Uncategorized

Tales from the Yawning Portal – Adventure Retrospectives

Wizards of the Coast have announced their first product of 2017. It’s a compilation of seven previous-published adventures, updated and revised for the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Its name? Tales from the Yawning Portal. I’ve had the pleasure of playing or dungeon-mastering all seven of the adventures that will be released in this product, so it seems appropriate to do something extremely unusual: … Continue reading Tales from the Yawning Portal – Adventure Retrospectives

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D&D 5E, Play Advice, Uncategorized

Rules Spotlight: Surprise and the Assassin

The rules for the Assassin (a Roguish archetype) in the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons include an extremely powerful ability: Assassinate. It’s the signature ability of the class, and it can be very effective. A reminder of what it does: You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score … Continue reading Rules Spotlight: Surprise and the Assassin

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D&D 5E, Design

Mike Mearls – A summary of the interview on Tabletop Babble

Tabletop Babble is a new podcast from James Introcaso, once the host of the Round Table on The Tome Show. In his first podcast, he interviewed Mike Mearls. It’s a fascinating interview, where Mike discusses the state of D&D and its future. James kindly gave me permission to post a summary of the interview. Note that this is a summary, not a transcript; it is … Continue reading Mike Mearls – A summary of the interview on Tabletop Babble

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D&D, D&D Basic, Review

Adventure Review – B8: Journey to The Rock

The 1984 Basic Game adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons system, Journey to The Rock, is an oddity. Written by Michael Malone, who only has one other design credit (an adventure in Dungeon Magazine #57), the adventure is surprisingly slight, and manages to avoid using dungeons; for the most part, it’s a wilderness adventure. It should be noted that the original plan for the Basic … Continue reading Adventure Review – B8: Journey to The Rock

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D&D, D&D 3E, D&D 5E, Design, Pathfinder, Uncategorized

Musings on Adventure Path Structure

When 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons was released, it also gained a series of eight adventures that took a group of adventurers from levels 1 to 20. Starting with the Sunless Citadel and continuing through to Bastion of Broken Souls, it demonstrated something that previous editions hadn’t provided: a complete “Adventure Path” series that went the full range of levels. However, players only familiar with … Continue reading Musings on Adventure Path Structure

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D&D, Elemental Evil, Session Report

Princes of the Apocalypse, sessions 28-31

The adventurers had, by this stage, basically cleared the Air, Earth and Water temples. The Air Prophet was dead, and the Earth and Water Prophets were somewhere else – current locations unknown. Not that the players were paying that much attention to the location of the prophets. Their current location was the Fane of the Eye, the twisting caverns that linked the four temples – … Continue reading Princes of the Apocalypse, sessions 28-31

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D&D 5E, Elemental Evil, Play Advice

Running Princes of the Apocalypse: Temple of Black Earth

Over the course of running Princes of the Apocalypse, the characters spent a lot of time in the Temple of Black Earth and its connected outpost, the Sacred Stone Monastery. When my group first encountered the Monastery, they weren’t powerful enough. They could defeat the gate guards, but that fight left them hurt and needing to rest. So, they would retreat and come back the … Continue reading Running Princes of the Apocalypse: Temple of Black Earth

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D&D, D&D 5E, Review

5E Adventure Review: Banquet of the Damned

The town of Womford was made (somewhat) famous to my players by its tales of the “Womford Bat” in Princes of the Apocalypse. The bat, unfortunately, does not make an appearance in Banquet of the Damned, a new adventure by Benoit de Bernady, save in an appendix, but you do get two feuding bakers, a mysterious fire, and a demonic corruptor. The early stages of … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Banquet of the Damned

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D&D 5E, D&D Adventurers League, Review

5E Adventure Review: In Dire Need

In Dire Need is the fourth adventure of the Storm King’s Thunder series of D&D Adventurers League adventures. It’s a two-hour adventure for level 5-10 characters. As such, it’s short and to the point: A group of dwarves is trapped by a group of ogres and giants, and the adventurers need to rescue them! The adventure structure includes the briefing, the travel to the dwarves … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: In Dire Need

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D&D, D&D 5E, Play Advice, Rage of Demons

Running Out of the Abyss: Gauntlgrym

Life has been a bit crazy recently, with work, more work, and even more work conspiring to take me away from blogging and reviewing. However, with a few projects now on pause for a few days, I’m getting the chance to return to the blog and have a few updates (and, with luck, more than a few reviews). One of the odder circumstances that recently … Continue reading Running Out of the Abyss: Gauntlgrym

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