Month: March 2011

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 6)

When the encounter’s called “The Death of Aldus Splintershield” it’s a safe bet that the party is in for one hell of a fight. After defeating the infected foresters last week, Brother Splintershield allowed for only a short rest before the party continued deeper into the woods to discover the source of the strange plague infecting the men and animals.

A good DM learns from his mistakes. I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes as a DM. This week I had the opportunity to learn from one I made just a few weeks ago at D&D Encounters. During Week 3the party explored the ruins of Castle Inverness. Unfortunately the only 1-inch scale battle map provided was for the corner of the keep where the monsters were hiding. As soon as the players saw this, they knew that nothing “important” was likely to happen anywhere else.

Last week I tried to emphasize that just because there’s a map doesn’t mean that there’s certainly going to be combat or that there’s even any threats present. The result of my craftiness regrettably ended with Belgos the Dragonborn murdering Steve… poor guy.

This week I tried to learn from my Week 3 mistake. I didn’t produce the 1-inch scale battle map until it was actually time for combat. I found a copy of the Harken Forest online in the Wizards forums. I printed a colour copy on an 11 x 17 page and presented this to the players. Without a clear indication of where the battle would take place, they were extremely cautious when exploring.

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Class Discussions DM Resources

Divine Intervention

I’ve always had a fondness for divine characters. The idea that these classes actually receive divine power directly from their deity everyday in the form of prayer spells has always blown my mind. Unlike the Wizard who need to study and learn their spells, the power of a divine character is based largely in the strength of his faith.

Even though I’m not a particularly devote person in real life, playing a pious character is a role I have very little trouble getting into. This character actually receives confirmation every day that his deity not only exists but allows the PCs to act in his name. I just don’t see how your faith can waiver after you’ve felt the touch of your patron.

As the DM I’ve tried to emphasize this connection between divine characters and their deity at my gaming table. The DM (acting in his role as the patron deity) provides the divine PC with something useful for the upcoming adventure. Usually this is just information that would otherwise be unknown to the PC, but often I granted power boons as well. However, I’ve found this to be a more difficult undertaking with 4e D&D then it ever was in previous editions.

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DM Resources

How Much Input Should Players Have On The Campaign?

Different DMs embrace different ideas about how much input their players have on the campaign where some DMs run a sandbox campaign, other than major NPCs everything that happens in the game is left to the whim of the players. Others have a more restrictive idea about how much input players should have. Some do not allow player input at all, preferring to run modules or use adventures published through LFR.

The level of player involvement is usually determined before the campaign begins. The DM gives a rough idea of what the players can expect of the campaign. My normal practice is to provide my players with an overview of the start of the campaign and the central theme. This allows them to create characters that are appropriate. It doesn’t make too much sense for a player to create an urban Ranger for a game that is going to take place 90% of the time in the Underdark.

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Class Discussions

Divinations – Is Some Magic Just Too Powerful for PCs?

No power is greater than the ability to see the future. Whether it’s the ability to determine if turning right or left will lead to a better outcome or foreseeing the death of friends and family, knowing what lies ahead often tips the scales of power heavily towards the diviner.

In fantasy literature divinations are often vague and described as prophecy. Rarely does any character get a clear picture of exactly how things are going to unfold. After all everyone has free will and actions can be unpredictable. Divination magic assumes that people will continue along the paths that they’re most likely to take.

The advantage that authors of fantasy literature have when they’re creating stories with divinations is that the author controls all aspects of the story. This is certainly not the case in D&D (or any RPG for that matter). The DM may design and set the framework for the story, but with up to six players making decisions on how things are going to play out it becomes next to impossible for the DM to predict what’s going to happen next with any certainty.

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Eberron Player Resources

Warforged – Creating an Identity for an Artificial Being

Warforged, and by extension constructs, are the most difficult races to play. But it’s this difficultly makes them extremely appealing to many gamers. The Warforged represents the best physical qualities that humanoids have to offer, yet they lack their fundamental weaknesses. They are, to put it bluntly, superior by design.

