One of the additions to the Dungeons & Dragons game during the 3E era was the prestige class of the Shadowdancer. They were pretty popular, and it was the goal of one of my players to become one. That led to some pretty amusing and entertaining game play. And, though the prestige class no longer exists, Monks who follow the Way of the Shadow can … Continue reading Shadow Dancers in the World of Greyhawk
Two major groups of foes that have been in Dungeons & Dragons since the very early days are Devils and Demons, beloved by Dungeon Masters because they provide actual danger for high-level characters that many, more mundane, foes do not. In the original version of D&D, only demons appeared. Why was that? Well, it has a lot to do with the original form of alignment, … Continue reading On Devils and Demons
This encounter can be used in any dungeon where you might find it amusing – probably level 5 or higher. I originally used it as part of a dungeon where the players were chasing a vampire. Unfortunately, the vampire had a couple of tricks up his sleeve… The Vampire Crypt Read or paraphrase the following to the players: A thirty-foot square stone chamber is behind … Continue reading D&D Encounter: The Vampire Crypt
Last weekend, I managed to panic members of my Call of Cthulhu table. During the Christmas period, we’re not running D&D Adventurers League games as normal, as people (and DMs) are away, but we’re instead running any old game that amuses the available DMs. Which means that I’m running Call of Cthulhu, Josh is running D&D: Acquisitions Incorporated, and Fynn is running Star Wars (the … Continue reading Panicked Players and Planning
My ongoing Greyhawk campaign has spent many weeks (months) running through Courts of the Shadow Fey, an adventure by Wolfgang Baur originally written for a previous edition of the system, and since then released for other rule sets. I’m using the 5E version, which follows Kobold Press’s strategy of making the monsters a bit more dangerous than you might expect from their Challenge Ratings. The … Continue reading Tales from the Courts of the Shadow Fey
Almost everything you think you know about history is probably wrong (or at least staggeringly incomplete). At least, that’s the impression I’m getting as I spend more time learning about aspects of our history. Even if you know some of the bigger points – that there was a American Civil War, that there was a battle at Bull Run, and so forth – you’re probably … Continue reading History and Dungeons & Dragons
The Tier 1 adventures of Season 9 of the D&D Adventurers League conclude with M.T. Black’s The Day of the Devil, a little romp in Baldur’s Gate about cultists, murders and – gasp! – devils! The adventure has a 2+2 structure, that is, a two-hour adventure with two one-hour bonus objectives, and comes as close as any adventure I’ve run to presenting this satisfactorily. It … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Day of the Devil
Salvage Operation is, in essence, a simple little adventure until the final act. You explore an unusual dungeon – a wrecked ship! – fighting the foes aboard, until you reach your objective: a treasure in the hold. The tricky bit about the adventure is running the final section, where your group needs to escape with the treasure! Your players may want to discover what happened … Continue reading Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Salvage Operation
Dead Canaries is a DDAL-legal CCC adventure for level 11-16 characters, in which the characters must reintegrate the mind of a wizard who has gone slightly mad as a result of meddling with “tar stones”, magical rocks first seen in the first of this trilogy, Weakness of Rock. The adventure mostly stands alone, and you can play it without the others of the trilogy and … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Dead Canaries
I’ve recently run a couple of D&D adventures that were just one combat after another. There have been times in my life when I’ve found that really fun – the interaction of tactical decisions, character building and fortune (dice!) that makes D&D combat so interesting. Hey, I might even enjoy it next week! But these times I wanted something more, and it would have been … Continue reading More Than Just Combat
