What is D&D?

It's time to step back a bit.  This blog is generally aimed at an audience who plays or GMs table-top RPGs, but I have neglected another facet of my audience: people who are new to D&D entirely.  Since I started the blog, I've had some friends ask me about it.  What is D&D like?  How do I get started?

Now, there are several places I could send you to find out more information, but I figured, why don't I just explain it here, in my own words, for your benefit?  So I'll be doing this in three installments: this week, I will talk about D&D and table-top RPGs in general and how to get started with them; next week, I will post a starting adventure that I created recently, including everything you will need to run that adventure for some friends; and the week after, I will post an account of what happened when I ran that adventure for my girlfriend's parents and some of their family friends.

Everything is Dragons

For a while now, D&D has had a problem with its second D: dragons.  That problem, according to some of the people designing the game and some of the people playing it, was that there weren't enough of them.  Dungeons were everywhere, but dragons? Dragons were high-level monsters - a lot of adventuring parties never survived to see one, and many that did didn't survive the encounter.  The solution, of course, was more dragons.

But now D&D is suffering from a problem I like to call "everything is dragons."  Dragons are terrifying and powerful monsters; encounters with them should be rare and memorable.  Basically, they should inspire awe and fear - an encounter with a dragon should be one of the most dangerous, most tense, most memorable episodes of a campaign.  Unfortunately, the attitude toward dragons expressed by D&D over the past few decades has watered down the threat and the majesty of these iconic monsters.  There are four clear examples of this: kobolds, sorcerers, 3.5 edition's Monster Manual IV, and 4th edition's dragonborn.

Monster Monday: Melusine, the Two-Tailed Shapeshifting Mermaid

Today's Monster Monday entry is the melusine, a fey creature with twin fish-tails and shimmering golden wings who takes the form of a beautiful woman in order to marry a mortal man and live the sweet life on his dime.

source

(And before I start, yes I know I said I would try to update every Monday, and then failed to deliver the next Monday.  But hey, you got a Halloween update instead!)
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.

Happy Halloween! Murder Mystery D&D Session

Happy Halloween, everybody!  If you're like me, you really want to play in a Halloween D&D game where all the players are classic monsters: a mummy, a flesh golem, a vampire, a ghost...  Man, that would be fun.  Anyways, this post isn't about that.  I was thinking about what to post for Halloween when I remembered a murder mystery session of D&D that I once ran.

I had never run a murder mystery before, but I knew that I wanted to do one.  It required a lot of preparation, and more improvisation than I had done up to that point, but it really helped me learn how to run a roleplay-based town adventure that wasn't 'on rails'.  Essentially, I created a small village and everyone who inhabited it.  I gave them names and personalities, suspicions and secrets.  I made up rumors about them and gave some of them motives for the murder.  I made sure to throw in plenty of false leads, red herrings, and unrelated secrets.  I tried to make the village feel alive, and part of that was making sure there was plenty of small-town drama.

The adventurers were told by the authorities of a nearby city that they were needed to investigate some killings performed by an unknown monster in the small village of Moulle.  When they arrived at Moulle's only tavern and inn (The Giant's Bag), they were to learn that, although belief in the 'Monster in the Woods' was widespread, there was rumor going around that these killings were being performed by a townsperson.

Book Review: Brokedown Palace

As this blog is the primary authority on matters relating to fantasy role-playing games for literally tens of people, I thought I might branch out to touch on the literary world - inextricably linked as it is to the world of fantasy RPGs.  After all, D&D was fundamentally shaped by the novels and stories of J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, and Fritz Leiber - among many others - and modern RPGs continue to draw heavily on contemporary and classic fantasy works.

It may come as no surprise to you that I have been known, on occasion, to read fantasy novels and stories.  As such, I am taking it upon myself to post reviews of some of these here on this blog.  And with this blog being what it is, my reviews will be made with an eye toward fantasy RPG gaming.

Brokedown Palace

The first work up for review is Brokedown Palace by Steven Brust, originally published in 1986 by Ace Books.  Some minor spoilers may follow, but I shall endeavor to restrict them, for I am vehemently anti-spoiler.

Killing Your Characters

It should go without saying that death is an important part of RPGs.  Not just the death of monsters and bad guys, but death of characters.  That isn't to say that character death should be particularly common (though in some games it is), but it should always be there, lurking in the background.  After all, the rules for death and dying don't just apply to the bad guys.  For an RPG to really feel engaging, you need the threat of death, or the players' actions aren't realistic: "Oh man, this dragon is hitting us pretty hard! If we don't kill it soon, we may all end up... going unconscious for 8 hours and then having to try again."

In this post, I'll talk about PC death from both sides of the GM screen, NPC death, and raising the dead.

Away

Hello all! Sorry for the dearth of updates recently; I've just moved to England and have been living out of hotels for a few weeks.  Now I'm moved into a flat, but there is no internet.  Things should get up and running again by the middle of the month, though.

-your ex-pat d20 despot