Tag: Wizards of the Coast

‘D&D’ Encounters DM Report — ‘Sholla’s Dream’ Part II

James Floyd Kelly

I continue to enjoy my return to the DM’s chair, and I hope my players are enjoying the custom adventures I’ve been developing to hold them over until the new campaign starts up in a few more months. Last week, my six players found themselves on the water. They are on a mission to intercept a caravan of cultists that will be arriving in Baldur’s Gate a few days after they are scheduled to arrive via the River Chiontharr that runs between Elturel and Baldur’s Gate. First, a small abandoned raft (with cargo still in place) was investigated — the party was attacked by a single ghoul and two zombies. The mystery starts. The next evening, the sloop almost collided with a large cargo ship anchored in the middle of the river. An investigation of the cargo ship provided some clues to a larger mystery yet to reveal itself. We wrapped up last Wednesday night’s event with the players fighting a wave of ghasts and ghouls on the top deck. While victorious, a few of the players were injured… and there were still two lower decks to investigate.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Encounters DM Report — Sholla’s Dream Part I

James Floyd Kelly

Wednesday nights are D&D Encounters sessions (for novice and veteran players) at Titan Games & Comics in Atlanta, GA (and at other locations around the globe), and for the last few weeks I’ve enjoyed my return to the role of Dungeon Master. Last week concluded a two-part adventure that had the players encountering a group of cultists hiding out in a cavern beneath a crypt where they were performing a dark ritual to strengthen a young black dragon. The players were successful in defeating the dragon and collapsing the only escape from the cavern after narrowly escaping a chase around a circular four-level ramp that led to the bottom of said cavern. RIP cultists.

This week, the players found themselves in the city of Elturel, hunting down Leosin, a monk who had given them an earlier mission to try and discover information on this new dragon cult. The players made their way into the city where they would need to find Leosin as well as the Order of the Gauntlet to receive the reward that was promised them when they defeated the black dragon and cultists.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Encounters DM Report — Running a Chase & The Road to Elturel Part II (Conclusion)

James Floyd Kelly

Last night as I was setting up my table for the night’s game, I began to receive some fun and interesting comments about my 3D creation for running the second-half of my mini-adventure, The Road to Elturel. Our game night coordinator, Topher, continues to call me an over-achiever. I can live with that. I’ve always tried to push myself to give my players a memorable game; when I was younger, I would create props and sketches to hand out at different points in a game. Now that I’m a bit older and wiser (and have a debit card), I’m finding I have even more fun and interesting ideas to toss at my players… such as the situation where my players found themselves tonight.

Continue Reading
Rollin'

Roll an Adventure Using the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide — Part III

James Floyd Kelly

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a chance to sit down with the new 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), the latest book release for the new 5e Dungeons & Dragons and, in my opinion, a grand-slam for Wizards of the Coast. Along with the 5e Player’s Handbook (PH) and the 5e Monster Manual (MM), players (that includes Dungeon Masters, or DMs) now have access to everything they need to host and play some legendary adventures of their own.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Adventurers League: Session 18 Report and Player Wrap-Up

James Floyd Kelly

Last night’s session was a little bittersweet for me, I must admit. For the last eighteen weeks, I’ve sat side-by-side with a number of new friends as we took on the evil cultists in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure. I’ll go in to a bit more detail about this shortly, but as I begin preparing for my role as DM (starting on Jan 7, 2015), I have to bid farewell to Niloshis, my (now) level 4 sorcerer.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Adventurers League: Session 17 Report

James Floyd Kelly2

Tonight’s gathering of players included our long lost Rolan D’Crits, wood elf ranger. In addition to Rolan, returning players included:

Essie – Human Fighter
Borax – Dwarf Cleric
Edna – Gnome Bard
Anton – Human Rogue
Umbra – Drow Ranger
Niloshis – Half-Elf Sorcerer

Yep… seven players. Missing was Chi, Human Fighter (and his human player). When we left Session 16, the party had destroyed two dragon eggs (one black, one green) and our sneaky Drow ranger was trying to sneak a second black dragon egg by the group. Wasn’t happening, and when the party left the large cavern and returned to the altar room, the question was whether we would try to take a short rest or flee the cave. And so, Session 17 started with all but Rolan in the altar room.

Continue Reading
Rollin'

Roll an Adventure Using the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide — Part I

James Floyd Kelly13

Earlier this week, I wrote about the newly released 5th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide and how much I had enjoyed reading through it and uncovering some great tools for creating custom campaigns and adventures.

