Starter Set: Heroes of The Borderlands

I love starter sets, but some are better than others. I absolutely adored 2019's Essentials Kit, and I've run its adventure for three different groups. In addition to the usual abridged rulebook, adventure book, and dice, it also included a DM screen, maps, and tons of cards for items, NPCs, initiative, and more. It's almost everything you need to play a campaign, and at a decent price. 

I was much less enthused by 2022's Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, which didn't include much more than the adventure. And it wasn't a particularly great adventure, either.

Today I purchased the newest Starter Set, "Heroes of the Borderlands."  Here are my first impressions.

So, right off the bat, this is a lot closer to the Essentials Kit than other starter sets, in that it includes everything you could possibly need to run a short campaign. In the box you will find:

Quick-Start Leaflet
4 Booklets (a Play Guide and three Adventure Booklets)
8 Background Cards
8 Species Cards
55 Equipment Cards
53 Spell Cards
42 Monster Cards
20 Magic Item Cards
20 NPC Cards
4 "On Your Turn" (Cheat Sheet) Cards
8 PC Tokens
40 Power Tokens
46 Hit Point Tokens
75 Gold Piece Tokens
6 Gem Tokens
18 Terrain tokens
80 Monster Tokens
5 Full-Size Double-Sided Maps
4 Half-Size Double-Sided Maps
5 Adventure-Related Handouts
8 Class Boards (2 for each of the 4 Pregens)
Combat Tracker (Basically an Initiative Notepad)
4 Storage Baggies
Dice

That's a lot of content. It has maps, monster cards, and tokens for every combat encounter in the included adventures. The pregens include Cleric, Fighter, Wizard, and Rogue, and they go up to level three (with two level-three subclass choices for each pregen).

The three adventures can be run in any order. I've only flipped through them so far, but the booklets include:

Keep on the Borderlands - This is mostly roleplay, and does not give an XP reward. This adventure gives the players plenty of opportunity to socialize with NPCs, earn some gold, and buy some equipment. 
Wilderness - The party travels through the woods and fights a few monsters along the way.
Caves of Chaos - The party explores the many cave systems full of goblins and ogres.

While I haven't browsed the adventures in-depth, I don't think I like them as much as the adventure in Essentials. Essentials felt more sand-boxy, with two or three jobs available at all times. Also, Essentials takes the characters up to level seven, while Borderlands only goes up to level three.

Note the Play Guide doesn't include character creation instructions, just gameplay rules. Also note that this starter set is based on the 2024 rules.

The pregens show the class details only. There are also background and race cards to use in conjunction with the class sheets, which is kind of interesting. In the past, most pregens I've used included preset race/class/background combinations, so Borderlands pregens are a bit more customizable. 

I'm a bit surprised that it came with an initiative tracker pad, when using initiative cards worked so well in the Essentials Kit. Especially because the Borderlands kit comes so close to not needing a pencil at all (since it lets players track their hp and gold with tokens). But that's a minor nitpick, when the box includes so much content.

Seriously, if you're new to D&D and still on the fence about whether to give it a try, this has everything you could possibly need. But all this content comes at a cost. At $50, this is one of the more expensive starter kits out there. Considering you can get the actual PHB for $40, this starter set is a big investment for those who are only dabbling. And experienced players don't really need it.

Will it replace the Essentials Kit? Not for me, but I'm certainly anxious to run it sometime. 

2025 Monster Manual

I'm not sure if I really needed to upgrade my Monster Manual. I mean, the old MM works just fine with the new rules. But I wanted to complete my set, so here we are.

So what's different? Hell if I know. I've cracked open the original 5e MM maybe five times. I mean, in the past ten years I've been a player more than a DM. When I did DM, half the sessions were online, where I tended to google the stat block I needed at the time. And the games I ran in person, I used a pre-made module with its own stat blocks.

I'll say this, I like the new look of the stat blocks. They're cleaner-looking, which is easier on the eyes. It's not a huge difference, but putting initiative in the top right, and putting boxes around the stats (now with their saves) is convenient. There's also a line for gear, for those DMs whose players loot everything they kill.

The monster's CR now also includes their PB, which I can only assume is the monster's peanut butter rating, something D&D has been sorely lacking. Those of us who use Reese's for monster minis have been demanding a peanut butter rating for years.

Edit: Okay, so I looked it up, and that's actually the monster's proficiency bonus. I guess that could be useful, but I'm a little disappointed about the peanut butter thing.

The monsters are organized a bit differently this time, which may or may not make things easier. For example, in the 2014 edition, the dragons were all lumped together. In 2025, black dragons are listed together with the B's, green dragons are listed with the G's, and so on. 

However, the "index of stat blocks," which was in the back of the 2014 MM, is right up front as part of the table of contents page this time. It lists everything alphabetically, so "Adult Red Dragon" is listed in the A's while the "Young Red Dragon" is listed near the end, despite appearing together in the book itself.

This is good. I do remember a couple of times when I was looking up a monster, I found the index more useful than the table of contents. Putting the index up front makes it that much more intuitive.

One thing that's causing a bit of controversy is that orcs are no longer in the Monster Manual. This struck me as odd at first. I mean, yeah, sure, they're a player race now, but that doesn't mean you won't still fight orcs.

But it makes sense in context. Traditional orc stats aren't hugely different than those of a strong human. The Monster Manual still includes stats for humanoids, including bandits, berserkers, knights, warriors, toughs, cultists, mages, spies, nobles, and so on. Every one of those is designed so they can be any humanoid race.

Some monsters are gone, but some have been renamed or replaced with something very similar. Thugs are now toughs, quippers are now piranha, and lizardfolk now use the "scout" stat block. This book contains more monsters than the previous book, so overall it's a net gain.

There's a list in the back of the book that tells you what new monsters to use in place of monsters that vanished between 2014 and 2025. So if you want to build an orc warband, use berserkers instead of the orc grunts, use the "tough boss" instead of the chief, and use the "cultist fanatic" instead of the shaman. So there's no particular reason orcs needed to take up space in an already crammed book.

Bottom line: I can't say the 2025 Monster Manual is a necessity if you already have the 2014 book. There are improvements, but they're nothing groundbreaking. Still, if I had to choose between the two books, I'd pick the 2025 version.

2024 DMs Guide

Honestly, the DM’s guide is probably the most useless of the core books. There’s very little a DM needs to know that isn’t already covered in the PHB and Monster Manual. Generally speaking, if you know how to play D&D, then you know how to DM.

But I want the complete set of the 2024 core books, so I splurged a little and picked it up. So how is it? I'm pretty happy with it. Here’s a breakdown on the chapters.

Chapter 1: What does a DM do? - This section is remedial for anybody who’s run a game before. But even if you’re new to being a DM, it still doesn’t do much that isn’t covered in the PHB.

Chapter 2: Running the Game - More tips, including things like running with multiple DMs, when to use advantage and disadvantage, ways to track initiative, and so on. Again, maybe useful info for newbie DMs.

Chapter 3: DM’s Toolbox – Tips on running chases, how to create backgrounds, creatures, magic items, and spells, how to manage curses, fear, mental stress, and rules for firearms. This section is moderately useful for advanced DMs.

Chapter 4: Creating Adventures – Tips on making adventures compelling and interesting. The advice in this chapter could be applied to writing in general, not just gaming.

Chapter 5: Creating Campaigns – This section mostly centers on planning ahead and making sure a campaign is leading somewhere. But it also contains an extended look at the Greyhawk campaign setting, which is pretty cool. The Greyhawk pages almost feel like an excerpt from a different book, but it’s a good-sized section (about 17 pages), so if you like the setting, this could help you. Note that the book also contains a fold-out map of the city of Greyhawk.

Chapter 6: Cosmology – The usual info on the planes, including a bit of Spelljammer content.

