Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

If you're a fan of miniatures, and terrain, especially 3D terrain like Dwarven Forge, you should go check out the Upworks site now and get ready for their initial Kickstarter, starting Tues noon, Central time. Upworks is the latest project from Jeff Martin , the man behind True Dungeon, and the former president of Dwarven Forge. The site doesn't have a lot of information up yet, just some teaser pictures, but Upworks look to "build" on the quality and modularity of the Dwarven Forge concept by also allowing for vertical, multilevel displays, like a large castle, with walls, towers and roofs. Considering the success of the two Dwarven Forge kickstarters that Jeff helmed, I'm expecting an exciting offering, and plenty of stretch goals and add-ons... and here I thought my gaming budget was safe for a little while! You can follow Upworks on twtitter at @upworksgames , check out their site at: http://upworks.com/

After my talk at GenCon , I've become more and more interested in the idea of using Lego in table top games, and this new ongoing feature will spotlight some simple, easy ways you can add bricks to your adventures. Before I jump into my first idea, I want to address the obvious question "why?", what does Lego add to my games that I don't already have? I would respond with a counter question. What does Dwarven Forge and Hirst Arts add to your game? What do minis , tokens , and battle maps add to your game? In all cases, I see those tools adding greater immersion in your game, and facilitating a clear understanding of what exactly is going on. When you set down a battle mat of a forest clearing, your players are not going to mistake that for a dungeon dwelling. And when you lay down a trio of mountain trolls , players are not going to mistake them for lizard men. Lego can do the same thing, but with one other key benefit, they are customizable and reusable. W...

I was recently thinking about Lego and Dungeons and Dragons (maybe because of my recent GenCon speech ) and remembered that there were supposed to be more waves of the figures from Kre-O. After a little Google-fu, I came across a few images of the figures, as shown below. There are definitely a few interesting things I see. Pros The lizardman (back row, left) look interesting (if maybe a bit too much like the Star Trek Gorn ). I'll certainly try to pick up a few of these. There appears to be a drow (back row, left of center) with a new hair piece and crossbow. Back middle figure is some kind of succubus, with some unique looking wings. We'll have to see how they stack up to the Brickwarriors wings or Lego wings . Back row, far right, looks to be a wizard/cleric. I like the neck guard and hair piece. The mummy figure (front row, left) is a new figure for the line and is wielding a new weapon. The ghost figure looks great, and it appears he has a spider accessory ...

If you haven't already heard, Sean K Reynolds has a blog post talking about Female-Friendly Campaigns, with some do's and don't's. It's something I think every GM and player should read and try to take to heart.  I'm pretty sure that each and every one of us has at some point in our lives felt excluded or out of place in a social situation. At the heart of most RPGs is a group of folks working together, as a team, to overcome a great obstacle. Why wouldn't we try to be that same way in our real lives, especially when dealing with people interested in the same cooperative games we love and enjoy? I hope you'll spend a few minutes reading this important post here ( http://seankreynolds.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/gamer-talk-a-female-friendly-campaign/ )

A friend of mine (the same one who did this wonderful custom terrain video ) recently entered a scratch-build mini contest on http://dmscraft.proboards.com and won. Since dmscraft requires registration, he's allowed me to repost his winning entry here... ====== I entered a contest for building a miniature from scratch, and actually won, haha! Contestants had one month to build the mini, and the rules stipulated that entries must include a tutorial. Since this was the first mini contest, there was no specific theme. Here's my entry: SPINAL OOZE This guy is based off one of my favorite World of Warcraft monsters, Blizzard's version of the Black Ooze: I loved how they had a skull, spine and debris stuck in them and could bite. In my version, they collect a couple of spines and connect them together to extend their reach, like a support structure. This explains why the skull is so far from the ribcage in the photos below. Ok, let's get to it... Started with ...

Another GenCon is over, and so it's time for me to do a little recap of how this year was the best year yet (and it was). Day Zero (Wed) First off, I had planned to do daily updates of my experiences at the con, but that didn't happen. I ended up with either too many late night games, or too many early morning events to find the time. Maybe next year I'll at least be better about live tweeting during various events. Anyway... I got into Indy on the Wednesday before the con, around early afternoon. The drive in (shared by me and one of my oldest friends from Philly) was nice, but once again we missed a crucial turn off onto the downtown roads and had to take a slight shortcut. The problem seems to be with my GPS not being up to date with the current traffic pattern of the area. I mention this only because this is the third year in a row that we drove to Indy, and this was the third time in a row that we missed the same exit. Sadly, a large part of the reason for wan...

I was lucky to see some of the new D&D minis that have just started coming out at this year's GenCon, but not all of them. Here's a full gallery, including some ultra rare invisible minis that I didn't even know about. Here's the link to the page displayed above: http://www.minisgallery.com/dnd/dnd1.htm