Category: Play Advice

D&D 5E, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Play Advice, Session Report

Ghosts of Saltmarsh: The Smugglers and the Sea Ghost

My campaign of Ghosts of Saltmarsh has been one of the most disrupted campaigns in my DDAL career. Between Magic prereleases, me getting ill, and player unavailability for various reasons, I’m rather glad that it’s only a shorter campaign of levels 1-7 (or thereabouts!) As a result, my planned session reports are going to more look at the general themes and approaches of the various … Continue reading Ghosts of Saltmarsh: The Smugglers and the Sea Ghost

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice

The Dangers of Illusions and other Versatile Magics

A few years ago, my party were trying to liberate a dwarven mine from the forces of the Scarlet Brotherhood. As they emerged from the mine, they found soldiers waiting for him. Ever quick-thinking, the wizard created the illusion of a great demon emerging from the mine behind them. Ever not quick-thinking, the paladin turned around and charged the demon, as he didn’t realise that … Continue reading The Dangers of Illusions and other Versatile Magics

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D&D 5E, Design, Play Advice, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist – Choosing the Villain

In just over a week, I’m going to start running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist as part of our regular D&D Adventurers League play at our local store. We’ll begin with a Session 0, where the players create their characters and I can set the ground rules of the campaign. I also have to make a few decisions of my own. The primary one is this: Which … Continue reading Waterdeep: Dragon Heist – Choosing the Villain

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice

Multiple Hooks, Quests and Consequences

My Greyhawk campaign has continued over the past few months with a slight difference: the players now have two characters each. One new, low-level character and the older, mid-level character (about 8th level). Each session, the players choose which character they wish to use. I have no real problem running a session for differing levels; you just need to be aware of it – and … Continue reading Multiple Hooks, Quests and Consequences

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D&D, D&D 5E, Design, Play Advice

Crafting Magic Items – and the Effect on the Campaign

Some things you learn through experience. When I first played Dungeons & Dragons, while AD&D 1st Edition was the main edition, I got very frustrated by the magic item creation rules. Too vague! The DM had to do too much work! Where do you get those ingredients anyway? I understood that crafting magic items was an important part of the magic-user’s abilities – the book … Continue reading Crafting Magic Items – and the Effect on the Campaign

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D&D, Play Advice, Session Report, Storm King's Thunder

Running Storm King’s Thunder: The Spirit Mounds

Over the past few weeks, the adventurers have recovered all the giant relics from the Uthgardt spirit mounds. This probably took us a week or two longer than I wanted, because it delays the story and a few of the mounds aren’t that interesting. In a lot of ways, this is like recovering the puzzle cubes from Omu in Tomb of Annihilation. Each spirit mound … Continue reading Running Storm King’s Thunder: The Spirit Mounds

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice

The Essential Spells for Dungeon-Delving

If you’ve ever played an old-school dungeon-delve, or a new-school death trap (see Tomb of Annihilation), you’ve likely needed a variety of spells to save you from a horrible fate. Or rather, your horrible fate would have been avoided if you’d had these spells. The current edition of D&D doesn’t require these spells to the same extent as previous editions (notably 3E), but you’re likely … Continue reading The Essential Spells for Dungeon-Delving

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