The RPG Study

  A New Year could very well mean time for a new Campaign! One of the newest adventures to come out for 5E D&D is the excellent Shadow of the Dragon Queen by Wizards of the Coast. Set in the magical realm of Krynn, this adventure is the first official product dealing with this storied setting. Whether you are starting a new game, or continuing one, the latest release from The RPG Study, Trinkets of Krynn provides you and your party with one hundred unique objects and trinkets that can be used in your campaign right away. These objects have been drawn from the text of the original first edition Dragonlance releases, from DL1 Dragons of Despair all the way through DL14 Dragons of Triumph , but no prior experience with any of these modules is required.  A few example trinkets include a small unicorn carved from valenwood trees, a perfectly round snowball that doesn't melt, and a quill from the library of Palanthus.  Check out  Trinkets of Krynn  on the DM's ...

Rather than giving a play-by-play style recap or our second session, I would like to just give my impressions of the content from Ghosts of Saltmarsh (GoSM) that was used for this particular session, namely the Ruins of Warthalkeel. In Appendix A of GoSM, there is a series of three adventure locations set under the sea. Each location has a standard layout and inhabitants, but also contains four Adventures that be grafted on top of this location which interact with the default elements of the adventure locale. Each of these adventures is for a different party level and I must say, I love this approach, though it's not perfect. Of the three, only one of the adventure locations has a first level adventure and it also happens to be my favorite of the three locales: Warthalkeel. The setup I used was a bit modified from the hook provided in the book . The actual ruins themselves were great. My players had a good time exploring the wreckage of this doomed town. I set an actual timer of on...

In a delightful twist of fate, I have been asked by a group of players I didn't even know were an organized group to be their DM. I happily accepted, especially as the time constraints of the group fit quite nicely into my personal schedule. And of course, another game means another opportunity to try and play some of the voluminous D&D content I have acquired since I began DMing. I have wanted to play Ghosts of Saltmarsh for years now. I loved the concept of a campaign assembled from disparate adventures, it's typically how I build mine rather than following one long adventure path style campaign, but could never find a good way to integrate it into an ongoing game. The players in this new campaign are generally new to D&D, or returning to it after some time away. As such, the desire for a classic fantasy RPG was high. I decided an adventure in the grim world of Greyhawk would be just the thing. We have been using Discord to coordinate and organize our campaign and in ...

Time for another Product Release announcement: Elmandar's Star Charts . Design and customize your own Wildspace systems with the light and flexible system presented in Elmandar’s Star Charts on the Dungeon Master's Guild. Providing 26 pages of random tables and guidelines to detail Wildspace systems for use in your 5E Spelljammer: Adventures in Space campaign, this system was inspired by the random system rules from the 2e Spelljammer box set, and adds some modern updates to be more flexible and usable by the 5E rule set. Included in Elmandar’s Star Charts are blank Wildspace system tracking sheets and Wildspace System Maps to help visualize the layout of your systems. The sheets and maps come in full color and printer friendly black and white options. Blank tracking sheets and maps are also fillable forms. Elmandar’s Star Charts contains three complete Wildspace Systems for immediate use in your own Spelljammer and as inspiration for systems you design. These systems come with...

The Light of Xaryxis is a sprawling, exciting, adventure in the Spelljammer setting. An adventure for levels 5-8, the adventure is told in a series of short episodes requiring about 2-3 hours to play each. Each episode ends on a dramatic cliffhanger for the next episode to follow. What follows is an account of my groups experience with the first two episodes, and my thoughts on certain parts of the adventure: Chapter 1: Astral Rain The party is supposed to begin this adventure in a coastal city. I choose Neverwinter since our party consists of three characters from the world of Ravnica who have traveled the branches of Yggdrasil to arrive in the Forgotten Realms (a long story which perhaps I will recount another time). The other three characters are brand new to the campaign, though their players are not. Notably, one of the character is a giff from the Astral Adventurers Guide.  Neverwinter works just fine for this start. Right away we encountered one of the major criticisms leve...

Shameless plug time: My latest supplement for the DM's Guild is now live! Spelljamming Vessel Log  provides a vital resource for managing a spelljammer! This log  enables a party of space farers to easily and quickly reference all of the important details for their spelljamming vessel including ship stats like HP, AC, Speed, etc. as well as the specific details of the weapons mounted on their ship. There is a roster for crew members and cargo alike, as well, so all pertinent details of the ship are in easy reach. The supplement contains a full color single page (front and back) tracking sheet as well as a printer friendly black and white option. It also includes two example logs for the  Moondancer  and the  Second Wind  from the  Light of Xaryxis  adventure.