Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

When thinking about Dungeons and Dragons, especially so close to Halloween, I naturally think less  of epic campaigns and warriors defeating great evil, and more of the classic things and got bump in the night. In the early days of D&D, few probably thought of the game through such a radical re-imagining--sure there were the classic creatures like werewolfs, mummies, and vampires, along with a plethora of other undead filling up the various monster manuals. But that all changed when TSR release Ravenloft . A module by Tracy Hickman (of future Dragonlance fame) and his wife Laura. The module is a radical departure from standard crawls, offering a haunted house, in place of the ubiquitous dungeon, and offering a vampire antagonist who is a fully fleshed out character with backstory and personal motives. Any while much of Strahd may look, at first glance, like a swipe on Count Dracula, he can be so much more, and most importantly, he was so much more than the standard vampir...

If you followed my previous posts about the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons Kre-o line ( here and here ), you know I am eagerly looking forward to their release next year. So you can image how glad I was to see preview images of some of the sets and details and prices on those products. Unfortunately, after looking over the images and product descriptions in greater detail, I'm a little less enthused than I once was. If you want to see more of the pictures and read the product information for yourself, check out the post here on battlegrip.com (the link will open in a new window, so you can look at the images and following along with my comments here). First, a couple of things I like about the sets. Variety of sets for different budgets. They have simple figure packs as low as 2.99, up to sets running as high as 24.99, so there's something for everyone. For the minifigs (or Kreons as Kre-o calls them), there are a good variety of armors, helms, and weapons across t...

After leaving Darsov at the basecamp last session , the party returned to the mountain lair of the black dragon Scourge. At the end of one of the crude hallways, they found a secret passage that lead into another shifting hallway, this one ending in large cavern with a pool of still water taking up much of the room. In the center of the pool was a old chest that looked like it had been dragged through the Maelstrom to end up here in the room, sitting on a ledge just underneath the water line. After Jes climbs into the water, which is up toward his shoulders. He starts making his way toward the submerged chest, but before he reaches the object, a hideous water naga rises to confront him. Theo, in an attempt to protect the party on the shore, pours oil on the water and sets it on fire. Three other naga rise from the water depths of the lake, but none of them move to attack. The naga soon reveal that they are the protectors of the "greatest treasure of the Stone Hammer clan....

There are a couple of movies coming out (hopefully) soon that look to be of interest to the gaming crowds. And no, I don't mean the Dungeons and Dragons movie that Hasbro is trying to put together at Universal once they deal with this lawsuit and that lawsuit . In case you haven't heard, they are... Zero Charisma - This movie is opening in limited release in THEATERS, actual theaters I tell you! It tells the tale of local popular DM (actually GM, they avoid D&D specific trademarks) who suddenly finds his sway over his gaming group challenged by the arrival of a new player to his group. This dark comedy looks like it will trod familiar geek tropes like living in the basement and lack of romantic relationships. We'll see if rises above the obvious to provide something interesting for movie goers.      Zero Charisma opens in limited release in the US starting tomorrow (Friday Oct 11), and is already available as a VOD selection depending on your cable provider....

I recently had the pleasure of starting a new book (all the while with plenty of other half-finished books scattered around me). The book in question was " Of Dice and Men ", by David M. Ewalt. I was eager to read this once I learned it was a non-fiction book about the history of role playing games, specifically focusing on D&D, but also touching on others. As a notoriously slow reader, and with plenty of time during my daily commutes to and from work, I picked this book up from Audible.com which not only offered the book in Unabridged format, but also indicated that the book was read, in part, by the author himself. I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book, but I'm really enjoying. The book starts off a bit clunky, with the first part focusing on the author's gaming group and the characters each plays. There's also a heavy bit of rules detail, that as a long time D&D player, I didn't need to sit through. If this was a printed or...

Stumbled on a great artist, Stefani Rennee, who has in his portfolio , wonderful renditions of Eric and Sheila from the 80's Dungeons and Dragons cartoon . Check it out from the link above. I was a fan of the series as a kid, and I admit that I kinda liked Hank the Ranger the best (let's be honest, he had one of the few offensive weapons in the group), when I re-watched the series a few years ago, when I bought the DVDs, I realized that Eric is probably the most realized of all the characters. I hope Stephani adds portraits for the other characters in the same style. I could easily imagine a one-shot game night where the players take on revised versions of those classic characters, and use the new artwork for reference. 

If you read my previous post, you already know about the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons Kre-0 sets that were announced at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Just recently I found, on the Kastors Korner blog, images of more of the minifigs that will be appearing in the new sets. Just click on the link above and scroll down toward the bottom of the page to see the photo gallery. What's really interesting, besides what the figures will look like, and some of their accessories, is the fact that they draw on specific D&D IP, namely, key characters from the Forgotten Realms setting. Wulfgar, one of Drizzt's companions prior to the whole spell-plague time jump hints that we might see sets based on some of the earlier books, while characters like Lord Neverember and Isteval hint at sets and figures from the current Sundering event. I was excited when I first heard about these sets, now even more so!