Last Saturday, I ran a group of players through a dungeon I’d designed, the Keep of Lost Treasures. The name of the adventure pretty much describes the purpose of the game: go into the dungeon, find as much wealth as you could get, then leave. What was unusual about the game is the system: the original Dungeons & Dragons, as described in the three booklets … Continue reading Into the Dungeon – an original D&D game
I ran Death on the Wall again last night. Death is a Season 3 Adventurers League scenario by Greg Marks, which I’ve now DMed four times and previously reviewed. This wasn’t the most memorable playing of it, except for one thing. And that was the players arguing about what to do. The situation is this: Lord Torin and his court have come to the ruined … Continue reading The Art of Planning
Attack on Coppercoil is an adventure for 1st-4th level characters set in a gnomish settlement that has been attacked by duergar slavers. The adventurers are summoned by a messenger bat to the settlement’s aid. Once they reach it, the adventurers must explore the interior of a massive tree while dealing with the gnomes’ strange contraptions and various duergar slavers. This adventure offers a lot of … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Attack on Coppercoil
Widow’s Peak is an adventure for 5th to 10th level characters set in Ravenloft. The characters are trapped in the domain of Widow’s Peak and must find a way to escape; however, the domain seeks to corrupt the characters, and the population of the town, many of whom have turned to unsavoury practices, are unlikely to be of much help. This is an evocative adventure. … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Widow’s Peak
This weekend, we’re running the first adventure of the new season: Once in Waterdeep! (Dragon Heist is coming soon!) There are some interesting surprises in store! This session is best played by new characters, although it supports level 1-4 characters. If you’d like to play D&D for the first time, this is a good one to choose. DDAL08-00 Once in Waterdeep starts 8 pm Saturday … Continue reading Adventurers League Season 8 begins at Guf Ballarat
How often do your characters rest? Where do they rest? Do your characters always fight to the death? Further to my last article on the effects that the availability of healing has on the game, I was considering how other mechanics change the flow of the game. To some extent, the mechanics are elements of the old-style dungeon explorations that I still enjoy very much … Continue reading Wandering Monsters, Pursuit and Resting
I recently ran a session of Tomb of Horrors. Not the new version from Tales from the Yawning Portal, but the old version. The AD&D first edition version. With the pregenerated characters included in the adventure. Seven players, seven heroes. In a two-hour session they reached about half-way through. The dwarven fighter began the session on 90 hit points, a very good total in those … Continue reading More Thoughts on Healing
The D&D Adventurers League is an organisation that provides a shared campaign where players can take their characters from one game to the next, playing wherever suits their fancy. The players can play any of the official D&D hardcover campaigns as part of the Adventurers League campaign, or any of the one-shot adventures that are available on the DMs Guild and tagged as AL-legal. Most … Continue reading What You Need to Know to be a Dungeon Master in the Adventurers League
I organise regular games of the D&D Adventurers League at Guf Ballarat. We use the Warhorn site to organise games – you can see the upcoming schedule there. Spaces are limited, unfortunately, so signing up in advance is advised. See below for games you can join! If you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons before, we have pregenerated characters, dice and helpful people that will explain how … Continue reading September D&D at Guf Ballarat
I had a great game of D&D tonight. We were playing Quelling the Horde, an adventure from the 3rd season of the Adventurers League by Ron Lundeen. The adventure has its flaws; the combats, in particular, are often far too difficult for a party of Tier 1 characters. It also has too much content, which is a problem when you’re trying to run a game … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Quelling the Horde
