25 Years Ago...

Alright, this is a lengthy chapter that discusses how to run the game smoothly to give the players the best experience possible while still enjoying the game yourself. Even for experienced DMs, I have no doubt there will be a lot of useful information here, especially since everyone is still getting used to the new rules. We begin with a discussion on Encounter Distance and how to measure it. It's a lot more mechanical than it used to be, involving Spot checks, creatures sizes, vision conditions and terrain. All of these are quantified in the game rules now, so there's a lot less adjudication and more calculation involved. Circumstantial adjustments to the checks are the only real subjective part of this process, and even then most of them have standard modifiers. Combat is next, and I'm sure this will be a quick read... Okay, so the old 'surprise roll' is dead and buried. Instead, Spot and Listen checks are the keys to avoid being surprised by an opponent. There ar...

Chapter 2 is all about characters, both PC and NPC. It starts with a few ways to roll characters' ability scores, much like the old Methods I-IV in the original DMG . There's the standard method (4d6, drop the lowest, arrange as desired), Organic characters (4d6 in order, drop the lowest, reroll one score, switch a pair around), Customized average characters (3d6, arrange as desired), Random Average (3d6 in order, the original old-school method), High-Powered (5d6, drop the two lowest, arrange as desired), Floating Reroll (4d6, drop the lowest, but you can reroll the lowest once, arrange as desired), Standard Point Buy (ability scores cost points and you get 25 points to play with), or Nonstandard Point Buy (variable points to buy ability scores with). Oh, and there's the Default Array, which is scores of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 arranged as desired. It's a faster version of the Standard Point Buy method. So, there are lots of options depending on the DM's taste an...

Finally! FedEx is an absolute pain to deal with. But two days after I was supposed to get my package, it is finally here. And it is a nice little haul, I must say: The Dungeon Master's Guide , the Gazetteer , The Sunless Citadel , Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor , Dragon #275, and Dungeon #82. The only thing I'm missing from this month is Living Greyhawk Journal #1, which was prohibitively expensive to get at this time. But I'm looking at an alternate source, and I should have a copy by the end of the month. I hope. So, we're going to dive into the 3.0 Dungeon Master's Guide . And, to my surprise, the copy I received is, like my Player's Handbook , it's a first printing. Which means I'll need the errata printed off, and there's quite a bit of that. But I'm fine with it; it's a first printing, after all. So, the DMG  is broken down into 8 chapters, so I'll cover one chapter a day until it's done. That should still leave me ti...

This entry is simply called  Castle . As the original archive stated, "The five sections of this castle can be used as separate modules or can fit together for a larger floorplan." It's a nice idea, but looking at the sections, it is really hard to see how to fit them together. The third module (the square on the middle left) has two double doors leaving the great hall (35), but there isn't any other connection on that map, and there's no other door entrance on the other maps. Like the ruins map, there are staircases on every level that could conceivably connect them as well, but again, it's hard to see how. Frankly, this would work better as another dungeon, this one with less ruins. And these would be easy to expand without connecting them, since every section (except the third one) has multiple entrance and exit points. So this is Ardismouth Castle. Or at least, a part of this map is a part of that castle. I'm going to tie it in with the ruins from the ...

I went over this map just a week ago , so you can see my initial thoughts on it. Today, I'm going to stock it up as a starting dungeon, with some broad strokes to get the overall feel of what's happening here. I'm freestyling this, so we'll see what I come up with. I'm not going to include monster stat blocks; those are easy enough to look up. I don't know how much I'll get done, but I'll at least get the first section completed. So, the first section (upper left) is the above-ground portion of a castle/dungeon that is partially collapsed. Why? Dragon attack, most likely. Judging by the writeup of the adult red dragon in the Survival Kit, dragons are going to be extra-nasty in this edition. So, this castle got smoked (sorry) by a dragon at some point, collapsing part of the building. Rooms 1-6 are the original part of the castle; 7 and 8 are caverns dug out from the rubble that lead to the lower level that is 9-15. 1. Guard room. Empty now except for som...

So, I'm still waiting for my package to arrive with the October products. In the meantime, I'm looking at the Map-a-Week offerings from last month in order to build the Tasiri Campaign I've been developing. This time, it's the Typical Dwelling. So, I am looking at this in terms of how it fits into the villages of Highwich and Hollowcross. There are a few buildings in Highwich that have the square shape, but only two in Hollowcross, one of which I made a guard tower. So of the buildings in Highwich that fit, they are all listed as basic residences of various trades. I mean, it fits, since they are 'typical dwellings', but there's not a lot I can really do with any of them. So, it's a bit of a disappointment, although this map will do for any of them should it become necessary in the game. Instead, I'll move on to the next map, which is this one: This one's a full-blown city. And one that has taken a beating. Like the map of Hollowcross, the outer ...

Alright, so the Cliffhangers series was a set of adventures that were published piecemeal, four installments over the course of a full month. So, it was sort of like the Map-a-Week feature. Except I'm not going to do one installment at a time; I'm going to review the entire adventure at once, because I've got enough other stuff to do over the course of the month. The first Cliffhanger, Unearthing the Past , is another beginner's adventure for 1st-level characters. They had quite a few of these early on, didn't they? It's set around a village named Travensburg. Like the Dead of Winter  adventure on the PH  CD-Rom, this one is set in winter, albeit with spring right around the corner. The adventure is not very complicated; the village needs a shipment of food that is coming from a nearby village, and there are hungry humanoids who want the food for themselves. Warning: This post will be full of spoilers for this 25-year-old adventure. The party is asked to track d...