DnD Encounters - War of Everlasting Darkness - Week 1

Greetings Dungeoneers,

   Our WPN representative, Doug, pulled through and we have received a kit for Encounters. We'll be starting the events on Saturday (2012.11.17) and might have to double up on the adventures in order to catch up. I'll DM all of the sessions so that we have an uninterrupted flow this season. Wizards also sent us a couple nifty gifts to hand out to committed players (so keep that in mind).

     Sign-up for the event HERE.

   An interesting aspect of this season is the use of D&DNext (DnD5E) rules. These rules are a mix of 3.5 and 4th editions, in an attempt to balance the "three pillars" of DnD (exploration, interaction, and combat). This is very important, as each session won't be about a singular aspect (normally combat), but rather the adventure will include each pillar in equal amounts. And another improvement is that the story is far less linear, allowing us to branch out and for me to say "Yes" to more suggestions from players. I know that we were bogged down with the combat and linearity last season, and D&DNext is all about fixing that. Story is becoming the driving force of Dungeons and Dragons, as it was in previous editions.

   I'll need to go over a lot of material to account for the new style of play, which I will on Saturday. The source material for this season is:

• Heroes of the Fallen Lands
• Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms
• Player's Options: Heroes of Shadow
• Player's Options: Heroes of the Feywild
• Player's Options: Heroes of the Elemental Chaos
• Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook

This expands the player to any race and class within those books (and I'll accept others if you have the book and can provide a convincing backstory). It is important to know that players are not limited to evil Drow, and playing a good character that helps his/her team can be beneficial in this season.

   The background for the story is the events of last season. Namely, Lolth (goddess of the Drow) wanted to expand her domain into controlling magic as well. To that end, she sent her Drow to collect artifacts of arcane power with which Lolth succeeded in creating her Demon Weave. With the Drow having access to this new Demon Weave, they were free to attack the surface world at will (and are doing so).