Adventures I don’t design for publication? They don’t need so much text! The premise? Goblins are raiding from an old keep (the upper floor is destroyed). However, the goblins are plagued by an old summoning circle in the basement, which keeps letting loose Abyssal Maws! They’ve got a deal with some ogres to keep the maws in, but they’d prefer to get rid of them … Continue reading A Home Adventure
Some things you learn through experience. When I first played Dungeons & Dragons, while AD&D 1st Edition was the main edition, I got very frustrated by the magic item creation rules. Too vague! The DM had to do too much work! Where do you get those ingredients anyway? I understood that crafting magic items was an important part of the magic-user’s abilities – the book … Continue reading Crafting Magic Items – and the Effect on the Campaign
Do you think you understand the City? Its squalid humours rising from waste, from too many; its people, great and poor? The Old City, where the unwanted live – say not, unwanted, but uncherished. From there the workers, the cleaners, the servants come, crawling from their unlit dens when the great sun rises, and the good and great require their work. From those unwashed middens, … Continue reading Sunset over Greyhawk
Cauldron of Sapphire, the penultimate Tier 4 adventure of Season 7, is a superb adventure. Robert Adducci crafted what I believe is the first regular-series DDAL adventure to get Tier 4 right – and yes, I do include my own efforts in that. (I don’t include the special Epics or Author-Only adventures, as I haven’t run those yet!) Cauldron, like my Eye of Xxiphu, mostly takes … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Cauldron of Sapphire
The Waterdeep Primer is a 24-page document compiled by Jason Hardin that introduces the reader to key facts about the City of Waterdeep, an important city in the Forgotten Realms. With the upcoming adventure season revolving around this city, this is a way to learn some lore before the official release. The primer covers the history of the city in four pages, the geography in … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Waterdeep Primer
Ghost of the Mere is an adventure for 12th-level characters, set during the time of the Tyranny of Dragons. It’s designed so it can be run as an additional quest during Rise of Tiamat. You’d benefit from owning Hoard of the Dragon Queen for information on Castle Naerytar. The adventure sets up an interesting situation where the characters are sent to stop the black dragon … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Ghost of the Mere
I recently played the first of the Star Trek Adventures organised play adventures, Decision Point. It was my first experience with the system, which meant we ignored a lot of the mechanics and concentrated on the story. The story revolved around an ethical dilemma: Do we break the Prime Directive of Starfleet (non-interference) and save some of the population of a doomed planet? Or do … Continue reading Troubles with Ethical Dilemmas
When I first played D&D, using the AD&D rules in the early 1980s, every gold you earned gave you XP, and thus gain levels. You also gained XP from killing monsters, but based on what I observed from the published adventures and comments in the Basic and Companion rules, about three-quarters of your XP would come from treasure. (Some players did away with this, but … Continue reading D&D Adventurers League Changes: Gold
If you’d like to pick a topic in D&D that has seen many varying viewpoints, try the awarding of magic items. How many? How powerful? If you read the old magazines and rulebooks, you’ll find a lot of advice about not giving out too many magic items. There were horror tales of “Monty Haul” games where everyone had vorpal swords and were slaying gods. It’s … Continue reading Changes to the D&D Adventurers League! Magic Items!
Once upon a time, players gathered around a table and delved into a dungeon. They slew and avoided monsters, and they came out with treasure. For this, they were awarded XP. Most of the XP was for the treasure they gained, but a small amount (one-fifth according to some advice) was for the slaying of monsters. In a recent session of Dungeons of Dragons, a … Continue reading The D&D Adventurers League is Changing! Don’t Panic! (Experience Points)
