Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

In addition to me and you, it turns out there are a number of other famous people who admit to playing Dungeons and Dragons. Check out this link for some of those people: 20 Celebrities Who Play Dungeons & Dragons

Hey, looks like WotC is running a contest to find the "Ultimate Dragonlance Fan", so if you think you got what it takes, head over the the official page to get your entry form. Top prize includes a free trip to GenCon this year and an autographed copy of the new Weis and Hickman book, Dragons of the Hourglass Mage . You have till July 15 to send the entry in. And good luck, but not too much, since I'll be entering too!!

Season of the Witch This issue starts with Riva and companions reaching her destination. This turns out to be an empty mesa, but Riva doesn't seem bothered with this. Instead she uses the time to continue telling more tales of Wistan Dawnbringer. Wistan's tale picks up three years after his adventure in the Silvanesti lands . During that time, lands important to the Knights of Solomnia have been plunged into an eternal winter. The knights recently learned that this was the work of the black-robed wizard Ravenna and now march on her lair. As they approach a particularly steep hill, Alben, Lord Sigmun's son, goes on foot to scout ahead. Just over the rise, the young knight is attacked engulfed in the freezing breath of a white dragon. The other knights quickly attack and drive away the dragon, but it's too late to save the young knight. Meanwhile as they gather fire wood, Shaya and Riva talk about the pain Lord Sigmun must have felt over sending his own son to his death.

Having finally recovered the Gem of Amara , the party returned to Dun Eamon for supplies and a chance to plan their next move... Inside the Grey Citadel, Hunter, Theo, Jes, and Adow were contacted by Caledon, a local druid and friend of Greybear. He reported that the local druids were watching the area around Brightstone Keep and there had been an increase in activity around the mine. The druids currently believed that the followers of the Black Scourge had retrieved as many as eight or nine of the ten bones needed to allow the Scourge to return to the prime material plane. Everyone then packed up with fresh supplies for the journey back to the keep. En route, the party met up with the druids actually monitoring the area. They were reunited with Greybear , who informed them of recent events. Many of the local hobgoblin and gnoll tribes had aligned themselves with this cult, and the main entrance to the mine was well guarded by these minions. Something they recently discovered, was that

It was recently announced that the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMORPG is trying out a free version. It doesn't cost anything to play, but certain character upgrades will cost. While it's an interesting take on the game model, sadly, it feels more like a last ditch effort to get bodies in the game... I mean you can't really call it "massively multi-player" if there are only a few folks on at any one time. It also doesn't help that overall opinion of the original version of DDO was totally unenthusiastic. Maybe this new version will be better... As soon as I can get some free time, I'll check it out... oh wait, there's no Mac version. Guess that ends that (and poorly too)

Now's the time to do your part to help stimulate the economy... this weekend (June 12th - 14th, 2009) WotC and participating retailers are giving away free stuff with all purchases over $15. $15... that's like half of a source book, a box of minis, or a few booster packs of MtG cards. Now I like D&D, but I like free stuff even more! Looks like it's time for me to pick up a few items to fill out my collection.

First off, I'm a big fan of anything that really helps portray a scene to the players... from minis and maps, to props and pictures, I try to do whatever I can to showcase an adventure. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of the Dungeon Tile sets (I used the Lost Caverns of the Underdark set to create the mines at Brightstone Keep ). On one hand they help show what an area actually looks like and on the other they can help track what's going on during a battle (when used with some kind of minis, such as those from the Dangerous Delves set). I just read about some new tiles that are a little more above ground than the typical sets (though these new set are not the first to go topside). The first is a special set that's not for sale. It is only for DMs as part of the RPGA DM Rewards program . This year the set is a sheet of tiles that can be used to create a ship, with one side being the top and the flip side being below decks. I know I'll be checking eBay to see what the

Mission of Mercy This issue opens up with Darial and Shaya riding a cart into town when they are stopped by a group of draconian guards. The guards are wondering why they are arriving into town so late at night. Darial makes up a story that Shaya is sick and needs a healer. The draconains, finished tormenting the travelers, sends them on their way. A little while later, in the house of the town healer, Riva receives a foul smelling potion. In moments, the poison is purged from her body and the knight is up and about. The healer warns that Riva still needs time to heal and takes the three of them through a secret passage into a room, hidden from draconian guards. While sharing a feast, Darial asks how Riva became a night. There's a one page montage of moments from the first arc of the comic: Lord Soth, Riva fighting Takhisis, fighting with Kitiara, Riva in an embrace with Vandar, and kneeing in front of Vandar's body. Rather than tell her story, she continues talking about Winst

One of my favorite tools as a DM is the Dungeon Tiles Mapper (DTM). This handy app was previously featured on the WotC website, but the creator retained ownership of the product. Since that time, it was revised into a 2.0.0 version and has now found a new home and is the focus of a Yahoo Group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dungeon_tiles/ ). In addition to hosting the latest version, the group also houses additional tile sets for the app, and a lively discussion board. While I've been working with the tool for some time (my maps for the mines at Brightstone Keep were created using the DTM), there has been a consistent issue with the product (known as "sticky tiles"). I've recently focus my professional talents as a web developer to solve this issue and posted an update to fix this issue. If you use DTM, please consider joining the Yahoo Group, as well as adding this update to your version of DTM. If you are new to the DTM, now is a good time to check it out.