As the Variant Roles Dragon Heist "mega campaign" has ended, I've started to think about what I want to do next. While we're still planning for Dungeon of the Mad Mage, that doesn't stop me from thinking about a homebrew dungeon-focused campaign. Principles In the meantime, planning has begun! I don't know yet if this will consist … Continue reading Principles and ideas for a dungeon campaign
Despite the way Wizards of the Coast has positioned them, I don't think that Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage really pair together very well. One is an urban intrigue and investigation campaign, and the other is a chthonic megadungeon. These have very different tones and structures, and many players will … Continue reading Dungeon of the Mad Mage lead-in alternatives
In Tales from the Yawning Portal, we have a collection of some of the best (well, most popular) dungeons from D&D's history, updated for Fifth Edition. Adventurers who delve into these dark holes in the ground can uncover lost secrets and discover untold wealth... or die trying. But players themselves can be a bit risk averse … Continue reading Forge of Fury: Random Encounter Tables
Introduction In Sunless Citadel, one of the major pieces of loot is a magic weapon called Shatterspike. It has a special ability that doesn't necessarily translate well into Fifth Edition without a bit of extra thought. In this post, I'm going to take a look at the guidance we have and how I have decided to handle … Continue reading Shatterspike in 5e
Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League Season 6 (Tales from the Yawning Portal) only contains three DDAL adventures and the hardcover. All of the former are supposed to provide a hook to a particular dungeon in the book. This one introduces White Plume Mountain. Warning: this review includes spoilers. If you’re going to play through the … Continue reading DDAL06-02: The Redemption of Kelvan (Review)
Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League Season 6 (Tales from the Yawning Portal) mostly consists of the hardcover by that name plus three DDAL adventures. All of these serve as lead-ins to one of the dungeons in the book (Forge of Fury, White Plume Mountain, and Against the Giants). In effect, they provide expanded hooks. DDAL06-01 A Thousand Tiny … Continue reading DDAL06-01: A Thousand Tiny Deaths (Review)
I really hate how downtime and renown work differently in hardcovers than modules. For renown, I can kind of understand: Unless otherwise specified, renown is awarded at the rate of 1 renown point per adventure (or 1 renown point for every 4 cumulative hours of play for Hardcover adventures). But downtime is particularly annoying. Downtime … Continue reading Downtime and renown in Adventurers League
The Quest of the Week schedule for Adventurers League got an update today, and it has something special in it... Tomb of Annihilation modules! They'll start running in September, and some of them have some particularly evocative names: DDAL07-01 City on the Edge - Tier 1 (lvls 1-4) DDAL07-02 Over the Edge - Tier 2 (lvls … Continue reading Tomb of Annihilation: AL campaign planning
This post will have spoilers for the first level of Sunless Citadel. If you don't want that for any reason, then don't read. I strongly urge anyone planning to play in this adventure to avoid spoilers. Preserve the fun for yourself! But if you have already played it or otherwise don't mind, this session included … Continue reading Sunless Citadel: Dragon Rodeo
As I recently launched a Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign, I thought I'd evaluate the Sunless Citadel encounters according to the difficulty guidelines in the Dungeon Masters Guide page 82. My encounter difficulty analysis for Lost Mine of Phandelver did basically the same thing. In this case, I work from the assumption that the group … Continue reading Encounter Difficulty in the Sunless Citadel
Technoskald's Forge 