How many people are actually playtesting the new D&D rules? One of the weird things about the process is that, for many people, perhaps even most people, the old rules work just fine. So, the impetus of throwing a changing set of playtest rules into their games is not the most appealing. It’s a completely different state of affairs than with the D&D Next playtest, … Continue reading D&D Playtest Unthoughts
Beginning this Monday, we’ll be starting our play through of Shadow of the Dragon Queen. For those unaware of the adventure, it was released in December 2022, and is the first official adventure in a long time to be set in the Dragonlance setting. I delighted in the original Dragonlance novels and adventures, so exploring the new take on the story is exciting for me … Continue reading Preparing for Shadow of the Dragon Queen
The Haunting of Hargrave House is a D&D 5E one-shot horror adventure for up to six level 3 pre-generated characters. Yes, you’ve got that right: pre-generated characters. The main conceit of this adventure requires them. Normally when reviewing adventures, I give an overview of the story and happily spoil many areas of the plot. This time? I’m not going to do that. Because the chance … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Haunting of Hargrave House
Dragons of Mystery (DL5) describes itself as an Official Game Accessory. It is one of the most unusual releases from TSR: a 32-page sourcebook for the Dragonlance series of adventures. It is also a product I love dearly, flawed though it is. The Dragonlance series was TSR’s first attempt to tell a major narrative adventure path. At the time of the release of Dragons of … Continue reading AD&D Review: Dragons of Mystery
For the first time in a while (almost two years), I’ve been updating my list of D&D 5E adventures – https://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/ It’s always an interesting endeavour. Many of the DMs Guild entries tagged as “Adventure” don’t make this list. Mainly because (a) they’re for Roll20/Fantasy Grounds and they have a separate PDF entry or (b) they’re part of a bundle. (In which case, they should … Continue reading Updating Adventure Lists
I dread hearing as a DM that one of the players is going to go off on their own and try something. This isn’t because it’s hard to run their actions – this will rarely be the case. But it’s because it suddenly turns the game from a group endeavour into something where we’ve got players waiting around for others to finish what they’re doing. … Continue reading Going it alone
Area 1. Entrance Chamber (30 ft. square) Stone steps lead down from the ruins above to this chamber. An iron door, scratched and dented, stands in the middle of the opposite wall. The floor is likewise scratched and scored, and dried blood covers a lot of it. In the corners of the room, broken crossbow bolts and bits of metal rust away. The gnomes and … Continue reading Dungeon 23: Area 1 – Entrance Chamber
I am very fond of wandering monsters. This is partly due to me still running large dungeon complexes, but I also use them in wilderness adventures to break up the play and provide moments of unscripted action. The original version of wandering monsters in the dungeon was a check every 10 minutes, with a 1 on a 1d6 roll indicating monsters encountered by the party. … Continue reading The Joy of Wandering Monsters
The exploration of the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk continued today with more of the labyrinth level (taken from Castle of the Mad Archmage). This is not a well-designed level. It’s way, way too big, only has a few monsters, and most of those are weak. The minotaurs are good – but the party, even after several sessions, hasn’t found any. Too big, too diffuse… and … Continue reading Four Encounters
Just a quick note: I really hate poor rules writing. I’m okay with rules that are intentionally left vague so the DM can fill in the blanks. I am not okay with rules that are contradictory. Here is the text of the new Hide action from the October playtest package (Expert Classes): With the Hide Action, you try to conceal yourself. To do so, you … Continue reading Hide in 6E playtest – How not to word something
