Although hex-based exploration was the dominant form of wilderness exploration in the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, a few adventures used a hybrid approach that drew on dungeon design. That is, they limited the ways that players could move between encounters. Occasionally they would be hard limits – the depiction of the Underdark in Descent into the Depths of the Earth was that way … Continue reading Entering the Wilderness: Tracked Exploration
Dungeons & Dragons play is traditionally divided into three environments: Dungeon, Urban and Wilderness. Of those three, the Dungeon is by far the easiest to prepare and run. The Wilderness, on the other hand, is something I find particularly challenging to DM. The early D&D booklets suggested using the map of Outdoor Survival (an Avalon Hill boardgame) to represent the wilderness just around the dungeon, … Continue reading Entering the Wilderness: Exploration and Castles
One of the more common pieces of advice to give new Dungeon Masters (and Game Masters) these days is that they should say “Yes” to their players. This is good advice. It comes from an understanding of the creative process: that you get more interesting results when you don’t shut down the creativity of the players. At one of the sessions I ran at PAX … Continue reading DM Tips: When to Say “No”
Out of the Abyss, the new adventure from Wizards of the Coast, begins with the party as prisoners of the drow and needing to escape. Princes of the Apocalypse begins with the party sent to the region to discover a missing trade delegation. Hoard of the Dragon Queen begins with the adventurers reaching the village of Greenest to discover it under attack by the Cult … Continue reading Adventure Design Elements: Beginnings
It is fair to say that the D&D Starter Set adventure, “The Lost Mine of Phandelver”, is a good adventure. I’ve run it at least four times, and each time the players are do things the other groups haven’t done. It’s a really good introduction to the game, and it manages this by just being a fantastic adventure. There’s a lot in it for experienced … Continue reading What to play after finishing the D&D Starter Set
The third season of the D&D Adventurers League is just starting. The D&D Expeditions games this year are set around the city-state of Hillsfar, a port city on the Moonsea. The official DDAL page has a great article about the State of Hillsfar, but I thought I’d go into a little more detail about the gods that are worshipped in the city and the nearby … Continue reading An Introduction to the Forgotten Realms: Gods of Hillsfar and Elventree
It’s time for the next season of the D&D Adventurers League to begin. So, it’s a good time to review the guidelines for creating a legal character to play in the program. This character will be able to be played in any adventure of the D&D Epics, D&D Encounters or D&D Expeditions lines. All of these guidelines can be found in the D&D Adventurers League … Continue reading Creating a Rage of Demons character
The finale of Hoard of the Dragon Queen is exceptionally challenging to run. You’ve got competing factions, a big sprawling castle to explore, and a dragon! All of which means that things can go very well or very badly indeed. Each of the episodes in Hoard is really an adventure unto itself, changing up the challenges and providing different ways for the players to be … Continue reading Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, episode 8
One of the main tasks of a Dungeon Master in D&D is providing opportunities to adventure for your players. The process to create adventures can be very simple or very involved, depending on how much work you want to put into it. It’s really important to note that most published adventures contain far more information than you’d ever need for your game. I may have … Continue reading Designing a Basic Dungeon
Goblins are fun to role-play. Numerous players have discovered this as they’ve interrogated the goblins in my campaigns. Goblins know that they’re almost at the bottom of the humanoid pecking order (with only kobolds lower), and so they’re used to being bullied. They almost enjoy it. Every so often, one of the goblins decides that turning traitor is a good career move, and so starts … Continue reading All Hail the Almighty Splig!
