This year's Gen Con was fabulous. Unlike last year, I wasn't fired the day before I left, so the whole thing started off with a much, much better vibe.
Thanks to all you geeks, I was able to get a Press Pass to the event, and that meant I got some exclusive interviews with game designers, as well as got to experience some cool products before they hit the market. The most exciting of which was playing in an adventure DM'd by the D&D designer Makenzie de Armas.
Adventures in Faerûn
We played through a quick one-hour session from the upcoming Adventures in Faerûn release. There are going to be a lot of these in the book where you can quickly get a group together for a game night without having to invest the time and prep you might for a typical one-shot.
The one we got to play was set up so that a village was about to be destroyed by an active volcano, and we had to find a way to save it. We started in a fire giant's smithy, actually managed to negotiate our way through obtaining the item we needed without violence, and then moved an entire volcano before pissing off the mountain spirit that almost beat us into the ground.
Before the game, a group of 4 of us walked into this room and felt like we walked onto the set of an actual play. It was super cool. There were dragon heads and statues, and even one of those really cool gaming tables we all want but have no space for.
Overall, it was a really fun, quick adventure that makes me excited for the anthology when it comes out. I wasn't sure if I was excited about the release when I first heard about it, because I really want more setting books that aren't the Forgotten Realms, but after playing through the adventure with Makenzie, I am excited to see what else the books have in store for us.
The image below is an example of one of the other one-page adventures, Blood Night, that you'll be able to play in the final release:
Interview with D&D Designers Makenzie de Armas and Justice Arman
And, if that wasn't enough, I got to interview two of the main developers for D&D, Makenzie and Justice, about all the upcoming releases, including Heroes of the Borderlands, which I hope to get to cover for y'all pretty soon. Keep an eye out for that.
If you want to listen to the whole interview, you can do so here on my Substack: