Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

I just saw the MS Surface demo for D&D. It's only proof of concept at this point, but what a concept... Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Visual Story TAs on Vimeo .

I just read an article, mostly geared to parents, about a site that had free mazes that could be downloaded and printed out for children. Since I'm always on the lookout for inspiration , I decided to check these out. There are a much of different difficulty levels, with each level having a couple of different mazes (all in one PDF file). Depending on how tough you want to be on your players, you could choose from a "Child's Play" or a "Backbreaking maze to adapt for your players. And with a little planning you could modify the maze to include a few encounter areas, or even portals for quick exit, or portals to other mazes... if you really want to drive the players crazy! Enjoy

The Gathering As the little narrator box let's us know in the first panel of the first page, the group is in hills near the glass seas. While everyone else sleeps, Riva's dragon, Ktarrah, keeps watch over the group. It seems Riva is having another nightmare (her last one was all the way back in issue 3 ), this one about Ktarrah being attacked by a bunch of different dragons. She wakes up and runs out of her tent to see the dragon screeching and flying away into the night. The next day the party books passage on Glass Sea boat (the Glass Sea looks like a frozen river, or one made of crystal and the boat is equiped with blades to ride on top). Just before they leave port, Skrum sees a minotaur crewmember and immediately draws a weapon thinking it's a member of League of Minotaurs. Before any fighting starts, Maraghiz tells everyone to stand down; that he senses no evil from the minotaur, and Mezamere the gnome calms down his minotaur friend. One that's sorted out the ship...

I know I'm late to the game, but I've recently been listening to the D&D Podcast episodes that are recordings of a game Chris Perkins ran for a couple of well known people. I resisted downloading these episodes as I once tried listening to a podcast of another group's game session. The podcast (that should not be named) was difficult to listen to as there were 8 players, all talking over each other, the sound quality was subpar with plenty of background noise and different volume levels, resulting in a well-intentioned, but unlistenable experience. I'm glad to say, the D&D podcast is completely the opposite. With only a few players, great audio, and very distinctive voices from Chris and Wil Wheaton (one of the players), this is great to listen to and easy to know who is talking. If you haven't heard it yet, check on the wizards website. There's two previous games currently available, and they are in the middle of posting parts of the third game session ...

Death in the Burning Sea This issue starts off with each of the party members riding a different dragon, while Riva and Maraghiz lament about how they should have foreseen Erestem's influence on Skrum through the ring. They then arrive at a location near a lava flow where Skrum commands the dragons to drop off the party members off in a nearby valley. Once Skrum dismounts, all the dragons fly away. He tells everyone that he has brought them here to meet the goddess. Rising up from the pool, a gigantic lava-form of Erestem appears. She taunts Riva about their previous meeting (in issue #3 ). Meanwhile, Sulai casts an ice storm spell on Erestem. Skurm laughs at the elf mage's attempt, saying that "a little hail won't extinguish Erestem's flame!" What Skurm didn't realize was that Sulai's real intention of the spell was not to harm the goddess, but to use the mixture of flame and ice to create enough steam for the party to escape unseen. Under cover of th...

I've seen plenty of D&D licensed merch, from comics, to toys, to the Saturday morning cartoons , and even an AD&D beach towel (BTW, if you know of anyone selling said beach towel, contact me, I'm desperately looking for one) but this latest announcement from Jones Soda is most unexpected one I could find. After looking at the drink titles, I started thinking about a second series of bopttles, but all in a Dragonlance theme, like maybe: Draconian Brew Ansalonian Ginger Ale Toade Sweat (sorry, I just saw Tropic Thunder again, and can't get Booty Sweat out of my mind) Fizban's Fruitpunch Solamnic Soda and of... Raistlin's Tea Any ones I've missed? Please leave a comment.

