What does the OSR mean to you?

 

When the open gaming license was made public back in 2000 by the Overlords at WoTC, the intent was to open up content to be published by 3rd party publishers, thus expanding the options for the consumer and driving the sale of those officially published books into more homes across this great land of ours. But, there was an unforeseen consequence of this. The OGL also opened the doors to the previous editions of the game, sparking would would become the present day OSR or Old-School Renaissance (Revival by some).

Since this time we've seen a number of retroclone rule sets published for the B/X, AD&D, Basic, Holmes and AD&D 2nd edition rule sets. Some of these really pushing the boundaries of rules-light content and revamping those official published rules into clean and much more usable versions. There is an ice cream flavor for all here...from the crunchiness of Dungeon Crawl Classics with tons of tables and random effect rolls, to Blackhack and Into the Odd which simplify rules down to almost pure narrative play.

With all the diversity of rule preference, there starts to form this question as to what is the OSR really? I can't speak for others and I certainly don't intend to, this is just my personal opinion. For me, the OSR is a feeling. It is not a ruleset, though some rules are more conducive to this feeling than other. It is not even a genre or setting, even though there is a vast array of these now available to the OSR consumer. It is that first D&D basic character, rolling it up at my friend's house one summer day...a Neutral alignment Fighter, Lance Warlend; if he lives long enough he can be titled a knight....I like this, this is the character I want to play. We venture into the dungeon, this abandoned castle on a lost island, dinosaurs wonder the wilderness, those seem dangerous, best to stay in this castle. Rooms explored, goblins slain, the last room has this large creature I've never heard of...a bugbear....three of my companions are dead, it is me and the bugbear, my hit points are getting low.....somehow the dice finally break my way, a hit, it goes down. In the chest is a flaming sword, holy shit, I'm so pumped, my heart is racing! I'm twelve and I've just had my first experience with Dungeons and Dragons, I'm now hooked for life.

The above is the OSR for me, well, getting back to that experience...it was the art in the D&D Cyclopedia that I was flipping through trying to grasp the rules, it was the grid map of the island and then the castle with all of the goblins that my friend had drawn up by hand, it was the high risk my character was under exploring for a way out and eventually overcoming by the skin of my teeth. Trying to recapture that feeling of wonder and adventure I experienced those many years ago, that is what defines the OSR to me. I love many of the published works, adventures and settings to come out of the community, but there is no one definition for what the OSR is, it is different for all us. By my definition it is not limited to a ruleset, the famous black and white art that defined the era. OSR could be at any table played with any rules if one wanted to be so.

So what does the OSR mean to you? 

Rappan Athuk: Review and Thoughts

 

Rappan Athuk: The dungeon of graves. Published by Frog God Games and formerly Necromancer games in its original incarnation. I'm currently running my play group through this big beast of a module...err....megadungeon using the 5E ruleset. Rappan Athuk was originally released for the 3.5 ruleset as three separate volumes detailing the multiple levels of this expansive dungeon and surrounding area. It has since seen compilation volumes with the newer editions of the game: Pathfinder, 5E, along with a Swords & Wizardry (Basic) version. Much of this review will be in regards to the 5E version of the module, but much there is little difference in the different releases outside of the mechanical elements presented within.

For starters lets touch on some legend surrounding this module, it is deadly and it is big. Deadly in 5E is not something typically associated, and for the most part I would agree, the 5E version of Rappan Athuk is not nearly as deadly as the other iterations, but there are some definite "oh shit" moments throughout, I'll touch on this a bit more later. And yes it is big, like, there is so much in here from the wilderness region and small town, to the different bandit groups plaguing the region, and that is all before you get to the literal 50+ dungeon levels presented within. This is a pricey book, but you are getting years worth of content and I imagine no two campaigns run would be the same given the very sandbox area to play in.

The setting centers around a small hamlet deep in what is apparently BFE (very remote) of the Frog Gods Lost Land setting. The backstory presents that several hundred years ago the fleeing army of an evil city named Tsar, known worshippers of the demon god Orcus, had been driven to the area around Rappan Athuk called the Forest of Hope. The alliance of good had defeated them at the city and were in pursuit to drive out the last vestiges of evil, though neither army was ever heard from or seen again. Now hundreds of year later, rumors have begun to abound of the lost levels of Rappan Athuk deep under this region, only the hamlet of Zelkor's Ferry providing any bit of civilization in the region persists, but adventurers and treasure seekers flock to the area for riches or more likely...a quick death.

