Tag Archive: Dungeons & Dragons


Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft–Create a horror-themed adventure with next Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook

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March 11, 2021

The mists of Ravenloft are rising.  Overcome your dread or forever be its prisoner!

Hot on the heels of this month’s release of Candlekeep Mysteries, the new Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition campaign sourcebook Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft explores the mysteries of Ravenloft, mist-shrouded lands where infamous Darklords lurk among ageless vampires, zombie hordes, cosmic terrors, and worse.  Create your own Domains of Dread, settings to host endless terrifying adventures, or join the ranks of haunted heroes who embrace macabre lineages, dual-edged Dark Gifts, haunted subclasses, and other forbidden powers.  Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft contains everything you need to craft a horror-themed campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, and unleash a treasure trove of new story hooks, character options, and campaign customization.  You pre-order the standard library cover here from Wizards of the Coast at Amazon now, or order the alternate shimmering, soft-touch edition from your local gameshop.

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Candlekeep Mysteries–A collection of Dungeons & Dragons adventures hinged on a cool idea to expand your campaign

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March 8, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Not just a new adventure for your next Dungeons & Dragons campaign, the new 5th edition adventure anthology Candlekeep Mysteries is a different way to enhance gameplay from Wizards of the Coast.  First, it opens up the realm of creators creating the stories behind your next adventure.  It’s 17 contained adventures all centered on a visit to the Forgotten Realm’s renowned towering library fortress of Candlekeep.  Each adventure has a book– a rarity, serving as a clue, a key, a totem or token, a container, or treasure–at the center of a mystery.  And each adventure can be played as a standalone, or, it can supplement another campaign, so a Dungeon Master can splice in one of these stories to places like the Soltryce Academy of Wildemount, the Library of Korranberg in Eberron, the University Library in Sharn, or the Great Library of Greyhawk.  Plus new monsters.  New magic items.  New characters.

Which adventure will you begin with?

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Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021–A celebration of the game and fandom

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February 3, 2021

This next Dungeons & Dragons offering is a British twist that may interest some U.S. players.  Not a product of Wizards of the Coast like the typical D&D book or accessory set, the Dungeons & Dragons 2021 Annual–the first of its kind–is now available to U.S. buyers.  Neither a rule book nor an adventure book, this is more an overview of the past year, a typical, traditional annual that the UK genre market has seen for years across major fandoms including Star Wars Annual 2021 and the Doctor Who Annual 2021.  Think of it as a yearbook or souvenir book, an introduction for new players, and a look back at the releases over the past year.

Take a look inside, courtesy of Egmont Books in the UK:

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Candlekeep Mysteries–Add 17 mystery adventures to your next Dungeons & Dragons campaign

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January 17, 2021

Candlekeep attracts scholars like a flame attracts moths.  Historians, sages, and others who crave knowledge flock to this library fortress to peruse its vast collection of books, scribbled into which are the answers to the mysteries that bedevil them.  Many of these books contain their own mysteries–each one a doorway to adventure.  Dare you cross that threshold?

The new Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition adventure anthology Candlekeep Mysteries explores the Forgotten Realm’s renowned towering library fortress with 17 new mystery themed mini-adventures–each tied to a book in the library.  These can be run as standalone adventures or tucked into your latest campaign.  Including a poster map of the library fortress and detailed descriptions of Candlekeep and its inhabitants, you can pre-order the library cover here at Amazon now, or pick up the Victorian-inspired variant cover via your local gameshop.

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The Great Dalmuti–1990s tactics card game gets a re-issue by Wizards of the Coast with a D&D theme

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December 2, 2020

Just when you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for your favorite Dungeons & Dragons gamer, Wizards of the Coast steps in with an update to one of its classic card games.  The Great Dalmuti is a multi-player card game from the mind of Richard Garfield, creator of Magic the Gathering.  Artist Harry Conway has provided the D&D spin on the cards, but the core rules remain the same.  It’s available now here at Amazon, and via your local game shop.

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Wilderness Kit–Run through the jungle with new D&D Dungeon Master tie-in set

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November 14, 2020

Since the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons launched in 2014, Wizards of the Coast has been offering plenty of great tie-in products to enhance the gaming experience, many under the heading of Dice & Miscellany.  The latest tie-in is available in game shops and here at Amazon this week, the D&D Dungeon Master’s Screen Wilderness Kit.  Whether you’re exploring the jungles of Chult, sailing through Saltmarsh, or navigating the frozen frontier of Icewind Dale, the D&D Wilderness Kit will help you through it.

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Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything–Options, options, and more options arrive to expand your Dungeons and Dragons gameplay

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November 13, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Next Tuesday Wizards of the Coast releases its new set of rules options and subclasses for Dungeons & Dragons in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, featuring the storied mother of witches and daughter of Baba Yaga as she pulls back the curtain to reveal new spells and other magic miscellany.  Tired of the standard 5th Edition rules and want to spice up your play a bit?  Tasha’s book is all about options–options to flip the framework of characters on end, options to expand strictures of backgrounds and races, maybe even changing that trait you always wished you could modify for your favorite character class.  It’s for players and Dungeon Masters as a supplement to the Player’s Handbook, the Monster Manual, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and can be paired with any previously issued adventure.  Pre-order it now here at Amazon for Tuesday delivery.  What’s all inside?

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At the Spine of the World–D&D and IDW take to Icewind Dale for next comic tie-in series

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November 10, 2020

A never-ending winter’s night is slowly driving an isolated town in the depths of Icewind Dale to the brink of insanity.  To save them all, a perilous journey awaits a band of adventurers as they battle a furious icy god and uncover the plot of an ancient primordial evil.  The creative team behind GLOW vs the Babyface are tag-teaming the next Dungeons & Dragons mini-series heading to comic shops this week.  Former WWE superstar and writer AJ Mendez (Crazy is My Superpower) and actor Aimee Garcia (star of Lucifer and Dexter) take readers back to the freezing temperatures of Icewind Dale and Ten-Towns in Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World.  

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Review–Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, an exciting story and visually stunning D&D adventure

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September 9, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Franklin, Scott, Shackleton, Dyre, Hillary, MacReady, Torrance, Norgay.  Name your favorite stone-cold adventurer from real life or fiction and ready yourself for what may be the deepest, most detailed world building in your Dungeons & Dragons gaming yet.  Ed Greenwood and R.A. Salvatore’s Icewind Dale will take on new meaning for you as a place of excitement and troubled outcasts, nonstop pitfalls, and numbing despair–if you’re not careful.  In Wizards of the Coast’s latest adventure, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, players will journey across lands doomed to darkness by a frostmaiden of many faces, known to embody all of winter’s cruelties.  Your most bone chilling nightmares lie ahead, and survival is only the beginning.

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High Score–Netflix docu-series recounts the history of video games

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September 8, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Video game dabblers and players turn into game company entrepreneurs in Netflix’s latest retro fix, High Score, a documentary in the vein of shows like VH1’s Behind the Music and The Toys That Made Us.  Pioneer designers and creators like Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado, Nintendo’s Hirokazu Tanaka, and Atari’s Nolan Bushnell piece together a brief history of video games with an emphasis on home play in this new six-episode, limited series now streaming on Netflix.  The series goes through the development and rise of games moving from upright consoles to the television set, with Mystery House, Space Invaders, Star Fox, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden Football, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and Doom rising to the top as the touchstones of this modern corner of history.

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