Today marks our 600th post. When we’ve hit significant milestones at Dungeon’s Master in the past we’ve tried to relate the number of that milestone into that article. Our 100th post was a list of 100 Great Things About D&D. For our 300th post Wimwick and I each created King Leonidas from the movie 300. Post 404 was all about Errors I’ve Made as a DM. With the 500th post looked at extreme wealth, the Fortune 500 of D&D.

Inspiration for 600 hit me when I was watching Terminator: Salvation on DVD. One of the Terminators they fought was the T-600 – an extremely powerful combat model. I’ve always believed that Keith Baker came up with his idea for Warforged after watching one of the Terminator movies. So with that in mind the 600th post seemed like the ideal time to take a closer look at Warforged in 4e D&D.

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Categories
Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 5)

The town in the ruins of Castle Inverness grew over the past six months. The PCs went on with their regular lives as productive members of the growing community during that time. The ghostly tower that appeared on the first night the settlers arrived still stood in the centre of town. All attempts to gain access failed.

Chapter 2 of The March of the Phantom Brigade began on a cold winter’s night like any other. Having met up after their daily responsibilities were completed, the PCs headed to the local tavern for some food, drink, company and entertainment. While there they join Faldyra for supper and engaged in conversation with some of Malgram’s scouts.

The scouts explained that they’d recently discovered a number of animals infected with some kind of unknown illness. The creatures were unusually aggressive (if still alive when encountered). The infection was a red-gold crystalline growth that surfaced from beneath the skin. No one, including the heroes, had an idea what it was or what was causing it.

Brother Splintershield stormed into the tavern seeking Faldyra’s aid. Some of the foresters just returned from their logging camp and the situation was not good. He beckoned for the PCs to come along as well.

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DM Resources

Using Player Behaviour To Influence Your Encounter Design

Does your archer always shoot an arrow at the enemy furthest away thinking that monster is the leader? Does your defender always attack the first monster he sees? Do your players constantly scan the battle map for hidden pit traps? Have you noticed that your players always use the same powers in the same order during every combat?

If you’ve answered yes to one of these questions or questions just like them then you have an incredible opportunity before you. Your players have presented you with the opportunity to design encounters based on their expectations and behaviour. As a DM you are about to have a great deal of fun designing and executing these encounters.

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Player Resources

LFR Magic Item Treasure Bundle List (March 2011)

We’ve updated our LFR Treasure Bundle List. We’ve added 53 new adventures to the list bringing the total to 177. Among the new entries are 23 paragon adventures and the very first LFR epic adventure.

The adventure code is highlighted for all new entries. The Excel file now has two additional tabs. One for epic entries and the other for the new adventures that cover the entire tier.

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DM Resources

Summoning and Banishment

Generally when a character uses a summoning or banishing power there is no real though about how the power works. A creature is either summoned from a distant plane of existence to do your bidding or a dangerous foe is removed from combat for a short period of time. However, since most powers that summon or banish are arcane or psionic in nature, there is certainly room for customization that can make for some very interesting role-playing.

Without changing the mechanics of how summoning or banishing powers actually work, the players and DM still have a tremendous about of flexibility when it comes to describing how these powers function within the game itself. Think of it as flavour text, but don’t stop there.

Consider for a minute the consequences and repercussions of summoning a creature to fight your battles or to banishing an incredibly deadly foe to some distant plane, even if it’s only for a very brief time period. A little imagination can add a lot of flavour to your game the next time a character uses one of these powers.

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DM Resources

Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 2)

Sometimes we want to challenge our players. Other times we want create an interesting story element. Occasionally, we even want to try to kill our players’ characters, though this occurrence is a rarity. No matter the reason, sometimes we simply need to design an encounter that can’t be beat. In Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 1) we discussed the questions surrounding why a DM would decide to create an encounter that his players couldn’t defeat. The reasons range from story driven motivations to simply wanting to challenge your players.

Today we take a closer look at how to design this type of encounter. How to implement and describe the encounter so that you get the desired effect. At the end of the day you can never predict player behaviour, they will always do the one thing you never expected, but you can plan for them.

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