No matter what flavor of Dungeons and Dragons you play, the game is rooted in fantasy. I’m willing to bet that most of us were introduced to the world of fantasy in the same way, through Fairy Tales told to us when we were tiny children.

Witches casting spells on innocent little girls. Magical beasts frolic in mythical forests. Animal monsters prowl the countryside looking for a tasty meal. Players Option: Heroes of the Feywild capitalizes on these themes beautifully.

I will admit, for the longest time when I heard ‘Feywild’ I would just think fairies and cuteness, but flipping through the introductory chapter really got my creative juices flowing with awesome ideas for both characters and adventures.

The book serves to give the player more options to creating a compelling character, similar to the Heroes of Shadow book that came out a few months back. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

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Here we are in the time of year that everyone are making resolutions. Just about everyone I talk to that brings up their New Year’s resolution says it is to lose weight. If that is your goal too, fitocracy.com is a site that may be able to help.

Oil and water, matter and anti-matter, geeks and working out, all these things could never be combined right? Wrong say the brains behind Fitocracy.com! Geeks can be coaxed out of basements and comic shops and into the gyms if they are given the proper incentive. These guys have merged online RPGs and physical fitness into a beta test that has gotten my ass to the gym more in the last few weeks than the previous four years altogether. (more…)

Last month Wizards of the Coast gave D&D players Heroes of Shadows, a tome full of anti-heroes to play. After whetting our appetites with the darker side of heroism, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t interested in exploring the potential of the shadow a bit more. Luckily Wizards of the Coasts must be mind-readers (or took a feat in it) cause they followed up that excellent book with a full box set!

This month they give Dungeon Masters a setting for those questionable characters to feel right at home in.

Until now the Shadowfell, the dark and imperfect plane which is meant as a reflection of the natural realm, has been a place talked about only in muted whispers. With the release of The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond it comes into focus… gloomy, unnerving focus.

If you want a little darkness in your D&D campaign, whether for a couple adventures or a full-fledged story arc, you will want to pick it up

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Monday night I sat in my study preparing for Wednesday’s session of Encounters. Unfortunately, I was dwelling on the negative. I was disappointed in my ability to get the players to connect with Splintershield in the first half of the season. If I had, then his death would have been more than just a plot device; it would have inspired the players to have their characters live on the edge in defense of their home(s) instead of just going through the paces of the adventure.
This week sets up the rest of the season and is integral in getting the players to buy in to what happens (or could happen) at the climax. If I do this right, it will result in a much more satisfying conclusion to thirteen weeks of work. The challenge for this session is to make sure I role play all my ideas instead of merely turning the first part of this encounter into an info dump. Here is what I planned:

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I am enjoying running this season of encounters. Big chunks of time between chapters are something new and leave openings for players to add history to their character as they grow. The story is good and I like that they get to face their recurring enemy often, unlike last season when it was eight weeks before they had an encounter with their foil.

I do have a couple requests for the future. Hopefully they could add just a few more paragraphs of information to enhance the story and roleplaying experience. Hammerfast is called a necropolis once in the module. In the adventure summary the plot for this week is revealed as “Vladistone turns the ghosts of Hammerfast against its citizens” but the magnitude of the ghost population is never really revealed until after the boxed text for this session. Just a paragraph or two from the Hammerfast supplement that was released a few years ago would be helpful. A player on his or her toes in week one may have asked, why is Hammerfast a Necropolis? The module does not provide this information. I know as a player I would have gotten much more satisfaction if a big hint got dropped week one that I had a shot at putting together for the future so come week nine we are not caught totally off guard.

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