Dungeons and Dragons Blog

While his name isn’t quite as recognizable to the 3E crowd, Gary Gygax’s name was commonly thrown about when I grew up playing D&D.  On top of that, his name was on just about everything and I still break open my 1E Dungeon Master’s Guide on occasion.  This is the guy who put role playing on the map so whether you play tabletop D&D or World of Warcraft on the computer, it was Gary Gygax who helped pave the way.  I wish his family the best.

Wolfgang Baur, the creator of Open Design, has started a new quarterly D&D publication called Kobold Quarterly.  It looks very cool and for just $12, it looks like a deal.  I’m looking forward to the first issue.

The writing has been pretty spotty the past couple of months but if you’ve followed this site, you know the trend.  I get a big head of steam in the winter and once March hits, things get pretty thin.  My job revolves around the baseball season so that’s the explanation and as usual, there were some things that I never got around too (namely the Queen of the Demonweb Pit Blast From the Past).

My next purchase will most likely be Expedition to Undermountain.  I passed on the other two installments in this series but I’ve always been a fan of this dungeon crawl and as soon as it’s in my hands, I’ll be sure to write up a review for you.  I promise.

Wizards of the Coast announced that they won’t be extending their relationship with Paizo to keep Dragon and Dungeon Magazine going.  In some ways this is a surprise because Dragon Magazine has been around for 30 years.  On the other hand, they can accomplish the same thing on their website, and they’ve been doing so for quite some time.  You wonder if this is going to set things up for Wizards.com to have a subscription based premium service on their website to try to make a little bit more cash.  If the price is right, I’d go for it.

Both magazines will run through Septemeber and Dungeon will finish up their Savage Tide Campaign Path.  In the meantime, Paizo is going to put out a high end publication called Pathfinder.  I’ll be getting the first three issues come August so I’ll let you know what I think.  Because my subscription ran through the date things were ending I had a few choices and I decided to check this out.  They’re going to start a new adventure path (Rise of the RuneLords) and it looks like it’s more geared towards the DM.  At $20 ($14 if you subscribe) an issue, I’ll have to think about picking this up regulary.  It’s a bummer though because I’m most interested in issue four which features Wolfgang Baur and I’m only getting the first three because of my previous deal.

***UPDATE***

Here’s Owen Stephens take on the end of Dragon and Dungeon magazine.  Good stuff from one of the professionals.

As sort of preview for the rest of the month, I’ll be taking a look at Dungeon Magazine #145 which I got in the mail today and as soon as I get it into my hands, I’ll review the Magic Item Compendium.  I’ll also probably put together a Blast from the Past although I’m not sure what I’ll be taking a look at.  If you have any suggestions, leave a comment (especially if it’s something you’ve heard of but have never been through).

In addition, Wolfgang Baur is soliciting help for his latest Open Design #3.  This one looks like it’ll be the biggest one yet, and after taking part in the first two, I can honestly say that these are top notch adventures and well worth taking part in.  Depending on your contribution, you can be a bystander and see how things develop all the way to having a big say in what actually goes into the design.  It’s a fun way to get an insider look at designing an adventure. 

There’s two new columns up on the Magic Item Compendium.  You have the Table of Contents as well as a discussion by the designer.  Good stuff here.

Wizards.com had two very good updates today.  You get part three of the preview of the Magic Item Compendium, which deals with thematically linked magic items.  Good stuff and I can see making something like this a good ongoing adventure as a character picks up the pieces of something that eventually provides him a primary persona.

Also, you get a full adventure in Return to the Temple of the Frog.  The original was published way back in 1975 and it was later picked back up in 1986.  Honestly, I’ve never seen this one but I might have to check it out.  It’s a high level adventure and well worth the download.

It’s been a while since I’ve been really excited about a D&D product.  Probably the last time was in anticipation of the Tome of Magic, which I thought was very cool.  Now with the Magic Item Compendium about a month away, Wizards.com has given us a couple of teasers which have really got me pumped about this product.

The first preview explains the augment crystals, which you can attach to a weapon or your armor to give you a specific ability.  So your fighter can his favorite sword and a variety of augment crystals he can use to give him extra bonsues depending on the encounter.  The truedeath crystal deals out extra damage to undead while a crystal of arrow deflection attached to your shield gives you an armor class bonus against ranged attacks.  This is a very neat concept and one I can see using quite often.  I mean, when your party gets to be higher levels, how many longsword +3’s do you really need?  Here you give out an augment crystal that may come in handy two or three gaming days down the road if used properly.

Preview two talks about the runestaff, which allows a spellcaster to replace one of their already memorized spells for one of the spells the staff is used for.  Also an interesting concept that gives your wizard a ton of flexibility.  If he knows he can cast a given spell using his runestaff, he can memorize something else knowing he has the spell in the bag if he needs it.

Fun stuff, and they’re also things to feed to the bad guys to spice things up.  I’ll be sure to write up a full review once the product is in my hands.  I’ve already preordered the book.

I haven’t bought anything since I picked up Fiendish Codex II.  Honestly, I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything not related to baseball and while I was hoping to get back into writing my campaign, it looks like once again it’ll be on the backburner.  I am excited about one upcoming product though, and that’s next month’s release of the Magic Item Compendium.

While I’m not too keen on the price tag ($35), magic items are almost as interesting to me as spells.  As a DM, a good magic item can be the focus of an entire campaign and stocking the party with a nice array of magic also makes them feel like they’re advancing in power.  I own all of the original Encyclopedia Magica’s from 2E and enjoy flipping through them so I hope this new product is worth the price tag.

It’s been a while since I came up with a formal plan for this site and while I know I might only be sticking with things until baseball season starts, it’s probably worth the effort.  Traffic has been up a bit so as more and more people stop by, it makes this website more and more of a priority.

In December, one of my “must buys” is coming out.  As soon as I get it in my hands, I’ll do a review of Fiendish Codex II – Tyrants of the Nine Hells.  The last time I was this excited about a project was Tome of Magic, and that came out a while ago.  I’ve bought stuff since then, but I’m really excited about Fiendish Codex II – Tyrants of the Nine Hells.  The tail end of my campaign takes the players through the Nine Hells and the only material I have to work with is what’s in Manual of the Planes and the old 2E Guide to Hell.

I’ll also restart my Blast From the Past series.  This month I’ll take a look at the original Isle of Dread.  Module X1 came came with the original Expert Rules box set and it was the first module I ever owned.  The Isle of Dread has taken center stage because it’s the primary focus of Dungeon Magazine’s Savage Tide Campaign Path.

I’ll also take a look at the next issue of Dungeon Magazine and highlight anything else I find that’s worth writing about.  So hopefully you’ll pop in, especially if you’re on the fence about Fiendish Codex II – Tyrants of the Nine Hells.