There is a style of Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I quite enjoy. It is one that does not use a campaign-long plot but instead provides a picaresque experience, with the adventurers travelling from place to place and dealing with various situations as they encounter them. It is one that is very easy to construct, especially for new DMs. The characters may be heroic, or … Continue reading Running a D&D Campaign without a Plot
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has landed! Hooray! I immediately turned to the DM section to see what it could offer me. The answer is rather mixed, but that is to be expected: I am an experienced DM who is rather set in his ways. Advice on Session Zero is not new to me, and I tend not to include puzzles in adventures I design. I … Continue reading Negotiating Desires
The Dungeons & Dragons game is built around the idea of small skirmish combats – fights with no more than a dozen combatants on each side. Of course, occasionally you have lots of opponents, but typically they are there mostly as scenery. One fireball or other area effect spell and they go down and do not trouble the characters again. One thing that the rules … Continue reading Running Chase Movement in Dungeons & Dragons
In the beginning: The original cleric class debuted in the first version of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974. There were only three classes in those days: Fighting Man (Fighter), Cleric and Magic-User (Wizard). The Thief (Rogue) came along the next year with the Greyhawk supplement. The original cleric was good at fighting but initially could not cast spells. Instead, it gained that ability at level … Continue reading The Cleric in Dungeons & Dragons
In Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, the characters are looking for the Sword of Zariel. They learned in Chapter 2 that their holyphant companion, Lulu, abandoned the sword in an alabaster castle surrounded by a red scab. In the early stages of Chapter 3, the amnesiac Lulu remembers where it is. She is wrong. After that, she has divine inspiration and points the characters to … Continue reading Running Descent into Avernus part 11: Starting the Path of Devils
I recently participated on a panel on boxed text in PAX Online. Before that, I asked some of my twitter followers questions that they had about the use of box text. We did not get to most of those questions, so I am using this article to answer them! A reminder: I am in favour of boxed text, when used well! “Would your approach to … Continue reading Boxed Text Q&A
I have recently been thinking about why I prefer using Experience Points to Milestones. There are a few reasons, and this article covers my thoughts on the benefits and problems encountered by both approaches. I do believe, very strongly, that there is no one right way, but – in the main – Experience Points are superior for my campaigns. And the reason for that derives … Continue reading Milestones and Experience Points
Something present in older forms of Dungeons & Dragons that has not survived into the current edition is the destruction of magic items by various effects the party might suffer in combat. In AD&D and original D&D, when you were hit by a fireball spell, every item you had was required to make a saving throw (with success values determined by a special Item Saving … Continue reading Destroying the Players’ Magic Items
I love dungeon delving. I also enjoy other types of campaigns, but dungeons were my first love in Dungeons & Dragons, and it is fascinating to see how players approach them. And designing dungeons is one of the parts of D&D I enjoy most. At present, I am often using a Dyson Logos map found in one of his packs on DriveThruRPG as the basis … Continue reading Dangers in the Dungeons
The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide introduced me to the concept of henchmen. They were a follower loyal to your main character and provided another character that you could control. (Good when there were fewer players!) Henchmen advanced at half rate and took a share of the treasure. But these seemed quite reasonable compared to the benefits. However, I never played in an … Continue reading Using Henchmen in Dungeons & Dragons
