Heroes Rise, two hundred and eighth entry: Spelljammer confirmed. Ostron… Not so much
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 208th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, April 23rd, and released Wednesday, April 27th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ryu tries to find a tool to replace Ostron… He’s still not here? Fiiiiine… Next we check out some D&D News as we bring you everything announced from D&D Direct 2022, including but not limited to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the D&D Digital Library Next we take a Short Rest and head into the Archives of Candlekeep for a tour of Sharn, the City of Towers; before finally heading into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions What announcement from D&D Direct caught you most off-guard? Did you see Dragonlance coming? Did you think the D&D Movie was actually going to happen? Were you expecting a new minis game? So what…
Heroes Rise, two hundred and seventh entry: The More Things Change…
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 207th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, April 9th, and released Wednesday, April 13th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. Ryu’s away this week so Lennon and Ostron take a moment to reflect on some older Adventurer’s Packs. After all, the more things change, the more they stay the same… Or do they? Links AnyDice Arcknight Flat Plastic Miniatures Fantasy Name Generator Community Questions Do you have a favorite Dragonlance character? Do you have a least favorite Dragonlance character? Why is it Tasselhoff? Jeremy Crawford, in a recent sage advice video, says there are now three interpretations of the rules: Rules as Written, Rules as Intended, and then Rules as Fun. He says the latter means that rules should always be used to enhance the fun at the game, and no one should be maliciously correcting or preventing fun based on the written…
Archives of Candlekeep: Dragonlance
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Six on 6th April 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. Dragonlance as a setting is arguably the second third party setting for D&D that was ever created, depending on your position on Mystara. Either way, originally you started with Greyhawk, and Gary Gygax and his player group were responsible for most of the initial monsters and setting information that eventually formed D&D. Then the Hickmans got involved. Some people argue they should be named the “godparents” of D&D, because while Gygax and his buddies did most of the work of creation and working out the mechanics, the Hickmans gave it that extra push that really got it to take off. By 1982 Tracy Hickman and his wife…
Heroes Rise, two hundred and sixth entry: And then the Hickmans got involved…
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 206th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, April 2nd, and released Wednesday, April 6th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ostron’s messing with our wallets again, but this time he’s adding something rather than emptying them. Next we take a Long Rest and head into the Archives of Candlekeep to learn the history of Dragonlance Finally we head into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Links Ajit George on Radiant Citadel: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1509234343008296960.html Community Questions Do you have a favorite Dragonlance character? Do you have a least favorite Dragonlance character? Why is it Tasselhoff? Jeremy Crawford, in a recent sage advice video, says there are now three interpretations of the rules: Rules as Written, Rules as Intended, and then Rules as Fun. He says the latter means that rules should always be used to…
Heroes Rise, two hundred and fifth entry: Journey’s Through the Radiant Sigil
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 205th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, March 26th, and released Wednesday, March 30th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. This week we’re going to wander into the Market of Minauros to see what mysterious and magical items have filtered up for sale. Bones 6 Bergin’s Book of Beasts The Herbal Journal of Cicely Longbottom Next we check out some D&D News as we bring you everything we know about the next Wizards’hardcover adventure compilation, Journey Through the Radiant Citadel Next we head into the Archives of Candlekeep to find out what’s behind door 5374; before finally heading over to the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions Does the creation of the Radiant Citadel officially mean that Planescape is dead, or can we look forward to an adventure where The Radiant Citadel engages in an ongoing trade…
Archives of Candlekeep: What’s Behind the Door?
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Five on 30th March 2022. Sigil, known alternately as the City of Doors, the Great Cage, and the Center of the Multiverse, is one of the major landmarks of D&D. It got its start in, and some would argue defined, the Planescape setting. The idea of a cosmology for the D&D multiverse had been around since 1987, when the first Manual of the Planes was published. However, the rest of the planes only really existed as places where other beings came from when they either invaded or were summoned to the Prime material plane. Or they were locations where the souls of mortals went when they died. By the time 2nd edition rolled around, people were clamoring for more information about the planes and wanted to actually adventure in them. TSR tasked David “Zeb” Cook with developing the setting, and…
Heroes Rise, two hundred and fourth entry: Ruidium Hats
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 204th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, March 19th, and released Wednesday, March 23rd over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ryu shows us some nice dice… Nie die? Nices dices? Next we check out some D&D News as we give our first impressions of Critical Roll: Call of the Netherdeep;and speculate on a recent teaser image from Wizards of the Coast With all the talk on Critical Role we thought it’d be a good idea to head into the Archives of Candlekeep for a rerun of Excursion to Exandria; before finally heading over to the Scrying Pool to see what you have to say. Community Questions So we actually have a setting-focused resource for Critical Role, where it doesn’t tie into the larger D&D multiverse very easily. Do you think this is a testbed for more focused resources down…
Heroes Rise, two hundred and third entry: Lenny the Kender Defender
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 203rd entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, March 12th, and released Wednesday, March 16th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ostron would like to have a Word with us Next we check out some D&D News as we take a look at: The latest Unearthed Arcana: Heroes of Krynn After that we head into the Archives of Candlekeep for a primer on the races of Dragonlance; before finally heading over to the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions So what is your take on the New Kender? Are the changes a necessary revision, or is this a pointless change that shouldn’t have been done? Regarding the new backgrounds and the subclass, do you think some of the new mechanics are hints at broader changes coming in the next evolution? Or are they…
Archives of Candlekeep: Gifts of the Aboleths
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Two on 10th March 2022. Aboleths are another B-level D&D creature for most people. They’re nearly always present and they’re really easy to find in the books; until the Aarakocra and the Aasimar came around the Aboleths usually got top billing in all the monster manuals because it’s really hard to beat “AB” as an alphabetical starting place. However if you start digging into the lore and the abilities of the creatures it’s sort of confusing they don’t get used more often because they can be genuinely terrifying. Their aquatic nature is probably the most common reason for them being left aside, but we’ll dive into that more in a minute. The Aboleth species owes its origins to the classic adventure Dwellers of the Forbidden City, put out by TSR in 1980. That adventure was a landmark one because it…
Heroes Rise, two hundred and second entry: Things We Wish We Knew
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 202nd entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday, March 5th, and released Wednesday, March 9th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Lennon closes to within 5 feet of his battle mats. Next we gather round the campfire for some Dissonant Whispers as we find out everything we wish we knew when we started playing D&D. After that we head into the Archives of Candlekeep and look at the Gifts of the Aboleth; before finally heading over to the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions What tidbit of knowledge do you wish you had when you sat down to your first D&D game, or first TTRPG game for that matter? Tell us your missteps, woes, and lessons learned. How do you set up your tabletops when you’re crawling through dungeons? Do you freeform draw,…