Mirrored Thrones is an adventure set in the city of Neverwinter, where a group of brave rebels attempt to overthrow the tyrannous Lord Neverember. Or perhaps they’re just supporting a pretender to the throne. In any case, the adventurers soon find themselves in the midst of a revolution, probably little the wiser as to why they’re involved. This is a tremendously innovative adventure, which uses … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review – Mirrored Thrones
I run a lot of published adventures. I’ve run most of the official D&D adventures, most of the D&D Adventurers League adventures, and a few adventures I’ve acquired from other publishers. And one thing happens to me again and again: A player asks a question, and although I know it’s somewhere in the adventure, I don’t know the answer. This is incredibly common. D&D adventures … Continue reading Dungeon Mastering Tips: Hey! That wasn’t in the adventure!
There are people in this world who are great at role-playing NPCs. They imbue the characters they assume with passion, vitality and bring forth the true essence of their personalities. That’s not me. I do funny voices and occasionally remember the voice I should be using two sessions in a row, so players can get familiar with the character’s portrayal. The fact is that most … Continue reading Dungeon Master Tips: Funny Voices and Roleplaying NPCs
The Scroll Thief, the sixth adventure of the first season of the D&D Adventurers League, is a curiosity: an investigative adventure that fails to have an investigation! It’s probably fairer to say that The Scroll Thief is a dungeon crawl that happens to have an investigation attached, but, in either case, the investigation feels odd. The adventurers are sent to interview three people from whom … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Scroll Thief
In Dungeons & Dragons, there are many times you don’t want the monsters to see you. The rules for hiding are written deliberately to leave a lot of power in the hands of the Dungeon Master. Basically, if the DM thinks the situation warrants that you can hide, you can make the check. Otherwise you can’t. This is one of the areas where Passive Perception … Continue reading Examining Passive Perception and Opposed Checks
Thralls of Zuggtmoy is a 5E adventure originally released in three parts and finally as a consolidated document on the DMs Guild. This is an adventure that shares a format with the D&D Adventurers League adventures and, though it isn’t DDAL-legal, at least one of its authors is now writing DDAL content. I presume the reason that it was released in three parts was to … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Thralls of Zuggtmoy
The First Book of the Dragonlance adventures concluded in 1984 with Dragons of Desolation. In this adventure, the heroes guide the refugees of Pax Tharkas into the dwarven city of Thorbardin, and then have to persuade the dwarven council to let them stay. They are fine with it… just as long as the characters retrieve for them the fabled Hammer of Kharas from a floating … Continue reading AD&D Adventure Review – DL4 Dragons of Desolation
I occasionally think of myself as a “Killer DM” – you’ll find it on my profile at RPG Geek, for instance. However, when you get down to it, I don’t kill that many player characters. The fact is, I’m far more interested in seeing how the story plays out, and it’s hard to have a story when everyone’s dead. Thus, upon hearing my players last … Continue reading The Total Party Kill I Remember Best
Mike Mearls’ “Greyhawk” Initiative system has provided a welcome shake-up in the consideration of the Dungeons & Dragons rule system. It’s a completely optional system, and one that seeks to provide a little more unpredictability and tension into combat by removing the predictable order of actions that is part of the basic 5E ruleset. I’ve now run two sessions with versions of these rules. (You … Continue reading Greyhawk Initiative: Another Look
I recently ran a set of three short sessions using the original Dungeons & Dragons rules. I tried as much as possible to keep to the rules as presented in the original three booklets (plus Chainmail), without introducing any of the material added in Supplement I: Greyhawk or in later versions of the game. It was a fascinating experience. I struggled with using the rules-as-written … Continue reading Original Dungeons & Dragons: The Magic-User
