In the World of Greyhawk, there’s a kingdom ruled by an evil demigod. The kingdom and the demigod have the same name: Iuz. In the past 20 years, I’ve run a lot of campaigns set in Greyhawk, and we’ve often flirted with the idea of dealing with the threat of Iuz. His priests and orcs have popped up every so often, but they’ve never been … Continue reading Player Choices: Into the Land of Iuz
One aspect I didn’t touch on in my first article about hit points was the rate of natural healing. For those of you who began with the current edition, it didn’t work the same way. It was slower. In Original Dungeons & Dragons the rate of healing was one hit point per day, except for the first day when no hit points were restored. This … Continue reading Hit Points Through the Editions, part 2
In the beginning, there was Chainmail. And, in Chainmail, characters were either alive or dead. A single hit was enough to kill most characters. However, this was a miniature game, and a single player controlled many characters. Well, figures or models. The more powerful characters, such as the Hero or the Superhero required several simultaneous hits to kill. A Hero required four regular men to … Continue reading Hit Points Through the Editions, part 1
There’s one feature of Dungeons & Dragons adventures that anyone who runs the game quickly comes to learn: Adventures are incomplete. Not just incomplete in the sense of “add players and a Dungeon Master”, but incomplete in the sense of “this adventure is missing important things I need to run it!” Sadly, it’s our lot in life to have incomplete adventures. The fact is that … Continue reading The Incomplete Adventure
Parnast Under Siege is the final part of the Tier 1 storyline of Storm King’s Thunder for the D&D Adventurers League. After several previous adventures leading up to this part, the adventurers must defend Parnast against the Bad Fruul’s attack on the town. It does this with a spectacular conclusion, where the party are set against wave after wave of fearsome opponents. If you’re playing … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Parnast Under Siege
Mirrored Thrones is an adventure set in the city of Neverwinter, where a group of brave rebels attempt to overthrow the tyrannous Lord Neverember. Or perhaps they’re just supporting a pretender to the throne. In any case, the adventurers soon find themselves in the midst of a revolution, probably little the wiser as to why they’re involved. This is a tremendously innovative adventure, which uses … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review – Mirrored Thrones
I run a lot of published adventures. I’ve run most of the official D&D adventures, most of the D&D Adventurers League adventures, and a few adventures I’ve acquired from other publishers. And one thing happens to me again and again: A player asks a question, and although I know it’s somewhere in the adventure, I don’t know the answer. This is incredibly common. D&D adventures … Continue reading Dungeon Mastering Tips: Hey! That wasn’t in the adventure!
There are people in this world who are great at role-playing NPCs. They imbue the characters they assume with passion, vitality and bring forth the true essence of their personalities. That’s not me. I do funny voices and occasionally remember the voice I should be using two sessions in a row, so players can get familiar with the character’s portrayal. The fact is that most … Continue reading Dungeon Master Tips: Funny Voices and Roleplaying NPCs
The Scroll Thief, the sixth adventure of the first season of the D&D Adventurers League, is a curiosity: an investigative adventure that fails to have an investigation! It’s probably fairer to say that The Scroll Thief is a dungeon crawl that happens to have an investigation attached, but, in either case, the investigation feels odd. The adventurers are sent to interview three people from whom … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Scroll Thief
In Dungeons & Dragons, there are many times you don’t want the monsters to see you. The rules for hiding are written deliberately to leave a lot of power in the hands of the Dungeon Master. Basically, if the DM thinks the situation warrants that you can hide, you can make the check. Otherwise you can’t. This is one of the areas where Passive Perception … Continue reading Examining Passive Perception and Opposed Checks
