Adding a sentient magic item? Be careful!

Armoured man looking at sword. Photo by Imad Clicks via Pexels

Intelligent swords have been the stuff of fable, and in D&D since the start. I thought it would be cool, but I wish I'd known this before I started...

A Brief History of Time

What units of time are used in D&D? Sounds a simple question, but it turns out I was thirty years out of date. So here's a review across the editions.

How long does it take to pick a lock?

How long does it take to pick a lock in #DnD? A review of the various editions, plus real life.

How do you run Mass Combat in D&D?

D&D is designed for combats with a handful on each side. So how do you scale that up to larger numbers? Here are various suggestions, from the DMG, @slyflourish, @louanders, #TalesOfTheValiant, and the #BECMI Companion set

Religion in Akorros in Mystara – a worked example

This post describes the 5e pantheon in my current campaign based in Akorros in the Republic of Darokin. This follows previous posts about why you should include religion, and what I developed for my previous campaign.

Religion in Karameikos in Mystara – a worked example

In my last post, I talked about why you should include religion in your campaign, and reviewed Eventyr Games’ publication “Devotion and Divinity”. In this post I describe the Mystara canon, and what I took from it when developing my first 5e campaign based in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

RPGaDay 18 – Favourite Game System: The War Machine Mass Combat System

The Companion Set of the BECMI D&D boxed sets contained rules for Mass Combat, called The War Machine, which are still the best set of mass combat rules to fit into D&D which I’ve come across.

RPGaDay Day 5 – Oldest game you’ve played

RPGaDay prompt 5 is “OLDEST game you’ve played”. I take this in three senses - overall game, role-playing game (DnD unsurprisingly), and module.

RPGaDay day 2 – First RPG GAMEMASTER

Today’s prompt for RPGaDay is First RPG GAMEMASTER. Maybe I’ll answer this in two ways. My first dungeon master, as I said a few years back, was a friend who had the classic B2 Keep on the Borderlands. This was the mid 1980s and it was one of my first sleepovers on my own (without … Continue reading RPGaDay day 2 – First RPG GAMEMASTER →

Weapon Mastery across the editions

I have fond memories of Weapon Mastery from the BECMI Master Player’s Guide. Now there are three pretenders to "next D&D 5e" and each introduce something similar.