I am currently waiting eagerly for the arrival of the latest James Bond film, Skyfall at my local cinema. Unfortunately this is still a month away, thanks to the staggered distribution of these films worldwide. However, it does give me the opportunity to reflect on my history with James Bond. It’s strange, but one of my clearest memories of my childhood is not knowing who … Continue reading Thoughts on James Bond: Novels, Movies and RPG
My AD&D group, which is currently meeting once every two weeks for sessions of 2-3 hours in length, is finally out of Castle Amber (something that was missed by some of the more stalwart players). We had a new player for this session, which saw them exploring what I’m beginning to refer to as the “Ruins of Loki”. It wasn’t meant to be a megadungeon … Continue reading AD&D – Fireballing the Party
This was the tenth session of our Kingmaker campaign, and we are now half-way through the series. Well, almost: the group need to do a bunch of kingdom-building before they’re ready for the fourth adventure, but they have dealt with the major threat of the Varnhold Vanishing. Most of the session was spent exploring Vordakai’s Tomb, with one month’s worth of kingdom-building activities.The group also … Continue reading Kingmaker session 10 (Varnhold Vanishing)
Due to various other events going on, only three players were able to participate in the final session of Castle Amber: Tait, playing his 5th level fighter, Callen, playing his 4th level dwarf fighter, and Shane, playing a 6th-level magic-user. (This is far, far weaker than the party that had gone through the rest of the adventure!) The group had found the three keys that … Continue reading Finale of Castle Amber #dnd
What Came Before My Kingmaker campaign has been continuing somewhat sporadically, as various illnesses and events have been interfering. We took 4 sessions to play through Rivers Run Red, which saw the characters found their kingdom and bring it up to a 17-hex barony. Most wonderfully, they recruited a giant to be the kingdom’s headsman, and the threat of the giant keeps the loyalty of … Continue reading Vanishing in Varnhold – Kingmaker continues!
I was able to play Andean Abyss last night. Hooray! A four-player game, with none of us having played it before. However, Sarah and I have played Labyrinth several times, so we were familiar with some of the game's mechanics. The Cartels won, the Government got close. At one point, Sarah (playing FARC) pointed out that all the insurgents had reached their victory conditions. Which … Continue reading Andean Abyss: Thoughts after first game
U2: Danger at Dunwater is an ambitious adventure. The sequel to The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the players investigate the threat of the lizardmen revealed in the first module. It’s likely the characters invade their lair and slaying many of the lizardfolk, until they realise that their foes aren’t actually a threat after all! They were actually buying arms to help protect against a sahuagin … Continue reading Review of U2: Danger at Dunwater
Richard Pett first came to my attention as I was DMing the Age of Worms adventure path. His adventure, The Prince of Redhand, a role-playing heavy adventure towards the end of the path, was one of the true highlights of that series. Upon initially reading The Sixfold Trial, the second adventure in the Council of Thieves adventure path, it did not initially dawn on me … Continue reading Review of The Sixfold Trial
The final module in the “Special” series, S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, was based on a tournament adventure run at the 1976 Wintercon V tournament. Gary Gygax significantly revised the module before its publication, as the “new” monsters in 1976 had been adopted into the canon of AD&D; and thus new monsters were required to maintain the freshness of the adventure. He also added … Continue reading Review of S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
The Bastards of Erebus is the first adventure in the Council of Thieves adventure path, the first Adventure Path by Paizo written explicitly for the Pathfinder RPG; their previous four AP products having been for the 3.5e rules. It is written by Sean K. Reynolds, a long-time veteran of the RPG industry. It’s also a great disappointment. The Council of Thieves adventure path has problems … Continue reading Review of The Bastards of Erebus
