one format for all types of adventures unchangingly is a problem. You want to adapt the format according to the style of adventure (investigation, exploration, combat-heavy, event-driven, etc.) When I look to describing a particular scene or encounter, I think there are a few key areas that should be present. I look for the following: An opening paragraph or boxed text that sets out … Continue reading Formatting Encounters
The Wizard’s Egg is an OGL product set in an arcane-punk setting; I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if you could easily adapt it to Eberron. It’s an adventure for level 1 characters, which begins with the characters in their office, waiting for someone to hire them. Does it feel like the start of a noir novel? Absolutely! There’s a lot of background in the adventure; … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Wizard’s Egg
One of the challenges in any Organised Play system is to see how series of adventures work after the rules change… In 2018, the D&D Adventurers League moved from awarding Experience Points (XP) to awarding Advancement Checkpoints. For older adventures, each hour played gives 1 ACP (to the maximum playing time). The Curse of Strahd season is particularly challenging to run, because all the adventures … Continue reading Running the Curse of Strahd season under Season 8 DDAL rules
