Wizards of the Coast's new season of Dungeons & Dragons Encounters begins on May 11, 2011 with Dark Legacy of Evard, a series of linked 1-hour scenarios that involve one of D&D's classic wizards.

Duponde may look like nothing more than a sleepy little stopover along the broad banks of the Nentir River. But the village harbors a dark secret: The tomb of the notorious Evard the Black, master of shadow magic, lies in the town’s cemetery.

Read the full description of the event at Wizards.com. D&D Encounters are held each Wednesday at your friendly neighborhood gaming store. Each one runs 60-to-90 minutes. According to Rodney Thompson on the D&D Podcast, this season of Encounters is designed to include a bit more role-playing in addition to the standard combats that folks have come to expect.

I haven't played in D&D Encounters, but I think it's a cool concept, particularly for those who don't have a weekly campaign or who just need that extra weekly fix of D&D.

My review of Gamma World is up at GameCryer.com. As an introductory game I think it's superior to the D&D Red Box. While the Red Box gives you a map, some tokens, dice and a barebones version of the rules, once you get past the initial adventure you need to jump to the Essentials books.

Gamma World is much closer in spirit to the original D&D Red Box because it gets you started in the game ... and then lets you keep going by providing rules for character levels 1-10. Admittedly, it's an extremely streamlined version of D&D 4th Edition and that makes it easier to package, but still, I think they could have done something similar with the Red Box.

As for the game itself ... it's a blast! It's quick, quirky and powered by chaos, which made it a good fit for our Blackrazor playtesters. While it's 4E DNA make it unlikely my group would play it as our regular campaign, I'll be actively looking for Gamma World games at area conventions.

The Dark Sun has risen again on the parched, magic devastated world of Athas, bringing with it the new rules and mindset of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. First introduced in the early 1990s during D&D 2nd Edition, Dark Sun was meant to be a brutal, unforgiving dark fantasy setting unlike anything the game had seen.

Noble hobbits, wise wizards, and forthright knights gave way to a world devastated by an arcane apocalypse. Where once there had been a bright, green planet, there was now just sand and death. Civilization lived on in a handful of city-states dominated by all-powerful sorcerer-kings. Players took on the role of slaves, gladiators and other peons thrown to the bottom of society’s latter; the setting wasn’t about saving the world – it was about surviving it. It was also the first setting where psionics dominated the landscape, while magic was rare (and profane, as it caused the apocalypse that turned verdant Athas into a wasteland).

To demonstrate just how lethal the setting was the original rules encouraged players to roll up multiple characters since it was assumed that one or more would die during the first few adventures. Clearly we weren’t in Waterdeep any more...

Dark Sun, the grim, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting for Dungeons & Dragons is re-launching this summer for D&D 4E. In honor of that, I'm writing my next "Summon WebScryer" column for Knights of the Dinner Table about Dark Sun ... but I need your help.

I need web sites dedicated to the setting. I've found a bunch, but I'd like more, particularly ones dealing with the intersections of D&D 4E, psionics and Dark Sun. Old school D&D sites are also welcome of course, but obviously 4E ones are a bit more timely.

Here's what I've got -- you can submit your suggestions by adding a comment below or emailing me at nuketown@gmail.com.

• Dark Sun: Official Home Page
• The Burnt World of Athas: Official Fan Site
• Athas: Official Fan Forum
• The Unofficial Dark Sun Wiki
• The Silt Skimmer
• Obsidian Twilight
• The City of Silt