Tag: Wizards of the Coast

Categories
Editorial

Gaming Resume

It’s fair to say I was a decent athlete in my teenage years, but I was never the best player on the team. Growing up, I knew that there was no way I’d ever play sports professionally. However, as a gaming nerd, I’ve always thought it might be possible to get a job in the RPG industry, or specifically to get the chance to work for Wizards of the Coast.

A couple of years ago I got the chance to write some articles for Wizards as a freelancer, and that certainly got me a bit closer to living the dream. Last week I applied for a contract position with Wizards of the Coast as one of three D&D Organized Play Administrators. It’s not a full time job, but it’s a chance to make a meaningful contribution to the game I love and the public play program that I participate in every week.

Continue reading “Gaming Resume”
Categories
Player Resources

Ameron’s 2013 GenCon Schedule

gencon-logo-01In less than a month GenCon 2013, The Best Four Days in Gaming will be upon us. I’ve been counting down the days since Christmas and according to the app on my phone there are only 29 days to go.

GenCon, like any gaming convention, presents you with the opportunity to play your favourite games, try new games, make new friends in the gaming community, and essentially geek out for four straight days. Every year I post my schedule for two reasons: 1) to highlight the great events I plan to participate in, and 2) to make it easier for you to find me at the con.

Here’s what my schedule looks like so far. Some things may change on the fly but this is what I already have tickets for or what I plan to wait in line with generic tickets to play.

Continue reading “Ameron’s 2013 GenCon Schedule”
Categories
DM Resources

DMs for GenCon Needed… Badly

Dave Christ (a.k.a. The Baldman from Baldman Games), the guy who spearheads and coordinates all of the D&D events at GenCon, needs your help. With less than a month until GenCon it seems that they’re in desperate need for more DMs to run the D&D Next delve.

If you’ve going to GenCon and have any blocks of free time in your schedule please consider being a DM for even just one slot. DMs are rewarded with free swag and if you’re willing to run multiple slots you can earn a free convention badge and even a free room. For every one person who volunteers to DM, six players get a chance to play at the con.

Continue reading “DMs for GenCon Needed… Badly”
Categories
DM Resources Player Resources

Watch the PBS Off Book Documentary on Dungeons & Dragons

While reading through my Twitter feed today I saw that Rodney Thompson (@wotc_rodney) a professional game designer and developer at Wizards of the Coast had shared a link to a short D&D documentary. Naturally I clicked on it and watch to see how D&D was being portrayed in the media this time. I was extremely happy to see a fair and reasonable depiction of the hobby I love so much. If you’re into tabletop RPGs, and D&D specifically I recommend you take 7 minutes and watch it.

Continue reading “Watch the PBS Off Book Documentary on Dungeons & Dragons”
Categories
D&D Encounters

D&D Game Day: Vault of the Dracolich – Wrap up

game-day-2013On Saturday, June 15, gamers in Toronto gathered in the basement cafeteria of a local college and stormed the Vault of the Dracolich. Despite some initial logistical challenges the event ran smoothly and everyone had a great time. Today we’re going to share our story and photos from 2013 D&D Game Day in Toronto.

A Rocky Start

The decision to hold our Game Day event at a neutral site and not at any one particular FLGS seemed good in theory. We could draw players from multiple shops in the area without any of the owners feeling that their store was being sleighed and their players poached. Some of the participating stores are on the fringes of the city and difficult for many players to get to. The college was a convenient downtown location close to public transit and with plenty of parking. It was ideal for everyone involved.

Continue reading “D&D Game Day: Vault of the Dracolich – Wrap up”
Categories
D&D Encounters

Major Changes Coming to D&D Encounters: DMs to Pay for Adventures

murder-in-baldurs-gate-coverAfter 14 seasons the free ride is over. Starting in August, with Murder in Baldur’s Gate, the D&D Encounters program is changing… significantly. Some of the changes are good, some are bad. I leave it to you to decide where you stand and whether or not these changes will affect your involvement with the D&D Encounters public play program.

The big news is that the adventures will no longer be provided to you or your FLGS for free. DMs will now be required to shell out $34.95 to purchase their own copy of the adventure. That’s right; if you want to be the DM and run the adventure for the public play program it will cost you, or the people in your gaming group, 35 bucks for each copy of the book.

If you’re like me one of the reasons you’ve volunteered to DM for D&D Encounters over the years is because you got the materials for free and when it was all over you got to keep the adventure. So why would I suddenly be willing to pay for the same thing I used to get for free? How do I not see this as a slap in the face from Wizards? Give me one good reason why I would even consider buying the adventure? Read on and you’ll find many good reasons.

