Board Games, Review

Boardgaming Saturday: Great Western Trail, A Feast for Odin and Through the Ages

A Magic: the Gathering pre-release event meant that we couldn’t play D&D Adventurers League games on Saturday. So, instead, I played a few board-games with one of my friends. Great Western Trail This is one of my favourite games at present. We played two games on Saturday, each lasting a little under an hour. It plays very well with two to four players. With four … Continue reading Boardgaming Saturday: Great Western Trail, A Feast for Odin and Through the Ages

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D&D 3E, Design, Pathfinder

Pathfinder II – Modifier Madness

One thing that greatly irritates me about Pathfinder is the plethora of conditional modifiers. There are usually very good game-world reasons for those modifiers, but the more of them there are, the harder it gets to keep track of everything. I just noticed one of them in the latest blog entry on PF2, Secrets of Alchemy. Now, thematically this is a fantastic item. It’s very … Continue reading Pathfinder II – Modifier Madness

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Design, Pathfinder

Thoughts on Pathfinder Playtest Spells

The Paizo team put out a blog entry recently about how they’re handling spells for Pathfinder II. I though I’d say a few words on what their approach means for the game. Caveat: I’m not a fan of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This will come out in this article. I think that if you enjoy Pathfinder, you’re an excellent person who should keep playing games … Continue reading Thoughts on Pathfinder Playtest Spells

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D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Session Report, Storm King's Thunder

Running Storm King’s Thunder – Fast and Deadly Combats

My game of Storm King’s Thunder has just begun Chapter 4. Most of the session was the adventurers meeting Harshnag and travelling to the Oracle, with just the opening part of the exploration. This was a three-hour session. With breaks, we probably got in about 150 minutes of play. In that time, we had the following encounters: Meet Harshnag and aid him against 6 Hill … Continue reading Running Storm King’s Thunder – Fast and Deadly Combats

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D&D, Play Advice, RPGs

Things I learnt from Amber Diceless Roleplaying

When I was at university – so many years ago – a game was released based on the works of Roger Zelazny. Called Amber Diceless Roleplaying, it cast the player characters as the sons and daughters of an immortal, immensely powerful family, who were basically gods. The interesting thing about the game was that the characters didn’t like each other that much. The game was … Continue reading Things I learnt from Amber Diceless Roleplaying

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Review

5E Adventure Review: Demagogue

One of the tricky things to do with high-tier adventures, particularly ones for the D&D Adventurers League, is to make them feel significant enough. Demagogue, the first of the Sovereignty trilogy from Baldman Games, succeeds at this brilliantly. Bane, the God of Tyranny, has kidnapped the candidates for rulership of Phlan and has begun to indoctrinate them in his way of ruling. As this would … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Demagogue

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D&D 5E, Review

5E Adventure Review: The Mines of Chult

The Mines of Chult is a collection of nine short adventures set in – wait for it – Chult! Written by three of my favourite D&D designers, Shawn Merwin, Tony Petrecca and Jeff C. Stevens, the nine adventures provide challenges for your adventurers to face when they discover one of the mines hidden away in the jungle. As these mines are not described in the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Mines of Chult

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Play Advice, Storm King's Thunder

Running Storm King’s Thunder – Wilderness Encounters in Chapter 3

My current campaign of Storm King’s Thunder is run using the D&D Adventurers League rules. One of the aspects of those rules is that I can’t use milestones. XP must come from the players overcoming monsters, whether through negotiation or combat and set XP awards in the text. In the case of SKT, it’s almost entirely overcoming monsters. The little quests in the adventure don’t … Continue reading Running Storm King’s Thunder – Wilderness Encounters in Chapter 3

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D&D, Play Advice

Running Dungeons & Dragons at Conventions

As you may already know, I spent the Easter long weekend down in Melbourne, running and organising D&D Adventurers League games at the Conquest games convention. It was the first time I’d managed to get to the convention since the early 1990s; I’d planned to attend a couple of years ago, but an inconvenient bushfire almost destroyed our house about a month prior, but finally, … Continue reading Running Dungeons & Dragons at Conventions

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D&D

Day 3 of Conquest awaits!

Today, I’ve scheduled the following games: Sunday 9:00 am THENT01-01 Beneath the Surface Levels 1-4 Steam has been rising from ruins east of the city of Thentia for almost two tendays. Scouts and adventurers have gone to investigate, but have not returned. What might be lurking in the depths of those dark places, and will it remain there? Sunday 12:30 pm THENT01-02 Those that Dwell … Continue reading Day 3 of Conquest awaits!

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