Recent content by MerricB

I think the art is stunning. I think the design of the gold dragon is absolutely terrible.

There have been lots of attempts. And they've failed pretty spectacularly. And it's because RPG adventures are doing more things than you expect. They need to be read before being played. And then they need to be usable at the table. An adventure that reads very poorly before being played...

I've run my own homebrew 5E Greyhawk campaign up to level 20. We had a lot of fun. (We're currently at level 13 in the successor campaign). I'm a fan of the players - sort of - and so any wacky solution they want to try is fine by me. But I tend to create my own monsters and add in interesting...

The Briny Maze really made my players wonder what was going on with the adventure.

No, go for it! :) Shattered Obelisk is weird. I like many things about it, but it also feels less than it should be.

The last five years of D&D adventures have been very mixed. Probably the closest is the Wild Beyond the Witchlight, but I haven't run that one. I've run both Shadow of the Dragon Queen and The Shattered Obelisk and both are generally competent adventures with a lack of greater vision and no...

Tell me what monsters are in this chapter.

We played our second session of Vecna: Eve of Ruin on Monday, 20th May, 2024. Upon consideration of our party composition at the end of the first session, we chose to replace the Fighter/Warlock with a Life Cleric, as the party was missing a primary healer – something of a problem when events...

Roger E Moore worked at TSR from May 1983 until it was acquired by Wizards in 1997; he left Wizards in late 2000. He was very prominent as the editor of Dragon Magazine for many years. Cheers, Merric

The FR one had a lot more on key NPCs. That was the most striking thing about it - and I found them very evocative.

It turns out that when there's SO MUCH STUFF out there, even dedicated players can't remember it all. :) Which is why in 3E you have Knowledge skills to "remember" the weaknesses of monsters, because there were so many (certainly in 2E) that players never knew what they were facing.

"Generic fantasy" also means - in large part - "relatable fantasy". It's very easy to come up with a fantasy that no-one appreciates. Having touchstones that people vibe with is actually quite important! Cheers, Merric

Greyhawk is, for us, generic D&D fantasy. This isn't surprising. The Forgotten Realms likewise feel like generic D&D fantasy these days, but Greyhawk has some significant differences that make it a lot more fun for me - at least. (I love the Realms; I love Greyhawk more). Most important in that...

The best book to pick up for Greyhawk Lore is the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. While I don't like all of it, there's no doubt it's the deepest dive into Greyhawk lore. The starting point for everything is the 1983 boxed set of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting. (There was a folio that...

Why are there ten-foot poles in the equipment lists? Because players asked for them in the games when they worked out they were the solution to problems like concealed pit traps. But by including them in the rules, the designers spoiled the answer for future gamers.