Continue reading “Major Changes Coming to D&D Encounters: DMs to Pay for Adventures”
Categories
D&D Encounters DM Resources

Lair Assault and D&D Encoutners Tokens

If you’re like me you use minis instead of tokens. However, when it comes to Lair Assault a sheet of tokens is provided for each adventure. It gives the DMs tokens for all the monsters, special terrain features, mounts and even a few boats. After seven seasons of Lair Assault it’s an extremely versatile collection of tokens which is why (after numerous requests) we’ve finally got around to sharing them with you.

When it comes to D&D Encounters everyone brings their own character so there are no standard tokens. However, with most seasons DMs are provided with one of the generic token sheets. I always assumed they were identical until I looked a bit closer in preparation for this post. It seems that I’ve acquired three sets of generic token sheets over the seasons.

I’ve scanned the token sheets, front and back, for all seasons of Lair Assault as well as the three generic token sheets from D&D Encounters and presented them below for your convenience. Using these scans you can print them and create your own token library.

Continue reading “Lair Assault and D&D Encoutners Tokens”
Categories
D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos – Preview

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverAfter a short break in January the D&D Encounters public-play program returns with season 12, Against the Cult of Chaos on February 6.

This season the format returns to the familiar one encounter each week. All character begin at level 1 and by the time they’ve completed the adventure they will reach level 3. Characters get a short rest at the end of each week and an extended rest at set times throughout the adventure. It’s a regular 4e adventure, there aren’t any strange modifications to the rules. However, Wizards of the Coast is offering the opportunity to convert this 4e adventure into a D&D Next play test.

During the week 0 character creation session, everyone involved with D&D Encounters at your FLGS (players and DMs) should discus whether they want to return to regular 4e rules this season or if they’d prefer to try out the new D&D Next rules. Groups that decide to play test need to sign the NDA. It is possible to run some tables as 4e and some as D&D Next but once you pick one or the other you’re expected to stick with it for the season.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos – Preview”
Categories
D&D Encounters DM Resources

It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Kill the Wizard

In this Lair Assault you’re are part of a special Drow “murder squad.” Your team must travel to the surface and kill a Wizard. It sounds straight-forward enough but failure will have devastating consequences. The Wizard has created a construct that he plans to mass produce and then set loose throughout the Underdark. These constructs have one purpose: kill all Drow. Your job is to Kill the Wizard, destroy the prototype, and ensure that no one can recreate it. Simple, right?

Lair Assault is part of Wizard of the Coast’s public play program. It’s intended to provide a whole new kind of D&D experience. There is very little role-playing in these adventures (by design). They are extremely combat heavy and reward smart play and clever tactics. It’s a power-gamers dream.

Knowing the kind of players these adventures attract, Wizards has made them exceptionally difficult. They fully expect that some or all of the PCs will die the first time they try any new Lair Assault. In fact they said at the outset that they estimate 80% of all groups will suffer a TPK in their first run-through. With the gauntlet thrown down you have to decide if you’re brave enough (or dumb enough) to accept the challenge and try to Kill the Wizard.

This is the fifth season of Lair Assault and the second that is part of the Rise of the Underdark theme running through all Wizards of the Coast product lines right now. One thing that makes this installment unique is that the players get to play the bad guys in this adventure. Not only that, but as Drow every player at the table should watch his back because you never know if another member of the squad is going to stab you in the back.

The new season of Lair Assault runs from September 1 – November 30. (I realize it already started, but I didn’t get the materials until last week and I’ve needed time to get this report put together.) Below I share some of the high-level details. I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free. Some of my suggestions and observations may seem a bit spoiler-y but most of my points are pretty obvious or fairly common sense things so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’m certainly not going to give away anything that will give players an unfair advantage.

Continue reading “It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Kill the Wizard”
Categories
Editorial

I’m Getting Published in Dungeon Magazine

I’ve always said that writing for this blog is a lobour of love. It is its own reward. While that is indeed true, in the back of my mind I’ve always secretly hoped that it would give me the experience and exposure needed to write for Wizards of the Coast. Well, that dream is becoming a reality in September as Wizards will be publishing two of my submissions.

Way back in April 2011 Wizards reached out to a wide field of up-and-coming writers asking if they’d be interested in contributing to Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine. Many of these would-be authors, myself included, had no professional writing experience aside from what we posted on our gaming blogs. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to contribute to the D&D cannon.

The Table of Contents for Dungeon #206 (September 2012) is now live on the Wizards of the Coast website. I don’t know when in September my articles will be live, but when they are I’ll let everyone know.

Continue reading “I’m Getting Published in Dungeon Magazine”