The battle with the jarak-sinn who had confronted the party right after the Harpy attack , didn't last long. While the party defeated most of the attackers, one had managed to get away, escaping deeper into the lair of the jarak-sinn. Between the two recent fights, everyone was a little bloody and bruised and decided to take refuge in the nearby alcove in the tree-lair, considering it an easily defensible position. The first few hours were uneventful and the party starting thinking the night might go by without incident, that was not to be... The jarak-sinn, noticing that the most recent patrol hadn't returned and several other tribesmen had gone missing, started to worry about intruders. DM Note: (Behind the Scenes) Incidentally, the one lizardfolk who had gotten away died before being able to tell the others what exactly had happened, but the dead body was clearly an indication that it wasn't good. Later that night, Jes and Hunter, while on watch, heard the faint sounds o...

In previous posts, I've mentioned some of the tools I use as a DM ( Post-it Notes , and Heromachine ), but one of the fundamental tools is inspiration, or more importantly, where to get inspiration. Madonna once sang that "you can dance for inspiration", though anyone seeing me dance might only be inspired to think "that poor man is having a seizure... right there on the dance floor!" So, other than Madge's advice, where do I find inspiration as a DM? A lot of different sources, actually, and hopefully a few you haven't thought of yourself. I think anything can be a source of inspiration, from an automobile, to a sudoku puzzle, and for everything from a character name (Katera-- as in Cadillac Catera), to a method of random dungeon generation . The real trick for the DM is keeping their DM hat on (in the background) as they go about daily life. Here are some of the sources that routinely inspire me. By far and wide the best resource I've found is the ...

Ring of Evil This issue starts out with General Axantheas holding a meeting. Around the table are humanoids of different races and genders (including a traag draconian and a hobgoblin). Behind the general is a statue of Erestem (aka Takhisis). The mintour proclaims this small group to be the greatest champions of evil on Taladas, each representing one of the Erestem's five heads. There is infighting within the group, and Axantheas even kills one of the other "heads", believing him to be a spy for the rival nation of Thenol. Elsewhere, Riva starts the morning in prayer to Paladine. Afterward the rest of the party convince her that the best way to stop the general and Esterem, is to reveal their plot to the emperor of the League of Minotaurs. Later they unleash an attack on the emperor's entourage in an attempt to get a private audience with the leader. After fighting the emperor's minions, he steps out of his carriage in full battle gear. As he listens to the party...

If you are like me, and were born in the late sixties or seventies, you probably grew up with one or more of those fabulously simple Mattel hand held games that were nothing more than red blips on a screen (I'll spare everyone my curmudgeonly sounding argument about how we were so imaginative that even red blips could keep us entertained for hours back then while kids today blah, blah, blah). If you've never seen these before check this YouTube playlist of these games "in action". As you'll see there were versions for baseball, football, basketball, and a whole bunch of others. ANYWAY... somewhere around that time, Mattel and TSR (before they got bought out by WotC, before WotC got bought out by Hasbro) got together and must have thought that red blips were too much for the D&D community, and came up with a 2 player game featuring only four miniatures--a single treasure chest, one figure for each player and one for the puniest looking dragons, I've ever s...

As I mentioned in a previous post , once upon a time there was a lot of controversy surrounding Dungeons and Dragons. James Dallas Egbert III was at the center of one such story about a young, brilliant teen lost in steam tunnels during a "real life" game of D&D (and yes, this was the inspiration for the novel and movie " Mazes and Monsters "). While I was a young boy at the time, I have no memories of when the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III happened. Years later, before I started playing D&D, I read The Dungeon Master , a book about the incident from the private detective the family hired to investigate James' disappearance. This year marks the 30th anniversary of his disappearance. For the full story, check out this link from GeekSix.com

After leaving Blackwater Keep , the party journeyed into the Blackwater Swamp in search of Marzena and the soldiers kidnapped earlier by the jarak-sinn. artwork by scott2753 on deviantART In the swamp, the trails were hard to follow, but Hunter found enough tracks to keep the party moving in the general direction. The party sloshed through dirty water and damp high-ground for most of the day. As they looked for a camping location for the night, they came upon a stream. At first glance it appeared to be a safe place for rest and get fresh water, but looking around they noticed a bunch of small woodland creatures, all petrified into stone; they promptly found another place to camp. The night was damp, and as darkness descended, all manner of strange noise rose from the swamplands. Luckily for them, noise was the only thing they had to contend with. The next morning, the group continued their journey into the forest and arrived at the site of a huge cluster of inter-grown mangaroo trees...

