The second section of the Tomb of Diderius has the problem most small lairs have: what happens when the party kills most of the monsters and then retreat? Are they followed by the Yuan-Ti seeking revenge? Do the Yuan-Ti just kill Varram and flee? Having monsters act intelligently when a party of adventurers makes return visits to their lair is one of the major challenges … Continue reading The Rise of Tiamat: Dealing with the Yuan-Ti
I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for a very long time. Not for as long as some out there, but for most of my life. I’m not entirely sure which year I began, it’s been so long. It’s somewhere in the range of 1982 to 1984, however. Which means I’ve been playing for over 32 years now – three-quarters of my life! And there’s still … Continue reading Old School, New School: Thoughts on Adjusting D&D
A few months ago, Legendary Games ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund a series of fantasy/science fiction-hybrid adventures. The first of these adventures, The Assimilation Strain, is now available for both Pathfinder and D&D 5E. The basic plot of the adventure is that the players arrive in a town that has been the subject of alien experimentation – a hidden alien has infected most of … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Assimilation Strain
The release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set in 1987 marked a significant point in how wilderness maps were handled at TSR. Instead of providing a map overlaid with hexes, as had been the case in the World of Greyhawk sets, the poster maps of the new boxed sets were unadorned with any such marks. Instead, they just showed the land of the Realms. Included … Continue reading Entering the Wilderness: Going Gridless
The third volume of R&D Adventures Adventure Shorts provides five encounters that can be used in an ongoing campaign; they’re a bit too short to use as the basis of an entire session, and just running the five “shorts” one after another is likely to provide a very disjointed game, but they work well as side-treks to drop into or between adventures. They’re well-written and … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Adventure Shorts, Volume Three
There are certain adventures that are not regarded well in the community. Some are quite decent adventures that, nonetheless, are written in a style that doesn’t match the tastes of the time. Others are just plain bad. The view of the community on what makes a good adventure can change over time. And sometimes an event takes place that brings an otherwise forgotten adventure to … Continue reading Adventure Review – N2: The Forest Oracle
What do you get if a party of adventurers meets a brave, independent woman in a ruined city holding a great treasure guarded by unnatural beasts? Well, it’s possible you have a Conan adventure, but it’s also possible you have Robert J. Schwalb’s adventure, The Watchers of Meng, written for the Primeval Thule campaign setting, but playable in many other D&D worlds. The chief NPC … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Watchers of Meng
Red Chains is the first 5E adventure designed for the Primeval Thule campaign setting. Its author is Steve Winter, who knows a thing or two about RPG design, having spent a very long time working for TSR and Wizards of the Coast. In this adventure, a party of 4th to 6th level characters is sent on a quest to rescue the son of a barbarian … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Red Chains
Rahasia was originally written and self-published by Tracy and Laura Hickman in 1979. Tracy took the adventure with him when he joined TSR, and it was published for the RPGA network in 1982, as RPGA1 Rahasia. A follow-up adventure, RPGA2 Black Opal Eye, also appeared that year. Finally, both parts were published together for the D&D Basic line in 1984 as B7: Rahasia. The hook … Continue reading Adventure Review – B7: Rahasia
One of my new Adventurers League players expressed interest in playing a Tiefling Warlock belonging to the Zhentarim. As he’s new to the game, I volunteered to create the character for him. This is what I came up with: Tiefling Warlock For this character sheet, I’ve left off most of the personality details, feeling they’d be filled in by the player. (At some point, I may … Continue reading A Tiefling Warlock
