Well, it’s finally that time when we learn a little more about the D&D books that are coming out. I was updating this site a couple of days ago, refreshing the Amazon links to the side, and was tremendously surprised to find there were no upcoming books on Amazon. But today, there is news – mostly about their prices and release dates! It’s hard to … Continue reading Thoughts on the Upcoming D&D Releases
We began our campaign of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on Monday, May 22nd, 2023. In what was a 2½-hour session, we played through the first half of Chapter 3, with the characters advancing from level 2 to level 3. And we also had a lot of fun. This campaign is being played on Roll20. I’ve purchased the adventure on Roll20 (which has the nice … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, Session 1
How many people are actually playtesting the new D&D rules? One of the weird things about the process is that, for many people, perhaps even most people, the old rules work just fine. So, the impetus of throwing a changing set of playtest rules into their games is not the most appealing. It’s a completely different state of affairs than with the D&D Next playtest, … Continue reading D&D Playtest Unthoughts
Beginning this Monday, we’ll be starting our play through of Shadow of the Dragon Queen. For those unaware of the adventure, it was released in December 2022, and is the first official adventure in a long time to be set in the Dragonlance setting. I delighted in the original Dragonlance novels and adventures, so exploring the new take on the story is exciting for me … Continue reading Preparing for Shadow of the Dragon Queen
The Haunting of Hargrave House is a D&D 5E one-shot horror adventure for up to six level 3 pre-generated characters. Yes, you’ve got that right: pre-generated characters. The main conceit of this adventure requires them. Normally when reviewing adventures, I give an overview of the story and happily spoil many areas of the plot. This time? I’m not going to do that. Because the chance … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Haunting of Hargrave House
In recent weeks, I have been running my players through the Ruins of Gauntlight, the first of three adventures in the Abomination Vaults adventure path. Yes, I’ve been running Pathfinder 2nd edition. (My ongoing D&D 5E World of Greyhawk campaign also continues). The Abomination Vaults is of special interest to D&D players, as Paizo intend to release a version for 5E at some point. As … Continue reading Pathfinder 2 Impressions: Ruins of Gauntlight
Dragons of Mystery (DL5) describes itself as an Official Game Accessory. It is one of the most unusual releases from TSR: a 32-page sourcebook for the Dragonlance series of adventures. It is also a product I love dearly, flawed though it is. The Dragonlance series was TSR’s first attempt to tell a major narrative adventure path. At the time of the release of Dragons of … Continue reading AD&D Review: Dragons of Mystery
For the first time in a while (almost two years), I’ve been updating my list of D&D 5E adventures – https://merricb.com/dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures-by-level/ It’s always an interesting endeavour. Many of the DMs Guild entries tagged as “Adventure” don’t make this list. Mainly because (a) they’re for Roll20/Fantasy Grounds and they have a separate PDF entry or (b) they’re part of a bundle. (In which case, they should … Continue reading Updating Adventure Lists
If you’re writing a D&D adventure, one of the things you’re probably not thinking about is “Are the characters using flying in this adventure”. Unless you’re doing an adventure for your home group, and you know they will be. Most of the times when you buy a published adventure, it also doesn’t consider “do the characters fly?” What effect does that have on the adventure? … Continue reading The Perils of Flying and Adventure Design
Dungeons & Dragons 5E reduced the number of conditions in the game significantly. Pathfinder 2 did not. What this allows the game to do is more varied in the effects that spells, attacks, poisons, curses, diseases, potions, and other phenomena have. However, it also puts on a fairly hefty burden on players and GM to keep track of everything. Honestly, I’m not sure how easy … Continue reading Pathfinder 2 Condition Chaos