The dungeon levels themselves are not thematically connected....there is a goblin city, a vampire level, a lava level, a forgotten chamber of the elder beast level....there is a lot going on here, but it kind of works. The inter-connectivity to this place is insane, there are a number of entrances to various levels throughout the wilderness region and each level has multiple means of egress which lead to varied levels. Take the underground river to this level, drop down this random hole to another, really awesome and not linear at all for multi-level dungeon. If your players aren't careful they could easily stumble into something well beyond their level, but I really love it. In my home game, my players virtually terrified to venture into the dungeon levels, let alone get lost in there. The tricks, traps and puzzles are really great and varied, you can tell the FGG staff are big fans of the Grimtooth series as some of these are pretty diabolical...oh you want an example...ok, how about the sloping passage that fills with water and pushes the party into a massive spinning fan! There is also a TPK trap located close the main entrance of the dungeon itself, the players could vary well die before they even set foot in.

The over-arching theme of Rappan Athuk is dealing with the coming and goings of Orcus and his minions. If your players are lucky enough to survive, there is enough content to push them to max level and possible encounter with the big guy himself. Many of the set piece encounters are epic and extremely challenging, character should be expected at any given time, but that sense of danger and escalation should really push your players into engagement. There is also an included full bestiary of all of the named and custom monster encounters, really glad to see this included and stated out.

So, what could be better? Like many of the other FGG volumes it is verbose, like holy hell there is a lot in here to read and dig through. Certainly not an easy tome to run. It is not just the backstory and narrative add-ons for the levels, but just the exposition within rooms themselves is a lot to dig through in the heat of running the game. The editing, dear god the editing, I really didn't realize how bad it was until I began to manually load my game into Roll20 for my players, but references to connecting levels are wrong throughout, whole panels are missing on certain levels, room descriptions are crossed up or mislabeled. There were times I had to put the book down and just draw out the connections or room descriptions myself, this shouldn't occur in a $100 book.

Many of the generic and random encounters are just hordes of enemies of lower CR value, I guess the intent was to overwhelm the PC's, but this doesn't work as great in 5E as it did in earlier editions, plus it tends to bog down the game a bit with unnecessary combat that is not advancing the plot or player agenda. I still have not figured out why they placed the hub location, Zelkor's Ferry, so freaking far away from the main entrance to the dungeon also. It really discourages the typical adventure jaunt, as written, it is over 20 miles away and across a river....there is a lot to do in the wilderness areas, but the heart and soul of this module is set within the dungeon proper, it should have been situated a bit better in my opinion. One of the key aspect of any megadungeon are factions, you won't really find these here unfortunately. Another minor gripe is getting going with the module from level 1. This somewhat fixed with a satellite dungeon located near Zelkor's Ferry, but this turned the first several sessions of my campaign into a more homebrew wilderness adventure. It has been fun, but I'm running off the cuff more than I would like as I really want my players to cut their teeth in the dungeon levels...just DM problems here, ignore me.

Lastly, let me quickly touch on the art. The 5th edition conversion for this book upgraded all of the art to full-color with several new full page art pieces. It's good, but there are some odd choices like using random map snippets to conclude chapter levels. I mean, it serves no purpose unless they were trying to drive up the page count. I much prefer the black and white art found in the previous editions (Pathfinder and S&W) it was really fantastic and set the mood for this module perfectly. 

Allright, so is it really worth it? I mean, this is a pricey tome...yes, gripes aside which are somewhat common with many 3rd party publishers, there is some really amazing stuff presented here. If your group is open to running games using a non-5th edition system, find a copy of the S&W version and run it using B/X or the fabulous Old-school essentials version of the game. Some of the encounters, creatures and levels to be explored are really incredible, looking at you poop monster. Is it the best megadungeon, no, but it is really good and follows the lineage of the 3rd edition tough as nails era of the game. My group has been having a really good time with it so far, with the added elements I introduced for my game, but there have already been several notable memories had and I'm looking forward to many more!

Barrowmaze: My favorite module...ever.

Barrowmaze is a self-published megadungeon from Greg Gillespie, originally published in 2012 for the Labyrinth Lord B/X retroclone rule set. It has since seen a revision with Barrowmaze Complete from a successful Kickstarter along with a conversion to the 5E ruleset. I first became aware of this adventure after I returned to the hobby in 2013. Back then I had no concept of the OSR jumping back into playing Pathfinder at the time, but boy oh boy when I got my copy of Barrowmaze Complete not soon after, my world was changed.