Chapter 7: Treasure – The section I tend to use most. I’ve seen most of these magic items before, but there’s a few new ones scattered in there. I’m sure some of the existing items have been tinkered with for balance, but I haven’t looked that closely. It includes all the magic items from the 80s D&D cartoon. In the previous DM's guide, the sentient magic items and artifacts were listed separately from the other magic items, but this version mixes all the magic items in together. 

Chapter 8: Bastions – Rules for letting players build their own forts and keeps. It’s always surprising to me what does and doesn’t make it into a DM guide, but this one feels like it belongs.

Chapter 9: Lore Glossary – A guide to classic D&D characters and locations. It's pretty useful if you're into D&D lore, though personally I tend to make up my own worlds. They honestly could have filled an entire book up with lore, so it's a little funny to see which characters/locations did or didn't make the cut.

Chapter 10: Maps – Just a bunch of sample maps to jump-start your imagination.

Tracking Sheets – The book contains several examples of tracking sheets (events, magic items given to the party, etc), scattered about the book in different sections. It’s a nice tool for certain DMs.

Bottom line: Is this book worth it? Well, you don't need it. It’s more fluff than crunch, and fluff is the one thing I don’t need help on. I barely cracked open the 2014 DM book, and I don’t expect this one to get much use beyond looking up magic items. Still, it's a decent read and I’m glad to have it on my shelf.

Alien RPG

Alien and Aliens are two of my favorite movies of all time. IMO, they’re the only two good movies in the series, and they’re nothing like each other. One is a slow, suspenseful horror film, and the other is an exciting action movie. They both feature beautifully disturbing creature designs, and a strong female lead. I love how the future is depicted as being low tech and dirty, as opposed to the immaculately clean Star Trek, where technology is basically magic.

It’s not easy to make an RPG system that works equally well for both movies. If I’d been in charge, I might have focused on one or the other. But the Alien RPG (2019, Free League Publishing) makes a pretty solid attempt. I’d say the system works better on the suspense side than the action side, but so far I haven’t played it enough to really judge.

In the Alien RPG, there’s two types of games: Campaign play and Cinematic play. If you’re only planning to run one-shots, then you don’t really need the core rulebook, and can get by on the Cinematic Starter Kit instead. Either style of play can be used for action or suspense themed games, but in my mind, the one-shot Cinematic games work better for horror, and the Campaign works better for those who want a marine-filled action fest. But YMMV.

Alien RPG is a dice pool game that uses special d6’s. Regular d6’s work, but you’ll want a bunch of them, and you’ll want them in two different colors. The first set of dice is the “Base Dice”, which you use for skill checks. They are normal d6’s except there’s a special symbol on the 6. When you need to perform a skill check (which includes attack rolls), you roll a number of Base Dice based equal to your skill level plus the governing stat. If you get even one six, you succeed. Additional sixes let you perform “Stunts”, which are extra effects.

Then there’s Stress Dice. A big part of the Alien RPG, and one of the elements that really helps it nail the feel of the movies, is keeping track of your character’s stress. Your characters can gain stress several ways, from taking damage to seeing a xenomorph for the first time. When you roll a skill check, you take a number of Stress Dice equal to your current stress level, and add them to your dice pool. These dice have the same special symbol on the 6 as the Base Dice, but they also have a facehugger symbol on the 1.

So Stress Dice can actually help you, in that they give you more chances to roll 6’s. Just like how being under pressure in real life can sometimes make you more competent. But if any of your stress dice come up as 1’s, you have to make a panic roll. This roll might result in your character fleeing, dropping an important item, or even attacking a fellow teammate.

 

For example, Bob has an Agility score of 4, a Range Combat score of 2, and his gun has a bonus of 1. His stress level is currently three. He wants to shoot at a xenomorph which is currently sticking its head in the door. Bob yells, “Eat this!”, then rolls 7 base dice and 3 stress dice. Among the 10 dice, he ends up getting three success symbols and one facehugger symbol.

 

Only one success is needed to hit the alien. The other two success dice can be used to perform stunts. Some of the stunts won’t apply in this situation, such as knocking the weapon out of your opponent’s hand. But one of them allows you to push your opponent backwards, so Bob uses this one to knock the xenomorph back through the open door it was standing in. For the other stunt, he just chooses to have it do one extra point of damage.

 

But since he also got a facehugger symbol, Bob has to make a Panic roll. He rolls a d6 and gets a 4. His current stress level is 3, so he adds that and gets 7. Looking at the Panic roll chart, 7 is “Nervous Twitch”, which causes Bob and his nearby companions to each gain 1 stress die. That could have been a lot worse. 

 

There’s a little more to it than that (the opponent may have an armor rating that lowers the damage it takes, their wounds might spray acid when hit, Bob’s distance from the opponent might change the number of base dice, Bob could use his Fast Action to aim for 2 additional dice, the weight of all these dice might collapse the table you’re playing on, etc etc etc), but those are the basics.

Personally, d6 games are usually a turn off for me. I’m a huge fan of 20-sided dice. But I have to admit that I associate unusual-shaped dice with fantasy, so Alien RPG’s d6’s do help set the futuristic mood here. Also, I’ve never really been in love with dice pool games in general. Honestly, the most recent Star Wars RPG (2012, Fantasy Flight Games) is almost incomprehensible to me. But I think Alien RPG pulls it off well.

This is a very deadly RPG. Player characters typically only have around 4 hit points, while xenomorphs have about twice as many. You are not meant to survive melee encounters with an alien. This is a “run and hide” RPG, not a “kill everything that moves” game. That is, unless your party is a group of well-armed space marines, but even then you’re going to want to engage the enemy on your terms. In any event, if you find yourself face-to-face with a xeno and you’re armed with a wrench… just run.

Death is interesting. Getting to zero hit points doesn’t kill you, it just requires you to roll on a critical injury table. Some of these injuries are fatal, some will put your character out of action for a few days, and some just leave you with battle scars.

Combat uses cards to determine initiative. On your turn, you get a slow action and a fast action (or two fast actions). Distance is kind of vague, so combat grids aren’t really necessary. For the most part you just need to track is which characters are currently in which room.

I tend to dislike encumbrance rules in RPGs. It’s not that I think PCs should be able to carry thousands of pounds of loot, it’s just that most of the time tracking weight is more tedious than fun. But Alien RPG’s encumbrance system is intuitive and easy. It’s based more on an object’s size than weight. You can carry a number of “regular-sized” objects equal to double your strength score. Larger objects count as multiple objects, and smaller objects count has half an object. “Tiny” objects (pen, ID card) can fit in your pockets and don’t need to be tracked. It’s a little thing, but it’s touches like this that win me over.

Reading through it, my first impression was that it looks like a "rules light" system. It’s really not, though. Sure, there are a lot of rules that won't come into play in every campaign, like the ones involving starvation, freezing, air supply, and so on. You put all of those aside, and it seems like you're playing with about two page's worth of rules. But when you actually start to play it, it does feel crunchier than it initially reads.

Aesthetically speaking, the books are beautiful. The designers are totally committed to the theme. The pages have a black background, with most information in green “pop up” windows, like you’re using one of the computer terminals in the Alien universe. It’s full of timelines and space maps, with nice artwork and quotes from the movies. The book looks great on my shelf, and I’m proud to own it.

But from a practical standpoint, the books are a little difficult to use. To preserve the aesthetic, they wasted a lot of pages. An entire page might contain a single paragraph, floating in the middle of a star field. Rules that ought to be on the same page are sometimes found 30 pages apart. At times I found the DM screen more useful than the rulebook, because it puts the most-used charts and rules in one spot.

