A Quick Summary of the Different Versions and Variants of the D&D Rules

1974: Original Dungeons & Dragons. Three classes (Fighting Man, Cleric and Magic-User). Relies heavily on rules in Chainmail. 1975: Supplement I: Greyhawk is published, which makes some major revisions to the rules. (The original rules pretty much only use d20s and d6s). It adds in different hit dice and weapon dice, and a lot of other things. A major change is the way it handles … Continue reading A Quick Summary of the Different Versions and Variants of the D&D Rules

5E Adventure Review: DC2 The Drow Outpost

The second adventure in Dan Hass’s Drow Conspiracy Epic is The Drow Outpost, available as a 7 page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3. This is almost certainly overpriced. After the cover and the contents, you’re left with a page of introductory text explaining the product, then two-and-a-quarter pages of adventure followed by a simple (linear) dungeon map. Incredibly, the adventure almost feels packed for a … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: DC2 The Drow Outpost

5E Adventure Review: DC1 Drow Necromancy

Dan Hass has been one of the most prolific of the 3rd-party publishers, releasing – at this point – over 25 titles for the 5E game. Although I’ve reviewed some of his early works, I haven’t been following much of his more recent work. However, he’s just released another eight titles, so I felt it was time to go and have a look at the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: DC1 Drow Necromancy

An Introduction to the Forgotten Realms: Gods of Neutrality

As I mentioned in my last article, there are a lot of gods in the Forgotten Realms. The list in the Player’s Handbook has only a few of them! This article presents five of the important gods of Neutrality. Kelemvor, Lord of the Dead Kelemvor is another mortal who became a god. The lover of Midnight (who became Mystra), he now functions as judge of … Continue reading An Introduction to the Forgotten Realms: Gods of Neutrality

5E Adventure Review: Blackstone Tomb

Blackstone Tomb is a significantly large (59 pages) adventure for first-level characters by Rowan and Doug Schultz. The adventure describes a forgotten tomb of heroes that has been desecrated by a necromancer; the necromancer was caught and killed, but his undead creations remain. The first part of the adventure sees the characters recruited to do various tasks for the soldiers who man outposts throughout the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Blackstone Tomb

5E Adventure Review: Never Ask Directions

Never Ask Directions is a short side-trek adventure for level 2-4 characters. It provides the situation of a halfling asking the players for aid against a group of bandits, which is complicated by the halfling having ulterior motives. At three encounters over 14 pages, there’s a good amount of descriptive text, and it is attractively presented. John Rossomango is a good writer, and the adventure … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Never Ask Directions

5E Adventure Review: Prison for Dragons

High-level adventures for 5E are still something of a rarity, which makes Prison for Dragons quite interesting. It’s presented as a 39-page PDF with a small font, and packs in a lot of information. The adventure is for 12th level characters and is written by James Introcaso, who makes regular appearances on The Tome Show podcast, one of the few podcasts I listen to. The … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Prison for Dragons

D&D Player’s Handbook Errata and Unarmed Strike

The first set of errata for the D&D Player’s Handbook is now available! And there are quite a few clarifications that might affect things. And there’s also a couple of pieces of errata that make things a little more confusing. Let’s look at that errata… to Unarmed Strike. Unarmed Strike errata The changes are as follows: Weapons (p. 149). Unarmed strike doesn’t belong on the Weapons … Continue reading D&D Player’s Handbook Errata and Unarmed Strike

The Rise of Tiamat, session 12 (finale)

The Well of Dragons. 1489 DR. The armies of the Sword Coast had reached the Well of Dragons, and the evil dragons and the forces of the Cult of the Dragon had risen to oppose them. As the battle commenced, word came from the mages of the Harpers and Emerald Enclave: the Cult had begun the ritual to summon Tiamat to the Realms. At this … Continue reading The Rise of Tiamat, session 12 (finale)