Recent content by Keldryn

The first couple of session in Bittermold Keep, I just drew the map on the Chessex mat as they explored. One of the players drew a copy on graph paper. I can't draw to save my life however, and once they reached the areas where straight dungeon hallways open up into caves, I found it that it...

Ultimately, I mostly ran that dungeon TotM (and continue to run Shadowdark that way). I'll typically sketch out the rooms on the player's map as they explore (it's too tedious to narrate room dimensions and all the back and forth involved in that). I initially started with drawing the map on a...

While it's not quite large enough to be called a mega dungeon, Bittermold Keep (Cursed Scrolls #1) took my group the better part of five 4-hour sessions to finally explore all of it. They loved coming back each time and seeing how it had changed, as we play (roughly) in real time between...

I've started granting 1 XP for each rumor that the PCs confirm (whether true or false). I want to encourage exploration and investigation beyond just grabbing treasure. I also gave the PCs 10 XP when As a DM, that whole session was honestly one of the most rewarding games I've run in years...

After reading so many good things about it, I finally gave Shadowdark a try a few months ago. Our regular (mostly every other week) 5e game was on hold due to scheduling issues, so I proposed running a Shadowdark game as an alternative until everyone's schedules lined up again. I'm not sure if...

The first two sequel miniseries (Siege at Blue Mountain and Kings of the Broken Wheel) maintained the same quality. In the early and mid 90s, they branched out into multiple monthly series (in color!) and brought on new artists and writers. The quality did vary a fair bit IMO, and the brand felt...

Oh maannn!

I think the only settings that didn't have any metaplot in 2e were the ones that didn't last long enough!

It would be helpful to have multiple character sheets designed for specific purposes, rather than a single one that needs to work for all characters. Simple, streamlined sheets are best for newer players (or even experienced but more casual players). Anything that looks like a tax form is going...

I don't think there would be any real benefit to advancing the timeline and explaining where all of the "new" races came from. It would have no meaning to the majority of players today. The only circumstance in which I can see it mattering at all is for players in a long-running Greyhawk...

Greyhawk has nothing on Kingdoms of Kalamar. I remember looking through the book back in the early 3e days and thinking that it looked interesting and had a well-developed history. But I just couldn't get over the names. Everything seemed to be either difficult to pronounce or just felt clumsy...

I'm quite certain that in all of the years that I played AD&D (1e & 2e), I never once called for a system shock roll as DM or witnessed one as a player. It was just one of those many AD&D fiddly details that everyone dutifully wrote down on their character sheets, but never actually used in...

Also check out Unleash the Archers. The band used to stream their D&D game on a semi-regular basis, and when they released Abyss in 2020, they had a contest for fans to play D&D with them. Their last three albums are all fantastic (Apex, Abyss, Phantoma). On-topic: I like the DMG art. I'm in...

I started with the Mentzer sets in early 1987. When I first got an AD&D PH later that year, we of course threw everything in it into our games because we were 13 and had no sense of game balance (as evidenced by allowing everything in Unearthed Arcana once I got that book). Amazing how many...

And don't forget...