We’ve started running Tomb of Annihilation! Well, sort of! The first session of the campaign was what is occasionally referred to as a “Session 0”. It’s a session where the players create their characters, and everyone works out how they know each other, why they’re on the adventure, and the DM gets to discover what plot hooks will work best with the party. With Tomb … Continue reading Running Tomb of Annihilation – Session 0
I used the new Dungeon Master’s Screen (Reincarnated!) the other day. I referred to it about as much as I usually do – I looked at it once to find the distance a group of monsters started away from the party. But that was it. It wasn’t always that way. Back when I was playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (first edition), I referred to my … Continue reading Tales of the Screen
As your players get more experienced, they get very good at destroying the monsters you set in front of them. Unless it’s a surprise attack, players are great at identifying the main targets and using their swords and spells to take them out with brutal efficiency. Had you an ettin as the main monster of the combat? Unfortunately, it didn’t get even one chance to … Continue reading Dungeon Master Tips: The Power of a Second Wave
Tomb of Annihilation is a big book, isn’t it? It feels really heavy. I mean, it should weigh about the same as Storm King’s Thunder, but for some reason it feels heavier to me. Guess what I start running this Saturday? I tend not to overprepare published adventures; giving them an examination to understand the underlying structure and then examine various encounters with more detail … Continue reading Preparing for Tomb of Annihilation
Ruins of Matolo: Discovery is a short adventure by Cindy Moore for 5th-level characters. It is one of the initial Guild Adept releases on the DMs Guild. The adventure sends the characters into the jungle of Chult to discover the fate of a recent expedition of Order of the Gauntlet troops. As one might expect, undead are involved, and the characters will need to track them … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review – Ruins of Matolo: Discovery
The new Guild Adepts program from Wizards of the Coast and the DMs Guild has seen a few interesting products released to support Tomb of Annihilation. In the coming weeks, I’ll take a look at each of these products, but I decided to start with Cellar of Death (also known as Cellar of DEEEEAAAATTTTHHHH!), a short adventure by James Introcaso that can serve as a … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Cellar of Death
The Tomb of Annihilation season of the D&D Adventurers League adventures begins with the player characters going to Chult on order of their factions – Harpers, Zhentarim, Order of the Gauntlet, Emerald Enclave and Lords’ Alliance – and quickly becoming involved in recovering an ancient artefact smuggled into the port city of Nyanzaru by beings unknown. Yes, it’s A City on the Edge, the first … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: A City on the Edge
We played the final session of our Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign this weekend. It was a longer session than usual, which was devoted entirely to the exploration of the Wave Echo Mine. However, “longer” in my hands is still fairly short – it was about four hours in total. The exploration of the mine can take a lot longer, especially if you play up … Continue reading Examining Phandelver: Mine Minis
The Brain Gorger’s Appetite is an adventure by Alex Kammer for level 1-3 characters. Set in the mining town of Ockney’s Hold, it tells the story of a barony that has come under the sway of a drug-addled brain gorger. The adventure begins with an investigation into why the Baron has begun acting so oddly of late, progresses to the manor of one of his … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Brain Gorger’s Appetite
My latest session of Lost Mine of Phandelver found the player characters in the hills, having run out of clues and not sure of where to go next. Whenever a mystery needs to be solved for the plot to progress, you have the potential that the players reach a dead end. They might not have found the clues, they might have killed the NPCs rather … Continue reading Examining Phandelver: Getting Back on Track
