I'd shown Sarah one of my new acquisitions last week, and, upon finding that it was just the two of us for Thursday-night gaming, she had to make a choice: play Space Empires again, or learn Bomber Command. As she put it, "It's the choice between a game I really like or one I don't know!" But she, like me, enjoys learning new games and … Continue reading First game of Bomber Command
I never read enough of Dragon Magazine when I was younger to be familiar with Ed Greenwood's early articles, where he gave the first hint of the Forgotten Realms. For me, the Realms properly came into being with the publication of the original boxed set in 1987, and the publication of its first books, Douglas Niles' "Moonshae" trilogy, and R.A. Salvatore's "Icewind Dale" trilogy. The … Continue reading Winter Never Ends – the Legacy of the Crystal Shard Launch Event report (part 1)
Onto Icewind Dale! Problems with couriers meant that the delivery my FLGS should have received of the Launch Event kit still hadn't arrived on the Friday before the event… yes, the one on the next day. This was something of a problem for running it. I got extremely frustrated and a quite a bit angry and vented about it on EN World and Twitter. I … Continue reading The Strange Story of the Legacy of Icewind Dale Launch Event
This weekend is the Launch Event for Legacy of the Crystal Shard, the latest season of D&D Encounters, and also the latest adventure release from Wizards of the Coast. As with Murder in Baldur's Gate, this is an adventure for 1st-3rd level characters that supports three editions: 3.5E, 4E and Next. The adventure proper has no stats in it, instead they're given in downloadable files … Continue reading Legacy of the Crystal Shard – Launch Event preview
In September, 1356, the armies of France and England once more faced off on French soil. Led by Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince of later writers), the English army were delayed by a river when the French caught up to them. What to do? Edward found a good place to defend – a hill with thorny hedges and on which he dug ditches … Continue reading Men of Iron session report – Poitiers
While Tracy Hickman was ushering in the new style of D&D adventures, Gary Gygax was still producing adventures of the whimsical, fun-house dungeon tradition. EX1: Dungeonland was originally a sub-level of the Castle Greyhawk dungeons in Gygax’s original campaign, but, with the rest of Castle Greyhawk lacking, was released on its own to be inserted into campaigns as the individual DM saw fit. As the … Continue reading Review of EX1: Dungeonland
The Desert of Desolation trilogy ends with the Lost Tomb of Martek. In it, our heroes need to find the tomb of the legendary wizard Martek in order to finally defeat the evil efreeti that has been ravaging the land. It's a suitably epic climax to the series, but it doesn't quite come off. Tracy Hickman had done a good job of incorporating both his … Continue reading Review of I5: Lost Tomb of Martek
Lords of Waterdeep is a really good game. Caylus meets Ticket to Ride. Two of the best parts of Caylus, the worker placement and the ability to construct buildings for more actions and a varied board, are married with the “ticket” mechanism, which provides structure to the game and allows new players to quickly pick up the flow of the game. And now it has … Continue reading Review of Scoundrels of Skullport
Only four players were at my table this week for Murder in Baldur's Gate: Lee was back, but Harry and Rich had other commitments. Paul's 4E table had five players. We were playing through Stage 4 of the adventure; this stage is fairly light on actual incident involving the players. The two major events were Rilsa Rael manoeuvring the garbage collectors to go on strike, … Continue reading Murder in Baldur’s Gate – The Lumber Affair
I began this session of Murder in Baldur’s Gate began with some material from the previous stage; members of the Flaming Fist harassing workmen from the Outer City. Jonas Valerian (Tim) had been in the Lower City causing trouble and so witnessed this; he and his friends persuaded the Flaming Fist to back off. This earned them a summons from Ulder Ravengard, who was impressed … Continue reading Murder in Baldur’s Gate – The Hands of Fate