Winging it! This issue starts off with Riva, Griffin, and Skrum arriving as prisoners in Kristophan, the capital city of the League of Minotaurs. On the outskirts of the city, Tyche, one of the minotaur soldiers loyal to the traitorous General Axantheas, kills a human soldier to frame the prisoners who Tyche intends to kill as "they were trying to escape". Riva reaches for the dead solders polearm and uses it to knock Tyche to the ground and allowing them to make a real escape. As they run down streets and through buildings, Skrum reveals that he still has the real dragonring, and what he had previously handed over to the soldiers was an old bracelet he had. Skrum uses the ring to summon a dragon. Unknown to Skrum, a red dragon appears attacking the chasing soldiers and allowing the three to escape. At first Riva hesitates, not wanting to ally herself with such an evil creature until league soldiers are right on her. As soon as the dragon takes flight, Riva forces Skrum to la...

I know I talked about The Guild a long time ago. In short, it's one of the funniest web shows out there featuring a bunch of W0W-like players playing their game and also some of their real life exploits. I highly recommend you go watch the first season while the new second season episodes are starting to appear on YouTube. Along with the new episodes, The Guild also released a song and music video. The song is called "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar" and video is equally funny. Check it out here and then go over to iTunes or Amazon and buy the song and/or video. Proceeds will help finance the third season.

Ok, so GenCon 09 has come and gone, and once again I wasn't there (boo). My last convention was the year 3.0 came out, back when the convention was in Milwaukee, and the Safe House was still a restaurant to visit at least once during the trip. I've been following blog posts and tweets from various people and once again, it sounds like everyone had a good time this year (PS, if you're at a game convention and don't have a good time, you may want to rethink your choice of hobbies). By far the largest amount of posts were the various product announcements from WotC. Everyone went into the convention wanting to know what the new setting for 2010 would be, since no previous WotC communication went beyond announcing Forgotten Realms (2008) and Eberron (2009). Even though I am an ardent fan of the Dragonlance setting, I felt it was too soon to update that setting to 4e (and since the 3.5 update was handled by a 3rd party, Margaret Weis Productions, WotC doesn't see big rev...

If you're TSR/WotC/Hasbro, how would you advertise your game to the world? Well, apparently back in the day, all you needed was a little commercial like this... For better quality, click this link to this version the commercial . PS. And we wonder where the D&D/geek stereotype started? I'm sure it wasn't this commercial, but it certainly didn't help

As you can tell from a previous post showing off my LEGO centaur , I'm as much a fan of LEGO bricks as I am of D&D. There are many ways to use LEGO in your Dungeons and Dragons game. And thanks to a number of LEGO sites for AFOLs (Adult Fans Of LEGO, hey, they have their own lingo too!), it's not hard to find great ideas and get the pieces you need in an easy, cost effective manner. The top LEGO site out there is LUGNET.com . This site has an extensive forum broken down by theme (Pirates, Castle, Vikings, and many other) and topics. This can be a great site for getting advice on building large or small projects and seeing pictures of fan creations, (also known as MOCs or My Own Creations). Another great site is Brickshelf . This is kind of like Flickr for the LEGO crowd. Here you can find a massive amount of images featuring large and small projects on any subject AFOLs can think of, from Lord of the Rings custom figures and dioramas to actual wedding cake toppers made ou...