Even the “Cinematic Starter Kit”, which includes an abridged version of the rules, feels disorganized. It basically copies the most important pages right out of the core rulebook, aesthetic and all, rather than reorganize the rules in a more intuitive way. Look, I love how beautifully these books are presented, but I wish it included a quick reference book. If condensed efficiently, it would be a lot easier to find the rules you need when you need them.

Even the bestiary section is presented in a confusing way, with a creature’s stats in one chart, but with special rules several pages away. During one fight, I kept having to flip back and forth between a xenomorph’s attacks, and what happens when they die. Unless you make your own monster cards, you’re going to be flipping back and forth a lot.

Bottom line? Well, there is no bottom line, because I haven’t played it enough to really judge it yet. So far I’ve only run a single session for one player, and we hand-waved a few rules because we were still getting used to the basics. But the feel of the movies is there. It would have been very easy for them to just churn out a quick Traveller clone, but you can tell this RPG was a labor of love. This is a game for Alien fans, by Alien fans.

If you’re torn on whether to buy the core rulebook or the Cinematic Starter Kit, I’d go with the starter kit. You get an abridged rulebook, some dice, cards, and more. And it’s usually cheaper than the rulebook. But if you end up liking the game, the core rulebook adds character creation, vehicle rules, a larger bestiary, and a ton of lore about the Alien universe. If you don’t care about having the physical book, you can buy the core rulebook a little cheaper digitally from DriveThruRPG.

By the way, the module I ran was a short Cinematic one-shot I put together, loosely based on the Commodore 64 game, “Project Firestart”. It’s not finished, but here are my notes for the module if you're curious.

The Domains of Ravenloft

Earlier this year I purchased "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" and posted my initial impressions. The largest section of the book described several of the more prominent Ravenloft domains. I saved this section for last, partly so that I could write my previous blog sooner, but mostly so that I could savor the book.

As I said before, Van Richten's Guide has more for DMs than players. In fact, the majority of it feels like a book of writing prompts. When it's not offering tips on how to give your story a scary atmosphere, it's giving you once sentence plot hooks you're expected to flesh out yourself. The Domains of Dread chapter is no different.

We're given just enough information about each world to jump start our own creativity. If you use this book - and no other source - to start a campaign, you'll probably take the adventures in directions the world builders never considered. You'll probably even end up contradicting established canon, but hey, it's D&D. All worlds are your world, to alter and expand as you please.

Each domain gives examples of typical adventures in the domain. These are invaluable to me, as I sometimes have trouble seeing past a domain's main schtick. Seeing what typical minor quests look like helps me figure out how to craft my own. Otherwise, my mind might be stuck on defeating the Darklord.

Here are my impressions of the domains presented in the book. Other than Barovia, I had no previous knowledge of these universes. I won't be surprised if my impressions are off, given the limited space each domain is given in the book.

I've given each domain a rating between 1 and 5 stars.  This should in no way be used to indicate the quality of the world, just my own interest in playing/running such a campaign.


Featured Domains - These domains are given about four to six pages each, with lengthy descriptions of their Darklords, geography, and sample plot hooks.


Barovia *****
Having already read "The Curse of Strahd", I didn't learn much new here. But for those who haven't read COS, there is a good bit of info here to get you started. Barovia is the ultimate horror domain. While it's primarily themed around Dracula-type stories, the domain is also home to werewolves, zombies, witches, and other classic monstrosities. This is the world I would reskin if I was running a "Castlevania" campaign.

Bluetspur ***
Do you like mindflayers? This Illithid world is interesting, but it feels mostly geared toward one specific plot. Remember that episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" where interdimensional aliens kidnap crew members while they sleep, so they can perform experiments on them? Well, here's an entire domain based on that episode. Of course it has more potential than that, but it still feels pretty limited as a world.

Borca **
A domain filled with shady deals and social intrigue. It feels like a cross between a mob movie and a soap opera. I like the domain's two Darklords, they remind me of DC's Poison Ivy and the Toyman. I wouldn't be against playing in this world, but I wouldn't want to run it. I don't think I could manage all the complex manipulations.

The Carnival *****
This is one of my favorites, and I wish they had devoted more pages to it. It's exactly what it says on the tin - a traveling domain that takes the form of a carnival. It might work best in a low magic setting, where the characters aren't as jaded by wondrous sights. The domain's Darklord is not a person, but a sentient weapon, which is a neat twist.

Darkon **
It's hard to get too excited about a setting with an oh-so-creative name like "Darkon". This is a post-apocalyptic domain, but it's not your everyday apocalypse. The domain no longer has a Darklord, and his departure triggered this world's doom. Now the land is divided by tendrils of impassable mists, making it difficult to travel between areas. The Darklord's absence has also left a power vacuum, and several powerful characters vie to fill that void.

Dementlieu ***
The Darklord is a twisted version of Cinderella, who disintegrates people she believes are acting above their station. And yet every week, a grand Masquerade is held where poor people attempt to pass themselves off wealthy aristocrats. To these people, it's worth the risk of death to keep up appearances. It's a cool concept, but once again it seems to only lend itself to a handful of plots.

Falkovnia **
A land beseiged by hordes of zombies, where survivors are forcibly conscripted into military service. The citizens know that their land is doomed, and would prefer to take their chances fleeing into the mists. But the domain's Darklord is an evil general who executes any who try to flee. Feels more like a war story than zombie horror. Reminds me of World War Z.

Har'Akir **
A world inspired by Ancient Egypt. The Darklord is a mummy who is looking for a missing piece of his soul. It's not bad. I'm not a huge fan of desert settings, but there's a lot of potential here for massive dungeons, tomb raiding, and Indiana Jones style adventures. Just one of the suggested plot hooks - having the Darklord's soul split into several pieces, each in its own dungeon - could make for an entire campaign.

Hazlan **
A world ruled by powerful, careless Wizards. Non-magical citizens live in fear of the devastations the Wizards cause, often in the name of experimentation. It kind of reminds me of the Dark Sun setting, except taking place before the apocalypse that turned it into a desert.

I'Cath **
An Asian-inspired world that is divided into waking and dream lands. Conscious people fight for food during the day, and hide from ghosts during the night. Sleeping people share a dream where they are forced to do repetitive jobs to please the realm's Darklord.

Kalakeri *
Tropical rainforests, political intrigue, warring factions, and nothing I found interesting. It has a spin-off world, Niranjan (in "Other Domains of Dread", below), which I found much more intriguing.

Kartakass **
All the world's a stage, yada yada yada. A land of actors, musicians, and werewolves. Most of the domains are meant to be prisons for their Darklords, but this is one of the few where the Darklord isn't the most powerful being in the domain. As a Bard lover, you would think this would be one of my favorites, but it didn't do much for me.

Lamordia ****
I love this one. Basically an entire domain based on Frankenstein. Lots of steampunk tech and science gone wrong. Reminds me a little of my own Itropa. It also has one of my favorite Darklords. I'm not sure if I'd run a campaign set here, but I'm definitely stealing the Darklord and putting her somewhere in my next campaign.

Mordent ***
Ghosts, ghosts, and more ghosts. This is probably the second most well-known domain of Ravenloft, home to characters such as Rudolph Van Richten himself, and locations like the House on Gryphon Hill. Everyone who dies here becomes a ghost, so it's the perfect setting for a good ghost story.

Richemulot **
It feels like the entire setting is based on the Black Plague. The domain is plagued with disease-ridden rats, with a Wererat organization behind the scenes. I like the Darklord, but the setting is just so-so. But it is timely - if you wanted to incorporate this past year's events into a campaign, this would be your domain. Not me, though. I game to escape reality.

Tepest ****
Another really good one. This one has elements of The Wicker Man, Children of the Corn, or really any "creepy little town" story. In a domain full of evil fey, one community is unusually friendly toward visitors. But soon the PCs notice the town's odd little quirks, leading up to a seasonal fertility ritual that culminates in a sacrifice.

