For the first time in a very long time, I’m running an AD&D (1st edition) campaign again. I almost wasn’t. I expected I might be running some players who were playing in D&D Encounters but who were new to D&D in general, so running both AD&D and D&D 4E for them might prove confusing, but on the day I just threw the AD&D books in … Continue reading AD&D – The Frost Queen
Well, I now have most of the core of Pathfinder sitting on my shelf: the Core Book, the first Bestiary (the second is ordered but not in stock at MilSims), the Games Mastery Guide, and the Advanced Player’s Guide. Next to that is 40 Adventure Path modules, and sitting on the floor wanting a place to stay is the Paizo Beginner’s Box. What I’ll do … Continue reading Pathfinder and Paranoia
The Jade Regent adventure path tells the story of Ameiko, lost heir to the Minkai Empire, and her travels to regain her birthright. The players take the roles of her companions as they overcome the challenges that stand between her and the throne. They are opposed by the current holders of the Empire – the Five Storms, a group of Oni who just need to … Continue reading Pathfinder: Night of the Frozen Shadows review
My reviews of old AD&D adventures have recently hit writer’s block, and that writer’s block has been caused by this adventure. Regarded as one of the classic AD&D adventures, The Ghost Tower of Inverness is a very strange module that is the second of the Competition series. In addition to the scenario, it also contained pregenerated characters and rules for scoring if you actually want to run … Continue reading Review of C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness
Curse of the Chthonians is an scenario pack for Call of Cthulhu of four adventures. This is a review of Thoth’s Dagger, the third adventure in the pack, which I recently ran. The adventure reads well, with its plot revolving around the eponymous dagger which the characters first encounter at an auction in the United States. Misfortune and curses follow the dagger – and one of the … Continue reading Review of Thoth’s Dagger (from Call of the Chthonians)
It is fair to say that the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has had a few problems with magic items. After the excesses of 3E, where a character needed about 10 magic items just to keep up (and for them to be continually increasing in value), the designers pared down that list to just three (armour, amulet and weapon) and then depreciated the effectiveness … Continue reading Review of Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium
Unfortunately, it seems very likely that the D&D Sunday campaign will be on indefinite hiatus. Well, we finished the campaign, so perhaps hiatus isn’t the right word, but due to a lack of players, it won’t be continuing on Sundays. Instead, I’ll be starting up a campaign on Saturday evenings (7pm-11pm), running 3 weeks of every 4. (On the 4th week, I’ll be running Lair … Continue reading Upcoming D&D campaign
I’ve spent part of yesterday and today creating D&D characters for the new season of D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave. We had 10 people turn up for our Saturday “Let’s Create Characters” session, and through a not-the-most-well-thought-out procedure I’ve ever enacted (we didn’t think about it at all), we first got them to name the two roles they’d like to play most; then the … Continue reading Creating Encounters Characters
When D&D 4th edition was announced, one of the things that really drew me to the new edition was the description of the Feywild: a magical land based on our tales of Faerie. It has taken a long time, but with Heroes of the Feywild, the D&D design team has finally turned their attention fully towards the Feywild. The result was worth the wait: this … Continue reading Heroes of the Feywild review – A marvellous book for D&D 4E
The D&D Encounters campaigns have had a rocky history in our town. We started off when they began, and wandered between one and two tables a week. Then came Christmas of 2010, and everyone disappeared. Not just for the holiday season, but for several months after that. This so depressed me that I stopped running D&D Encounters for a while. I’d run the first half … Continue reading My strangest D&D Encounters session
