The best thing about Those That Came Before, the second part of the Rot from Within trilogy by Alan Patrick, is the copious advice he gives on how to run it and, even better, his notes on the philosophy behind the adventure. This is an adventure for high-level characters. It contains scaling notes for Tier 3 and Tier 4 play. At those levels, designing combats … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Those That Came Before
Xanathar’s Lost Notes to Everything Else is a release from the DM Guild’s Adepts that contains a wealth of additional options for your D&D campaign. In a previous post, I had a quick look at the new class options. It’s very hard to evaluate class options without testing them in play, but my initial impressions were mixed. As with the Wizards official release, Xanathar’s Guide … Continue reading Xanathar’s Lost Notes to Everything Else – A look at the Dungeon Master Options
One of the more fascinating mechanics of the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the concentration mechanic. For those not familiar with the mechanic, it creates a limitation on how many spell effects can be used at once. Each caster may only concentrate on one spell with a duration of concentration; thus, there is no way that a caster could maintain both a fly … Continue reading When Concentration Fails
When we left our brave adventurers, they were in the middle of the Valley of Dread and needed to make their way to Port Nyanzaru, many hundreds of miles to the north. Welcome to the part of Tomb of Annihilation that I like the least, and had hoped to avoid completely by running Return of the Lizard King. Guess not, huh? For those unaware of … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation, Part 5: Hexcrawling
I’ve now been running D&D Adventurers League games at my local store for a little over three years, since the release of 5E – which is how long the program been in existence. We run two nights a week, and have two separate types of play: Campaign games, where the same group of players play through one of the Hardcover Adventures released by Wizards of … Continue reading D&D Adventurers League: Challenges when Scheduling for New Players
When you design a dungeon, do you put in rooms with no monsters or traps? I do. Apart from anything else, they provide space that prevent every monster in the dungeon learning that there are adventurers present and converging on them for one mass battle. That’s amusing. But only once. However, an empty room shouldn’t be entirely empty. Each “empty” room is the opportunity to … Continue reading Designing Dungeons: Empty Rooms
We’d reached the climax of the Return of the Lizard King, as the adventurers braved the ancient ziggurat wherein dwelled the Lizard King who had raised up the Akabkan lizardfolk against the other races of Chult. The adventurers were guided by a yuan-ti pureblood, Salida, who opposed the Lizard King, though for reasons of her own; she wasn’t entirely trustworthy. The Akabkan tribe were gathered … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation (Return of the Lizard King) – Part 4
It’s Friday night, and I’m at home not playing an RPG. This feels odd. The reason I’m not playing an RPG is that the hosts of our Friday Night RPG sessions, Martin and Peggy, have wandered off to another part of Australia. Typically, we alternate weeks between two RPGs. I DM my 5E D&D Greyhawk game one week, and Martin DM’s another RPG the other … Continue reading Thoughts on Campaign Structure
Shadow of the Demon Lord (SotDL) is a brilliant game, which has seen a lot of love around my table. Take a ruleset that has elements of D&D, throw in inspired mechanics to aid the playing of mini-campaigns and add a fallen world, and you’ve got something that is tremendously fun. And more than a little creepy. Jerry LaNeave’s adventure He Sees You When You’re … Continue reading SotDL Adventure Review: He Sees You When You’re Sleeping
Richard Malena-Webber’s supplement The Monologue Mechanic is a fascinating work. It starts from the premise that villainous monologues to player characters form an important part of the structure of D&D and other RPGs, and then awards benefits when the players listen to the monologue instead of attacking the moment they see the villain! To do this, it also introduces the idea of fame, as promulgated … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: The Monologue Mechanic