Barrowmaze centers around the rustic backwater town of Helix located in a far flung duchy. South of Helix are the Barrowmoors, multiple burial mounds nestled in a swamp a few hours from town. Somewhere within these mounds rests Barrowmaze, a forgotten and ancient labyrinth that houses multiple catacombs and crypts, the engine of this adventure is that something is driving the dead to rise from the crypts, something of power which has brought numerous rival adventuring group, along with competing factions into play. There is a lot to work with here for a DM.

I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but there are numerous factions at work, along with the grand undead theme (a favorite D&D enemy of mine), all posted in a familiar and believable setting. It just feels so real, the atmosphere that is conveyed by Greg Gillespie is just outstanding: I love the mood of the darkened-quiet halls full of treasure, surprise and danger. What really bowled me over was the art....my god, this takes me back to my childhood growing up reading and playing the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (BECMI) version of the game. It is just so fantastic and really brings this module to life, along with illustrations to show your players, just the chef's kiss of amazing. Really you have to see for yourself, my words as a DM will never do justice for what I can show my players with the fantastic art included here.

There is also a lot to work with in the regional setting. Two smaller towns and larger city are detailed along with important NPC's, particularly those located in Helix, again art is included here. Some of the references and names are a bit tongue-in-cheek with some notable pop culture references, but I am buying all of this. My players tend to do this on their own with anything I've created and it will only help to make the NPC's more memorable and bring personality in play. Unique treasures abound as well once the players start to plunder the crypts, including runic tablets which serve as a deck of many things type of occurrence should your players stumble across those. Gillespie also included unique spells, magical items along with a full bestiary with each creature getting art, take note literally every other D&D publisher, this is how it is done. Art is all top notch and in theme throughout the book, this was clearly a work of love and passion and it pays in spades. I should note that some of the general monsters included can be found with use of the free Labyrinth Lord companion available through Drive-thru RPG.

I've had this book on my shelf for several years now, having read and reread it on multiple occasions. My greatest crime as a DM is not running this for my group yet, but....there is still time....talking my players into running this using Labyrinth Lord or Old-School Essentials is a different matter, but I suppose that gives me a reason to pick up the 5E conversion of this really outstanding book. Greg Gillespie has followed produced a couple of other modules along the same line as well: Forbidden Caverns of Archaia (a Keep on the Borderlands homage) and Highfell: The Drifting Dungeon. Both are equally great and follow a different theme unique to the respective book. For now, though, I'll continue to secretly load Barrowmaze into Roll20, sooner or later my players are going to find it.

What do your player's want? Well....everything.

 

I recently did an informal-fun pole with my D&D group. It was mostly to gauge interest in what to run following our current campaign, Rappan Athuk. I included some questions that hit on what they liked as a player and how tended to play their player characters and the results were pretty interesting.

We all know that each player has different goals, expectations and points of enjoyment through play. I've seen several videos and breakdowns from other sources that are much organized and articulate than myself, but to generalize there is the power-gamer, the role player, the story driver and the anarchist. I can safely say that my groups that I run and play in consist of all of these and probably others I've failed to include. So what is a DM to do, to keep his or her players happy and engaged. Well the best thing is variety in your game...Be sure to have those roleplay conflicts to engage those players, this can be done even within the party with competing interest. Include to difficult set piece encounters where strategy and character build wins the day. Have a world of dangerous and interesting things for your players to explore and engage with....I'm off topic, this isn't really a how to DM tutorial, let us get to those results to illustrate that my and likely your D&D group is diverse in their player styles.

1. The first question is pretty broad beyond just setting. The two highest voted items though were D&D High Fantasy and Futuristic / High Technology (Star Wars). I don't think this is really a surprise to anyone currently playing the game, players these days like the high fantasy, tackle anything type of games.

2. The next question was in regards to the style of game preferred. Again, the results lead into what the newest crop of players enjoy which is the adventure part / over-arching story campaigns where the DM directs things a bit more as opposed to relying on player agency.

3. The third question was more specific to preferred setting. I think this again shows the influence of the pushed Forgotten Realms in 5E. I'm not complaining as someone who grew up on Dragonlance and Lord of the Rings Books though.

4. Next I asked straight, which rule system do you prefer. I should note that our group has played everything from B/X D&D to Pathfinder, D&D 5E, Call of Cthulhu and even some Dungeon World. Again, 5E signs through with ease of use yet allowing for some character customization.

