D&D: Encounters

I've been playing in a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game at my local gaming store. This is an initiative run by Wizards of the Coast called D&D: Encounters. The program is an adventure, broken into 12 encounter sessions run once a week, and it's pretty cool. The encounters are run by DMs at local gaming stores and are targeted at 1-2 hour sessions (usually closer to 1). The program is scheduled to have several series (turnout has been great), but the first is called Encounters: Undermountain, with an adventure set in the Forgotten Realms called Halaster's Lost Apprentice.

I am really enjoying this. First off, my own DM is still running us through D&D 3rd edition (3.5 actually), as he is not a fan of 4th Ed. This is fine for me, as I love 3.5 and would not want to give it up for 4th. D&D 3.5 has a lot going for it that 4th isn't is good at. However, the opposite is also very true, and I equally wouldn't want to refrain from the joy of 4th edition D&D in favour of 3.5 either. So encounters gives me a nice way of having my cake and eating it too.

But beyond all of that, the Encounters program has been very awesome. The people I've played with have all been great, the two DMs I've sat with have been really solid, and the adventure itself is fun and nicely written for an event like this, with a fair bit of variety and some really interesting encounters.

I've mostly been at the same table with one DM and a slightly changing week to week, but mostly constant, group of players. They've been fun and funny (our Paladin's dry sense of humour constantly cracks me up) and our DM puts on an excellent show, so here I'm just going to plug a few things for them.

One of our players, playing a monk, is one of the writers of dungeonsmaster.com, and has had a and has had a few posts on our sessions.

Our DM has a blog on his regular campaign and has also posted about Encounters. Further still, he podcasts his gaming sessions (including our encounters nights) which are available on iTunes. It's really fun to here yourself playing in a live-play podcast. Thanks!