In B/X Dungeons & Dragons, the structure for an encounter with monsters goes like this: Similar procedures were used in other early editions, and elements of them appear in later editions as well. Incidentally, I’m using “monsters” in the old sense, when a “monster” is anyone the character meet, friend or foe. Let’s break down some of the aspects of this structure. Encounter Distance All … Continue reading D&D Procedures: Monster Encounters
On Friday, February 2, 2024, we got together to play the latest session of our World of Greyhawk campaign. Characters are around 10th level at this stage, and in the previous session, they’d obtained the Staff of Xan-Yae, which when taken to her holy shrine far to the west would allow the goddess to protect the Paynims against the great horde coming towards it. And, … Continue reading Adventures in Greyhawk: The Plains of the Paynims
The Golden Age of Dungeons & Dragons is over. What was the golden age? Well, I’m defining it as the time people spent the most money on the game. Which, according to my – likely inaccurate – calculations were the years 2020-2022, otherwise known as the Time of Covid, when more money was spent on gaming as a whole than of any other three-year period … Continue reading The Future of Dungeons & Dragons
We played our eleventh session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, December 18, 2023. During our last session, the group had fared very poorly in their first expedition into Zorzula’s Rest (part of Chapter 5). Simeon, the fighter of the group, had been captured. And for this session, one of our players couldn’t make it. I typically play Simeon as an NPC, so that just … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 11
D3: Vault of the Drow was released in 1978, one of the initial offerings of adventures from TSR for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. Written by Gary Gygax, this adventure is the sixth part of the seven-part Giant/Drow/Queen series. The conclusion, Queen of the Demonweb Pits would not be released until 1980. After following the retreating drow in the first two parts of the … Continue reading Classic D&D Review: Vault of the Drow
Of the classic Dungeons & Dragons campaigns of the early AD&D era, we talk about three: Temple of Elemental Evil, Scourge of the Slavelords, and Queen of the Spiders. All three were collected into three supermodules, and it had been our original plan to play through all of then and then go to the Bloodstone Pass series. Now, we finally got to the second of … Continue reading Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Slavelords
We played our tenth session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, December 11, 2023. This was our first session comprised entirely of new material, as we continued through Chapter 5: Paths of Peril. The party had found a long tunnel leading away from Phandalin that some of the goblins had used to flee, but they quickly abandoned their idea of following the tunnel when I … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 10
The second Companion Game adventure, CM2 Death’s Ride was released in 1984. Designed for level 15-20 adventurers, Garry Spiegle had a tough assignment. At this point, these were the highest levels of the game for which anyone had designed an adventure. Only Douglas Niles, with his level 15 and greater CM1 Test of the Warlords had written a similarly levelled adventure. And this was a … Continue reading Classic D&D Review: Death’s Ride
In Dungeons & Dragons, there are dungeons. And in those dungeons are doors. Doors were tremendously important in Classic D&D (the term I’ll use to describe the original, B/X and AD&D versions of the game), and I have a few thoughts I’d like to share with you about them, and how you can use them well. The basic purpose of a door is to divide … Continue reading D&D Procedures: Doors
Set in the realm of Lamordia, one of the domains of Ravenloft, The God Engine is a horror-themed adventure for level 1-2 characters, with a suggested running time of four to six hours. There is a distinct steampunk vibe to the proceedings, and it contains adult concepts. The plot concerns a fossilized elder brain which gains control of a researcher and forces him to create … Continue reading D&D 5E Review – Lamordia: The God Engine