5. Now we come to the more interesting questions in regards to actual character play. First up is the morale / alignment question. My group for the most part plays the hero part and no complaints, this is the type of group I prefer to run.

6. The next question is probably my favorite because it shows exactly what this blog post is about. Variety in games for the diversity of the player types. My favorite bit though is that everyone mostly loves dungeons....so does your DM.

7. The question on races. The results here may be a bit skewed based on how I run more grimy low-fantasy games, but human is always an excellent choice for your character race.

8. The last question again shows the variety of player driven approaches. My group is consistent with the hero / do the right thing approach which I honestly adore, I wouldn't trade these guys for anyone.

So what do you think? Would your group say the same, how would your results differ? My players all mostly joined into the hobby with the dawn of 5th edition so the responses certainly reflect that above. That being said, I do not doubt that within each play group you can single out the different player types, so run your games accordingly.

Rappan Athuk: Campaign update (5th edition)

 

Greetings all, I'm probably months behind on an update as to the games I have been running with session updates and such. For the past year I've been running my group through Rappan Athuk (FGG, 5E version). We're ten sessions in at this point and my player characters just reached 6th level. I'll provide a brief synopsis on what has happened to date and what plans I have for the campaign going forward. I'll provide a full review of Rappan Athuk at some point, but I'm certainly a big fan of this megadungeon. I do have some frustrations with the published work of Frog God Games, but overall, there are some really great encounters, dungeon levels and ideas presented within this book.

I had my group enter via the river, on their way to Zelkor's Ferry, the local village / home base outside of the entrance to the megadungeon itself. On the way there, they ran across a group of fleeing adventures, likely on their way back from Rappan Athuk, that was being slaughtered by a group of Kobolds. My intention was to show immediately that this was a deadly campaign and that even the wilderness in this place could kill you. Following this encounter, the group was introduced to locale of Zelkor's Ferry and some of it's inhabitants. One area FGG could have improved the adventure itself, would have been to flesh out the NPC's there and add some faction involvement here, but they went the way of Keep on the Borderlands a bit and left that work to the DM. 

I took the liberty of adding a bulletin board notice for bounties and other such offerings that the group could immediately take one. The first few sessions, the group took on the work of clearing out a local castle that was overrun with goblins. Once cleared, with no claim to the castle, the characters took ownership and set about dumping their hard earned loot into the restoration of the castle. This one area where 5E struggles a bit, what to do with all of that gold? So far, this is working great and gives them incentive to go explore more.

About four sessions in, the group finally decided to check out the nearby entrance to Rappan Athuk, the Mouth of Doom. This is a satellite dungeon and not the main entrance to the megadungeon itself, I should note there are several means of gaining access through the wilderness throughout the region. They were hired to find and/or recover a lost adventurer by a concerned family member, even at level 3-4 at this time, there some close calls. The standard encounters and random encounters aren't so overwhelming, but combined with some of the lethal traps, the players had to learn quick to proceed with caution.

The most memorable encounter to date was with Dungie, the Dung Monster, located on the 1st level of Rappan Athuk. The players definitely underestimate how deadly and how tough this encounter would be. The creature stumbled upon them based on a random encounter roll after they had followed in a few acolytes of Orcus into the main entrance of the dungeon. They managed to flee and escape the encounter, barely, after the group's paladin tossed a body of one of the acolytes in the Dung Monsters path, buying them time to flee. The group has not returned to the main entrance of Rappan Athuk since then.

Recently the group took up a bounty notice to clear out a group of bandits holed up in another satellite dungeon near Zelkor's Ferry. Clearing the bandits went pretty smoothly, but the group discovered that the ruins went deeper into caverns and tunnels beneath the ruined keep. It was there, that the first death of the campaign occurred. The group stumbled upon a Stone Roper, one of the custom monsters from this adventure. Ropers in general are bad news, but this one is able to turn victims to stone once in their grasp, and so it was that the party's monk got a bit too close and was tuned into a gem encrusted statue of his former self. Again, the group was able to drive the creature off and escape, along with their statue companion. They managed to get him back to Zelkor's Ferry in hopes that the local alchemist could help them and that is where we left off last.

I have given the group the ability to take on downtime activities between session which I use to give them perks and provide adventure seeds for future sessions, my hope is to get them back into the main dungeon levels itself as this is the real meat and potatoes of the campaign, dealing with followers of Orcus and perhaps even the big guy himself at some point. For now though, the group is focused on getting their new castle restored and becoming a political power in the region, I have some plans for that as well, there may be others with a claim to the castle and they won't take the players planting their flag too kindly.

