Category: D&D

D&D 5E, Review

5E Supplement Review: The Monologue Mechanic

Richard Malena-Webber’s supplement The Monologue Mechanic is a fascinating work. It starts from the premise that villainous monologues to player characters form an important part of the structure of D&D and other RPGs, and then awards benefits when the players listen to the monologue instead of attacking the moment they see the villain! To do this, it also introduces the idea of fame, as promulgated … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: The Monologue Mechanic

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D&D 5E, Design

An Encounter in the Savage Jungle

The latest adventure compilation by Jeff C. Stevens, Encounters in the Savage Jungles, is now available on the DMs Guild. It’s a collection of short adventures and encounters to use in any jungle-based campaign, such as Tomb of Annihilation. It’s not D&D Adventurers League legal, but that shouldn’t bother most of you. It’s also a product I can’t review. Why? Because I contributed to the … Continue reading An Encounter in the Savage Jungle

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Review

5E Adventure Review: Ruins of Hisari

Lysa Chen’s Ruins of Hisari is a D&D Adventurers League-legal adventure set in one of the many ruined locations in Chult. Although intended for a party of Tier 3 characters – that is, levels 11-16 – the first section of the adventure doesn’t contain many dangerous threats, and the outskirts of the ruins can quite easily be explored by a Tier 2 party. Then the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Ruins of Hisari

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D&D, D&D 5E, Design

Examining a Subclass: Path of the Courageous Heart

I’m fascinated by the new subclasses in Xanathar’s Lost Notes to Everything Else. In fact, most new class designs fascinate me, although actually evaluating them? It’s hard. You need to playtest them. As it happens, the element of D&D that will see more play than anything else after the basic systems are the character classes. An individual spell that goes wrong can be easily excluded. … Continue reading Examining a Subclass: Path of the Courageous Heart

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D&D, D&D 5E, Design, Review

Xanathar’s Lost Notes to Everything Else – A First Look at the Subclasses

One of the interesting innovations of the DMs Guild and Wizards of the Coast this year has been to elevate the work of a group of skilled designers. Titled the “Guild Adepts”, these designers have had early access to upcoming D&D products, and have crafted supplementary products. The latest of these releases is Xanathar’s Lost Notes to Everything Else, an 87-page pdf that covers a … Continue reading Xanathar’s Lost Notes to Everything Else – A First Look at the Subclasses

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice

Terrain of the Mind

Expanding on my recent article on how I run D&D combat without miniatures, here are a few notes on how I run terrain in that mode. It’s a different experience from using miniatures, and certain types of terrain change from being obstacles to the players to being opportunities instead. Choke Points – Doors, Archways, Corridors These are the narrow places where only one or two … Continue reading Terrain of the Mind

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Session Report, Tomb of Annihilation

Tomb of Annihilation (Return of the Lizard King) – Part 3

Did you know that bears have trouble fitting through doors? That was what we learned this session of D&D! The session began with the adventurers on their way to Eelstead, a frontier outpost in the land of Chult, where the adventurers’ guide, the lizardfolk Lungan, feared that something bad had happened. The journey to Eelstead, a 50-mile hike through the tropical jungle of Chult, would … Continue reading Tomb of Annihilation (Return of the Lizard King) – Part 3

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Session Report, Tomb of Annihilation

Tomb of Annihilation (Return of the Lizard King) – Part 2

After the adventurers arrived in Chult through a misfiring teleportation spell that had brought them via the Feywild, they were surprised to find themselves in the middle of a battle between some lizardfolk and some dinosaurs. They were even more surprised when their wizard dropped dead, as the magic that had revived him in the Feywild no longer worked. And surprise was no longer even … Continue reading Tomb of Annihilation (Return of the Lizard King) – Part 2

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice

A Quick Word on Theatre of the Mind

I run most of my Dungeons & Dragons games as Theatre of the Mind; that is, I don’t use miniatures. This does not imply that we end up using a lot of description to enliven the combats. In fact, my groups tend to be brutally efficient about most of them, except for the odd combat where we decide to put more effort into it. I … Continue reading A Quick Word on Theatre of the Mind

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Design

The Joy and Frustrations of Investigations

I’m currently writing a Convention-Created-Content adventure for premiere next year. It also happens to be an investigation. Yes, two things I’d never thought I’d do. Investigations are tremendously popular as D&D Adventurers League scenarios, but they’re very different to the D&D scenarios I grew up with. Those scenarios involved some wilderness travel and a lot of fighting monsters in a dungeon, perhaps with some interesting … Continue reading The Joy and Frustrations of Investigations

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