Advanced Feats: Secrets of the Alchemist Now Available!
You and your companions are trapped underground in a lightless hell with miles of lethal traps and hungry monsters between you and the surface. Betrayed… lost… your situation seems hopeless. But each of you h[...]Read on >>
Dungeon Trick Generator
I’m really excited to announce that the first version of my Dungeon Trick Generator web app is done! The concept is simple – each time you load the page, it generates a trick that can be easily [...]Read on >>
Essentials Red Box final thoughts
That's it! We've blogged everything we could blog about the D&D Essentials starter set. Blog of Holding will now stop spamming people with hourly updates and return to a once-a-weekday schedule. On the whole, I think[...]Read on >>
tokens
Besides the books, power cards, and character sheets, the D&D Essentials comes with a one-page ad for other Essentials products, a card with a redemption code for another solo adventure (yay!) a two sided dungeon/wil[...]Read on >>
Incongruent Future Web Supplement 1
September 1, 2010 from The Spirits of Eden
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub, news
Perhaps you don’t read enough Axe Cop. Maybe you grew up without a Nintendo. It might even be possible that you never watched Shark Week on the discovery channel, sitting in awe at the killmaximal might of Mother N[...] Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub, news
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character sheets
The Essentials Red Box comes with 4 character sheets. The sheets fit on one one-sided piece of paper! It's roomy enough that almost 1/3 of the sheet is devoted to "character notes". The last time an official character sh[...]Read on >>
magic item cards
Every magic item in the D&D Essentials starter adventure comes with a power card. Or a magic item card, I guess: none of the magic items (lifedrinker greataxe, darkleaf leather armor, magic staff, chainmail armor, ba[...]Read on >>
Wizard At-Wills
I was looking over the Wizard at-wills, and some of them are pretty powerful! Paul already talked about Hypnotism, so I'll focus on the others: Wizard!: Stone Blood + Freezing Burst: I'm surprised it took so long for the[...]Read on >>
Retrospect wins RPG Geek’s 24-hour RPG Contest
…and in case you didn’t know, I wrote it. ;op The complete list of winners can be found here. You can download the free, 24-hr version here. Once I have complete feedback and some playtesting data I wil[...]Read on >>
power cards
I've finished reading the Essentials Player's Book and DM's Book. Others have taken pictures of the power cards and tokens, so you can get more complete spoilers there. I do have a couple of power-card powers that I'd li[...]Read on >>
meet the kobolds
Of the three kobolds in the Essentials DM's book, two (kobold tunneler, a level 1 minion and kobold quickblade, a level 1 skirmisher) are new. The Kobold Slinger is updated from the MM1. The Kobold Slinger's attacks have[...]Read on >>
rogue Weapon Finesse
According to the Essentials Red Box rules for leveling up, rogues get the Weapon Finesse class feature at level 2. That gives them +1 to attack and damage with light blades, light crossbows, short bows, and slings. Accor[...]Read on >>
official 4e random treasure table
In Encounter 6 in the Essentials Red Box adventure, we get the first random treasure generation table that I've seen in D&D 4th edition: Each character who spends time searching through the [crate of] supplies for so[...]Read on >>
warning: dungeon contains dragon
Encounter 2 of the Essentials Red Box adventure features 8 Kobold Tunnelers and a Fledgling White Dragon, a level 1 solo. As far as I know, Fledgling is a new category: Draconomicon introduces Wyrmlings, which are low-le[...]Read on >>
Nevermet Press Now the Official Publisher of Open Game Table
As of September 1st, 2010 – Nevermet Press, LLC will become the official publisher of the Open Game Table: Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blog book series. I previously published the books as a quasi-independent pro[...]Read on >>
This month’s great deals on PDFs
From RPGNow/DriveThruRPG, from now until the end of the Month get 20% Off PDFs from the following companies: Cubicle 7 Dream Pod 9 Fabled Environments Fat Dragon Games Goodman Games Erisian Entertainment Generic Universe[...]Read on >>
Looking back over August and towards September
Now we move into September (and hopefully some cooler weather here in Georgia, USA) which is seventh month of the Roman calendar. September does not seem to have any particular ties to myth or man among the Romans, how[...]Read on >>
talking to goblins
Encounter 1 in the Essentials Starter adventure (two goblins; one runs away to get help) is reminiscent of an encounter in the Mentzer Red Box solo adventure (two goblins; one runs away to get help), except that the Ment[...]Read on >>
Recettear: On Sale Sept. 10th!
