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In my earlier blog entries I dared WotC (no, I believe I DOUBLE-dared them) to pull off a flawless launch of the second playtest packet. I have to say that, in my experience and in those around me, this was certainly achieved.

I just wanted to stop for a moment and say a huge WELL DONE AND THANKS to the WotC staff that made this possible. Now I can forget the horror of the first playtest packet launch....[shudder]

Keep it up for phase 3. 

So, as most of you reading this will have known WotC put out the second playtest packet a few weeks ago and they (thankfully) managed to avoid the mess with the distribution that dogged the release of the first playtest packet. Dutifully - no, EAGERLY, I downloaded the new packet and planned the next playtest session with the intention of seeing just how 'pick-up-and-play' the game could be. What follows is an overview of the players, the game session and some of the more important feedback that my playtest session created. Much of this blog post will be broken down and placed in the relevant forums later.


These second phase of D&D Next playtests have spanned several sessions with a group made up of players with disparate histories with D&D and with RPGs in general. Some were part of my

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In my blog series Returning to RPGs after a long absence, I explored some tips and tricks to make it easier to re-enter RPG gaming. This time I'd like to move the focus squarely to the player's side of the screen and talk about the things that could make the biggest impact for players starting to play Dungeons and Dragons for the first time or for players returning to Dungeons and Dragons after a time away from the hobby.

I'm a long-time DM and don't really play on the other side of the screen. I was worried that my DM bias may have affected the way my original blog articles were written so to get a true player's perspective I interviewed my players about what made it easier for them to game again. The rest of this article is built up from their commentry and I hope that by sharing their

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So far in this blog series I've talked about gaining the confidence to play RPGs again and also preparing for your first session. This time I want to explore the first session itself.

 

Those of you who have been following this blog will have noticed a long gap between the previous part of this series and this blog. First up I'd like to apologise for the wait and secondly I'd like to offer the reason for the delay. The reason is this: My own first session couldn't have run much better than it did and as a result between work and D&D preparation I haven't had much time to write the third part of my blog.

Believe me when I say all of the advice and commentary I'm giving is from experience! So, without further a-do, let's get to it.

 

If you have been following in my footsteps

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After last night's post about touching up my D&D minis I though I'd poll the community on the subject of repainting D&D miniatures. What do you do?

 

 

Just before I put up the third part of my 'returning from....' blog series, I sat down to basecoat some of my minis and looked over the plastic pre-painted D&D 'Players handbook characters' minis I have in my collection. The paint jobs on them were universally awful, many of the details had just been swabbed over with a single uniform colour and it seemed a real shame.

 

Unfortunately this led to me touching them up instead of painting my actual minis. Now, despite the poor moulding and wobbly weapons they actually look quite good. I wouldn't be embarassed to put these on the table now.

 

I wonder - how many D&D players end up doing what I've just done and re-paint their pre-painted minis? Do you? If so, do you just neaten it up or do you just go for broke. What techniques

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This is the second part in my blog series about returning to RPG games after an absence. In the previous part I talked about some tips for catching up to your game of choice and gaining confidence to play. This time I want to look more in-depth at actually planning to play in your first game.

The first game is always scary. The first time you ever played RPGs you were probably nervous, excited, confused, inspired and apprehensive, all at once. The first game back from an absence feels similar in many ways but with the added advantage that you at least know the nature of RPGs and know a little of what to expect.

The first thing to note is that nervousness and apprehension are perfectly normal and should be accepted as such. There really is no need to worry about getting things right or

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