Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is our computer’s eternal desktop theme.

Once again, we’ve rolled high enough to have an encounter, and this time we’re going to talk about what goes into making a thematic encounter. How do you tailor your encounters to fit the theme of your campaign and communicate the wider story you want to work toward? We’re going to look at the building blocks that go into creating thematic encounters.

The Mind Flayer first showed up in TSR’s Strategic Review publication, the precursor to Dragon Magazine, in 1975. If you had a really low intelligence, their mind blast would kill you outright, and if you had a really high intelligence, you risked permanent insanity, so its best to be just kind of mediocre around a mind flayer. In the Ecology of the Mind Flayer in Dragon Magazine #78, in 1983, Mind Flayer’s alternate name, Illithid, courtesy of a Githyanki hired to provide information on them. Apparently Illithids aren’t willing to eat the brains of lycanthropes or Grimlocks. So the safest person to interact with a mind flayer is a Grimlock wererat with average intelligence. I wonder if there’s a Baldur’s Gate III mod to add one into the game.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D cast Guards and Wards and it makes it really hard to leave.

Now that we’ve talked about what living in a dungeon is like, this time around we’re going to look at how to design a dungeon that doesn’t eat up your life for months at a time. We’re going to look at five room dungeons, and how to use them in your games. Make those rooms count.

Saving Throw categories have changed a bit over time in D&D. Instead of saves based on ability scores, the saving throw categories were obviously logical Death Rays and Poison, Wands, Turn to Stone, Dragon’s Breath, and Spells and Staffs. This certainly didn’t lead to long discussions at the table about what happens if a wand casts a spell, or a spell creates a death ray, or a dragon’s breath causes petrification. Thank goodness we never get confused of what saves are logical now.

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D gives us a closed set of places to explore.

What is a dungeon? Well, that depends on what kind of podcast you’re listening to. But since this is D&D, a dungeon is a closed location with a limited set of options to explore, usually containing traps and monsters. We’re going to look at how dungeons function, and how far you can push that suspension of disbelief when beholders, a dragon, some kobolds, and a whole mess of grimlocks share the same address.