D&D 5E, Review

5E Adventure Review: From Ancient Grudge

The theme of star-crossed lovers inspires this tale of woe by Richard Jensen-Parkes. From Ancient Grudge is an adventure for character levels 4-5, which sets the adventurers the task of investigating a haunted mansion and putting the souls of two cursed lovers to rest. It’s a very well-constructed adventure, which should provide a session or two of entertainment for your players. The structure is relatively … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: From Ancient Grudge

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

5E Adventure Review: Return of the Lizard King

Shawn Merwin’s Return of the Lizard King is an adventure for levels 1-4 characters that provide an alternative opening for Tomb of Annihilation. It has no relationship to Tomb of the Lizard King, a 1E adventure by Mark Acres. The adventure starts in an unusual place: a misfiring teleport spell takes the adventurers to the Feywild. There, they discover the realm under the effect of … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Return of the Lizard King

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D&D, Play Advice

Dungeon Master Tips: Backgrounds and Adventure Ideas

Player character backgrounds don’t do much if they stay in the player’s possession and you don’t see them. That’s the way of many, many campaigns – certainly most of mine. The players come up with backgrounds for their characters, and they rarely see play. The construction of many D&D campaigns relies on the main story being presented by the DM. The DM offers adventure opportunities … Continue reading Dungeon Master Tips: Backgrounds and Adventure Ideas

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D&D, Kickstarter

A Couple of RPG Kickstarters

A few people have decided that the best way of funding their RPG projects is to go to kickstarter. People like James Introcaso and Johnn Four. They’ve got a full sandbox, hexcrawl campaign covering levels 1 to 20 to release. It’s written, they just need funds for art. It’s called The Demonplague. Mike Shea’s book of advice for Dungeon Masters is also getting a new … Continue reading A Couple of RPG Kickstarters

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D&D 5E, Review

5E Adventure Review: The Gleaming Cloud Citadel

In The Gleaming Cloud Citadel, the adventurers need to find the Archmage of the eponymous mage academy. He’s ensconced in his tower, and his fellow mages are worried about him; they hire the adventurers to find out what’s wrong. Unfortunately for the adventurers, not all the wizards see eye-to-eye on this, so the adventurers must deal with competing wizards at the same time while also … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Gleaming Cloud Citadel

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice

The Art of DMing: Assembling the Pieces (The Non-Creative DM)

This is a wonderful time to be a Dungeon Master. There’s a huge amount of material out there, interest in the game is at an all-time high, and there are all these creative Dungeon Masters out there who are sharing their techniques. Which is just as well, because I’m horrible at coming up with new monsters, spells and magic items. What makes a successful DM? … Continue reading The Art of DMing: Assembling the Pieces (The Non-Creative DM)

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D&D, D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Play Advice, Session Report

Snakes, Druids and “Oh, We’re In It, Now!”

I ran Oh, We’re In It Now on the weekend. It’s a 2-hour DDAL-legal adventure written by Luke Gygax and Thomas Valley. It’s the second time I’ve run it, and so I was much more confident about how to approach it. The adventure doesn’t use a map. The adventurers are in the middle of a lot of mazey corridors trying to find the way out. … Continue reading Snakes, Druids and “Oh, We’re In It, Now!”

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D&D 5E, Design

Adventure Design: A Word on Encounter Triggers

In Out of the Feywild (see review in the last post), there’s an encounter with an invisible pixie. The encounter says it trails the PCs invisibly unless they seem friendly. What then makes the pixie interact with the PCs? It’s a problem I’ve seen many times in adventures. The designer needs to set up a situation where the PCs have something to react to. The … Continue reading Adventure Design: A Word on Encounter Triggers

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D&D 5E, Review

5E Adventure Review: Out of the Feywild

Out of the Feywild is a short, six-page adventure by Andrew James Woodyard for characters level 3-5. It describes itself as a magical forest mystery. It can easily be played in a single sitting, although its length can be adjusted to last between two and four hours without much trouble. The basic plot is that the adventurers are travelling towards a town when they get … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Out of the Feywild

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