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I did this for fun recently... and possibly was a bit too generous. But, hey! :) For those unaware of tier rankings, “S-tier” is the top, followed by A, B, C, D, and finally F. S-Tier: Lost Mine of Phandelver (original starter set) Curse of Strahd A-Tier: Hoard of the Dragon Queen Rise of...

In the greater D&D universe, we have new DMs all the time. How many of them buy official adventures? How much has that changed over time? Going through a few of the various sales threads, I found information that pointed to early 3E modules (not including The Sunless Citadel) sold about 40K...

As part of another discussion, I was reminded of Keep on the Borderlands and my first experiences with it as a DM (I'm not even sure I was a teenager then...) I had trouble with the Keep, but the wilderness section really confounded me. It's worth having a look at how it is designed, and...

From "The Shattered Obelisk" (roll20 port). The rogue (who opened the door) won initiative and moved back so that the slaad had to squeeze to attack. Why do people keep doing this?

Is The Lost Mine of Phandelver the most played D&D adventure of all time? If not, what would it be? Cheers, Merric

I recently mentioned how much reading Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (the adventure in the new D&D starter) bored me. I would get as far as the description of the settlement, and find my mind drifting off to things that were more entertaining. This is a big, big difference to my experiences with...

One of the weird things about my Dungeons & Dragons 5E journey is how, as the years have gone on, I've become more and more disappointed with the official Wizards adventures. I'm a big fan of published adventures, and in the early years of 5E, I greeted each new adventure with anticipation. And...

My group is playing through Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk on every Monday evening. Although I will hopefully going into more detail on my blog, I wanted to give a few short notes here for any interested in how each session went. We are playing on Roll20 using D&D Beyond (Beyond20...

G'day, folks! Two sessions into Shadow of the Dragon Queen - that is, starting at level 2 and now reaching level 4, otherwise known as all of "Chapter 3", my report is... It doesn't suck... yet! :) It's been a while since I ran a hardcover published adventure from Wizards (the last was...

G'day, folks! I've just come from a couple of months of playing PF2 with a group that really didn't want to be playing that system. That's fine - plenty of other games to play. But some of my experiences have made me wonder what groups who enjoy the game have discovered about the best way to...

I ran two combat encounters last night for my Greyhawk game. The party: Barbarian 14 Cleric 16 Wizard 16 Paladin 15 Fighter 13 The first encounter: (Hard) * 6 trolls (CR 5). The party are on their way to face "space" trolls - more correctly, trolls that have found extraplanar armour that...

After about a year, my Wednesday group finished Curse of Strahd last night. They found the last of the artefacts at the end of the previous session, and - having already found Strahd - they began the session by confronting him in his lair. Two rounds and one action later, he was dead. It...

My current 5E Greyhawk campaign (now in its 5th year) has the characters on a quest to find the Rod of Seven Parts. Because, let's face it, I was greatly inspired by the Key to Time (Doctor Who) in my youth. And big quests for parts of major artefacts really appeal to me. :) They've found four...

I had the chance to play (not GM!) part of the Absalom Initiation recently, the first of the PFS scenarios. While I generally enjoyed it - and we didn't get into any big fights so I couldn't really tell you how the combat rules work in detail - there were a couple of irritations. The first was...

One of the biggest problems I had with the PF2 playtest was how poor wizards were (especially at first level). Some cantrips have been slightly improved in this version, but the 1st-level spells are mostly the same - and I think they're underwhelming. (More analysis of first-level spells)...

The initial ratings for Ghosts of Saltmarsh could have been better... :) Two ratings: 1 star, and 3 stars - no reviews attached! Cheers!

G'day, folks! I was just thinking of my process of awarding magic items in my 5E homebrew, and I realised that my approach to magic weapons had changed, partly as a result of the changing editions. While in previous editions there'd be lots of magic weapons lying about (so many guards armed...

Just checking my interpretation of the rules... * A DDAL character who plays any Season 7 or CCC adventure becomes affected by the Death Curse. * Once the T3 adventures get released (January 2018), that character can no longer play Season 7 Tier 1 or 2 adventures or Tomb of Annihilation. * This...

I've now designed my first investigative adventure. There's a mystery. The players have to solve it. It's the middle bits that are hard. Big showdown against the Bad Guy at the end? Easy. What the problem is? Easy. Working out the clues that the PCs can find? Working out what the Bad Guy...

The early days of D&D included this assumption that player characters would end up building strongholds and assuming positions of responsibility - fighters ruling land, rogues becoming the head of thieves' guilds, and the like. It something that later editions moved away from, though they...