5E adventures ranked (2020)

Wizards of Coast just dropped their latest (yearly) adventure this week, Rime of the Frostmaiden. I have not gotten my hands on the new book, so it will not factor into the rankings. With that said, let's look back at some of the hits and misses on the WoTC adventures since the launch of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons as best we can without major spoilers. These ratings are purely subjective and for fun, I do own and have played and/or run all of the below though.

14. Hoard of the Dragon Queen (lvl 1-7): The Cult of the Dragon pursues an ambitious goal....bring Tiamat from the Nine Hells into Faerun! This was the first adventure released for 5th edition, with most of the heavy lifting completed by the Kobold Press as the WoTC official team was busy finishing up the Core Rulebooks. Why is it so bad though? Linear, some encounter balancing issues and just the whole caravan to the Waterdeep bit is just not a fun section to play or run. I do like the use of the cult and actual dragons, but this one was a pretty big miss.

13. Rise of Tiamat (lvl 7-15): Those pesky Cultist of the Dragon are still at....This the follow-up to Hoard of the Dragon Queen. There are some pretty epic encounters written within, but the linear fashion in which you get to those....blah, just overall not a fun adventure. I do like the premise of high level adventures taking on an aspect of a deity, but really this just didn't do for me.

12. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (lvl 1-5): A simple quest opens up a bigger conspiracy and plot within the fabled city of Waterdeep. This will probably be my most controversial ranking. Maybe I'm soured by my anticipation and let down for this book. Slight spoiler, your players will not be part of a heist despite the title of the book. There are several different options the DM can use for the nefarious villain of this adventure, all of which have detailed layers.....but.....as played it is very unlikely your players will see any of them. I had to home-brew a lot of this one to make it enjoyable for my players and honestly I feel like we could not get to end of it soon enough. Another miss from the WoTC team.

11. Storm King's Thunder (lvl 1-11): In the Savage Frontier, giants have set aside differences and banded together to strike out the kingdoms of man...This rehash of the of the Against the Giants series provides a sandbox setting for your characters to investigate and ultimately stop the giant menace. There are some good moments here, but it will take a crafty DM to put the pieces in place given the sandbox nature. One of the major strikes of the adventure is the intro....super weak. If WoTC hates low level play, why not just start the adventure at level three. You're better served to run the original Against the Giants series, which conveniently you can find in another adventure in this ranking.

10. Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (lvl 1-13): Something wicked stirs in Baldur's Gate and the players are must find what has happened to Elturel, a neighboring city, their redemption waits in the Nine Hells. Kudos to WoTC shifting the setting here a bit. There are some fun themes, the Blood War, angels and devils, and some colorful scenes and characters in the Nine Hells. Drawbacks: again the intro feels really forced, removing some player agency and much the romp through the Nine Hells is a glorified fetch quest, where you have some of the notable figures ultimately take over and/or resolve things for the player characters. Close, but could of been better.

9. Dungeon of the Mad Mage (lvl 5-20): Dive into the fabled dungeon of Halaster Blackcloak, Undermountain. Explore haunted and dangerous halls in hopes of riches or a quick death...Each dungeon level was written by a different author, so they all have a unique feel. While I like the diversity in the dungeon, the over-arching plot can suffer a bit. There are some really good bits in here, but it is a bit watered down for the coddled 5E player. Magical locks preventing the players exploring certain levels until they reach a level....get out of here with that nonsense. If you want to run a megadungeon, go pickup Barrowmaze or Rappan Athuk instead.

8. Dragon of Icespire Peak (lvl 1-5): This adventure is part of the boxed Essentials Kit for new players. Players must take on the fearsome White Dragon of Icespire Peak before more havoc comes to the region. This is a pretty solid beginning adventure, there are some hand-holding bit, but some of the encounters are actually pretty tough for a new player, but I'm a fan. Sometimes straight combat isn't the answer, good players are made through such play. Most of the adventure is a series of bulletin-board types quest that you can do for the townsfolk, but provides new players and DM's with the tools to learn the game. You could worse if you're trying to break into the hobby than this one.