I’m breaking my usual routine of not doing little news posts for other people’s news, but that’s because this is important. A while back I reviewed an entertaining and fresh PC game called “Recett[...]Read on >>
Essentials Starter adventure on the 5 minute workday
When they decide to take an extended rest, encourage them to think about where might be a safe place to hole up for several hours. They can barricade themselves in an enclosed room or retreat from the dungeon to camp out[...]Read on >>
The Eye of Tricks and Traps Shall Rule!
Lovers of D&D Hardcore, don’t forget that voting is underway for Kobold Quarterly’s King of the Monsters 2 contest! My entry, the Eye of Tricks and Traps, made it into the finals and is hot on the heels o[...]Read on >>
The Twisting Halls
Pages 20-38 of the Essentials Starter DM's book describe a pretty big dungeoncrawl adventure, similar in scope, perhaps, to the group dungeoncrawl in the 1983 Mentzer Red Box DM's Book. (By the way, the Mentzer adventure[...]Read on >>
Help me win King of Monsters
As many of you know, I was picked as a finalist in Kobold Quarterly's King of Monsters 2 competition for my entry, the Horakh. The final phase of the competition relies on public voting. I've already gotten alot[...]Read on >>
the real rules
Pages 6 through 19 of the Essentials DM's book contain the indigestible rules lump that no D&D manual can really get away from. I don't have much to say about it, since it's largely reprinted from the PHB, except tha[...]Read on >>
Risus Tease
S. John Ross, the revered creator of Risus, recently posted submission guidelines for authors wanting to publish official Risus supplements. Since that time, I had been wondering when somebody would take a stab at it. We[...]Read on >>
essentials skill DCs
With Essentials, the skill-check DCs have been rejiggered yet again. For first-level characters, they're now 8 for Easy checks, 12 for Moderate, and 19 for Hard. This is about halfway between their initial DMG1 values of[...]Read on >>
worgs!
How do the goblins and wolves in the first Essentials DM book encounter compare to their Monster Manual 1 counterparts? The Goblin Cutthroat (level 1 skirmisher) isn't really a conversion of the MM1 Goblin Warrior (level[...]Read on >>
Your First Encounter
Somehow I thought - I didn't really think; rather, my non-thoughts were unexamined - that the D&D Essentials DM's book would have to start with a big section of rules info, after digesting which the DM would be ready[...]Read on >>
Essentials Starter: Dungeon Master’s Book
Just as the Essentials Player's Book rushed you pell-mell into a solo adventure (in the fighter's case, before you even had time to grab your sword) the DM's book rushes you right into running an encounter. There are onl[...]Read on >>
No More Dragon Warriors?
Courtesy of theRPGsite, it sounds like the Dragon Warriors RPG has reached the end of the line. Apparently, the company holding the rights to Dragon Warriors wanted an increase in royalties somewhere in line of 1250%. [...]Read on >>
Essentials Players Book final thoughts
That's it for the Player's book. I'll look at the DM book tomorrow, but before I go, here are my final thoughts: I didn't mention this before, but the player's and DM's books don't carry the Elmore art. They have a moder[...]Read on >>
D&D Essentials Appendix N
In my haste to Choose My blue-skinned cleric's Own Adventure, I skipped this interesting passage from the beginning of the player's book, explaining the concept of an RPG: If you've ever played Neverwinter Nights, Final [...]Read on >>
roll for languages
Essentials starter-set halflings and humans ROLL to see what extra languages they know. That's more old-school than old-school. Even in first edition, characters had a choice about what their extra language would be. (By[...]Read on >>
I’m every wizard
The D&D Essentials wizard starts with a choice of implement: Under "Equipment and Magic Items", write one of these three kinds of implements: orb, staff, or wand. Implements are special items that wizards use to focu[...]Read on >>
kill the prisoners!
