Monster Point Buy
For as long as I’ve been creating NPCs for D&D 5e, I’ve really struggled with assigning stats. A lot of the time I would modify the stats of an existing creatures to make sure I kept them consistent with published materials. That made me feel like maybe I was just reskinning existing creatures more than…
The Forge of Fury: Many Ways In
The Forge of Fury is the second adventure in Tales from the Yawning Portal, and this is the third article in my series on that book. I continue to find interesting things to point out as I progress through these adventures. The titular forge is in an old dwarven settlement now occupied by the orcs…
Sunless Citadel 3e: A Sense of Place
I just finished my read-through of The Sunless Citadel 3e adventure module in Tales from the Yawning Portal. Upon viewing it has a whole, one thing really jumped out at me. The whole module has a tremendous sense of place. The Citadel is a character itself. It looms in the background of every scene, implacably…
Sunless Citadel: Tricks of the Trade
I’ve started reading Tales from the Yawning Portal. I figured that if the adventures in there were worthy of republishing in a later edition, they must be good. So far, I’ve read the first in the book, The Sunless Citadel. I don’t usually run modules or published adventures. They break something in my brain, and…
Carceri: A Brief History
The description of Carceri is very brief in the 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), but it was enough to pique my interest: The model for all other prisons in existence, Carceri is a plane of desolation and despair. Its six layers hold vast bogs, fetid jungles, windswept deserts, jagged mountains, and black ice. All…
Port Fey Campaign Setting
The Port Fey campaign setting first saw life in the game Soth that I ran. Soth is a game about cultists in a small town working to bring their evil god, the eponymous Soth, to earth. I keep meaning to do a post about this great game; it will show up in my favorites some…
So, What About Safety in Gaming?
When I’m running a game, my goal is to ensure that the players have a good time. To do that, I have to take a step back from the game and think about safety in gaming. That includes both physical and social environments. I wouldn’t expect people to focus on and enjoy the game if…
