Category: Uncategorized

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Tales from the Yawning Portal – Adventure Retrospectives

Wizards of the Coast have announced their first product of 2017. It’s a compilation of seven previous-published adventures, updated and revised for the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Its name? Tales from the Yawning Portal. I’ve had the pleasure of playing or dungeon-mastering all seven of the adventures that will be released in this product, so it seems appropriate to do something extremely unusual: … Continue reading Tales from the Yawning Portal – Adventure Retrospectives

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D&D 5E, Play Advice, Uncategorized

Rules Spotlight: Surprise and the Assassin

The rules for the Assassin (a Roguish archetype) in the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons include an extremely powerful ability: Assassinate. It’s the signature ability of the class, and it can be very effective. A reminder of what it does: You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score … Continue reading Rules Spotlight: Surprise and the Assassin

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D&D, D&D 3E, D&D 5E, Design, Pathfinder, Uncategorized

Musings on Adventure Path Structure

When 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons was released, it also gained a series of eight adventures that took a group of adventurers from levels 1 to 20. Starting with the Sunless Citadel and continuing through to Bastion of Broken Souls, it demonstrated something that previous editions hadn’t provided: a complete “Adventure Path” series that went the full range of levels. However, players only familiar with … Continue reading Musings on Adventure Path Structure

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

Old School, New School: Thoughts on Adjusting D&D

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for a very long time. Not for as long as some out there, but for most of my life. I’m not entirely sure which year I began, it’s been so long. It’s somewhere in the range of 1982 to 1984, however. Which means I’ve been playing for over 32 years now – three-quarters of my life! And there’s still … Continue reading Old School, New School: Thoughts on Adjusting D&D

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D&D, D&D 5E, Review, Uncategorized

5E Adventure Review: The Assimilation Strain

A few months ago, Legendary Games ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund a series of fantasy/science fiction-hybrid adventures. The first of these adventures, The Assimilation Strain, is now available for both Pathfinder and D&D 5E. The basic plot of the adventure is that the players arrive in a town that has been the subject of alien experimentation – a hidden alien has infected most of … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Assimilation Strain

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice, Uncategorized, Wilderness

Entering the Wilderness: Going Gridless

The release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set in 1987 marked a significant point in how wilderness maps were handled at TSR. Instead of providing a map overlaid with hexes, as had been the case in the World of Greyhawk sets, the poster maps of the new boxed sets were unadorned with any such marks. Instead, they just showed the land of the Realms. Included … Continue reading Entering the Wilderness: Going Gridless

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D&D, D&D 5E, Review, Uncategorized

5E Adventure Review: Adventure Shorts, Volume Three

The third volume of R&D Adventures Adventure Shorts provides five encounters that can be used in an ongoing campaign; they’re a bit too short to use as the basis of an entire session, and just running the five “shorts” one after another is likely to provide a very disjointed game, but they work well as side-treks to drop into or between adventures. They’re well-written and … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Adventure Shorts, Volume Three

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AD&D, D&D, Review, Uncategorized

Adventure Review – N2: The Forest Oracle

There are certain adventures that are not regarded well in the community. Some are quite decent adventures that, nonetheless, are written in a style that doesn’t match the tastes of the time. Others are just plain bad. The view of the community on what makes a good adventure can change over time. And sometimes an event takes place that brings an otherwise forgotten adventure to … Continue reading Adventure Review – N2: The Forest Oracle

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D&D, D&D 5E, Primeval Thule, Review, Uncategorized

5E Adventure Review: The Watchers of Meng

What do you get if a party of adventurers meets a brave, independent woman in a ruined city holding a great treasure guarded by unnatural beasts? Well, it’s possible you have a Conan adventure, but it’s also possible you have Robert J. Schwalb’s adventure, The Watchers of Meng, written for the Primeval Thule campaign setting, but playable in many other D&D worlds. The chief NPC … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Watchers of Meng

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D&D 5E, Primeval Thule, Review, Uncategorized

5E Adventure Review: Red Chains

Red Chains is the first 5E adventure designed for the Primeval Thule campaign setting. Its author is Steve Winter, who knows a thing or two about RPG design, having spent a very long time working for TSR and Wizards of the Coast. In this adventure, a party of 4th to 6th level characters is sent on a quest to rescue the son of a barbarian … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Red Chains

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