7. Princes of the Apocalypse (lvl 1-15): Elemental Evil stirs in the Dessarin Valley, storms rage, the earth shakes and mother nature herself stands to rip apart the world....This is the rehash of the famed Temple of Elemental Evil (a bit overrated in my humbled opinion). Oh boy, any DM definitely has his or her work cut out for them on this one....that being said, if your group enjoys some good dungeon rumps, there are some good ones in here. All manner of creature and beast will be tossed against the party, culminating into some really challenging and epic feeling battles. If WoTC could have organized this one a bit better it likely would have been a classic for the 5E era, but that was not the case. 

6. Out of the Abyss (lvl 1-15): Madness spreads through the realm of the Underdark. Can the players escape the clutch of the Drow only to find a far worse fate in the deep-dark depths...Of all of the adventures in the list, this one has perhaps the best start and first half. The group must find a way to escape as prisoners of the Drow, followed by a sandbox type romp through the Underdark evading capture while exploring the alien and dreamlike landscapes of the Underdark. The second half of the adventure doesn't follow-up as strongly, eventually leading the players to confront the demonic overlords who have been set loose in the deep realms, but if I were to run, I'd just drop that and enjoy the great first half of this book, of course with more Kuo-Toa!

5. Tales from the Yawning Portal (lvl 1-17): A collection of famous and iconic adventures from the history of D&D. This book isn't so much one grand epic adventure, but it contains multiple separate adventures across a broad level range. Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, White Plume Mountain, Against the Giants and Tomb of Horrors. It is a who's-who of fantastic adventures here, some of them from the master himself, Gary Gygax. I really love that despite what some of the talking heads say, they still bring back these classics from time to time through each edition. Sunless Citadel is one of the best beginning dungeon crawls ever and though nerfed a bit, Tomb of Horrors is back to terrorize your players again. You know I'm a fan!

4. Ghosts of Saltmarsh (lvl 1-12): In the seaside village of Saltmarsh scheming plots, dangerous groups and far worse are stirring. It will be up to the players to set sail and set things right....Again we have a collection adventures, some though not as famous, but formed into a cohesive series of adventures surrounding the fabulous locale of Saltmarsh originally set in the World of Greyhawk. The original U series of adventures is included here, mixed with some other nautical themed adventures to breath new life into this adventure region. Plenty of room for DM's to expand upon what is included here, I'm looking at you Tower of Zenopus on the region map. I really like what they did on this one, great book organization and the included faction play can set this campaign going in multiple directions.

3. Lost Mine of Phandelver (lvl 1-5): What starts as a simple paid escort job quickly turns into a great adventure in the Sword Coast countryside. Outside of Keep on the Borderlands, I feel like this is quite possibly one of the best beginner modules of all time. A quick introduction and right into the encounter, followed by a short dungeon, where guess what some roleplaying and diplomacy from the players can easily win the day. The town of Phandalin provides a fairly solid sandbox for the players to explore and engage with, complete with competing factions and different plots to explore. The conclusion leaves the DM plenty of room to grow with as well. For such an early release for 5E, this one still holds up phenomenally.

2. Tomb of Annihilation (lvl 1-11): A great evil has placed a death curse across the land. Deep in the jungles of Chult, the characters must find the cause of the curse and end it before they meet their end....WoTC sends us the land before time of the Forgotten Realms in this one, Chult. Full of ancient temples, dinosaurs, undead and forgotten cities you will get the full Indiana Jones treatment in this as your players explore these lost lands. If you read any of my blogs, you know that I'm a huge fan of exploration in my games and this is by far the best offering from the official 5E releases for that type of play. The adventure culminates in forgotten city, full of Yuan-ti (snake people) and the deadly dungeon of the nine gods. Lots of puzzles, lots of traps....lots of death. This is a good one, not for the weak of heart, but plenty of chances for memorable encounters and stories to spawn from this adventure.

1. Curse of Strahd (lvl 1-10): The ancient vampire Strahd Von Zarovich is back for 5th edition to terrorize your players once again in the cursed land of Barovia. What can I say, I'm a sucker for Ravenloft. Despite being blocked by Chris Perkins on pretty much any social medial platform, this is his finest work. The NPC's, towns and sandbox elements of play presented in this adventure are all top notch. The reimagined Barovia for 5th edition is really fantastic. Your players will set out to find the elements and persons required to escape the dark realm of Ravenloft, doing their best to help the down trodden people of this cursed land, all the while being taunted and tested by the darklord Strahd. The culmination of course is the final assault on Castle Ravenloft, full of hungry undead and deadly traps, the darkness has teeth and it is coming for your players...now lets see some more Ravenloft for 5E, I'm buying all of that!