I recently had to tell a player that they could no longer play with us; that we didn’t want them back. It’s a horrible thing to do and to experience, but if you want to have a good campaign, there are times you must recognise that the group isn’t working and its time to move on. There are times its purely down to people having … Continue reading On Handling Problem Players
Over the years, Dungeons & Dragons adventures have tried many different techniques of presenting monster stats in the adventure. The first adventures – Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – listed the hit points of the monsters and then expected you to look them up in the Monster Manual. Later AD&D products provided “full” stat-blocks, although they’d typically leave out special ability descriptions. However, as … Continue reading Presenting Monster Stat-Blocks in Published Adventures
There’s a lot of wilderness in Chult. You’re likely to become very familiar with it in the early levels of Tomb of Annihilation, as the adventurers search for clues. It’s easy to become distracted by the rules given on the adventure: Roll three times each day to see if an encounter occurs, then determine what it is. The problem with this is that it eats … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation: More on Wilderness Adventures
Veluna is a good-aligned theocracy in the World of Greyhawk, and the setting of my current Greyhawk campaign. It wasn’t originally, but it’s where the adventurers have ended up. As a result, it behoves me to have a look at the country, and see what adventures it inspires. I use two main sources for information on Veluna: the 1983 World of Greyhawk boxed set and … Continue reading Greyhawk: A Look at Veluna
The Mother Haggle’s Notice Board series on the DMs Guild aren’t typical adventures. Rather, they’re a collection of one-page scenarios which have an unusual format. Each scenario uses the following sections to describe the situation: The Quest The Core Problem Plausible Complications Unlikely Disasters Each section has very little detail. Instead of a fully detailed adventure, you get a framework and inspirational elements; monsters are … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Pride and Prejudice
The Horseman is the penultimate adventure of the Curse of Strahd season of the Adventurers League. It is a two-hour adventure, and it is a relief to return to the main storyline after the diversion of the last two adventures. The story begins with the adventurers learning from Ixusaxa what is going on in the series. They learn that Esmae, the chief villain, is obsessed … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Horseman
Temple of the Opal Goddess is an adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 5-8. It is presented in a 44-page PDF and sets the adventurers the task of rescuing a noble who has been captured by orcs. Unfortunately for the adventurers, the orcs are holding him in a temple dedicated to the “Opal Goddess”, who is far more demonic than godlike, and it she who … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Temple of the Opal Goddess
My home World of Greyhawk campaign has resumed for the new year of 2018. I’ve run campaigns in the World of Greyhawk for twenty years or so, and this current one has been going for about six months. When I last wrote about the heroes of the tale, they’d recovered the sword of Prince Thrommel, presented it to the new King of Furyondy, and, as … Continue reading Greyhawk: To Mitrik!
Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition was a major change to how Dungeons & Dragons worked. Over the years, AD&D 2E had become a sprawling beast that had a lot of very good ideas, but no unifying mechanics. Every supplement presented new ways of doing things and the resulting system had turned into rather a mess. So, 3E (which dropped the “Advanced”, though being the direct … Continue reading Hit Points Through the Editions, part 3
The Raven is the twelfth part of Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts, the fourth season of the D&D Adventurers League adventures. By this stage in the campaign, we’re getting towards the end. The Big Bad is getting ready to implement her plan, and the adventurers need all the help they can get, because – at this stage – they don’t know where she is! The … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Raven