Valachan ****
Another hit. Drawing inspiration from Predator and The Hunger Games, Valachan is a living jungle filled with dangerous plants and werepanthers. The Darklord forces victims to participate in a blood hunt called the Trial of Hearts.


Other Domains of Dread - These domains are given much less page space, usually just a paragraph describing the world and its Darklord. What I said before about writing prompts is doubly true here; there's just enough information to spark your imagination, but you'll have to supply the meat yourself. It's hard to rate these, since there's not much information there, but I'm still giving them stars based on how much they spark my imagination.


Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail ****
I wish this one had gotten more space. This is a mobile domain, a ghost train from Eberron that travels through the mists.

Forlorn *
I Was A Teenage Dhampir. The Darklord is a perpetually young man who is a dhampir during the day, and a ghost at night. It tells almost nothing about the land itself, though.

Ghastria **
Shades of Dorian Gray. The Darklord's immortality is tied to a painting, which he sometimes uses to absorb people's souls.

G'henna *
Features a Darklord who sacrifices people to a fictitious god.

Invidia **
A bad mother, a devious child, and a long line of servants who mysteriously disappear.

Keening ****
A spin-off realm of Tepest. Residents of a village intentionally deafen themselves so they don't fall victim to the wails of a nearby banshee.

Klorr ***
An apocalypse world. This is where other domains go to die.

Markovia ***
A land of sapient animals, the result of a scientist's strange experiments.

The Nightmare Lands ***
Exactly what it says on the tin.

Niranjan ***
This was once a part of Kalakeri, but it became its own domain. In a remote monastery, a wizened sage offers inner peace to those who seek out this domain. Except it's all a scam, and those who fall for it are stripped of their possessions and lives.

Nova Vaasa *
A nomadic tribe led by a Darklord with a split personality.

Odaire ****
Evil toys killed all the parents in a village, and now the children are literally ruled by a puppet dictator.

The Rider's Bridge **
A haunted bridge leading who-knows-where, guarded by a headless horseman. Cool and creepy, but feels like it could just be an encounter in another domain.

Risibilos ***
A music hall featuring a cursed ventriloquist act.

Scaena ****
A theater that only produces bloody, deadly plays.

Sea of Sorrows ****
A pirate ship with a cursed crew travels the waters between domains. There's a lot of potential with this one, and it could easily be worked into any Ravenloft domain that borders the ocean.

The Shadowlands **
This feels like a corruption of the King Arthur legend, but it doesn't have enough information to get my imagination started.

Souragne **
The Darklord is a sadistic warden who enjoys torturing prisoners.

Staunton Bluffs ***
A neverending war, as a traitor is forced to relive the worst day of her life over and over.

Tovag **
Once Vecna's champion, the vampire Kas betrayed his master. Now he searches the domains of Ravenloft to find his infamous sword, so he can face Vecna again.

Vhage Agency ***
A single-room domain, the office of a detective agency. Everything appears black-and-white, and the detective/Darklord tracks mysteries across all of Ravenloft's domains.

Zherisia **
A city where citizens are stalked by a doppelganger serial killer.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

I like to think I'm pretty selective about which 5e books I buy, but every once in a while I look at my collection and think, "Whoah, how much have you spent?"  Of course I have the core books (PHB, DMG, MM), and I've bought some of the books that have new races/subclasses (Volo, Tasha, Xanathar).  I only buy adventures if they're relatively open world (Strahd, Frostmaiden, Annihilation) or if they're collections of short adventures (Yawning Portal, Saltmarsh, Candlekeep).  I did buy both the Waterdeep books (Dragon Heist and Mad Mage), but mostly for their connection to the Yawning Portal.

I don't usually buy setting books.  The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was informative, but it didn't do anything for me.  Eberron is a decent setting, but I don't need a book about it.  I'm sure Wildemount, Ravnica, and Theros are great settings, but I'm not interested in learning about them at the moment.  

The truth is, when I DM, I prefer to make up my own worlds.  I might set a campaign in the Forgotten Realms for ease of PC backgrounds, but rarely are my players going to be visiting official cities like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate.  I just don't have that much need for other people's lore.  I'm not saying my ideas are better than WOTC's, I'm just saying that pre-established cities and kingdoms tend to get in the way of the story I want to tell.

That said, I wouldn't mind a "Campaign Setting Sampler" book, with overviews of the most popular settings.  Maybe 10 pages each devoted to Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, and so on.  It might be useful for deciding where to set my next campaign.

Well, "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" may not be that book, but if you're into horror settings, it does a great job of getting you started.  Nearly half the book is just descriptions of the various realms of Ravenloft.  For the uninitiated, Ravenloft is not a cohesive world like Toril or Oerth.  It's more like a collective of pocket dimensions, separated by the magical mists that keep its inhabitants prisoner.  Some of these domains are as large as a continent, while others are as small as a single city.

It devotes 4-6 pages each to to 17 of the more well-known domains, with maps, notable locations, and in-depth descriptions of each domain's primary antagonist.  Then it gives short summaries to another 22 domains.  So if you want to run a horror campaign and need a place to start, or even just enjoy reading about horror settings, this book is a great resource.

So what else is in this book?  

The introduction explains the concept of Ravenloft's Domains of Dread, and gives a few tips on running horror games.  Next up, we have three new Lineages - The Dhampir, Hexblood, and Reborn.  Unlike the standard races, these lineages can be switched to after 1st level, to represent things horrible things that have happened to your character.  Maybe you were bitten by a vampire, maybe you were cursed by hags, maybe you died and were brought back "wrong"... or if you are 1st level, maybe you were just brought into this world in an atypical way.

The Hexblood didn't do much for me - I didn't care for the lore or the features.  The Dhampir was kind of interesting, with a (somewhat underpowered) vampiric bite and the ability to climb walls.  The Reborn has some features that make it hard to kill, which is obviously pretty useful.

Next it has a section on Dark Gifts.  These options give a character both advantages and disadvantages.  The book suggests having players select one at character creation, but they also work as plot rewards.  These are not the same as the "Adventurer's League" Dark Gifts that characters might receive after being resurrected in Curse of Strahd.  These are more in-depth, and they don't seem to be as detrimental to the character.

The Dark Gifts don't seem very balanced with each other, and some are very specific to Ravenloft campaigns, so make sure you know what you're doing if you use these.  For example, the "Mist Walker" gift is designed for characters who want to travel through the mist between domains.  Another one that stood out to me was "Deadly Touch" which gives your unarmed attacks some extra necrotic damage, with no downside.  Well, no mechanical downside.  Roleplay-wise, it means you'll never get to touch another character's skin without hurting them.  But if I were playing a Monk with a vow of celibacy...

Next up we have two new spooky-themed subclasses.  For the Bard, we have the College of Spirits, and for the Warlock, we have The Undead patron.  I don't see myself using either one, but they do fit the book's flavor quite nicely.

The book also contains two backgrounds: Haunted One (which previously appeared in Curse of Strahd) and Investigator. It also has an expanded version of Curse of Strahd's Gothic Trinkets table.  

There's a chapter on the Genres of Horror.  It has an in-depth look at the following genres: Body Horror, Cosmic Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Ghost Stories, and Gothic Horror.  For those genres it includes tips and tables for selecting the right plots, settings, and villains for the story.  Then it has a more abbreviated look at four other genres: Disaster Horror, Occult Detective Stories, Psychological Horror, and Slasher Horror.  This chapter is useful both for idea mining, and making sure your campaign keeps a consistent tone.

