Running The Shattered Obelisk, session 3

On Monday, September 25, 2023, we played our third session of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. We were missing one of our players but continued with three characters. I didn’t tone down the encounters, thinking it would be interesting to see how it went. Interesting is certainly one word for it! The session began with the characters with Halia Thornton, having realised she was … Continue reading Running The Shattered Obelisk, session 3

Running The Shattered Obelisk, session 2

We played our second session of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, September 16, 2023. This session covered the end of Chapter 1: A Dangerous Journey, and the beginning of Chapter 2: Trouble in Phandalin. We ended our previous session with the characters defeating the Cragmaw goblins and rescuing Sildar. Which led to the fun little interaction of me describing Sildar as a … Continue reading Running The Shattered Obelisk, session 2

I hate “Just handwave it”

The game of Dungeons & Dragons runs on rules. Something I expect the designers of the game to do is respect those rules. In this case, from Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, they did not. In the original version of this room in The Lost Mine of Phandelver, there are two bandits. The revision, which keeps adding monsters to make it a more challenging … Continue reading I hate “Just handwave it”

Shadow of the Dragon Queen, sesson 7

We played our seventh session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on Monday, July 3, 2023, proceeding through Chapter 5: The Northern Wastes. At the end of the last session, the party had rescued the young human Clystran from either drowning or being eaten by giant spiders (or both!) and were now taken by him to the town of Heart’s Hollow. At present, they had … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, sesson 7

Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 6

Our fifth session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen was played on Monday, June 26, 2023. The party consisted of: These events take place at the beginning of Chapter 5: The Northern Wastes. Kalaman was in uproar. Their council had been slaughtered by Lord Soth and his undead knights, and some magic of great significance stolen from the Catacombs. The heroes were summoned before Marshal … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 6

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, session 1

My group is playing through Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk on every Monday evening. (I will get to finishing the Dragonlance reports, I promise – I just wanted to get this down while it was fresh). We are playing on Roll20 using D&D Beyond (Beyond20 integration). Skype for voice. Two players are quite experienced, the third, playing a sorcerer, not so much. An NPC … Continue reading Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, session 1

Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 5

We played the fifth session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on June 19th, 2023. These events occur during the latter portion of Chapter 4: Shadow of War. With the death of Qinh, his player rolled up a new human barbarian, Hrothkar, for the rest of the campaign. One of the real drawbacks of having only four characters is that you have much less room … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 5

Shadow of the Dragon Queen, Session 4

We played our fourth Shadow of the Dragon Queen session on June 12th, 2023. As you can see, I’m a little late getting to the report. This lateness will be a feature of the rest of these reports. As seen in our previous sessions, the Red Dragonarmy had laid waste to Vogler, a small town on the edge of the Waste, and was now getting … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, Session 4

Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 3

Our third session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen saw us start on Chapter 4, bringing the characters and refugees from Vogler to the great city of Kalaman. (I note that I am writing this report several months after the session. I’m just preparing for the final session of the campaign.) At least, it’s a great city for the villagers. Krynn is mostly devoid of … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 3

Indifferent Scenarios, Good Friends

The games I run for my home Dungeons & Dragons games vary wildly in quality. There are times when I’m just not inspired to create something exceptional. Well, okay, that’s most of the time. Getting it to “good” is a goal. However, even when I come up with very boring scenarios, we’re likely to still have a good time. And that’s the magic of Dungeons … Continue reading Indifferent Scenarios, Good Friends