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‘D&D’ Players Beware — A New Dragon Has Been Spotted…

‘Dragon+’ is a free ‘D&D’ resource that is available for iOS and Android devices (best viewed on a tablet, and my screenshots are from iPad–not sure if features and functions are identical with Android tablets). It contains articles and interviews with a mix of individuals and companies that are providing content and services to ‘D&D’ fans, along with videos, hyperlinks to external content, and plenty of eye candy.

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Temple of Elemental Evil board game

The Dice Section #28: ‘Temple of Elemental Evil’

Haircuts. Boxing. Sword and sorcery and dungeon crawls, including a revolutionary occurrence in our 5th Edition ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ campaign and a review of the new ‘Temple of Elemental Evil’ board game from Wizards of the Coast and WizKids. We reminisce about childhood games like ‘Hero Quest’ and ‘Dragon Strike’, and (spoiler alert) decide that we could all do a lot worse than ‘Temple of Elemental Evil’ as an introduction to the dungeon crawl genre.

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‘D&D’ Encounters DM Report: Elemental Evil Session 7

Over the last week (since the party returned from defeating the evil necromancer), small tremors have been felt — driving animals crazy (“barking horses”) and causing all sorts of unrest in the town. Just as the party was starting to get restless and considering moving on, a large sinkhole opened up in the center of town — four young children dropped down into the opening. The adventurers wasted no time in mounting a rescue — Goliath Tom lowered down Gnome Krieger with a rope, and they group proceeded to bring the children up, two at a time. As the rescue was going on, Krieger took a moment to examine his surroundings… a natural cave with two exits… one to the north and one to the east. The one to the north was a natural fissure, but the east passageway was obviously (to a Deep Gnome) carved/chiseled into a hallway.

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Fifth Edition Fantasy Collection

Hey DMs! Two MORE New 5th Edition Adventures!

If you missed David Ewalt’s interview with Nathan Stewart, Wizards of the Coast’s brand director for ‘Dungeons & Dragons,’ one of the big takeaways from that article was that ‘D&D’ 5e is very much alive… and doing quite well. Steward shared that ‘D&D’ 5e was “the best launch we’ve ever had” and stated that “everything exceeded our forecast,” two statements that are sure to bring smiles to ‘D&D’ fans everywhere.

Here’s something else that will bring a smile to D&D fans (especially DMs) — Goodman Games has a new Kickstarter to raise funds to get two more Fifth Edition Fantasy adventures published and added to the two current adventures, FEF #1 Glitterdoom and FEF #2 The Fey Sisters’ Fate.

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Adventurers League

‘D&D’ Encounters DM Report: Elemental Evil Session 6

Tonight’s Encounters session wrapped up a three-part storyline called “The Necromancer’s Cave.” Because this adventure was spread over three weeks, the players were not given a long rest… meaning that spell casters were all out of spell slots and those players who had not yet died and burned up their hit dice during a few short rests were most likely very low on HP. This was a slog, pure and simple… and the players were definitely on their guard tonight (sort of).

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Adventurers League

‘D&D’ Encounters DM Report: Elemental Evil Session 3

Session 3 — The Haunted Tomb. With a title like that, I had to come up with something a little more involved than what was provided in the DM handout. The basic adventure provided to DMs allowed for a two-room tomb and a couple of encounters, but I wanted to give my players something special — they’re rooting around in an unknown tomb, the final resting place of someone who’d never done them a disservice, so come on… don’t they deserve any harsh punishments that come their way?

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Adventurers League

‘D&D’ Encounters DM Report: Elemental Evil Session 2

Things are rolling again with the Adventurers League–the new season has started with the Elemental Evil theme, and I’m back in the weekly DM chair for at least another four to five months. Before I get started, I can already hear a bunch of you asking “where’s the DM report for Session 1?” I’ll give a little summary shortly of what happened last week, but the truth of the matter is I had just returned from spring break with my family and was completely swamped with work when I returned. But not this week… NOPE! I had a chance to sit down and do some prep work for what I hope my players really enjoyed.

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Dungeon crawling with The Dice Section

The Dice Section #25: ‘Wrath of Ashardalon’ and the Perfect Dungeon Crawl

This week on the podcast, we talk about the perennial geek favorite: the dungeon crawl. Why does the lure of loot always get us back down into those dark, dank catacombs? What makes the perfect dungeon crawl experience, and why do so many games fall just short of what we’re hoping for? We play Wrath of Ashardalon, one of the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System games, and talk about everything from Descent: Journeys in The Dark to Diablo III.

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‘D&D’ Encounters DM Report — “A Bright Light,” Part II

Last night, my six players wrapped up the second-half of my latest mini-adventure titled “A Bright Light.” Now that it’s over, I can share many more details than I was able to share last week. Please keep in mind that if you’re a player looking for something different, you might want to ask your DM to read this post (and Part I) and see if he or she is willing to run it. Reading any further will spoil some of the surprises, so consider yourself warned.

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Original ‘D&D’ and 5th Edition, Some Side-by-Side Comparisons Part I

For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some investigations into “classic” Dungeons & Dragons for an upcoming Adventurers League three-week (six hours) session. Way before Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and even before the Basic Set (1977) that was my starting point with the game. I’m talking about what many folks refers to as Original D&D or OD&D.

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