AD&D, AD&D 2E, D&D, Greyhawk, Session Report

Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Tsojcanth

Following the completion of the Temple of Elemental campaign, our characters were considered heroes. The players? We were transitioning. In my case, I was becoming a student at Melbourne University. (Our DM was already there). This puts an actual date on this campaign: I began my first year in 1990. It’s worth mentioning that this was an incredibly erratically scheduled campaign. And my memory is … Continue reading Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Tsojcanth

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D&D, D&D 5E, Session Report, The Shattered Obelisk

The Shattered Obelisk, session 8

Our eighth session of The Shattered Obelisk took place on Monday, November 20, 2023. We’d had another week break as a player was moving. At the time I thought we were back for an extended run. Little did I know! A reminder of the party members at this point: With the Lost Mine and the Spider dealt with, the party returned to Phandalin to deal … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 8

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D&D, D&D Basic, Review

Basic D&D Review: The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina

In 1984, TSR released a rather unusual product: 3-D Dragon Tiles featuring The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina. What’s a Dragon Tile? It’s a relatively thin cardboard tile printed with a colour design and used to create a 3-D dungeon map. For 1984, this was a product way ahead of its time. And the technology. What TSR did with the tiles was innovative and forward-thinking. For … Continue reading Basic D&D Review: The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina

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D&D, D&D 5E, Greyhawk, Session Report

Adventures in Greyhawk: The Staff of Xan-Yae

Our second session of the Greyhawk campaign in 2024 took place on Friday, January 19. The characters are all about tenth level at this point. I was using an adventure by Troll Lord Games, The Ebon Staff, as my basis for the session. The ideas behind the adventure are fantastic, even if I have a few issues with its implementation. The characters are investigating a … Continue reading Adventures in Greyhawk: The Staff of Xan-Yae

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D&D, Roll20

Only Possible Online and other thoughts

I had a rather odd session of The Shattered Obelisk last night. As some of you may be aware, I run this campaign every Monday night. It has three players and I DM. We play online, using the Roll20 platform as our Virtual Tabletop (that’s what VTT stands for), and using Skype to talk to each other. Due to the quality of my internet connection, … Continue reading Only Possible Online and other thoughts

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D&D, D&D 5E, Session Report, The Shattered Obelisk

The Shattered Obelisk, session 7

We played our seventh session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, November 6, 2023. You may notice that this is three weeks after the last; we were about to go through an erratic patch of play. The party had obviously had a very long rest! Nothing disturbed them during their rest, and the party returned to where they left off – the cavern with the … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 7

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AD&D, D&D, Review

AD&D Review: Descent into the Depths of the Earth

Descent into the Depths of the Earth is the first of three modules in the “Descent” or “Drow” series, and the fourth of 7 modules in the special campaign series generally known as the GDQ series. First published in 1978, the adventure picks up after the end of the Giant series, with the adventurers pursuing the fleeing drow elves into a long tunnel deep under … Continue reading AD&D Review: Descent into the Depths of the Earth

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AD&D, D&D, Greyhawk

Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Elemental Evil

Although I remember the beginnings of the Elemental Evil campaign well, I don’t remember all that many of the details. Well, it was nearly 40 years ago now! It’s an odd thing revisiting my memories of this time, because I’ve read the source adventures many times since then – but at the time I was coming at them as a player. In my later revisitings … Continue reading Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Elemental Evil

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AD&D, D&D, D&D 5E, Design, Play Advice

Using (Your) Marbles – Decision Making in RPGs

I was watching Justin Alexander’s stream yesterday when one of his watchers lamented that newer players didn’t know about all the tricks used in the old days. Such as using marbles to test if a passageway sloped downwards, or a ten-foot pole to test if the passageway ahead had a pit trap in it. Justin replied that it doesn’t take much for that sort of … Continue reading Using (Your) Marbles – Decision Making in RPGs

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D&D, D&D Basic, Review

D&D Adventure Review: Drums on Fire Mountain

In 1984, the writers of TSR UK were also writing adventures for the D&D Expert line. Drums on Fire Mountain is designed for a party of five to eight characters of levels 5-8, and… oh, my God! What’s up with the cover? Yes, they actually managed to misspell Graeme Morris’s name on it. And the back cover. It appeared as “Grame”. Oh wait, you meant … Continue reading D&D Adventure Review: Drums on Fire Mountain

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