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You are here: Home / Archives for Dungeons & Dragons

Review: “Tomb of Annihilation”

November 27, 2017 by JonBolds

Tomb is an adventure module that blends three kinds of classic D&D gaming into a pretty satisfying whole, despite a few sore spots. It’s metaplot-driven campaign arc set in an exploration sandbox that gives way to a big dungeon crawl for the finale.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, d&d5e, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons

The Wizards and the Sheep

February 22, 2017 by multiplexer

This is a long-winded story about how master 20th level wizards often get into the sheep business.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, gaming economics

Dalt Wisney’s World: A D&D Play Report

January 5, 2017 by The Chatty DM

I decided it would be cool to run the players through an old school dungeon. White Plume Mountain came up as a perfect model of the crazy “makes-no-sense” concept of early 80’s dungeon design. I just needed to find a semi-plausible reason to plug the adventure into the world. That’s where the Faerie Dragon came in.

Filed Under: Campaign Logs, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, D&D 5e, d&d5e, dalt wisney, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, white plume mountain

Magic Patents, Trolls, Scabs, and Open Source Spells

May 24, 2016 by multiplexer

Spells have a special problem: they’re information. Spells are knowledge which, when learned, perform a specified effect.

Filed Under: Columns, Dungeonomics, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, open source spells, spellcasting, spells, wizards

A Plot, So Meta

March 24, 2016 by Chris Sims

Canon serves as a framework for a setting, but after that, strict adherence to and advancement of canon along an official timeline is harmful to the setting and its audience.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Editorial, Movies, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television Tagged With: canon, Curse of Strahd, D&D, Drizzt, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, forgotten realms, metaplot, roleplaying games, Spellplague, star wars, transmedia storytelling, Tropes, vampires, world building, world of darkness

Resurrection Edition

March 17, 2016 by Chris Sims

I believe fifth edition’s success owes much to a studied return to the roots of the D&D game, along with the calculated inclusion of fan favorites from all editions.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 5e, D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, fifth edition, roleplaying games

A Life Playing D&D

February 25, 2014 by Mike Shea

It’s quite possible that, when we look at the small things that form together to build a happy life, D&D can be high on the list. This might surprise us. Yet if we think about it, the fact that we get so much joy playing D&D might not be all that surprising at all.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: D&D, Dungeons & Dragons

The Architect DM: Structural Dungeon Design

July 25, 2012 by Bartoneus

Back in one of my earliest Architect DM posts I said that structure was one of the most overlooked elements of dungeon design. These days most of the published dungeon maps that I see are not bad with regards to structure, but from what I’ve heard this is still something that a lot of people would like to learn about for their personal, hand drawn dungeon designs.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: architect dm, D&D, DM advice, dnd, dungeon design, dungeon mastering, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, gm advice, structure, world building

D&D: Advantage vs. Flat Bonuses

June 11, 2012 by Bartoneus

Photo Credit: MegaBee

There are a lot of people talking about the D&D Next open playtest, and one of the subjects I hear about a lot is the way Advantage/Disadvantage are currently working. The general opinion I’ve heard is that it is overpowered when compared to the +2/-2 bonus we’re used to from previous editions of D&D. My gut reaction to hearing that something is overpowered isn’t to jump into the mob and swing my nerf-bat around, it’s to look at as much data as I can and figure out if I agree or not. So that’s what I’m going to do!

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, advantage, combat advantage, comparison, D&D, D&D next, disadvantage, dnd, dndnext, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, math, numbers, open playtest, playtest, statistics, stats

What Classes Should be in D&D?

May 25, 2012 by Bartoneus

For me, choosing a class has always been one of the most fun and important decisions to make while playing Dungeons & Dragons. I can still remember the feeling of pure excitement I had when I first cracked open the 3rd Edition Player’s Handbook and saw that Monk was a core class. I also remember our friends all having multiple discussions about what exactly the Sorcerer class was and how it was different from the Wizard. With the next edition of D&D now in open playtest, I felt it was a good time to discuss the varying levels of class distinction in D&D.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: assassin, character, class, classes, cleric, D&D, D&D next, dnd, dndnext, Dungeons & Dragons, fighter, monk, rogue, roleplaying games, thief, wizard

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About the Author

  • JonBolds

    Jon has opinions about games, so he writes them down. That other people seem to enjoy this is a source of continual wonder and abashment for him. He's a professional games writer, editor, and critic. When he is not writing about games, he behaves very poorly on Twitter and streams on Twitch. He lives in Durham, North Carolina with a small dog and a life partner.

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