After the first two modules in the series, it is a pleasant surprise to consider Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords. This is a module that rather exceeds the design of what has come previously. The first part of the module is the fifth of five opening tournament rounds, and involves the heroes making their way to the Aerie through a set of … Continue reading AD&D Review – A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
Most of the current releases from third-party publishers supporting D&D 5E are conversions of existing adventures. The first release from Genius Loci, Assault on the Southern Horn, is of that sort. In this case, it’s the conversion of an adventure written for the Swords and Wizardry ruleset (which derives from the original Dungeons & Dragons and its supplements). The adventure is presented as a 21-page … Continue reading Adventure Review – Assault on the Southern Horn
This session began with our heroes having been sent to the raiders’ camp to find out who they were, how many there were, what their plans were and – if they could be bothered – to rescue a monk who had been captured by the raiders. At the end of the last session, the group destroyed the raiders’ rear guard, and then convinced the one … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, session 4
Dungeon Module A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade is the second adventure in the “Aerie of the Slavelords” series. As I mentioned in my review of the first adventure, they were originally designed as tournament adventures for GenCon XIII. This adventure consists of two parts of the first round, but (somewhat confusingly) also follows on from the other adventure which would have been taking place at … Continue reading AD&D Review – A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade
One of the bigger changes to the game in the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons concerns Armour Class. It’s function hasn’t changed: the better (higher) your Armour Class, the harder you are to hit. When an attack is made, the attacker rolls a 1d20 and adds their attack bonus; if the result equals or exceeds the target’s Armour Class, the target is hit. Although its function in … Continue reading Armour Class in Dungeons & Dragons 5E
Slave Pits of the Undercity is the first adventure in the Aerie of the Slave Lords series. This series of adventures was originally designed for the official AD&D Tournament at GenCon XIII in 1980. It was a very unusual undertaking: the first round was actually five separate adventures, each undertaken by different groups. The semi-final was a sixth adventure, and the final round was a … Continue reading AD&D Review – A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
With Dragons of Despair, TSR launched the Dragonlance property, and we moved into a new era of D&D. It’s really hard to understate how important Dragonlance is to the history of D&D. The story was told through both adventures and novels, and for the first time TSR were concentrating on telling a really big story through their products. We’d seen hints of this approach to … Continue reading Review of DL1: Dragons of Despair
Our numbers were slightly down this week from our all-time high of last week, but – at 36 players – it was still the second highest turnout in our store! It wasn’t as simple as six people couldn’t make it, though, as a couple of players who missed last week were here for this session. The fluctuating player base is one of the reasons that … Continue reading D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, session 3
Our latest session of the Friday campaign saw us continuing through Lost Mine of Phandelver. We’d ended the previous session with the group starting their explorations of Cragmaw Castle; this session saw them conclude their explorations. Harbek, Martin’s dwarf fighter, could hear movement to the south through a small passage the goblins had made through the rubble. He set up guard near the doorway to … Continue reading Goblins of the Lost Mine (Friday session 4)
I’m writing this review thirty years after UK3: The Gauntlet came out. This adventure is part two of the two-part Alderweg series. I was not particularly kind in my review of the first part of the series, The Sentinel. I did not enjoy it when I first read it back in the 80s, and I don’t particularly enjoy it today. It’s not a terrible adventure, … Continue reading AD&D Review – UK3: The Gauntlet