There's a section called "Travelers in the Mists" which describes some of the more notable characters  and groups you might run into during your travels.  This includes some minor retcons to Ezmerelda d'Avenir and the Vistani, in response to changing cultural attitudes.  Of course, now the less enlightened players are blasting WOTC for being too "woke", so you can't please everyone.

Then we have a chapter on Horror Adventures - More tips for running horror, including pacing, atmosphere, and setting boundaries.  Then we have a look at Tarokka decks and Spirit Boards, followed by a Horror Tookit - detailing rules for curses, fear, stress, and haunted traps.  There's also a section on "Survivors", which are basically simple characters that the PCs can control during expository scenes.

Next there's a short horror-themed adventure, "The House of Lament".  The PCs explore a haunted house, perform seances, and learn of the house's troubled history.  This is one of those stories where the horrors start out small but build over time, as the evil entities slowly awaken and become aware of the PCs' explorations.  And it is most definitely an adventure that should be run on Halloween, by candlelight, while spooky ambience MP3s play in the background.

And finally, we have "The Monsters of Ravenloft" - a mini bestiary with about 30 horror-themed monsters.  This includes tips on describing horrific creatures, and coming up with disturbing tactics that will keep your players on their toes.  I could be wrong, but some of these monsters look familiar, and might be republished from other modules.  My favorite monster in the book is the "Unspeakable Horror", which is a very customizable, amorphous... thing that is sure to make the PCs jump when they glimpse it in the mists.

All-in-all, it's a pretty useful book if you like running horror campaigns.  Despite the new lineages and subclasses, there's a lot more here for DMs than for players.  There is some repeated content, especially if you own Curse of Strahd.  But there's more than enough new content here to justify the purchase, in my opinion.  

Candlekeep: Afterthoughts

I already posted my first impressions of Candlekeep Mysteries, but now I've finished it, and I thought I'd post my impressions of the individual stories. Overall, it's one of my favorite adventure books. A lot of the chapters could be expanded into their own campaigns, and I like how most of the quests favor mystery over combat.

Note, there will be spoilers. If you plan to run these as a DM, feel free to read on. But if there's any chance you might play in them, skip this blog.  

I'm listing them in the order that I liked them, and I've given each story a star rating of 1 to 5.

Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme (Level 4) *****
I covered this in an earlier blog, but it feels like one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes.

Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor (Level 7) ****
You find the diary of a servant girl, which gives clues to some unsolved murders. You befriend her ghost and try to track down the killer, who is about to perform an evil ritual.

A Deep and Creeping Darkness (Level 4) ****
You investigate a ghost town that was abandoned after a mining collapse. Following the disaster, the townsfolk experienced nightmares until they fled the town. This one has more combat potential than the earlier adventures, but the mystery is still pretty cool.

The Curious Tale of Wisteria Vale (Level 11) ****
The PCs are hired to rescue a bard from a demiplane. This tiny dimension was designed to emulate a peaceful village, populated by enchanted mannequins that look and act like townsfolk. It has shades of Pleasantville, WandaVision, and several episodes of the Twilight Zone. And that's not even the main plot, which involves a Beholder trying to make the dimension its own. I can't wait to run this one just to roleplay the NPCs. I might have given it five stars if not for a couple of unfair encounters toward the end, including a "save-or-die" item that only serves to punish the curious.

The Book of Inner Alchemy (Level 12) ****
Some pages are stolen from a book of martial arts and mysticism. Hired to recover the missing pages, the party must fight their way through a martial arts camp. It's a fun adventure, but I would only run this chapter if there was a monk in the party.

The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces (Level 1) ****
I think this is a great, low key introduction to the book. The PCs get trapped in a Magical Mansion spell, and have to solve a puzzle to get back. Short and simple, but fun.

The Price of Beauty (Level 5) ****
A book teleports you to a temple of Sune. It's a spa where people can have all their physical flaws corrected, but these treatments come with an unexpected cost. It's run by a trio of beautiful elves, who are secretly hags in disguise. It has elements that remind me of Dorian Gray, and the hags remind me of the newest Resident Evil game. I'm a sucker for Sune, so I really enjoyed this story.

Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion (Level 9) ****
This one is kind of crazy. A secret cult in Candlekeep attempts to launch one of the towers into space. It's also interesting because once the action starts, the PCs only have an hour to stop the countdown. So no resting between fights, or attuning to any treasures they find. The story has several possible outcomes, including the PCs getting trapped in outer space, so that could be interesting.

Lore of Lurue (Level 8) ***
The PCs enter a storybook and have to play their way through the tale. This one is kind of interesting because there's no real danger - if you die in the book, you are ejected back into the real world, where you can take a long rest before you jump back in. You're also unable to explore areas that are beyond the scope of the story, which reminds me of video games when you see messages like "You can't go that way." So it's kind of railroady, but somehow it works.

Alkazaar’s Appendix (Level 15) ***
A famous adventurer retired before he could complete his final quest. The PCs pick up where Alkazaar left off, on a mission to help a lost golem fulfill its destiny. Finding the golem is easy, but returning the golem to its master involves a trek through the desert, confronting a purple worm, helping a Dragon Turtle, and battling a Dracolich for possession of a powerful relic.

The Scrivener’s Tale (Level 14) ***
The PCs accidentally open a book that curses them. They have a limited amount of time to break the curse, or they are doomed. Also, the cursegiver speaks to PCs telepathically, attempting to mislead them. All in all, it's not a bad story, with a fairly epic boss battle at the end.

Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions (Level 2) ***
You have to track down some counterfeit books, which leads you to some jackalweres, who have problems of their own. You can help them with their problems, or bully them into making amends. I like that there's more than one way to complete the adventure.

Zikran’s Zephyrean Tome (Level 10) ***
A book turns out to hold a trapped djinni, who offers to grant the characters a wish if they agree to kill his master. Along the way they might put a couple of ghosts to rest, parley with a dragon, and explore the ruins of a Cloud Giant fortress. My only problem is that the villain, while of evil alignment, isn't given much opportunity to show that he deserves to be killed. It seems like the PCs pretty much agree to kill him just so the djinni will grant them a wish.

Xanthoria (Level 16) ***
A terrible fungal plague is spreading through the land, affecting both plants and animals. Infected humans act like zombies, chant "Xanthoria" over and over, and eventually collapse into a puddle of goo. It turns out that Xanthoria is the name of a Druid who went insane and became a lichen lich. I hope your PCs have strong stomachs, because this adventure hits them will all kinds of molds, fungi, spores, and the like. It concludes with a heartbreaking choice, as the only way to permanently defeat the lich is to destroy her phylactery - which is in the form of a living sprite, who must be convinced to sacrifice herself.

Book of Cylinders (Level 6) **
You have to help a tribe of frog people who have had their village taken over by yuan-ti invaders. It's an okay story, but nothing to write home about.

Book of the Raven (Level 3) *
A treasure map leads you to an old house where you meet some wereravens, and... that's pretty much it. I do like the atmosphere - it's really cool having PCs hear creepy noises (like children laughing) from other areas of the house. But there's not much of an actual story here. I'm afraid it would leave the players wondering if the adventure was actually complete. It would be a good jumping off point for another adventure, though.

The Canopic Being (Level 13) *
There's a book that describes a dark ritual involving Mummy Lords and organ transplants, and the PCs' names are included on the list of future participants. I'm not much into Divination magic, and this adventure is full of it. Plus it's got some rooms that are hard to visualize, and some important items hidden in places PCs aren't likely to look. Overall, the adventure just didn't work for me.

Unearthed Arcana: Draconic Options

There's a new UA out today, "Draconic Options".  It includes alternate versions of the Dragonborn and Kobold races, as well as some new dragon-themed feats and spells.

Overall, I like it.  It splits the Dragonborn race between Metallic, Chromatic, and Gem.  Chromatics get a power that lets them make themselves temporarily immune to certain damage types.  Metallics get a second breath weapon.  Gems get telepathy and spectral wings.  

