The Princes of the Apocalypse 5th edition hardcover is a re-telling of the classic Temple of Elemental Evil adventure. I recently ran the "introductory" adventure "Trouble in Red Larch" with three friends, and this post is my review of it, and tips for running it.
Like several of the major 5e...
What RPG nerd doesn't want their very own copy of the Necronomicon? Paizo's Book of the Dead doesn't go so far as to claim that it's exactly the Necronomicon, but if you've ever wondered what the Necronomicon would contain, you can easily imagine this being dangerously close to it. I've sequestere...
Recently updated for 5e, Spelljammer has been around a long time, and the D&D team used to release a lot of material during previous editions. One source for new adventures was Dungeon magazine, which contained adventure after adventure for various AD&D settings. In issue 36, published in 1992,...
Years ago, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) published a few "splatbooks" for 3rd Edition D&D, and one of these books was titled Undead (with Mike Mearls as a credited writer). I've been reading it lately, because I play Pathfinder and I love player options. This is my third post about the book,...
Today I had the chance to sit down with the Light of Xaryxis module included in the 5e Spelljammer boxed set. I enjoyed the Astral Adventurer's Guide, but I didn't love the old 2nd Edition module Skull and Crossbows, so I was eager to see what kind of precedence the 5e authors were setting for...
With the release of Spelljammer for D&D 5th Edition, I decided to break out the second AD&D Spelljammer module Skulls & Crossbows. I'm looking at it particularly with quick conversion in mind, but also for story and general usefulness. The fourth adventure in the book is called "Pirate-wyrm."
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In my initial review of the D&D 5e version of Spelljammer, I praised the boxed set for everything but its DM screen. Since that review, there's been widespread disappointment in its sparse rules about ship combat and in the Hadozee race. Recently, I finally had the chance to sit down with the...
When the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide DMG came out back in 2014, I read it from cover to cover. I've decided to re-read the 5e DMG to re-discover anything I impatiently overlooked on my first read-through, and I'm going to review it chapter by chapter. In this post, I'm covering Chapter 5, "Adventure...
When the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide DMG came out back in 2014, I read it from cover to cover. I've decided to re-read the 5e DMG to re-discover anything I impatiently overlooked on my first read-through, and I'm going to review it chapter by chapter. In this post, I'm covering Chapter 3 and 4, "Cre...
When the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide DMG came out back in 2014, I read it from cover to cover. I've decided to re-read the 5e DMG, though, to re-discover anything I impatiently overlooked on my first read-through, and I'm going to review it chapter by chapter. Chapter 2 is titled "Creating a multive...
As players level up in an RPG, they expect increased challenge. They want bigger monsters that are harder to kill and that threaten to kill them first, faster.
The formula seems like it would be simple: As player characters level-up and gain hit points, you make the monsters deal more damage. In o...
With the release of Spelljammer for D&D 5th Edition, I decided to break out the second AD&D Spelljammer module Skulls & Crossbows. I'm looking at it particularly with quick conversion in mind, but also for story and general usefulness. The third adventure in the book is called "Small package trade...
With the release of Spelljammer for D&D 5th Edition, I decided to break out an old Spelljammer book for some adventuring material. The second Spelljammer adventure book to be released was Skulls & Crossbows. I'm reading through it as prep for an upcoming Spelljammer campaign, so I figured I'd give...
With the release of Spelljammer for D&D 5th Edition, I decided to break out an old Spelljammer book for some adventuring material. The second Spelljammer adventure book to be released was Skulls & Crossbows, a collection of adventures that, in the style of Infinite Staircase or Ghosts of Saltma...
When the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide DMG came out back in 2014, I read it from cover to cover. I knew I'd be running games, so I needed to know about the rules of the world. That is, of course, what the DMG is. It contains the rules for things that aren't the player characters themselves, but that i...
I mentioned in my first look at Spelljammer that ship combat appears to largely be missing from the Astral Adventurer's Guide. I've fixed that with some custom rules, adapted from my well-worn Starfinder ship combat ruleset.
I didn't have high hopes for ship combat rules, honestly, because I'v...