Summer D&D

Hello Taxidermists!

I wanted to make a proposal to our combined squads of D&D players.  Currently, I’m running two campaigns, as most of you know: the Aloran campaign and the Oriental Adventures campaign.  I’m enjoying both campaigns a lot, and I hope you are too!

Right now, both campaigns are at a good pause point, so I thought I would suggest another couple of options for D&D this summer.  The first is one that I had mentioned to several of you already, and that’s singleton adventures. 

Singleton Adventures

In such an adventure, you would creature a new character just like normal except that you would start a little higher and level your character a little to start with.  You might start at 5^th level instead of 1^st level, and with a significantly larger quantity of cash and items.  You would have the full suite of 3^rd Edition materials to choose from when creating and equipping your new character; classes, feats, races, prestige classes, weapons, spells…you could make a very customized and personalized character this way and explore options that may be unavailable or difficult for your campaign character to obtain.  Try a casting class if you normally play melee, craft a specialized character with a unique combination of feats and skills, or sample a prestige class.  This type of adventure is meant to feel more arcade-like while still maintaining the depth and fun of open-world gameplay. 

For continuity’s sake, these adventures would take place within the world of Alora or Ashigon (for OA-style adventures); both have plenty of room for exotic locales, political intrigue and dark, ancient dungeons.  I am nearly finished with creating one adventure in Alora already.  Unlike our regular campaigns, these would be much briefer, perhaps 4-6 sessions from start to finish, depending on the group’s pace.  Upon the completion of the adventure, if you liked your character, you can use them again in another singleton adventure, or you can make another new one for the next time. 

This first adventure I’ve been working on is a well-balanced, yet fairly challenging adventure for three to five players starting around 7^th level.  This is a high enough level that you can start dabbling in prestige classes or multi-classing as well as some magical items, but not too high that things will feel overpowered or sluggish.  I know for me, I love low-power games, so I enjoy low level RPG encounters or Limited in card games.  So, I don’t want to drive us too high.  This adventure will probably take about six to eight sessions. 

The other option is also an interesting one…

D&D 5^th Edition

I have signed up to participate in the “beta” playtest of D&D 5^th Edition (they’re calling it “D&D Next,” but…it’s 5^th Edition.)  They have sent me playtesting materials, including a pre-made campaign and some fairly standard pre-made characters (I’ll let you customize them as much as possible, though).  The campaign is their classic campaign for playtesting, used since the 1970s, called “Caves of Chaos.”  I’ve looked at it, and it’s plenty interesting.  It is more dungeon/combat-focused than my campaigns tend to be. 

From what I’ve seen of the new edition, it is much more like 3^rd Edition than 4^th Edition was.  5^th Edition feels like what 4^th Edition should have been.  Anyway, it uses a simplified, but still fun, skill and combat system that provides for faster and clearer gameplay.  This campaign, being a time-tested default campaign, should move fairly quickly and it is designed to be easily broken up into bite-size, single-session pieces.  It will feel a little more generic to play, mind you, but it still looks fun.

Campaigns

Alternatively, we may also just proceed with our campaigns; I have written ahead plenty on both, so I’m happy to go down that path as well.  There’s plenty more for each of you to do!

If you’d like to continue D&D over the summer, just let me know which of these options sounds best.

1)      Singleton adventures

2)      D&D 5^th Edition playtesting

3)      Continue campaigning with current characters (alliteratively)

I’ll be happy to take other suggestions as well, or if there’s a campaign or something that you’d like to try; if you want to DM, for example, I’d happily play in one!

Let me know what you all think!

- Matt the DM