Kobolds get one of three "Draconic Legacy" abilities, and a roar ability.  I like the new Kobolds better than the previous one; in fact, I might even consider playing a kobold now.  (It's still pretty low on my list, though.)  

One of the spells is named after a Dragonlance character, giving hope to those who have been waiting for a 5e DL campaign setting.  

I do wish they let Dragonborn players pick whether their breath weapon is a line or a cone.  As it is, Chromatic Dragonborn get lines, while Metallic and Gem get cones.  I really don't think it would break anything if the player could choose line or cone every time they use the power.  It's not a big quibble, it just seems like the kind of thing that Dragonborn would learn through practice (like learning to whistle), rather than determined by the type of their scales.

I don't have much else to say about it, but I'm a big fan of the Dragonborn race, so I might use some of these options in the future. 

Candlekeep: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme

I'm only about six chapters into Candlekeep Mysteries, but I wanted to throw out a special mention of chapter 5: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme.

I love this one.  It feels like a Doctor Who episode (specifically, "Midnight").  The adventure features a small cast of characters, confined to a basement beneath Candlekeep.  The party and the NPCs are all afflicted with a killer earworm.  Everyone gets the same nursery rhyme stuck in their heads, and they self-quarantine so it doesn't spread.  

It's the kind of story where things just seem a little off at first, only for the weirdness to escalate to disturbing levels.  Like Midnight, it's the type of story a TV series might pick when they need a low budget episode to flesh out the season, only to find it becomes one of the most beloved episodes of the series.

Unfortunately, it needs the right kind of DM to pull it off, and maybe the right kind of group to enjoy it.  Hack-and-slashers need not apply.  This is a story that requires the proper use of tension, and players who enjoy investigation.  

Candlekeep Mysteries has already proven worth the money, and I'm not even a third of the way through it.  I hope it has at least a couple more stories of this quality.

Candlekeep Mysteries

I think one of the more underrated books for 4e was "Dungeon Delve."  It was basically a compilation of 30 mini adventures, one for each party level.  Each adventure had about three encounters (and let's face it - given the length of 4e battles, three encounters could easily take multiple sessions).  Of course they were light on plot, but that just meant you could drop them into any campaign.  The main draw was that you always had a quick adventure ready if you decided to hold an impromptu game.

5e's "Candlekeep Mysteries" is a lot like that.  It contains 17 standalone quests, one for each party level 1-16 (there's two for level 4).  But unlike Dungeon Delve, CM's adventures center more on plot than fighting.  I'm about three adventures into it, and so far, I'm really liking it.

The book opens with a chapter describing Candlekeep - a huge library containing rare books from all over the world.  It's a short chapter, but detailed enough that it could inspire many adventures.  Each of the 17 short adventures involves a book in some way.  Maybe you're hired to recover a stolen tome of eldritch lore.  Maybe an absent-minded wizard attempted an unfamiliar hex he found in an ancient spellbook, and you have to clean up the mess.  Maybe an old diary contains a map to a mysterious treasure.

In an odd way, it kind of reminds me of "Friday the 13th: The Series" (no relation to the movies), where the owners of a cursed antique store had to hunt down several lost artifacts, each episode centering on a specific artifact and the trouble it caused.  

If you were to build a campaign around this book, it might start to feel a little repetitive after a while.  Although if you were specifically wanting a "Librarians" themed campaign, this would be a good start.  Otherwise, you might want to pick and choose which adventures to use.  Save this book for a night when you don't have anything prepared, and run whatever chapter is appropriate for your group's level.

My only complaint is the map.  It comes with a foldout map of Candlekeep, which is not fully repeated in the book itself (the courtyard part is repeated, but not the Inner Ward).  I keep my maps separate from my books, so they don't fall out while reading them, and I honestly would have found this map more useful if it were inside the book.  

It's not a particularly useful map for campaign strategy, like the overland map in Rime of the Frostmaiden or the hex map in Tomb of Annihilation.  This map seems to be more for flavor, and I'm surprised they bothered to make it a foldout map at all. 

But despite that little nitpick, I think it's a great book for any DM to have.  These adventures require a little more prep time than the ones in 4e's Dungeon Delve - and by that, I just mean you'll actually have to read ahead a little.  But it's still a lot more "grab and play" than the adventures in "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" or "Tales from the Yawning Portal".  

Definitely worth a read.

Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild

This month's Unearthed Arcana was of special interest for me.  Finally a fairy!  As I mentioned in my bucket list post a few months ago, I've always wanted to play a fairy character in a tabletop RPG.  Judge me if you want, but I used to play one in NeverWinter Nights, and I really enjoyed it.

It looks like a decent race - it gets flight, a couple of innate spells, and the ability to squeeze through tight spaces.  I definitely look forward to trying this out, and will instantly preorder whatever splatbook it eventually appears in.

That said, overall this edition of Unearthed Arcana was a bit of a letdown.  Four races: Fairy, Hobgoblin, Owlfolk, and Rabbitfolk.  For a Feywild document, it's not Feywild enough.  I would have preferred Dryads, Nymphs, and Satyrs to all these animal folk.  And we already had a playable Hobgoblin the Volo's Guide to Monsters, so I'm not convinced we needed another one.

Of course, that's just me.  I mean, I have to be in the minority, wanting to play a fairy.  I'm sure that for every oddball like me, there's someone out there who has always wanted to play a rabbit person.  So, sure, throw in more animal people, see if you can pull in the furry crowd.  The more fringe groups we can get to try D&D, the better.  But I hope the final book also includes Dryads.

I'm also a little wary of the new stat system.  A few months ago I read Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which has optional rules for stat generation.  Side note, I've been rereading Tasha's recently, and I think I must have been in a bad mood the first time I reviewed it.  It's still not as useful as Xanathar's, but there's definitely some stuff in there I can use.  I particularly like the Monk subclass that can heal their allies by punching them in the face.

Anyway, Tasha's took the first steps in D&D's push to eliminate racial stats.  It presents the optional rule that during character creation, you can trade out stat bonuses for other stat bonuses.  This allows you to play characters that grew up in non-traditional environments for their race, and distances the game from problematic stereotypes.

This Unearthed Arcana continues the trend by not having set stat bonuses at all for these new races.  Instead, it just says, "When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1."

This is a great system, but it might have gone over better if they had included some suggested stat increases for each race.  After all, that "pick whatever stats you want" rule was supposed to be optional, and not every group intends to adopt it.  Even if you intend to trade out the suggested stats, some people are going to wonder what stats would be traditional for that race's society.

But I guess even asking that question is to skirt racism.  Saying "Most Orcs are stupid, but your Orc is smarter because they were raised by Elves" is no better than saying "All Orcs are stupid".  And since some people draw parallels between D&D races and real world ethnicities, it's probably best to just drop automatic stat bonuses going forward.

If only they could have made that realization during 5e's playtest phase, they could have worked it into the system, and maybe let stat bonuses be come from your class instead.  As it is, this late-stage change makes the system feel sort of messy.  Hopefully they will reprint the PHB at some point, so that the core book is more consistent with the follow-up material.

Until then, I think they're doing the best they can.  I can't wait to try the fairy.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

My favorite 5e supplement has to be Xanathar's Guide to Everything.  It has a large helping of new subclasses, at least five of which I found tempting (one of which I'm using right now).  It has a background generator that almost rivals Central Casting for its depth.  It has new DM tools, expanded downtime activities, more spells and magic items, and a huge list of names for every race.  Overall, it's a great value.

So when I heard about Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, I was ecstatic.  Even if it was just another collection of Unearthed Arcana, that was enough for me.  Unfortunately, now that I've read it, I'm not as impressed as I was with Xanathar's.    

