Month: February 2009

Categories
Humour

What Alignment Is Your Dungeon Master?

Dungeon Masters GuideSitting at the end of the table the Dungeon Master planned his next move. If the party burst through the door as was their habit he had a nasty surprise in store for them. Without fail Braddoc the Fighter pushed Ethan the Rogue aside, kicked the door down, and charged into the room.

“Braddoc,” the DM explains, “as you enter the room you are assaulted by the smell of sulphur! Rising out of the gloomy room a large Red Dragon belches out hot flame at you!” The DM was waiting for this moment all night! Grabbing his d20 he rolled his lucky die, come on he thought. Looking down at the die he was dismayed to see a 1 come up. Good thing I roll behind a screen he thought, “Natural 20! That’s max damage Braddoc, this is going to hurt!”

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Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: The Waiting Game

The PCs are to rendezvous with an escaped prisoner and get him safely across the boarder.

This Skill Challenge can easily be adapted for any scenario where the PCs need to wait in hostile territory for the delivery of any item, person, hostage, etc.

Setup

The lord’s nephew was arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned while visiting the neighboring country. He is to be executed as a political statement. The PCs are part of a coordinated escape plan. Their job is to meet the prisoner in a remote location and transport him safely and secretly across the nearby boarder.

The prison break is supposed to happen at sundown. The PCs have been instructed to get back across the boarder undetected by sunrise with or without out the prisoner.

At sundown, the DM should roll 2d4 to determine how many hours the PCs wait before the prisoner shows up. If the result is 8 then the escape attempt was unsuccessful. Do not inform the PCs if this happens. Let them decide what course of action to take at sunrise.

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Categories
DM Resources

Campaign Design: An Introduction

Planet Earth (III)
Creative Commons License photo credit: Aaron Escobar

Welcome to the Dungeon’s Master series on Campaign Design. This series will be available on a weekly basis to help new and experienced Dungeon Masters to design their own Campaign Settings. Throughout this series we’ll look at the various challenges and complexities associated with creating your campaign world.

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Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: On the Road

The PCs need to travel cross county as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence.

Setup

Presented below are three possible reasons for the PCs to be engaged in this skill challenge.

  • Escaped criminals have stolen horses and are heading for the boarder. The PCs are commissioned to recapture the criminals before they escape jurisdiction.
  • Framed for a crime they did not commit, the PCs are to be arrested by local authorities. They will not have an opportunity to clear their names if they stick around so they flee… for now.
  • The PCs receive word that they are needed urgently back home. They immediately hit the road.
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Categories
Class Discussions

Necromancer: Heroic Tier

As I look forward to the release of the Players Handbook 2 and the Complete Arcane, I find it useful to look back at the content that was already released for 4e. By identifying the gaps I can try to guess what will be released in the future. One of the most prominent gaps that I see missing is the Wizard specialization by school. Gone are Illusionists, Conjurers, Necromancers and Invokers. Gone is the plentiful array of Wizard spells. Now we are left with a limited selection of four or five powers per level. We are left with an arcane controller class that has some elements of the specialists, but is really a generalist Wizard.

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Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: I Didn’t Do It

The PCs are at the scene of a crime (robbery, accident involving injury, bar brawl, etc). When the Watch arrives the PCs need to think quick of they may be implicated in the crime.

Setup

Presented below are three possible reasons for the PCs to be engaged in this skill challenge.

  • You’ve just arrived in a new town. You immediately go to the tavern for a refreshing beverage. Before you finish your first pint some of the patrons start a bar brawl. It’s over before you can get involved. The Watch arrives and asks you what’s going on.
  • While enjoying a pint in the local tavern, you do or say something that inadvertently offends someone. A bar brawl breaks out and before you can leave or join in the fight the Watch arrives and asks you what’s going on.
  • You deliberately start a bar brawl. You are uninjured in the melee. Before you can enjoy your next pint the Watch arrives and asks you what’s going on.

For all the above scenarios, should you flee or choose not to cooperate you may be seen as guilty and thrown in prison.

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Categories
DM Resources Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Introduction

D&D has always been a combat-heavy game and adding skill challenges with 4e has brought much needed balance to the game. Players are encouraged to role play and can earn as much XP for a skill challenge as they can for defeating a monster. It’s created a good balance between roll-playing and role-playing. The skill challenge has quickly become an important and integral part of 4e D&D.

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Categories
Editorial

Welcome to Dungeon’s Master

Welcome, we’re glad you made it. Dungeon’s Master is the newest blog on all things related to 4e Dungeons & Dragons. We want you to have as much fun as possible when you play D&D, and we’re going to offer resources dedicated to assisting DMs and players accomplish this goal.

Who are we?

The team here at Dungeon’s Master has been playing D&D together for over 20 years. During that time we’ve often engaged in heated discussions about the game and shared ideas on how to improve it. We realized that if we’ve got questions about D&D that other gamers probably have similar questions. So we’ve decided to take our discussions, opinions and ideas public and share them with you. We hope that you find our ideas helpful and that you’ll share some of your own with us and the community at large.

Content

What exactly can you expect from Dungeon’s Master?

  • Skill Challenges. There is no denying that Wizards of the Coast dropped the ball regarding skill challenges. We’re picking that ball up and running with it. We’ve got skill challenges like you’ve never seen them before. You’ll hear more on skill challenges from Ameron tomorrow.
  • Campaign Design. We’ve putting together a series on campaign design where you’ll find tips for anyone creating their own game world. It’s designed to help everyone from the beginner to the most experienced DM.
  • Original Modules. Every 4 to 6 weeks we’ll be bringing you a new original module create by the team at Dungeon’s Master. The campaign design series will tie in and reference the modules that we release.
  • Class Enhancements. Why wait for the PHB2 or Arcane Powers? Why limit yourself to Martial Powers? We’ll be bringing forward new ideas relating to all the classes.
  • Humour. Every now and then we’ll throw in something funny. I’ve never met a gamer that doesn’t like to laugh. Laugh along with us as we share our experiences, mistakes and blunders.
  • Editorial Commentary. We’ll share our opinions on the state of the game. You’ll be privy to our thoughts, opinions and ideas regarding the state of D&D today. You may not always agree with what we have to say, and we welcome your feedback.

Updates

We will be publishing a lot of new original content. In fact we’re going to bring you new content every single day for the next month. I know we picked the shortest month of the year to launch, but 28 days of great content is nothing to laugh at. It’s a virtual dragon’s horde of new ideas.

We hope you enjoy the content we’ll be bringing you and that you’ll share in the journey with us.

The Dungeon’s Master team,
Ameron, Suddry and Wimwick.