D&D

Star Wars Wednesday - Game On

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OK, so I'm writing this during Game 2 of the World Series, so it will be brief. How so? I started to do this after the 1st inning. It's now the start of the fifth and here we are still at the intro. After Jason Fry's visit a few weeks ago, it has turned out that its the Royals vs Mets, so both of our twitter feeds have more than a little baseball right now. The Royals won last night in an epic 14 inning game. The Mets are up at the moment by one run. Beyond these games, it has been a week for Star Wars gaming as well. 
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Star Wars Wednesday - KCGF 2014

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Sorry about yet another short hiatus. Travel, deadlines, cons, work...more or less the usual culprits. Last week was KC Game Fair, which I while I did get out some news about what I'd be running, I didn't get it posted here. Unlike past years, I had very little to do with convention planning this time, but I did sign up to run games almost every slot. Just one of those years I didn't want to leave anything out. 
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Star Wars Wednesday - GenCon 2014

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Last week was GenCon 2014. As usual, I didn't have time to post, or even the time to prepare a post beforehand. It was a fantastic convention, and record setting at 56,614 attendees, up from last year's 49,000 or so. The dealer hall was even bigger than past years, and I had the least amount of time to see it this year. I had few things going on, and a few things were announced...
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Tyranny of Dragons - Drums in the Marsh

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This past week, Wizards of the Coast announced the Tyranny of Dragons adventure lineup for the all-new Adventurers League. The Adventurers League is D&D's new organized play for conventions, stores, and more.

There are different types of adventures depending on venue and targeted play style/purpose. There are Epics (kickoff events at major conventions), Encounters (core storyline, in-store), and Expeditions (convention premier, then stores and other conventions). 

 

My part in this series is the D&D Expeditions adventure DDEX1-7 Drums in the Marsh, set to debut at Archon in St. Louis, MO in October, then open for wider distribution after that, assuming I've understood the plan.    

 

Here's the official listing:

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Star Wars Wednesday - Age of Rebellion Release

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So....missed the entire month of June. Didn't really plan it that way, just sort of happened for a different reason each week. Well, a lot has happened in the meantime and this week, well, this arrived today.

So I can talk about it. Actually, I already have. One of the items I should have posted over the past few weeks was my designer's diary entry on the Fantasy Flight Games site. It covers a bit about the Galaxy and the Rebellion. I'll have more to share on that later (Future topic! Only a 10% chance I'll forget I ever said it...). 

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Star Wars Wednesday - GenCon 2013

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GenCon Game Fair was a great time once again this year. As usual, new games, new releases, news, previews and more filled the Indianapolis convention center and surrounding hotels. GenCon reported today that there were nearly 50,000 unique attendees, up 20% from last year. So it's big and only getting bigger. Every type of tabletop game seemed to be represented, and there were a lot of board games this year. Clothing booths seemed to expand over past versions, usually with some sort of fantasy or steampunk focus, if not T-Shirts. At least two booths featured quality looking fezzes with logos or art on them, most likely thanks to Dr. Who. Several former kickstarter projects and games also appeared on the show floor.

And, of course, there was the Star Wars gaming news and releases...

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Dragon 424 - Desert of Desolation

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My latest History Check article, Martek and the Desert of Desolation was released in Dragon 424 today on D&D Insider. Subscribers can find it here. Desert of Desolation was my favorite AD&D campaign. It was big, and combined three of the I-series adventures (Pharoah, Oasis of the White Palm, and the Lost Tomb of Martek) into one massive campaign with additional elements, hand outs and puzzles. For any of my old players subscribe and read, at a memorable scene or two makes an appearance...

One cool thing about writing this article is that for the first time in years (I think....) there is new art of to the campaign! It's a good scene from the adventure's lengthy backstory. I don't think it's been depicted before.

Anyway, dndclassics.com has the first adventure, Pharoah, available. Eventually, all of those adventures and the campaign itself should be added to the site (no timetable as to when, though).

Dragon 417 - History Check: The Blood War article

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This month's Dragon magazine / D&D Insider includes my latest entry in the History Check series, History Check: The Blood War. The in-game history of the Blood War is long, varied and complicated...and even more so across the editions and major campaign worlds of D&D. I had a good time wrangling them into a History Check tale, with some additional guidance from Wizards. Fans of Planescape should recognize a few things, but the article also touches on a lot of points from various sources. The article art is also the cover.

Dragon 416 - History Check: Strahd and van Richten

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Dragon issue 416 went live today on D&D Insider. This time, it's a look at Ravenloft, just in time for Halloween. Kicking things off is my article in the ongoing History Check series, featuring D&D and Ravenloft icons Strahd von Zarovitch and Dr. Rudolph van Richten.

Wizards of the Coast is testing a new release method for Dungeon and Dragon magazines this month. They are releasing each as a full issue via PDF, instead of posting the content a little bit at a time throughout the month. Consolidated PDFs has been requested often since they dropped that format some time ago. They used to issue the full PDF at the end of the month after the individual articles were posted. If you like the new method, which I do, be sure to let them know somehow (forums, twitter, etc.).

Dungeon-A-Day.com Kickstarter

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My map for the Fane of the Sea God Level, written by Charles Ryan.For years, Dungeon A Day posted daily dungeon encounters by Monte Cook for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 OGL. It was a massive dungeon. Eventually, he brought in Super Genius Games to keep the site running and complete the Dragon's Delve mega dungeon. Afterwrads, Super Genius continued with smaller dungeons, and added the Pathfinder rules along the way.

Sadly, the site was forced to close to new subscribers last year. Fortunately, Super Genius received enough interest to start a new Kickstarter campign to make the original material available to newcomers. They hope to gain enough funding to add to the original material, and more.

Regular readers may remember that I was one of the site's cartographers near the end of Dragon's Delve and other adventures. If the kickstarter works, I may get the opportunity to do more of that in the future, plus something more...

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