Like XGtE, Tasha also includes a plethora of new subclasses.  Unfortunately, none of them stood out to me as something I would like to try.  Your mileage may vary on that one.  Tasha also contains a bunch of new magic items, but again, I wasn't impressed by many of them.  Then it has a few more DM tools, including Sidekicks and puzzle ideas.  And that's pretty much it.  It just feels like it's missing a chapter.

Tasha's starts out strong.  After an introductory chapter, it leads with the much anticipated customizable origins.  Unfortunately these new, optional rules can be summed up in a paragraph, and aren't really worth buying a book for.  While the third party "Ancestry & Culture" supplement does an intensive job separating genetic traits from cultural traits, Tasha's pretty much just says, "Wherever the PHB says you get a bonus to a stat, you can pick a different stat instead." (Ditto for languages, skills, etc.)

Some players have complained that this will lead to min-maxing, and to a minor extent they could be right.  But the designers have admitted that the stat bonuses for each race have nothing to do with game balance, and everything to do with tradition and flavor.  So you're not going to break the game with your new +CHA Half-Orc Warlock.  

Next up, Tasha reprints the Artificer class, which is nice for those who weren't interested in that Eberron book.  But it still means that about 15 pages are taken up by content that was already published somewhere else.  

Then we have the subclasses.  It has about as many subclasses as Xanathar's, averaging about three for each class.  But like I said, none of them really did it for me.  It's like they were running out of ideas and really forcing it this time.  Then there were a few new feats, again with no real standouts.

Then there's a chapter on group patrons.  Who is funding your group, and sending them on missions?  I found this chapter useless.  I'm pretty good at worldbuilding, and I haven't had any trouble designing my guilds.  But I guess this could be helpful to someone else who having trouble finding inspiration.

The new spells were okay, again nothing stood out to me.  Same with the magic items, for the most part.  The magic tattoos were kind of interesting.  I don't really like that they require attunement, though.  To me, the point of tattoos is permanence, so having a tattoo that disappears when you unattune to them seems silly.  If the designers thought the tattoos were too powerful, I'd rather they had nerfed them than to make them require attunement.  

An awful lot of the magic items were new kinds of spellbooks, maybe because Tasha's a caster.  I think it contains a new spellbook for every school of magic.  I don't usually play wizards, so these didn't do much for me.  They did throw a bone to the other spellcasting classes, too, with some new magic items that can be used as a spellcasting focus.

It contains a section on Session Zero, with a special focus on finding out each player's triggers so you can avoid scenes that cause discomfort.  This is important, and I wish more DMs took this seriously, but I also think it's common sense.

The book also reprints the rules for sidekicks, previously seen in the Essentials Starter Kit.  I really like the sidekick rules, so it's nice to see them in a more mainstream book - not everyone's going to pick up another starter kit.  But again, it's repeat information.  Btw, the Essentials Kit is way more useful than this book, even if you already have a starter kit, so please don't buy Tasha's just for the sidekicks.  As I type this, the Essentials Kit is $7.79 on Amazon - a real bargain for such a handy campaign starter.

It has a short section on parleying with monsters, which mostly involves bringing the monster an appropriate gift.  Then it spends several pages on environmental hazards, which were somewhat interesting.  It finishes off with a section on puzzles.  The puzzles were fun to read, though it seemed like several of them had similar solutions - variations of "collect a bunch of words, take the xth letter from each word, and unscramble the results for the solution keyword."

Like Xanathar's, Mordenkainen's, and Volo's books, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything includes little notes here and there commenting on that page's content.  Unfortunately, Xanathar is the only one who made these notes entertaining, and Tasha's in particular felt devoid of personality.

I know all this sounds negative, but I don't think Tasha's is a complete waste of space.  If you don't already have the Essentials Kit or Eberron: Rising from the Last War, then this is a good way to pick up the Sidekick rules and the Artificer class.  If your DM refuses to use rules that don't appear in a book, it's good to have the rules for customizable stats in print.

But overall, I just didn't find Tasha's to be nearly as useful as Xanathar's.  Bottom Line: Tasha's stew contains too much broth, not enough meat.

Towns & Taverns by Loke Battlemaps

I don't support a lot of Kickstarter ventures, but that's because I'm usually broke.  But when the right project happens at a time when I have a few bucks, sometimes I give in to the temptation.

Earlier this year I backed the project "Town & Taverns: 2 Modular Books of Battle Maps for Roleplay".  The books arrived this week, a month early.  Nice!

I've got to say,  these books are beautiful.  Each volume contains 40 pages of maps, with spiral binding so they can be opened flat on a table.  The two volumes are designed to work together.  Open each of the 60"x60" volumes and place them next to each other, and you have a gorgeous 120"x120" map covering the table.  

When stored together in their sleeve, the two books make a compact way to store a large number of maps.  They cover a good variety of town-themed locales: downtown, docks, interiors, courtyards, castle walls, and even some blank grids you can use for whatever you need.  You can draw your own details with dry erase markers, and your marks wipe away clean.

This is now my favorite way to store battle mats.  I'm still going to keep a couple of my Paizo flip-mats, but I might try to sell my D&D Dungeon Tiles and paper maps.  I'm honestly running out of room for D&D paraphernalia, and I don't think I'll ever go back to using paper maps or cardstock tiles.  

I bought the Towns & Taverns version, but they also sell dungeon and sci-fi versions on their website:  Loke Battlemats.  I hear they have a wilderness set in the works as well, so watch their Kickstarter page.  The books come in a few different sizes to fit your table's needs.  

So if you're looking for a compact way to keep battle maps, you can't go wrong with Loke Battle Mats.  Highly recommended.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

I'm currently reading the module "Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden."  I don't read every module, just the ones I think I might run someday, assuming I ever DM again.  So far I own the following 5e modules:  The Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and both Waterdeep modules.  

I've read through most of them.  A couple of them lost my interest about halfway through, but I think I can still use some elements of the book.  My favorites are the non-linear ones.  Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation are especially good about giving players the freedom to explore, and different playthroughs will undoubtedly feel like entirely different stories.

Rime of the Frostmaiden is also very good about this.  You can start the adventure in any one of ten different towns (collectively known as "Ten Towns"), and each town has its own minor quests.  Some of these quests encourage you to explore the other towns and the outlying areas.

As you gain levels, you start exploring the farther reaches of Icewind Dale, heading into the more dangerous tundras and facing deadlier enemies.  You'll pick up harder side quests, but you still have the freedom to accept or ignore certain plot hooks.  However, you will start to notice some common threads to some of these quests, hints at greater evils at work.

Of course, everything gradually leads up to the main quest, which involves defeating the goddess Auril.  She has been keeping the sun from rising in Icewind Dale, making the harsh land even harder to survive in.  I noticed that it shared a plot point that is similar to Curse of Strahd - once you find yourself in Icewind Dale, it's difficult to leave until the final boss is defeated.  I suppose this keeps you from fleeing, leveling up a few times somewhere safer, and coming back with fresh supplies and magic items.

Also like Curse of Strahd, Rime of the Frostmaiden has been described as a horror-themed adventure.  While it certainly does have some horror elements, I fail to see the overall theme.  Curse of Strahd is full of horror icons like vampires, zombies, and werewolves.  Icewind Dale has a harsh environment, and a few shout-outs to movies like Alien and The Thing, but for the most part it seemed about as horror-themed as any other D&D module.  Tomb of Annihilation is much scarier, IMO.

Still, it's a decent adventure.  I think the most notable selling point is the freedom.  It's practically an open world MMO given how much leeway characters have to forge their own path, especially in the early levels.  It's not my favorite 5e module, but it's probably in the top five.

