I'm delighted to share that I have now completed the first keyed zone of the Drowned Labyrinth, the megadungeon at the heart of my new West Marches campaign.
The Unfinished Halls: a new adventure for Old-School Essentials
Building a New Campaign, Part 5: The Unfinished Halls
Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 This is my fourth post in my new series: an open-table West Marches campaign for Old-School Essentials. So far, I have sketched out the home base and the surrounding area. Today, I want to get started with mapping the first few passages of the Drowned Labyrinth, the primary megadungeon. For playability reasons, I should … Continue reading Building a New Campaign, Part 5: The Unfinished Halls
Building a New Campaign, Part 3: The Drowned Labyrinth
Ten miles west of Greyhold, a maze of sea caves leads into a sprawling network of flooded halls and corridors. Few who dwell there or plunder its treasures know the truth: that it is an ancient prison of a dreaming god.
Building a new campaign, Part 1: the one-page overview
In a vast and perilous land, ambitious treasure-hunters chart the wilderness, descend into dark places, and claim whatever riches they can carry.
Amazing advice from the 3rd edition DMG
I know it’s not a particularly glamorous topic, but the rhythm of the adventuring day is key for establishing an appropriate sense of threat. If encounters are too easy, the game feels trivial; too hard, and every combat becomes a slog. Get the ratios right, and the players feel like badass heroes.
Almost great: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (a review)
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight was released three and a half years ago in September 2021 and was something of novelty for Wizards of the Coast, especially coming on the back of Rime of the Frostmaiden and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, two quite dark and horror-themed sourcebooks. Witchlight promised to be the exact opposite, … Continue reading Almost great: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (a review)
Cookbooking Witchlight: better information architecture in action
My last post seemed to get a bit of interest, and a few of the comments asked if I could provide an example of its principles in action, perhaps using The Wild Beyond the Witchlight as a case study.
A simple checklist for writing awesome adventures
I thought it would be cool to have a kind of flowchart or checklist to help DMs design adventures around its principles. So: I made one!
A new handbook to help you run a complete campaign?!
I have only ever run one homebrew campaign from 1st to 20th level, and it followed a very loose structure, one session at a time. I would love to write something that helps other DMs achieve the same thing.
How many liches does your world have?
Should the world level up with the players? The question gets me thinking about the ecology of my game world. How rare is an ancient red dragon? A storm giant? A bulette? That’s really what this article is about: trying to find a framework for monster rarity.