Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

My GenCon experience this year was in some was very different from previous years, in other ways much the same, and overall a wonderful time. As I think I tweeted during the con, "if you're not smiling at GenCon, you're doing something wrong", and I firmly believe that. Wed (Day 0) - Day 0 was a bit different this year than in years past. Instead of driving out to the con, I actually flew out. Due to a airline issue a few months ago, I had a voucher for the cost of one flight, good for only one year. This was about the only time I would be able to use it, so it was an easy choice. While flying to GenCon means you get there relatively quick from the East Coast, it also meant that I wasn't driving out with my long time con-buddy. To make up for the lack of pre-con adventure in the car ride out, I finally started reading Playing at the World by Jon Peterson about the early days of wargames that preceded D&D as well as the history of D&D as well. I...

If you haven't read the first review of the Kre-o Dungeons and Dragons figures, I highly encourage you to check it out. In the first reveiw, I cover a number of generic elements common to all the Kre-o Army Builder Packs, which I won't be repeating here. That said, let's look at a few more of figures. First up, from the "good" faction, the Flag Carrier . Overall, I rather like this figure more than I initially thought I would. The head piece, with the helm and chainmail coif is really well sculpted. The blue tabbard pattern is continued from the chest to part way down the legs, but the best feature in my opinion is the spear the flag is attached to. This is an impressive looking weapon, standing more than two minifigs high, with an equally matching oversized blade at the tip. This is clearly a great example of a weapon with reach . There really isn't anything I don't like about this specific figure (I do have some general issues with the Kreons vers...

This will be the first of several reviews of the new Dungeons and Dragons Kre-o sets. In the this review, I'll look at a few of the new figures available in the "Army Builder Pack". I discussed my initial thoughts in a previous post based solely on the limited product information and sample images provided. In these actual product follow-ups, I'll touch on some of my assumptions and which have changed, now that I have better information. For my first review, I'm going to focus on the Army Builder Packs. The packs retail for $2.99, which is the same price as the Lego Collectible Minifigure sets. The bags are "blind" (meaning you don't know what is included in each bag), but that's not really the case. On the back of each bag, is a stamped number, which is partially unique for each figure, so a quick Internet search will link you to several pages (or YouTube videos) showing you how to find the number and which number corresponds to which figur...

So I recently ran across the Good Bad Flicks movie review channel on YouTube, and specifically found their review for the original D&D Movie. I found the review to be very generous, in fact, I don't think I've ever read a review that includes so many positive things about the film without being just a total "rah-rah" puff piece. Also, the review has some nice background information about the making of the movie, mostly at the end of the video, that I hadn't heard before. At less than 30 min, it's worth taking a look at. Here's the YouTube link: Dungeons and Dragons Movie Review - Good Bad Flicks

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...

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...

Sadly, since I had to cut my Gen Con trip short, I wasn't around for the Saturday seminar where the folks from WotC announced a bunch of new products for 2011. But I did eagerly follow every Twitter link and blog post I could find. I had some initial reactions to the announcements, but decided to sit on them for a while before writing down my thoughts, and I'm glad I did, since some of my initial reactions changed the more I thought about it. One thing that didn't change was my sub headline for this blog post: 2011 - The Year Everything Changes Technically you could say that things are changing right now with regards to D&D 4e, but it wasn't until I saw the product list for 2011 that I realized that what we'll be seeing in the upcoming months from WotC for 4e sets the stage for the "new normal". What I'm specifically referring to are the game changes that will be part of the new D&D Essentials line. We've known about the Essentials line for...

Having been home from Gen now for two days (I had to cut my visit short as I had family obligations on Saturday), I thought I should jot down some of my experiences, and thoughts. Originally I planned to draft a long post covering all the things I saw, played, and thought during the three days I was there (from early Wednesday through late Friday), but rather than one catch all post, I've decided to write up a number of short posts, all under the "Gen Con Aftermath" title, on various topics related to the convention. Up first was the first game I played at the con... the new Castle Ravenloft board game. The first thing to note is that many of the game mechanics are based on the D&D 4th Edition game. Heroes are based on the races and classes from D&D--for the game, I played a Dragonborn Fighter, while the other players had similarly familiar races and classes. Each character had a stat card (on very thick card stock--the same as the dungeon tiles sets). On one side...

The other day I was in my FLGS, looking at the New Stuff rack. It's the first step in my ritual which usually takes me around the store, looking at d20, 3.5, and 4e books (in that order) before finishing up at the miniature rack with all those great Reaper minis that I don't have the time, or talent to paint. Anyway, while looking over the new products, I was pleasantly surprised to see something called The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis. It was new product, but had a great old-school cover (and I'm talking Erol Otus-old, not Jeff Easley-2nd-edition-old), and an even older-school price tag. At $9.99 for a hardback book, I certainly had to check this out. The store shrink wraps everything meaning I had to wait to get home before paging though it and also putting a strain on "F" of FLGS. The book clocks in at 48 pages, with a couple used for the TOC and other product advertising, and features a color cover by Erol. The interior is black and white with a ton of...