Bards are charismatic. Bards are skilful. Bards get to talk to everyone! Here are a few notes on how to play them effectively at first level. What is the Bard best at? The bard is the best at inspiring other characters to perform well. They also are good with a range of weapons, can cast spells, and choose to be good with any skill in … Continue reading Playing a First Level Bard
I ran Oh, We’re In It Now on the weekend. It’s a 2-hour DDAL-legal adventure written by Luke Gygax and Thomas Valley. It’s the second time I’ve run it, and so I was much more confident about how to approach it. The adventure doesn’t use a map. The adventurers are in the middle of a lot of mazey corridors trying to find the way out. … Continue reading Snakes, Druids and “Oh, We’re In It, Now!”
In my experience, a lot of D&D combat takes place around doorways, certainly if the players have played a lot of the game. Why would you want to go into a room? The DM has probably filled it with lots of traps to get you the moment you go in, and monsters are waiting to surround you at a moment’s notice. Far better to stay … Continue reading The Joy of Doorways
Barbarians are tough. Barbarians are strong. Barbarians are incredibly fun to play. Here are a few notes on how to play them effectively at first level. What is the Barbarian best at? The barbarian does the most damage of any first-level character with two-handed weapons. They need to be raging while doing so, but even the fighter doesn’t deal as much damage. Barbarians are the … Continue reading Playing a First Level Barbarian
For the last few weeks, we’ve been exploring Omu, the Forbidden City of Tomb of Annihilation. We haven’t finished yet, and it’s likely to take a few more sessions before we do. At this point in the story, the players know that the Soulmonger is in Omu, but not exactly where. During the initial exploration of the city, I was aiming for a real sense … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation: Entering Omu
There’s a lot of wilderness in Chult. You’re likely to become very familiar with it in the early levels of Tomb of Annihilation, as the adventurers search for clues. It’s easy to become distracted by the rules given on the adventure: Roll three times each day to see if an encounter occurs, then determine what it is. The problem with this is that it eats … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation: More on Wilderness Adventures
One of the more fascinating mechanics of the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the concentration mechanic. For those not familiar with the mechanic, it creates a limitation on how many spell effects can be used at once. Each caster may only concentrate on one spell with a duration of concentration; thus, there is no way that a caster could maintain both a fly … Continue reading When Concentration Fails
When we left our brave adventurers, they were in the middle of the Valley of Dread and needed to make their way to Port Nyanzaru, many hundreds of miles to the north. Welcome to the part of Tomb of Annihilation that I like the least, and had hoped to avoid completely by running Return of the Lizard King. Guess not, huh? For those unaware of … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation, Part 5: Hexcrawling
I’ve now been running D&D Adventurers League games at my local store for a little over three years, since the release of 5E – which is how long the program been in existence. We run two nights a week, and have two separate types of play: Campaign games, where the same group of players play through one of the Hardcover Adventures released by Wizards of … Continue reading D&D Adventurers League: Challenges when Scheduling for New Players
Expanding on my recent article on how I run D&D combat without miniatures, here are a few notes on how I run terrain in that mode. It’s a different experience from using miniatures, and certain types of terrain change from being obstacles to the players to being opportunities instead. Choke Points – Doors, Archways, Corridors These are the narrow places where only one or two … Continue reading Terrain of the Mind
