More 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons combat! This is the “big” fight against the Kobolds and their Dragon Priest leader, and runs a bit longer than our last episode. As our group gets the hang of 4e, we have more discussion around what it all means in the fiction of the game world, where to get maps and minis, and what we like best.

I’ve been spending some time thinking about why I don’t enjoy doing double-digit addition during tabletop games like 4th Edition D&D or calculating the winner in Fire and Axe. It’s not that I can’t do 3rd grade math, rather that I seem to find it much more of a chore than some of the other people who I’ve mentioned this to (although some have agreed with me). When I suggested alternatives, including comparing levels between attacker and defender, those people said they found that more difficult.

From the pages of Atland, the Simians are a race of Gorilla Men trained in the art of warfare from infancy. They can be found far from their homeland as mercenaries, or wandering adventurers. Their savage appearance is contrasted with their keen sense of tactics, and code of honor.
Nate Piekos’ Atland is my favourite fantasy themed comic – both in print and on the web! With more than 230 pages of RPG type adventure, it’s a great story with outstanding artwork. Atland’s mix of humor, action and original take on …

If you haven’t seen it yet, Deadliest Warrior on Spike TV is a great show for anyone interested in historical weapons and armour. Each episode compares two historical (or modern) warriors and poses the question – who would win in a fight? The historical research and scientific testing of the weapons is tremendously interesting and backs up some suspicions I’ve had about how much sense the stats given to weapons and armour in games like D&D make.

Now that everyone has submitted their entries to the one-page dungeon contest, I thought I’d share my entry here as well.
It’s the dungeon for the “Expedition to the Ancient Academy” actual play recordings I’ve been posting on the podcast!
All the monsters were placed by rolling on the random tables in the Moldvay basic D&D book. Some of the earlier room descriptions were borrowed from other dungeons, but I’ve updated them to be original content for this version.
There are still some allusions to other dungeons (Frog Gods = Arneson, Monastery = …