So now we've had the D&D Fifth Edition core books for a bit. Many bloggers have written many words about their impressions and evaluations, sometimes in great detail. But as I look at the shelf to my right, one of the three stands out more than the others. The Player's Handbook covers the core mechanics of … Continue reading On the 5e core book set
The most interesting things their characters do should happen primarily in the world. By the same light, the most interesting things that happen in the world should happen with the characters.
A few weeks ago, I set up a Pandora station called "OSR Radio". It plays music my buddies and I listened to while playing RPGs in the wayback. Think Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc. Lots of the songs sound like they could inspire some fun D&D adventures. I have tried to avoid the … Continue reading Heavy metal inspired quests
In my last play session, we noted that the players probably need to hire torchbearers or similar companions. I took a look at the rules in 5e and some other games before deciding what to do, and ended up merging them into a simple system that I hope will work for us. D&D Fifth Edition … Continue reading Hiring and followers in Fifth Edition
The Relic Hunters returned to Dyson's Delve Sunday afternoon. As usual, they made a quick pass around the first level to ensure they wouldn't have any nasty surprises running them. (That's mostly due to one very vocal player.) When they returned to the second level, they had the idea of finding the goblin they'd taken prisoner … Continue reading Play Report: Relic Hunters Guild Session 3
During Sunday's session, I took notes on game mechanics and 5e rules that felt clunky or don't work well in my view. I will likely write house rules for them, but first I wanted to see what others might be doing. Likely other DMs have already found better solutions than what I imagine. Stealth: I don't … Continue reading Clunky mechanics in 5e
D&D 5e has started to frustrate me. I feel like I spend way too much time looking stuff up when running a game. Some of that comes from poor information organization in the core books. This leads to too much time looking up spells and so forth. Another large chunk results directly from the amount of rules: … Continue reading Losing ruleset weight: evaluating older RPG games
I don't know why I keep forgetting how dangerous D&D Fifth Edition can be to level 1 characters. Last night I ran a small one-off adventure based on the Temple of K'thu'uk from Robin V. Stacey (of Microlite20 fame). You can find my conversion notes, including a new 5e monster, at the end of the … Continue reading Play Report: Temple of K’thu’uk
Cᴛʜᴜʀᴋᴇʏ Small aberration, chaotic evil Armor class 13 (natural armor) Hit Points 153 (34d6+34) Speed 30 ft STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 4 (-3) Saving Throws Con +4 Damage Resistances poison Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened Senses blindsight 60 ft Languages understands Common, … Continue reading 5e Monster: Cthurkey
NB:I posted a version of the below to my campaign forum on Roll20. My megadungeon campaign, the Relic Hunters Guild, has had some problems lately. Sessions don't happen because folks who've said they want to play don't show up. That means that those of us who do show up have wasted our time. If only one or … Continue reading Campaign Reorganization
Technoskald's Forge 