Last Friday, the participants of my D&D 5E Greyhawk game tried using a version of the variant D&D Initiative system that Mike Mearls described in a few short tweets. We ran into problems. But it was fascinating to see them in action. The system, as I understood it, required the group to declare actions at the start of each round. Depending on those actions, they’d … Continue reading Problems with a New Initiative System
As a player in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, one thing you should do at the beginning of every session is to work out what your goals are for the session. Yes, those things. What you want to accomplish. Your goals can be as simple as “kill every monster you meet and take its treasure”. (That was often my goal as a teenaged player … Continue reading Better Play of Dungeons & Dragons: Know Your Goals
As I’ve mentioned before, D&D combat is not really the most realistic of systems. This doesn’t matter much, because it’s fun! However, with Mike Mearls talking about providing an alternative initiative system, it’s revived my interest in the various initiative systems D&D has used over the years – an abiding interest of mine. Mike’s system, for those who haven’t seen it, requires all combatants to … Continue reading More on D&D Initiative: Weapon Speeds, Teamwork and Ranged Combat
Combat in Dungeons & Dragons is not particularly realistic. Its mechanics exist to make a good game rather than accurately relate what would happen in a real fight. The current initiative system can be described as a cyclical system. At the beginning of each combat, an initiative roll is made (a Dexterity check) by each combatant. The combatants are then ordered from highest roll to … Continue reading A Look at Initiative Systems in Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons began in the dungeon. It’s the form of the game that I keep returning to, because dungeons are cool. They provide an environment that allow the players to make interesting choices, whilst allowing the DM to easily understand their structure. With the release of Tales of the Yawning Portal, we’ve been given seven classic dungeon scenarios to play with. I’m a very … Continue reading Dungeon Exploration: Wandering Monsters and Tracking Time
Jean Lorber’s Volo’s Lost Encounters is a selection of five small adventures designed for a variety of levels, which are likely best employed to break the monotony of travel. I’d estimate most of the adventures shouldn’t take longer than a couple of hours to run, although Jean suggests 2-4 hours; I tend to run games quicker than most. The adventures use monsters depicted in Volo’s … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Volo’s Lost Encounters
Have I mentioned how much I hate monospaced fonts? If you are using them for the main text of a DMs Guild product, you are doing it wrong. Such is the fate that befalls For the Sake of Shaleigh, a pay-what-you-want adventure by D.L.Wilson. Or, to get in to the spirit of it, a pay-what-you-want adventure by D.L.Wilson for characters levels 2-3. The adventure sees … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: For the Sake of Shaleigh
Jeff C Stevens’ adventure Into the Belly of the Beast is a wilderness adventure set in a swamp for a party of 5th-8th level adventurers. Having found a map to treasure, all the adventurers must do is get to it. The journey isn’t easy. A swamp goblin village, a hag’s hut, a troll’s lair, and a cave formed from the bones of a dragon lie … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Into the Belly of the Beast
Windride Hangover is a short adventure for first or second level characters. It also presents the very real possibility of the adventure ending in the first encounter if a key NPC is killed. Discovering the text notes “should Vesryn somehow survive the encounter” and also says “the remainder of the module assumes he survives”, leads me to think that someone hasn’t thought through the logic … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Windride Hangover
One of the bigger problems with Princes of the Apocalypse is that it has an adventure structure that allows the players to very quickly end up in areas that are far too dangerous for them. However, the story is pushing them towards those areas. What’s the quest? Rescue the prisoners. Where are the prisoners? In a dungeon designed for level 12 adventurers. What level are … Continue reading Adventure Structure: Curse of Strahd