Well… it’s time to put the book to the test. And have some fun, obviously.

After finishing up with the 5e DMG, I thought it might be fun to try and create a mini-adventure using the new book’s content. Any experienced DM will tell you, however, that a good adventure will often require some (or a LOT of) tinkering once you’ve created the skeleton framework. My goal here is to create that framework and try to avoid going too deep into the nitty-gritty details that can either be made on-the-fly during gameplay or after the framework has “stewed” a little in my head.

Continue Reading
Side by Side

A Tale of Two Dungeon Master Guides – 1979 AD&D and 2014 D&D

James Floyd Kelly5

The circle is complete. Wizards of the Coast has released its 5th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, and with that book the trio of books that has formed the basis of Dungeons & Dragons for decades is united again in a new edition. Earlier this year, WotC released the 5th edition Player’s Handbook and followed it up with the 5e Monster Manual. Based on reviews and fan reaction and my own informal discussions with numerous players during my own Adventurer’s League gathering every Wednesday evening, the opinion seems to be that the 5th edition is a welcome return to traditional dungeon crawls and role playing to satisfy veteran players while bringing in enough new content and rule updates to freshen up the game and make it welcoming to new players. These reactions, however, have been based on the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and the handful of ready-made adventurers that have been offered up to dungeon masters and players through the Expeditions and Encounters events. The 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide has been the most obvious missing element, but no longer. It’s here…

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Adventurers League: Session 10 Report

James Floyd Kelly2

This week, I was fortunate to be sitting at a table when a brand new player, Ryan, walked in. He’d never played D&D before, and only understood basic concepts of levels and XP from the video games he’d played. It’s important to remember that the Encounters events are designed for new players; although almost everyone at my event has past experience with D&D, it’s still nice to see how a novice is welcomed and made to feel at home. We got him up to speed on the rules, provided him with a pre-generated character (a level 1 Halfing Rogue) and we had a good mix of combat and role-playing provided by DM Martin. When the night’s game was over, Ryan told us he’ll see us next week… a good sign that he enjoyed the night’s adventure. He tells us he’s going to create a custom character, too… can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Adventurers League: Sessions 8 & 9 Report

James Floyd Kelly

My apologies to those of you following along with my session reports for the D&D Encounters event. Last week got a bit crazy with some work-related items and I was unable to get the Session 8 report submitted. So… this week I’ll be catching you up on the events for Sessions 8 and 9 — these two gaming nights added to Session 7 make up Chapter 2 of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Adventurers League: Session 7 Report (Bonus: New DM Interview!)

James Floyd Kelly

I’m still smiling over the adventure my group shared with Session 7 on Wednesday night. It was an amazing amount of fun that I’ll discuss shortly. This week’s gathering of players at Titan Games & Comics looked to about 26 players and four DMs — based on the noise coming from other tables, I’m guessing the other players felt the same way about this week’s adventure.

Continue Reading
Side by Side

A Tale of Two Monster Manuals — 1977 AD&D and 2014 5e D&D

James Floyd Kelly13

I enjoyed being a DM for my friends, and I’m looking forward to taking the reins again. The original AD&D Monster Manual was a great source of inspiration for many adventures — I’d pick the right Big Bad, create a dungeon or castle or other location, and then scatter lesser creatures around as needed. When I reached for the MM, my players knew something was coming… or around the corner… or hidden just beneath the water’s surface. The DMG and MM were all I needed (plus a few hours or more of prep time) to give my players a good adventure, and now it’s looking like I’m going to once again have a chance to create new adventures as the 5th edition books are two-thirds released. My original AD&D Monster Manual has sat proudly on my shelf, and now it has a neighbor… the new 5th edition D&D Monster Manual.

Continue Reading
Adventurers League

D&D Adventurers League: Session 3 Report

James Floyd Kelly2

Once again this week I was fortunate to grab a chair at the same DM’s table (Martin) so I could pick up where my party left off. It was suggested to me that a good idea might be to change tables and experience another DM as well as see how a transition to an earlier or later part of the adventure is handled. Fortunately, I was able to see one way it could be handled when a player from another table joined our group this week — that player had already finished a small piece of our upcoming night’s adventure. The DM had a private (and quick) chat with that player to determine what he knew (and didn’t know) and was able to tweak a bit of the adventure to keep it new for all involved.

Continue Reading