One of the best article series in the old (print) edition of Dungeon magazine was the Dugeoncraft articles. At various times, different professionals in the RPG industry (including Monte Cook) wrote the column. While I haven't found many of these articles online, it seems all of Ray Winninger's columns have been collected. The series starts asking the most basic question "Should I be a DM?" and then going into all the details that anyone answering "Yes" to that first question should consider. Click here for the full list of articles: http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/ Or click here for the zip file of all the articles: http://dnd.castellan.net/random_adventure/dungeoncraft.zip

Landfall The issue starts with Riva and Fizban on a boat out in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a storm. It seems Riva is on this boat as part of a mission from the knighthood for her to prove her obedience to the order. Fizban also has a mission for Riva, instructing her to bring her love of goodness, justice, and mercy to the continent of Taladas, a continent of Krynn that hasn't known those virtues for centuries. Before her boat crashes into the rocky shoreline, Fizban teleports the warrior and her magical dragonlance onto the dry plains of this new land. Nearby, Riva sees two people on horseback (a man and gnome) being chased by a huge group of warriors. The two are so desperate to evade the chasing legion, they push their horses to leap over a huge chasm. On the other side of the chasm, they are confronted by a one-handed minotaur named Axantheas riding atop a blue dragon. The minotaur focuses on trying to kill Griffin, the human warrior, while Skrum rides his horse...

As Qualar wandered the dank dungeon alone, he could almost hear the call of the ancient magical treasures surely contained within. He skulked along the walls like a rat, peeking into the room with caution. But the pull, the promise of great power was too much. He entered. . . and came face to face with a basilisk. Several hours later when the party found him (for Qualar wasn't going anywhere now) they began to wonder what they would do with a petrified party member. A long (long) time ago, I started working on an article based on a real-game event (real-life sounds strange when talking about imaginary characters). I wanted to come up with 101 uses for the PC after he was petrified, but ended up falling short. Use him as the figurehead of a boat Use him as a decoy Use him as a pole to hold up a tent Use a reduce spell to turn him into a finely detailed figurine Use a reduce spell to turn him into a bullet for a sling/staff sling Shatter him into pieces (and thereby destroying any ch...

As someone who runs a lot of pre-made modules, some of my best DM tools are Post-it Notes and Note Cards. The best things about the Post-It notes "stickies" are that they come is all different shapes and sizes. They also come in all different colors, but I'm too lazy to come up with any kind of color-code system. In the modules I'm running, I use the small stickies to remind me of key information I might need during a session. If a certain piece of terrain has a unique effect or associated DC to cross, I'll write up a small note with the DC and/or effect. This makes it a lot easier than having the re-read a paragraph in the middle of the game to get all the details (monsters and traps are usually easy to find in a glance, but sometimes even these too need a little reminder). Larger notes can be for listing out a creature or NPC battle plan (round one: fireball. round two: silence on the mage, etc), or I'll rewrite the "read aloud" text. I may need to...

You ever wonder what would happen if Celebrity Poker and Dungeons and Dragons ran into each other like an early 80's commercial for Reece cups? Luckily you don't have to wonder any more. Here's on idea of how a celebrity session might play out: and for some color commentary on the game session:

This issue contains two stories, one featuring Myrella and the other with Riva Silvercrown. Sadly, the two tales are separate, so Riva and Myrella never actually meet. The Sorceress' Apprentice This short tale is any early adventure of Myrella before her first appearance in issue 5 . The would-be mage is in a forest with another mage, Jenque, planning to assault the nearby castle of Borgys, who is also a mage. It seems that Borgys is in possession of the staff of Ethys, and plans to use the magic item to raise an army of undead and conquer the local province. Jenque can't enter the castle as the old mage has cast a protection spell around his stronghold. Jenque asks Myrella to sneak in and destroy the amulet Borgys wears. The amulet is a component of the protection spell that keeps her at bay. Myrella is at first nervous, but knows she needs to prove herself if she wants Jenque to accept her as an apprentice. With only a few basic spells, Myrella enters the castle. Coming acro...

One of the things I love most about D&D has nothing to do with character classes, or magic items, or any of that. What I love most about the game is that at it's core, it's a cooperative experience. The players and DM work together to tell a story, one that neither one could have told on their own, but one that exists only through the collaboration of all the people involved. In real life this occasionally happens too; a chance or an opportunity to collaborate on the larger story of life. Sadly this tale starts with a man hoping for a little assistance, help from a group of virtual strangers and willing to offer a reward for their generosity and compassion. In this case it's a story all too common these days. Without medical insurance and in need of cancer treatment for his wife, the bills have added up to an epic level. And now he seeks our help. Please read his story in his words: http://tinyurl.com/n94phr Now is the time for all of us to put down our pencils, and set...

