The Three-Dragon Problem campaign is supposed to be running monthly, but it isn't. I've got lots of ideas and plans that will probably not come to fruition. I'm enjoying it, but its a rough haul. Monthly is a tough schedule for an ongoing campaign, I don't feel I'm getting as much investment in the game as I'd like and its tough to keep everyone engaged with that much time between games. The group made characters and had our session zero in January 2023, but then it was 22-days before they got to play those characters. We ran through a 2-part adventure where we had a 28-day break between part 1 and part 2. The next session was 13-days later, but it was something of a flop, where things got bogged down in town. Then there was a huge break of 70-days before the group made it to an ambush on the road leading to a goblin bandit cave. It was another 64-days before we got back together and they walked into the town they left for seven months ago in the real world. It...

I've been wanting to run a game and have been doing a bunch of prep for that possibility. Initially, I was thinking of running a traditional campaign sort of thing, but Adventure: The Three-Dragon Problem mostly fills that roll. The more thought given to the idea, the more it has evolved into an open table idea. Short excursions out from a central location. Adventures that are not dependent on what has come before, but which are interconnected with those and with adventures yet to come. Something that can support a wide a mix of characters and a diverse, but narrower, mix of both character level and player experience. I like the idea of the " West Marches " style campaign, but haven't had much luck putting the game in the hands of the players in that way. Everybody says they hate a "railroad" but nobody wants to drive the adventure, so in my experience you've got to give them a road trip: a straight line to where they're going with the opportunity t...

Let’s look at character advancement in Dungeons & Dragons using the numbers from the core rules and assuming a medium difficulty encounter. You can see that the number of encounters per level to advance is all over the place, resulting in certain levels taking many more challenges to advance than others. Using the XP Table, you’ll face an average of 11.6 medium encounters to level a character. The actual number ranges from 6 to more than 17 encounters. This triggers something in our brains and makes us want to fix the system.  We're not even going to reference the Adventuring Day XP chart in the Dungeon Master's Guide … that is just a crazy thing that we propose you ignore. Player’s Handbook Dungeon Master’s Guide Adventure: Tombs of Cathedra Class Level Experience Points Medium Challenge  XP Threshold Challenges To Next Level House Rule Experience Points Challenges To Next Level 1 0 50 6 0 10 2 300 100 6 500 10 3 900 150 12 1,500 10 4 2,700 250 15.2 3,000 10 5 6,500 500 ...

  December creates scheduling problems for our group. Gryffon has been informed by his boss that there will be no weekends off in December, so he's out. Doug, Campbell, and Zak all have scheduling issues at different points this month. And I've got family visiting, other games, and a plethora of other demands on my time. We've come to a consensus, there will either be no game in December or we will try to fit something in during the week between Christmas and New Year. Doug has that week off and Campbell is out of school, and while it's possible, that feels like a busy week. We'll see what happens. I'm running behind on the campaign log for The 3-Dragon Problem, but hopefully this break will give me time to get the updates posted for both the Cragmaw Castle and Trinity Lake sessions. Stuff has happened, I just haven't written that stuff up.

  2023/11/19 Session 8: Errand to Trinity Island (Campbell, Doug, Ronn, Zak) I confess that I have waited too long to write this up and the events are unclear in my memory. I shall do my best to recall what transpired, the instigating events, and the secrets/clues revealed. –DM Ronn 7 Winterwane 5023 In the dark of night and fearing pursuit from the vengeful gobels, whose king they had just slain, the members of The Order of Righteous Peregrination made the three mile trek down to the Village of Trinity Center . They had rescued their friend, Gundren Rockseeker , and retrieved the precious map to the lost Phandelver Mine known as Wave Echo Cave , but had lost their hoblin companion, Vrandon Charez , to the claws of an owlbear in the process. Grieving, tired, and sore they returned to their horses and a nights rest in the barn of Bark and Vilma Wilson .    Broan Gelda the Elder | Vilma & Bark Wilson The villagers offered them simple sustenance in the morning, li...

  2023/10/22 Session 7: Cragmaw Castle (Campbell, Doug, Gryffon, Ronn, Zak) 5 Winterwane 5023 The members of The Order of Righteous Peregrination , having escaped the captivity of the Redbrands and recovered in relative comfort and security of the Stonehill Inn, awake late in the morning to a buzz of commotion running through the camp. In a move to counter any actions by the Heroes of Eureka the Redbrands have dragged some aberration from the ruins and staked it out in front of the town hall. The creature is monstrous with bony spikes protruding from its mottled back, terrible talons, and a single great eye above a maw of sharp fangs. Both the mayor, Harbin Wester , and the real leader of the town, Vilarno Albrek , gave rousing speeches about the mind altering powers of this creature and blamed the rash of bad behavior by the Redbrands on the creature's influence. Assurances were made that with this creature slain, the corrupting influence of its magic on the camp would end, the ...