As I write this, it is the 19th of August, 2022, and I’ve just become aware of the new Playtest for Dungeons & Dragons. While Wizards are code-naming it “D&D One”, let’s call it what it is – Dungeons & Dragons 6th edition. While they say it will be backwards compatible with the current edition (5th edition), I’m betting that it’ll be about as compatible … Continue reading The New Dungeons & Dragons Playtest
I never read enough of Dragon Magazine when I was younger to be familiar with Ed Greenwood's early articles, where he gave the first hint of the Forgotten Realms. For me, the Realms properly came into being with the publication of the original boxed set in 1987, and the publication of its first books, Douglas Niles' "Moonshae" trilogy, and R.A. Salvatore's "Icewind Dale" trilogy. The … Continue reading Winter Never Ends – the Legacy of the Crystal Shard Launch Event report (part 1)
Onto Icewind Dale! Problems with couriers meant that the delivery my FLGS should have received of the Launch Event kit still hadn't arrived on the Friday before the event… yes, the one on the next day. This was something of a problem for running it. I got extremely frustrated and a quite a bit angry and vented about it on EN World and Twitter. I … Continue reading The Strange Story of the Legacy of Icewind Dale Launch Event
This weekend is the Launch Event for Legacy of the Crystal Shard, the latest season of D&D Encounters, and also the latest adventure release from Wizards of the Coast. As with Murder in Baldur's Gate, this is an adventure for 1st-3rd level characters that supports three editions: 3.5E, 4E and Next. The adventure proper has no stats in it, instead they're given in downloadable files … Continue reading Legacy of the Crystal Shard – Launch Event preview
While Tracy Hickman was ushering in the new style of D&D adventures, Gary Gygax was still producing adventures of the whimsical, fun-house dungeon tradition. EX1: Dungeonland was originally a sub-level of the Castle Greyhawk dungeons in Gygax’s original campaign, but, with the rest of Castle Greyhawk lacking, was released on its own to be inserted into campaigns as the individual DM saw fit. As the … Continue reading Review of EX1: Dungeonland
The Desert of Desolation trilogy ends with the Lost Tomb of Martek. In it, our heroes need to find the tomb of the legendary wizard Martek in order to finally defeat the evil efreeti that has been ravaging the land. It's a suitably epic climax to the series, but it doesn't quite come off. Tracy Hickman had done a good job of incorporating both his … Continue reading Review of I5: Lost Tomb of Martek
Only four players were at my table this week for Murder in Baldur's Gate: Lee was back, but Harry and Rich had other commitments. Paul's 4E table had five players. We were playing through Stage 4 of the adventure; this stage is fairly light on actual incident involving the players. The two major events were Rilsa Rael manoeuvring the garbage collectors to go on strike, … Continue reading Murder in Baldur’s Gate – The Lumber Affair
The fourth session of Murder in Baldur's Gate saw my D&D Next table having eight players whilst Paul's 4E table had five players. I would have much preferred to have fewer players, but I wasn't willing to turn people away. Thankfully, I'm not unused to running such large tables – the last year of my AD&D campaign has made me quite familiar with those numbers … Continue reading Murder in Baldur’s Gate – Unrest Rising
We’ve finally reached Stage 1 of the Murder in Baldur’s Gate adventure; it only took us three sessions! The first two were consumed by the introductory material as expanded by the Launch event. We had two tables of six players and a DM for this session, with Paul running 4E and me running Next. The table composition was slightly different from last week with Callan … Continue reading Murder in Baldur’s Gate: Stage 1 report
Oasis of the White Palm is an AD&D adventure for 6-8 characters of sixth to eight level. It was originally written by Philip Meyers and then rewritten and edited by Tracy Hickman as he combined it with his adventure, Pharaoh, as part of the Desert of Desolation series. There are several problems with how it is written, but my play experiences with it allow me … Continue reading Review of I4: Oasis of the White Palm (1983 AD&D adventure)
