Welcome to the campaign journal chronicling the battle against the stone giant clans of Flóndisheim. This adventure became the DUNGEON DELVE module DDS5 Valley of the Stone Giant Clans. The journal features the main characters from my weekly Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) group, who began their careers a few years ago as 1st-level characters.

The Character Class Compendium has everything you need in one place. It covers every official First Edition character class—cavaliers, druids, magic-users… even two paladins: the original fighter subclass and the revised cavalier subclass.

DUNGEON DELVE modules are all written with an underlying philosophy. They do not insist that you—the DM—run them in a particular way; after all, it is your game. Instead, they provide a framework for play rather than a complete script, trusting the DM to shape the adventure through adjudication, improvisation, and the players’ choices.

This article examines how published modules affect creative authority and personalization in Dungeons & Dragons. By R. Nelson Bailey Published modules have existed since the early days of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), with the first, The Temple of the Frog, appearing in the 1975 Blackmoor supplement. Since then, the number of modules has grown substantially, not only for D&D but for nearly every role-playing game system. The ubiquity of published adventures means that nearly ev

Two new modules are on the way! DDS5 Valley of the Stone Giant Clans and DDS6 Sky-Keep of the Cloud Giant Lord—a pair of adventures that pit you against the terrible might of giantkind—are coming this summer to Kickstarter.

These guidelines provide the DM with a clear, practical system for magic-item creation that is both balanced and logical. The system’s underlying philosophy assumes that magic items are not commonplace in most campaigns and are therefore difficult and costly to create, both in time and in money.

My gaming group headed to a cabin in the mountains for our annual gaming retreat. Each year, we play a First Edition module in a marathon session. This year, we played the classic S2 White Plume Mountain. One player, Rob Hand, outdid himself by building the entire dungeon in terrain—the giant crab lair, the mud geysers, and even the monster terrace chamber. Here are some photos of his work.

This article presents a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough of the First Edition combat process, using a sample dungeon encounter to illustrate how surprise, initiative, spellcasting, movement, and combat resolution function in play. Where appropriate, notes identify the specific rulebook sections from which each procedure is drawn.

Combat is a central feature of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). Although the rulebooks present combat as an orderly, segmented procedure, the texts themselves contain gaps, ambiguities, and overlapping subsystems that can lead to confusion—particularly where movement, initiative, surprise, and spellcasting intersect. As a result, the practical conduct of melee combat is often left to inference rather than explicit instruction.

Combat is a central feature of every edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In a melee round, combatants jockey for position, missiles streak toward their targets, and spells are unleashed amid the chaos. The rulebooks present this process as orderly and well-defined.

As most players know, many rules in AD&D are notoriously difficult to grasp. The causes range from unclear writing to typographical errors to poor organization. This article sheds light on some of the game’s more arcane and perplexing rules, explaining how they function and, in some cases, the rationale for their inclusion. Often, multiple sources must be consulted to uncover the official answer. To facilitate this, page numbers are cited throughout the text.

Erol Otus’ evocative and lurid painting on the back cover of Keep on the Borderlands captures the module’s central themes of adventure, exploration, and enchantment. The darkened silhouette of the Keep rises against the orange afterglow of a summer sunset. This moment suspended in time captures the twilight threshold between safety and peril, certainty and the unknown.

Psionics in First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) are an optional subsystem of mental powers drawn from the minds of creatures. Their inclusion adds a rare and unconventional dimension to a campaign.

Alignment is a founding tradition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Present since 1974, it defines the moral compass of player characters, non-player characters, and monsters. By indicating who aligns with Good, Evil, Law, or Chaos — or who chooses Neutrality — alignment distinguishes heroes from villains and permeates the game’s cosmology.

This essay offers a comprehensive exploration of alignment in Dungeons & Dragons. It examines what alignment is, its purpose in the game, its meaning, and how it shapes both characters and monsters on individual and social levels.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is a gloriously sprawling game, and with that scope comes more than a few puzzling, oddly phrased, or hard-to-find rules. Some of these quirks stem from old printing errors, some from vague wording, and others from information tucked away in unexpected corners of the books.

Leigh Brackett’s The Book of Skaith is a trilogy featuring her recurring hero, John Eric Stark, a human raised on Mercury by its native beings. Earlier Stark tales unfolded on Mars, but after a ten-year break, Brackett returned to the character, relocating him to the dying world of Skaith.

A brief look misrepresentations and untruths about Dungeons & Dragons from the past.

First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is a wondrous game that has left an indelible mark on those who’ve played it — this author included. Yet its quirky, idiosyncratic rulebooks can be difficult to navigate, even for veteran players. Editing issues run throughout, leaving readers unsure of what the rules actually mean. Common problems include vague wording,

This article allows offers an alternate system for determining dragon size and attack damage for 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.