It’s been a few weeks since Michael and I have been able to get together to continue our playing of Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit scenarios, but we were finally able to play S24 on Friday. The scenario is set in Krupki, Byelorussia on 28th June 1944. At this stage, the German invasion of Russia, started three years ago, had failed, and the Soviets were … Continue reading Advanced Squad Leader report: S24 Sherman Marches West
After entering in 129 Armour Classes from the SRD into my spreadsheet, I’d gotten as far as “G”, so I realised there were a *lot* of monsters in the core D&D 3E monster manual! However, it was about the same number of monsters I’d added as part of the Monstrous Compendium Annual, so I decided to create some charts from the information so far. It … Continue reading Armour Class in 3rd Edition – a first look
This isn’t a very good analysis, and is not particularly deep, but seeing as I had the book sitting on my hard-drive, I decided to have a look at the Armour Classes of creatures within… Here’s the count of Armour Classes of each number. It’s a bit odd seeing the spikes on AC 6 and AC 0, mucking up what would otherwise be a nicely-shaped … Continue reading Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume 1 – Armour Class analysis
Armour Class is one of the more unusual of Dungeon & Dragons mechanics. As far as I am aware, it is a system first used in naval miniatures games, particularly by Fletcher Pratt and Jane’s Fighting Ships. Dave Arneson designed a naval game himself which used it, and from there it passed into Dungeons & Dragons. You’ll find no actual mention of the numeric Armour … Continue reading A look at Armour Class in original D&D and First Edition AD&D
Between the Monster Manual of AD&D and the Monstrous Compendium of 2nd edition AD&D, there are ten years of the game being played. There were some notable changes in the new monster lists, with quite a few omissions due to the Angry Mothers from Heck problem that was plaguing AD&D at the time; in particular, demons and devils don’t appear in the original two Monstrous … Continue reading A Historical Look at Armour Class – Second Edition AD&D
Here’s the link: Inside the launch of the new Dungeons & Dragons with designer Mike Mearls Mike reveals a lot of fascinating information in this post, including how the starter adventure will include role-playing hooks for the pregenerated characters. Continue reading Mike Mearls reveals a lot about Dungeons & Dragons 5E to The Escapist
If you haven’t seen the latest Legends & Lore article, it would be a good idea to go and read it now. As we suspected, Wizards of the Coast are releasing a free version of D&D, which they’re calling Basic D&D. It will be distributed in a free PDF, which initially will only have the rules for character creation, but eventually will expand to allow … Continue reading D&D Basic announcement – A more Adventures-orientated D&D?
The ninth book of The Dresden Files sees Jim Butcher use his first major flashback scene of the series. It’s a technique that Butcher doesn’t use often, but it’s very effective in this case. Harry has never been the cheeriest of souls, but he’s definitely been affected by the stress of the previous tales, enough that his friends are noticing and are getting worried about … Continue reading White Night (Jim Butcher) book review
The eighth book of The Dresden Files moves back to a smaller scale after the apocalyptic trimmings of Dead Beat. The book focuses on the relationships Harry has with Murphy and with the Carpenter family, whilst Harry investigates the odd murders occurring at a horror convention. I mention in my review of Dead Beat that the Dresden books aren’t horrors; this is especially true of … Continue reading Proven Guilty (Jim Butcher) book review
The second session of Dead in Thay at Goodgames Ballarat once again had 21 people attending – 17 players, 3 DMs and me as the co-ordinating DM. This session saw the player enter the Doomvault proper, each group taking one section of the dungeon and exploring it. We began with everyone together, waking up after the explosion of the Bloodgate in the last session. The … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Dead in Thay – Session 2
