Scenes from PAX East

Worth a thousand words, right? Here are some snapshots of some of my my D&D activities last weekend.

WotC's booth in the exhibitor hall with a huge ass Lolth statue

PAX East 2012 DM Challange

Pregame setup

PAX East 2012 has come and gone in a whirlwind of activity. Among my favorite events this year, as was last year, was WotC's DM Challenge. Although I found many of the same troubles and frustrations as before, this time around proved to be at least a little more fruitful, in no small part to hard work done at Dungeon Oracle.

PAX East Fourthcore Team Deathmatch Tournament

The PAX East schedule is finally up! Check out what's going on on the convention and email Senor Ross to reserve your place in the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch tournament! Each member of the winning team receives a copy of the Fourthcore Armory (Extended Edition) as well as an exclusive Fourthcore Team Deathmatch dice bag by from the illustrious Dragonchow Dice Bags!

Also, be on the lookout for Ross helping out with a few official Wizards of the Coast events during the rest of the long weekend; namely the D&D Next Playtest and the DM's Challenge.

What are you waiting for?

GO FORTH AND DIE!!!

The Sundering of the Earth - A Fourthcore Adventure

The Sundering
from www.swordofdoom.com

Long ago in a forgotten age, I had entered the PAX East 2011 Dungeon Master's Challenge. My notes for that adventure can be found here. Afterward, I immediately set forth to "upgrade" the adventure to something approaching the Fourthcore moniker, dubbed The Sundering of the Earth. Like most pieces of work, the author was never satisfied with it and it languished in the unknown obscurity of my hard drive awaiting just one more playtest that simply never happened. After much cajoling by my faithful readers whom would enjoy seeing more of the fruits of my labor and some more detail to my PAX adventure, I have acquiesced and hesitantly published what I have. Like everything on DMG 42, I have posted it in the hopes that it helps the Dungeon Masters of the world have a better game at their own table. I dare you to NOT find something within the adventure that does not inspire one of the adventures at your home game!

PAX East Revenge of the Iron Lich

This shirt has a hymn written on it in gothic-font German. Very appropriate. 

At PAX East, I ran a session of Revenge of the Iron Lich for a group of D&D players that weren't afraid of a little risk and danger, heroics if you will, in the face of true victory. I feel like everyone loved it, and welcomed the fresh change to a dungeon with some real chance of defeat, and that really challenged the player and not just the number crunch on their sheets.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

PAX East DM's Challenge: The Adventure

from http://www.jengajam.net/2010/03/157-d-and-pax-east-preview.html

UPDATE! I fixed the links.

This past weekend, I attending the mega gaming convention: PAX East. I signed up to run quite a few delves for WotC, and in doing so met a lot of really cool people. One of those events was the PAX East DM's Challenge. I've wrote about it before, which you can see here and here. The game was a ton of fun, I felt like I had a great group, and it was well-received. The following are my thoughts on the whole matter, the adventure itself, as well as what I'm planning for the future.

(A note to my regular players: Do not read this until we’re done with ‘Iron Lich!)

PAX East DM's Challenge: Intro and PC Backgrounds



I only have one week left to finalize all of my notes for the PAX East DM's Challenge. I intend to win. You might even say that I am addicted to winning. I'm on such a roll now. The preliminary draft of the adventure will be done either today or tomorrow, looking at around 30 pages printed out, including all the accessories. I'm blasting through this thing lightning fast. It's like I have tiger's blood. I have magic in my fingertips. I'm a vatican warlock assassin.

Seriously though, this is really getting my competitive spirit up, and I love it!


I wrapped up the introductory spiel, as well as the background/story information for the pregen characters, see below. Look for the complete adventure to be posted after I get back from the con.

PAX East Dungeon Master's Challange PreGens

from saundby.com

PAX East is barreling down on me ... fast! I feel like I'm under considerable pressure, and for me , that helps kick my creative juices into high gear. I work great under pressure. The largest threat looming on my mind is the DM's Challenge. However, today I've crossed off a considerable hurdle: pre-generated character sheets.