Posted inReviews

Review: Mordankainen’s Magnificent Emporium

I'll admit, my first impression of Mordankainen's Magnificent Emporium was less than great. I excitedly opened its pages and thumbed through to only stumble over the few items I'd already seen from within DDI play test articles and a magical items that seemed pretty lackluster (flaming swords, wand of frost, gauntlets of ogre power etc), making me wonder why anyone would pay $40 for a book full of stuff they'd already seen?
The 4th edition hot button
Posted inDungeons and Dragons (D&D) The Hobby

The 4th edition hot button

I was introduced to D&D by a friend early in high school who at the time played 2nd Edition AD&D (this book still adorns my shelves as we speak) and I wasn’t really sure what the hell was going on at first. Sit at a table and pretend to be someone else? Do I dress up and change my voice? I heard about all these crazy adventures that had taken place, powerful magic items and all the cool stuff they did and in my mind all I could think was “Awesome, but I wonder what all this looks like” and in my minds eye it was some sort of elaborate video game/VR simulation. I found myself daydreaming about these scenarios I’d been told about, or overheard them talking about “So I took the oil from my lantern and poured it all over the dungeon floor and lit it ablaze with my torch just as the orcs burst through the door and Andy’s character got clobbered” wow, what the hell were these guys doing after school and why hadn’t I gotten in on it sooner?