D&D Essentials Kit

I like starter sets.  Maybe it's because I find the early adventures in a campaign the most exciting, or maybe it's just because I like buying things that are bundled together.  Sometimes it's an economical way of getting several PC-type miniatures at once, along with extra maps and dice.  In any event, I tend to buy every starter set D&D puts out.

While the D&D Essentials Kit doesn't include any miniatures, it still may be my favorite D&D starter set to date.

The box includes:
Abridged rulebook (64 pages)
Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure (64 pages)
Double-sided map (Sword Coast and the town of Phandalin)
4-panel DM Screen
6 blank character sheets
11 dice (1d4, 4d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1 percentile, 1d12, 2d20), translucent red with white numbers
81 cards (magic items, sidekicks, conditions, combat step-by-step, quests, initiative)
A box for the cards
Codes for D&D Beyond content (The included adventure, some follow-up adventures, and a 50% off coupon for the Player's Handbook)

The rulebook isn't much different than the free Basic Rules you can find on the official website.  It has instructions for building a character and advancing them to level 6.  It has four races (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Human), five classes (Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard) with two archetypes each, and five backgrounds (Acolyte, Criminal, Entertainer, Sage, and Soldier).

About the only significant new thing in the rulebook is the sidekick rules (which can also be found for free in Unearthed Arcana).  This is important, though, because it acknowledges one of the biggest barriers to getting a new group together - finding enough players to make a well-rounded group.

Dragon of Icespire Peak is one of the better starting adventures I've seen.  Not because it's a particularly memorable plot or anything, but because it's presented in such an efficient manner that they managed to cram a lot of content into a 64-page adventure book.

When you reach the town of Phandalin, you find a job postings board with three short quests on it.  You can complete them in any order, and after you finish a couple, more quests will be posted.  There are nine quests altogether.  Instead of experience points, the adventure encourages milestone-based leveling based on how many quests you complete.  These quests take place all over the surrounding area, so the PCs will really have a good layout of the land by the end.

Dragon of Icespire Peak will take the characters from level 1 up to level 6.  The included code unlocks three follow-up adventures on the D&D Beyond website, which bring the characters up to level 11.  That's a pretty good value for the price; it's enough to keep the players busy for several sessions.

The included cards are pretty cool, but kind of cheap.  They're not pre-cut cards, just perforated cardboard sheets you have tear apart yourself.  The card box is also thin cardboard that you have to fold into a box.  The quest, item, and sidekick cards make good handouts specifically for this adventure, and the rest of the cards are useful in any campaign, especially for beginners.

My only real complaint is the sidekick cards.  Each one shows a picture of the character on one side, and describes their personality on the back.  I would have preferred their stats being printed on the cards, with multiple versions of the cards for when they level up.  But it's a minor complaint.

The DM screen has some useful information on it.  The first panel has some basic rules - Actions in combat, things you can do on your turn, etc.  Panel 2 has conditions.  Panels 3 and 4 have miscellaneous charts like common prices, light distances, cover effects, sample DCs, and so on.  It's a handy reference, but I don't tend to use DM screens so I probably won't get much use out of it.

Overall, I think this is a great value for new players.  I plan to run Dragon of Icespire peak next time I DM for new players.  I do wish it had included a few minis or tokens and a combat grid, but it's still a good value.  If you're new to D&D and trying to decide which starter set to get, this is the one I recommend.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage

There are two kinds of Dungeons.

Type A: Dungeons that make sense.  These dungeons take into account the function of the structure, as well as the ecology of the denizens.  There will be a theme to your foes: If it’s a goblin cave, you will mostly fight goblins, their pet wolves, and their hobgoblin bosses.  The layout will be functional: You’ll find sleeping areas, kitchens, storage rooms, and so on.  Traps will be minimal and will only protect valuable areas, such as the room where bandits store their loot.  If you’re exploring a Type A dungeon, you may not even have to clear out the entire thing.  A sensible hideout is easy to navigate, so you might break in at a point closest to your goal, clear out a few rooms, grab your MacGuffin, and head back out.  Type A dungeons are efficient and realistic, but potentially boring.

Type B: Kitchen Sink dungeons.  You never know what to expect in a Type B dungeon.  You could clear out a room full of manticores, then open the next door, and find yourself facing a room full of orcs.  Then you turn a corner and come face-to-face with a bugbear, a vampire, and a harpy.  You may find yourself wondering how these monsters get along, what keeps certain ones in their rooms, and who feeds them.  You’ll encounter traps that are designed to kill explorers, rather than to protect treasure.  You’ll complete complicated puzzles just to open doors to what look like high-traffic pathways.  Do the orcs that live here have to solve this “pour the right amount of water into the basin” puzzle every time they visit the kitchen?  Type B dungeons are less believable, but also less predictable, which makes them exciting.

Some Type B dungeons actually do have an explanation.  (Note, this paragraph contains possible spoilers for classic modules.)  The Tomb of Horrors is full of crazy traps, because the demilich Acererak likes collecting the souls of dead adventurers.  White Plume Mountain houses an unlikely menagerie of monsters, but the entire dungeon turns out to be a test of heroism, designed by an evil mage who requires a true hero for a blood sacrifice.   Dead in Thay has the Doomvault, a bizarre dungeon designed for magical experiments... or something; that module has never made sense to me.

Many dungeons are a mix of A and B.  The Temple of Elemental Evil is a pretty good balance of the two.  Each of the elemental-themed areas has their own reasonable ecology, but having it all so close together makes the dungeon as a whole seem pretty random.  I would have to say that the best dungeons are the ones that can straddle that line, by giving you a unexpected encounters while maintaining a consistent theme.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a bit of both.  The Undermountain’s dungeons were obviously designed by a lunatic (hence the title), but there is some logic to the denizens.  Different areas of the dungeon have been taken over by certain organizations or monsters, so there’s a lot of variety, but it’s not like each room has a completely random monster.  Given the popularity of this dungeon, the party will find a lot of the early areas have already been picked clean by previous adventurers, which is a realistic touch.

The ecology of each level usually makes perfect sense, but moving from one level to the next can feel like an entirely different module.  Why do the monsters and factions respect the concept of "dungeon level"?  All that divides this level from the one before it is a slanted tunnel, why do the kobolds suddenly get replaced with kuo-toa?  

A few levels down, you start finding unusual environments for a cave: cities, enchanted forests, floating castles, and so on.  A couple of levels are actually 5e conversions of older modules.  Sometimes you will often find keys on one level that unlock doors on another, so there is some connection between levels.  Occasionally someone will give you a side quest, and you’ll find the MacGuffin three levels later. 

This dungeon is big.  Probably the largest single dungeon published for 5e, at least by WOTC.  It goes down 23 levels, and even has a few hallways that lead nowhere, in case you want to add your own expansions.  The 320-page book devotes 289 pages to the dungeon, making it one of the largest dungeon-to-lore ratios I’ve seen.  

I honestly can’t imagine taking a party through the entire thing.  I think they would develop “dungeon fatigue” after a while (and a vitamin D deficiency).   The good news is that it’s designed so you can leave and come back, with lots of teleportation portals for quicker travel.  So some parties might keep returning to the Undermountain between other adventures.

While the book does contain a few plot hooks, it doesn’t need them.  This is the infamous dungeon beneath the Yawning Portal, and adventurers need no other reason to delve it than “because it’s there.”  But once the party starts exploring the passages, they will find other small quests to keep them busy.  So it’s not just “let’s kill all the monsters and find all the treasure”, though it certainly can be if that’s all the party wants.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a great companion to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, but you don’t need either one to enjoy the other.  There is no strong plot connection between the two.  Grab Waterdeep: Dragon Heist if you want the lore of the area, and grab Dungeon of the Mad Mage if you just want a big ol’ dungeon.