AD&D, D&D, Review

AD&D Adventure Review: Hall of the Fire Giant King

G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King is rightfully considered a classic of Dungeons & Dragons adventures. For a module that is only 16 pages in length, it contains a great deal of incident, evocative description, and adventure. It premiered as the final round of the D&D tournament at Origins ’78, and an account of the winning team’s accomplishments was published in Dragon Magazine #19 … Continue reading AD&D Adventure Review: Hall of the Fire Giant King

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AD&D, D&D 5E, Design

A Stunning Conundrum

One of the interesting features about RPGs (well Dungeons & Dragons, but others as well), is that there are actions that sound fun, but quickly become extremely unfun when applied to the player characters. Things like stun, disarm, paralysis, and so on. Abilities that boil down to the player skipping one or more turns. I find this particularly interesting because it’s something mostly invisible to … Continue reading A Stunning Conundrum

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Castles & Crusades, D&D, D&D 5E, Greyhawk, Session Report

Adventures in Greyhawk: Under the Tower

Our first D&D session of 2024 took up the campaign when the last session left off: exploring the mysterious tower in the ruined city on the borders of Ket. Two factions were interested in the contents of the ruins: the refugees from the Plains of the Paynims, and a goblin force known as the Red Caps. The basic plan for the adventure came from the … Continue reading Adventures in Greyhawk: Under the Tower

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AD&D, D&D, Review

AD&D Adventure Review: All That Glitters

Published in 1984, UK6: All That Glitters is another memorable adventure for level 5-7 characters from TSR UK. As I noted in my review of Eye of the Serpent, the UK adventures had moved away from the World of Greyhawk, instead each being set in its own setting. However, while reading this adventure, I began to wonder if it were actually a Greyhawk adventure with … Continue reading AD&D Adventure Review: All That Glitters

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D&D, D&D 5E, Session Report, The Shattered Obelisk

The Shattered Obelisk, session 5

We played our fifth session of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, October 9th, 2023. After our previous session, the group was now aware of where Cragmaw Castle was and were keen to find and explore the location where Gundren was meant to be held captive. I have a very inconsistent approach to random encounters these days. Typically, when there’s story-based adventuring to … Continue reading The Shattered Obelisk, session 5

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D&D, Design

Published Adventures – Their Goals

The primary goal of a published adventure should be to get the DM excited about running it. There are many, many adventures that don’t do that. Now, I hear you say, “What about being a good adventure?” Well, that should also happen, but more than anything, the DM and players will never find that out if the DM doesn’t want to run it. It starts … Continue reading Published Adventures – Their Goals

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D&D, D&D 5E, Dragonlance, Session Report, Shadow of the Dragon Queen

Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 12

We played the penultimate session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on Monday, August 21, 2023. The characters had entered the Flying Citadel, and were making their way through the tunnels that combed its base, looking for a way to disable the blasted thing. Honestly, I’m pretty happy with most of this section. But the one thing that obviously no-one at Wizards considered is the … Continue reading Shadow of the Dragon Queen, session 12

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AD&D, Review

AD&D Review: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

In 1978, the first (official) published adventure modules for the AD&D game were released. This was a new thing. There had been third party D&D adventures before this – Palace of the Vampire Queen in 1976 generally takes the title as the first. And, in 1975, the Blackmoor supplement for OD&D, had included a scenario of Dave Arneson’s design, Temple of the Frog. But for … Continue reading AD&D Review: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

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AD&D, D&D, Greyhawk

Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Beginnings

It was a long time ago. In the late 80s, I managed to meet up with three other like-minded individuals – that is, people interested in this strange game called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and we began a campaign. The DM had already played a similar campaign with a friend, and he wanted to introduce us to the idea. And so, the four of us … Continue reading Memories of Greyhawk Campaigns Past: Beginnings

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Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk RED, Session Report

Cyberpunk RED Session – Retrieve the Asset!

With the advent of the Christmas season, my groups splintered into Those Who Go on Holiday and Those Who Do Not. (Also, a special mention to my Monday group who found Christmas occurring on Monday, then New Year’s Day, then the birthday of a player’s wife…) So, in the spirit of holiday cheer for those still around and wanting a game, I ran a session … Continue reading Cyberpunk RED Session – Retrieve the Asset!

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