The Essentials starter set teaches skills by requiring a handful of successful skill checks before the PC finds a goblin lair. They're all directed towards that goal, except one: The goblin's injuries are quire severe. Y[...]Read on >>
how not to play D&D
There are a couple of "gotchas" in the Essentials Starter Set choose-your-own-adventure - non-heroic options that lead you only to a reprimand. If, during the goblin attack, you choose to hide, the game tells you that "h[...]Read on >>
and i would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling adventurers
Part 2 of the Essentials Starter choose-your-own-adventure starts with some read-aloud text (or read-silently text, I suppose, in the context of a solo adventure): The whinny of a horse catches your ear, and as you look [...]Read on >>
section 42
All of the sections of the Essentials Starter choose-your-own-adventure are sorted by class, except for Section 42, which comes in between two cleric passages. Section 42 is the section you flip to if, at any time during[...]Read on >>
we all knew being a Holy Man was dangerous
Hey guys! I've decided to bump my monday Mazes and Monsters retro-clone because I am having so much fun liveblogging the D&D starter set. Mazes and Monsters will return next Monday! The cleric path through Starter Es[...]Read on >>
King of the Monsters 2 Voting Opens!
At last, voting has begun for Kobold Quarterly’s King of the Monsters 2 contest! Though I’d love, love, love it if you voted for me and my monster, the Eye of Tricks and Traps, you should cast a[...]Read on >>
News in Review for Aug 23 to Aug 29 2010
Feeling a mite under the weather today, so did not have time to prepare my usual commentary on this week’s D&D 4E News – there is nothing is quite so obnoxious as coming down with a head cold in hot summe[...]Read on >>
Review – The Sensitive prestige class (for Pathfinder)
The Sensitive prestige class is very well-written and it is perfect for a gothic horror campaign but may prove difficult to fit into other sorts of game. The Sensitive: a ghostly prestige class for your gothic horror fan[...]Read on >>
cleric: still the whipping boy
Playing through the character-creation section of the Essentials starter set, the Cleric is the only character who doesn't get a chance to make an attack in the first round of the first combat. My noble cleric (skin: gol[...]Read on >>
R.I.P. Charles S. Roberts
Charles S. Roberts, founder of The Avalon Hill Game Company and designer of games such as Tactics II and Gettysburg, died last week at the age of 80. If that name sounds familiar, it should, as there is a Charles S. Robe[...]Read on >>
so I CAN be a cleric of Jesus?
The Cleric section of the Essentials starter set comes with a sidebar explaining the gods of D&D. The typical gods are "Pelor the sun god, Kord the storm god, Bahamut the champion of justice, Erathis the god of civil[...]Read on >>
D&D Immortals
The rogue path through the Essentials choose-your-own-adventure, like that of the fighter, suggests that you can die during character creation. "If the goblin hits you enough times before you manage to land a blow, it co[...]Read on >>
move actions
The choose-your-own-adventure openings for the Essentials Starter classes are inconsistently pedantic about move actions. When the PC's wagon is attacked by goblins, the wizard needs to use a move action to stand up. The[...]Read on >>
maybe the wizard is wearing bracers +1?
There's a mistake in the Wizard section of the Essentials character-creation. A starting wizard has a +4 Intelligence modifier (or +3 if a dwarf). When introducing AC, the rules say "Your AC is 10 + your Intelligence mod[...]Read on >>
hold on, that bad guy has HIT POINTS?
The big difference between the wizard and the fighter path through the initial Essentials starter adventure is that the wizard has a lot more power choices to make. This will be true throughout the career of the class, s[...]Read on >>
L5R JRTB Campaign Report 18
Scorpion Surprise This interlude took place the earliest of the three, shortly after Soshi Utami gets back to Scorpion lands in late Summer and finds her commission as a Gunso in the 7th Bayushi Legion activated and she [...]Read on >>
