Avarium Academy is a board game for 2-4 players by Jared Cheah, although the board is mostly cosmetic. This is primarily a card game. In the game, you attempt to recruit students at a Magical High School to help you become Class President. Of course, your students will frequently fight the opposing students to help you get the presidency (it draws on a lot of anime … Continue reading Board Game Review: Avarium Academy
A couple of years ago, I ran the Council of Thieves Adventure Path for Pathfinder. It was the first of the adventure paths to be released using the full Pathfinder system rather than 3.5E, and although it had a great overall story and some memorable encounters, I had a lot of problems with the adventures: a lot of underpowered foes and some really badly written … Continue reading Pathfinder Adventure Review: In Hell’s Bright Shadow
The first adventure in the Expert series had been the fairly serious Isle of Dread. The second had been more of a funhouse dungeon in Castle Amber. Expert Set Adventure Module X3, Curse of Xanathon, wandered into some seriously weird territory. It is designed for 5-8 characters of levels 5-7. Douglas Niles had begun his writing career at TSR by writing the not-for-novices novice-series adventure … Continue reading Basic D&D Adventure Review – X3: Curse of Xanathon
Along Came a Spider is an adventure for first-level characters by Joel Flank released by Jon Brazer Enterprises as part of their “Dangerous Delves” series. The adventure has been released in both 5E and Pathfinder formats. This review is of the 5E version. The idea for the adventure is simple: A creature from the Deep Ethereal has possessed the mind of a spider and its … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Along Came a Spider
I wrote an article a last month on techniques used to begin an adventure. I’ve just been reading an Organised Play adventure that commits one of the cardinal sins of such adventures: It allows the players to say “No, we don’t want to play this adventure.” Huh? Why the hell is it giving them the option? I hate weak beginnings like that to an adventure. … Continue reading Scripted “In Medias Res” – More thoughts on the beginning of adventures
Two of the adventurers had died in an ambush by the air cult as they had returned from the dwarven city below, and so the group had become indebted to the Zhentarim. This mean that they were obligated to travel down to Bargewright Inn to meet the local Zhentarim contact, Nalaskur Thaelond. The amount of money they owed wasn’t too large, so the job they … Continue reading Princes of the Apocalypse, sessions 18-19
Once upon a time, there was a dungeon called Rappan Athuk… Necromancer Games (and/or Frog God Games) have been publishing adventures for a while now. The original incarnation of the company was publishing adventures back in 2000, when Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition came out. One of their products was a little dungeon known as Rappan Athuk. Or the Dungeon of Graves. It’s actually one … Continue reading Rogues in Remballo and the Borderland Provinces
Troll Lord Games is one of the venerable companies of the Open Gaming License – which means they’re about fifteen years old. That’s a significant age for a RPG company. They rose to prominence through the publication of many of Gary Gygax’s last projects, especially Castle Zagyg, and through their publication of their Castles & Crusades game, a game inspired by earlier forms of D&D … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Rising Knight
I first encountered the Forgotten Realms shortly after it was released as a campaign setting, then drifted away from it in the AD&D 2E days, before reconnecting with it recently. Thus, my knowledge of Realmslore is either very old, or very new. Spellstorm is Ed Greenwood’s latest book, and it combines the very old and the very new. The major characters in the book – … Continue reading Book Review: Spellstorm by Ed Greenwood
The adventure Confrontation at Candlekeep was premiered at GenCon 2013 as a multiple-table event. How many tables? Oh, quite a few. The adventure, as written, assumes that there is a co-ordinating DM, the “First Reader” – a name of particular significance in Realmslore – for every four to nine tables. Set during the Sundering, the adventure sees the players defending the great stronghold of lore … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Confrontation at Candlekeep
