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Picture courtesy of Pixabay. In theory, party order is a neat line where everyone stays in place. In reality, boredom, fatigue, and rough terrain can all conspire to break it up. The rigid lines drawn on paper rarely survive the messy reality of dynamic environments and human (or adventuring...

I learned a lot from my week-long, 30-mile trek through the rugged Cimarron, New Mexico backcountry, and the parallels between managing a hiking crew and guiding a Dungeons & Dragons party became strikingly clear. Just like an adventuring party navigating a dungeon, a group embarking on a...

Day 7 began before dawn with the roaring wind. At 3:30 a.m., the wind bellowed so loudly it was hard to think, though mercifully it never reached our tents. Fearing we'd be blown off the mountain peak trying to scale the Tooth of Time, our leaders decided to wait it out for another hour. In...

Day 6 began with a truly magical, if challenging, experience. A staff member, dressed fittingly in wizard robes, led us in the morning up a scramble of rugged rocks to see the sunrise. She easily scaled the rocks while the rest of us huffed and puffed (me in particular), struggling with the...

Day 5 began beautifully for us. I, along with another adult leader, awoke early just to enjoy the gorgeous sunrise. The wind had whipped our tents quite a bit that night, but blessedly, there was no rain. Instead, warm gusts of wind kept blowing through our campsite, a truly welcome reprieve...

Day 4 marked the midway point of the hike. It's often considered the hardest day too, as this is when our Ranger said his farewells and left us. It was a bittersweet moment; while we were ready to prove we could do it (and frankly, were eager to get on with the hike without him), he was the last...

After a good night's sleep and breakfast at our starting camp, Day 3 was meant to be the second leg of our trek with our Ranger still guiding us. They were there to help us sharpen our camping skills, and the plan was for them to eventually leave us on our own, likely by early Day 4. Our...

After a good night's rest at Base Camp/Headquarters, our Day 2 began bright and early. We had to check out of tent city no later than 8:30 a.m. and report to the Welcome Center at our scheduled departure time. This was it – the real beginning of our trek! We hopped on a Philmont bus that took...

We finally made it to the Welcome Center of Philmont Scout Ranch! We drove in right beside the gateway to the unloading area and were immediately greeted by staff members who gave us our instructions for unloading and parking. While in the bathroom I bumped into a Ranger -- he would turn out to...

Our hike at the BSA Philmont Scout Ranch was a seven day 30-mile trek designed to test our eleven-person crew (consisting of three adults and their boys, plus an additional four scouts and a Ranch-assigned ranger who leaves after Day 3). Starting from Camping Headquarters on Day 1, we would...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. It's hard. As Dungeon Masters, we meticulously craft encounters, balancing challenge ratings, hit points, and legendary actions, to make an encounter challenging. But sometimes, that intent is for the party to face an insurmountable obstacle, a force meant to...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. What Do You Mean You've Never Heard of Me? As Dungeon Masters, we invest heavily in our bad guys. We craft intricate backstories, devise cunning schemes, and anticipate the look on players' faces when a past foe steps back into the spotlight with a flourish. It...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Fantasy narratives often imbue characters with powerful staffs, portraying them as tools of authority and magic. From Gandalf's iconic wizard's staff to Marcille Donato's staff Ambroisa from Delicious in Dungeon, staves are as much tools as part of their identity...

In a monster-filled world, what's okay to eat? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Drawing inspiration from the book Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat, let's explore the often-unexamined categories of creatures that adventurers in Dungeons & Dragons might consider off-limits, acceptable...

There's been a trend for a while now in video games and anime: crafting what you kill. D&D is finally catching up. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Dungeons & Dragons has always supported the concept of collecting stuff, with detailed inventory lists and encumbrance rules. Despite this, the...

Wandering monsters aren't the only beings you might encounter in a dungeon; NPC adventurers can be helpful too (even unintentionally). Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Dungeons in D&D are often portrayed as desolate places, populated only by malevolent monsters. But what if these subterranean...

In traditional D&D dungeons, traps are everywhere. But what keeps them running? Picture By George E. Koronaios - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126583620 In the world of Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons are often steeped in magic, with traps triggered by...

Megadungeons, long a staple of D&D, can be just as complex as any other ecosystem in your campaign. Picture by Thompsma - Own work, CC BY 3.0, File:TrophicWeb.jpg - Wikimedia Commons The concept of megadungeons conjures images of sprawling underground complexes filled with untold riches and...

As much as I love dice, I'm always open to trying other randomizers. Enter these spinners. Dice Tower Spinner The concept is definitely intriguing. It's essentially a spinning tower that houses all six standard RPG dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20) in one place. The idea is to spin the...

I'm always on the prowl for Steampunk-themed dice for my artificer characters, but there's an eternal battle between legibility and design. When it comes to branding dice like this, you have two options: put something in the dice or change the outside of the dice. Let's take a look. Galaxy...