Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

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...

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...

I picked up a copy of Spelljammer, the latest release from Wizards of the Coast, and I've spent the past couple of days reading over the three books in the boxed set. This is a quick cursory review of the new setting.

When Spelljammer was first announced, I was excited about it. I've already pla...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the fourth module, Fortress of the Stone Giants.

This is an exciting and brutal ending to an exciting adventure path. The plot is simple: get to the tippy-top of a mo...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the fifth module, Sins of the saviours.

The penultimate module in the Runelords adventure path, this is a relatively straight-forward dungeon crawl. Before they can...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the fourth module, Fortress of the Stone Giants.

This module, in a way, is the turning point of the Runelords adventure path. It's in this module that the players lea...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the third module, Hook Mountain Massacre.

Mountain raid

In the third module of the Runelords adventure path (chapter 3 in the Anniversary Edition), the players go u...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the second module, The Skinsaw Murders.

Serial killer on the loose

I'm a great fan of slasher flicks like Friday the 13th. Strangely, though, I have no interest i...

As a DM, one of my self-appointed tasks during the initial reading of an adventure is to identify the major plot points. These are vital because they're the "map" for what I can emphasize to make the adventure feel coherent. It's also the map for how the characters make progress.

If I forget t...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the first module, Burnt Offerings.

Swallowtail festival

If you've played enough starter Paizo adventure paths, you may recognise the opening formula. The players fi...

I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. This is my review of the first module, Burnt Offerings.

Player's guide

When you've been invited to a D&D or Pathfinder game, it can be difficult to know what to plan for. You can build...

Some time ago, I picked up the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, the very first Pathfinder adventure path. It's 428 pages containing six modules, starting with Burnt Offerings. Over this Waitangi Day's weekend, I finally had the chance to sit down, kick my feet up, and start reading...

I picked up a hardcopy of Black Monastery (you can also purchase it as a PDF), which I'd purchased once before as a PDF in a Humble Bundle and found to be slightly overwhelming as a digital-only module. The module, such as it is, consists of 87 pages of a single mega-dungeon, with no particular...

Over the past few weeks of the New Zealand summer, a friend and I decided to speed run through the D&D 5e module Out of the Abyss. There was only two of us, so I played the DM and Sophia played a dragonborn cleric. We decided to play a chapter a day, so we estimated it would only take about two w...

The Ghosts of Saltmarsh module is a Fifth Edition re-release of several old AD&D adventures. It includes all three of the U series (The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, The Final Enemy) by TSR, and several from Dungeon magazines. In the introduction, the book is posit...

I recently purchased the adventure Fane of the Fallen because it's an adventure for characters level 13 and up, and high-level modules can be hard to find. It's also by Frog God Games, and I tend to find their work pretty reliable.

I purchased a hard copy because I really do prefer physical m...