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Tag: BECMI

How long does it take to pick a lock?

Ornate ancient door handle and lock

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

Melestrua Playing the Game, Skills Leave a comment 24th January 202624th January 2026 8 Minutes

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

Melestrua Combat, GM Resources, Running the Game Leave a comment 30th July 202530th July 2025 15 Minutes

Religion in Akorros in Mystara – a worked example

An Immortal and a dragon take flight

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.

Melestrua Developing Akorros Leave a comment 27th February 202427th February 2024 16 Minutes

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.

Melestrua Mystara 2 Comments 31st January 202427th February 2024 12 Minutes

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.

Melestrua BECMI Leave a comment 18th September 202321st September 2024 6 Minutes

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.

Melestrua Uncategorised Leave a comment 22nd August 202322nd August 2023 2 Minutes

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 →

Melestrua Uncategorised Leave a comment 7th August 20237th August 2023 3 Minutes

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.

Melestrua BECMI, Combat, Kickstarters, Level Up A5E, One D&D, Tales of the Valiant, Unearthed Arcana, Variant rules Leave a comment 31st May 202321st September 2024 22 Minutes

RPGaDay week 1

RPGaDay 2022 prompts RPGaDay is back for the 9th year. After the previous couple of years being fairly abstract prompts, this year they have returned to very directed questions. You can see them all in the graphic. I’m not sure how relevant some of the questions later are to me, but I’ll make a start … Continue reading RPGaDay week 1 →

Melestrua BECMI, Preparation and Gamesmastering, Running the Game Leave a comment 9th August 20229th August 2022 7 Minutes

Developing Akorros – Redcliffe Market

This is based on and extended from a description I wrote for a new campaign starting in Akorros in the Republic of Darokin. It has extended my development of Akorros, so I thought it was worth sharing. It’s a cold, grey autumn day in mid Sviftmont, about mid-morning, and you’re in Redcliffe Market on the … Continue reading Developing Akorros – Redcliffe Market →

Melestrua BECMI, Developing Akorros Leave a comment 11th June 2022 5 Minutes

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Except where otherwise specified, Melestrua's Musings is © 2018-2024 by Ian Brockbank (Melestrua) licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. The content can freely be shared and modified as long as I am credited, they are not used commercially, and any modifications are shared similarly. If you wish to use any content in a different way, please get in touch.

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Some material on Melestrua's Musings is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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