The Tome Show has a fascinating interview with Mike Mearls at GenCon. My interpretation of the highlights follows, although I may have misinterpreted some things: * The release of two full levels 1-15 adventure paths within the first year of the new edition is very new for Wizards. (Previously, only a few adventures would be released in the first year). * Sword Coast Legends is … Continue reading Mike Mearls speaks! (Tome Show interview)
The finale of Hoard of the Dragon Queen is exceptionally challenging to run. You’ve got competing factions, a big sprawling castle to explore, and a dragon! All of which means that things can go very well or very badly indeed. Each of the episodes in Hoard is really an adventure unto itself, changing up the challenges and providing different ways for the players to be … Continue reading Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, episode 8
No Laughing Matter is an adventure for fifth level characters by Dan Coleman, available now through DriveThruRPG after being funded through Kickstarter. The adventure describes a gorge where divine magic has infected its inhabitants with a laughing disease, making them vulnerable to mind-magic. With the disease beginning to spread to outsiders, the adventurers need to venture into the gorge, discover what’s going on, and stop the … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: No Laughing Matter
It’s an interesting tactic to announce to your host that you were sent to kill him, but that’s what Thumbalina did upon meeting the head of the Feathergale Knights. She followed this up with the pronouncements that she’d changed her mind, they were all really cool, and could she ride a griffon please. Yes, you’ve got to enjoy the antics of the dwarf who thinks … Continue reading Princes of the Apocalypse, session 11
The latest adventure available to subscribers of EN5ider is The Mystery of Mordecai’s Monster, an adventure allegedly for 3-5 characters of level 3, written by Dan Head, who previously wrote The Mystery of Malvern Manor. It’s an excellent little adventure. I’m rather fond of the schemes of insane wizards, and there’s a good one here that offers several challenges for the players. The author understands … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Mystery of Mordecai’s Monster
One of the main tasks of a Dungeon Master in D&D is providing opportunities to adventure for your players. The process to create adventures can be very simple or very involved, depending on how much work you want to put into it. It’s really important to note that most published adventures contain far more information than you’d ever need for your game. I may have … Continue reading Designing a Basic Dungeon
Goblins are fun to role-play. Numerous players have discovered this as they’ve interrogated the goblins in my campaigns. Goblins know that they’re almost at the bottom of the humanoid pecking order (with only kobolds lower), and so they’re used to being bullied. They almost enjoy it. Every so often, one of the goblins decides that turning traitor is a good career move, and so starts … Continue reading All Hail the Almighty Splig!
Unexpected Encounters is a collection of ten encounters (or mini-adventures) for a D&D 5E campaign from Critical Hit Publishing. It feels like it is expensive for a pdf product, at a price of $9.95 for 26 pages. The product is nicely formatted and has a large number of full-colour illustrations. The encounters are written by Alex Guillotte and Rob Davis, and illustrated by Alex Guillotte. … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Gothnog & Swamper’s Unexpected Encounters – Volume One
I have occasionally had to call games early because it was closing time; however, never had I had to call a game because the shop was not going to be there on the morrow! Scott, Mikey, Brad and I played a game of Urban Sprawl at Guf Sturt St in Ballarat yesterday. It’s been my place of choice for gaming for the past few years. … Continue reading Urban Sprawl – Our final game at Guf Sturt St
One of the most-loved features of 3rd edition D&D was its introduction of Prestige Classes. The concept has been toyed with back in the very early days of original D&D: having a class that could be entered only by fulfilling prerequisites in other classes first; the original Bard worked like that and, later, the Thief-Acrobat. In 2E, the major new mechanic for customising classes was … Continue reading 5E House Rules: Converting the Shifter prestige class