If you're a Dungeons and Dragons fan, you probably talk the talk. Well, now it's time to walk the walk. I'm sure you have some collection of game related t-shirts in your closet or drawer. I personally have the Choose Your Weapon tee along with at least one TSR tee adapted from a classic module cover. But now it's time for the latest in gamer clothing... your footwear. Seems there's a contest going on right now to design a D&D sneaker. Top prize includes $1000. For more on the contest and a gallery of current submission, check out the RYZ site .

Pictures of the miniatures in the next D&D set, Legendary Evils , confirm that two creatures exclusively from the Dragonlance setting will be included. This new set will feature minis for both the Aurak and Sivak types of draconians. Previously, the Dragoneye set included minis for the Baaz and Kapak draconians. Now all I need is for them to create a Bozak figure to round out the set. Interestingly the Baaz and Kapak are the two weakest and the Aurak and Sivak are the two strongest, leaving the Bozak to suffer middle-child syndrome. Another exciting bit of news about draconians is that one of the new source books will include 4e stats for these creatures. I haven't heard yet if the book will also include rules to play Baaz and Kapak, like the 3.5 edition of Dragonlance did. All of these little bits are leading some to think that Dragonlance will be the new 4e setting for 2010 (last year was Forgotten Realms, this year is Eberron). While I hope it is Dragonlance, I wouldn't...

After using the Gem of Amara to shatter the bones of the Black Scourge and disperse his ghostly form, the party spent some time with Greybear and the local druid circle resting and healing from their adventure. After a few days, they bid farewell to their druid friends and journeyed back to Dun Eamon for training and to seek out Elinda Bannon 's aid. The mage in residence for the town had helped the party in the past, and hopefully she could shed light on how to deal with the dragon's bone shrapnel still embedded in their bodies. While it didn't hurt, everyone, except for Jesriel, felt a slight sensation where the fragment was. By the time they returned to Dun Eamon, they found that Elinda was out of town for the next few weeks. The party used that time to get supplies and train in their various skills. At the same time, Adow was summoned by the Wizards of High Sorcery to take his Test, the results of which were sometimes fatal . When Elinda returned, Hunter, Theo and Jesr...

And here I thought Twitter was just for staying in contact with friends, coworkers, etc... seems it can also be one pretty cool magic item for the 4th edition of D&D: http://allgeektout.com/2009/06/24/gituot/

A Winter's Knight This issue starts off with Riva, Darial, and Shaya meeting with Palin Majere at the Castle of the Dawn. She delivers the secret to the draconians undoing (as revealed last issue ), which turns out to be a magic scroll created by Takhisis. It was created in case the draconians became too power to keep under control. Palin casts the spell, which summons all draconians within a 200 mile area to travel to this location. The closer they get, the weaker they get, making them easy to defeat. This should effectively end their control on the area. Afterward, Riva talks about another great victory that happened here, Wistan Dawnbringer's final battle with the black robed wizard Ravenna... Wistan's tale picks up with him and two knights, Collum and Hagen, heading toward Ravenna's base over snow covered lands. Along the way they are confronted by a group of thanoi (commonly called walrus men). While the thanoi are usually in the coldest climates, the three year wi...

Clips from 1985 episode of 60 Minutes looking at the alleged harmful influence of Dungeons and Dragons in the murder/suicides of several teens. Part 2 ends with a follow-up on Dr. Thomas Radecki, who became involved in another controversy a few years later. Part 1 Part 2 Sadly, Pat Pulling died in 1997. I've found no information that she ever changed her opinion about the game or its effect on her son. As mentioned in the story, I suspect that this grieving mother may have needed something to blame for her son's unfortunate tragedy.

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...