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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Storm Over Neverwinter – Preview

storm-over-neverwinter-coverD&D Encounters season 13, the spring 2013 season, begins on April 10 with week 0. The adventure itself – Storm Over Neverwinter – runs 8 weeks from April 17-June 5.

This is an adventure for characters level 3-6. It says levels 4-6 on the cover, but the text inside clearly trumps that and expects new PCs to begin at level 3. This is a first for D&D Encounters. It may make things a bit tougher for brand new players to just jump in with a character above level 1, but those of us who have played since season 1 will certainly appreciate an adventure with a bit more teeth.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 7)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverIn week 2 this party visited the Moat House and nearly got wiped out by the bandits. This week they finally decided it was time to return to the Moat House and investigate the strange happening going on in the dungeon level below the old fort.

I ran a party of five that included a Half-Orc Barbarian, Drow Cleric, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), an Elf Fighter (Slayer), and Drow Wizard. I’ve now got seven regular players rotating in and out of my group, but their respective schedules have kept at least one away for the past month. Next week I expect all of them to be there for the finale which should make things interesting.

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Editorial

Dungeon’s Master joins the Blogging from A to Z Challenge

When we first launched Dungeon’s Master we posted new content every single day for the first month. After that we decided to just post on weekdays. For over three years we posted new content every single weekday. For the last year I’ve been slipping. I’ve tried to post content at least twice a week but even that’s been a struggle some weeks. In April things will change.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: 5 Reasons to Say No

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From July 19, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: 5 Reasons to Say No.

I believe that players should play the characters they want to play. I’m a total 4e, say yes convert. It took me awhile to come around but when I’m the DM I encourage creativity and I say yes… a lot. However, I’ve realized that as much as I want to always say yes, there are times when I probably should not. In a few of these cases it’s actually caused me more grief in the long run.

Players make choices during character creation and between levels during character improvement. Normally I’m very hands off as a DM and let the players do whatever they want as long as it’s legal. But it’s this absolute freedom of choice that often ends up causing the most problems. If I’d only stepped in earlier and said no, a lot of the problems I’ve experienced wouldn’t have been problems at all.

It’s taken me a while but I’ve learned the hard way that just because a choice is legal in character builder doesn’t mean that the DM has to automatically say yes to every choice that the players make. In fact the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that sometimes the DM should step in and say no; especially during character creation. Here are five examples.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 6)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverLast week the party stormed the Temple of the Lawbringer and faced off against Bullywugs, Wights and Priestess Devi. After the fight the PCs took a short rest and that’s where we picked things up.

This week I ran a table of six. One of our regulars was absent but another player brought a friend. I’ve had a brand new player at my table every week since we started. The fact that they all keep coming back is a good sign. The party included a Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Half-Orc Barbarian, Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen, and Syndrina the Drow Paladin (Cavalier) pre-gen.

As the PCs searched the basement of the temple they found a Drow in one of the cells. Since we already had two Drow in the party we said that they knew her. This made adding the new PC marginally plausible. In the other cells they found evidence that people were held here recently although no one was there now.

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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Gaming in Silence

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From December 5, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Gaming in Silence.

Playing D&D is a social experience. It’s often as much about getting together with your friends as it is about killing monsters. But I’ve noticed that we spend a lot of time talking about stuff that isn’t even related to the game. This has really become a big problem in public-play games at my FLGS. I’ve noticed that over the past few sessions of D&D Encounters I’ve had to ask people (with alarming frequency) to stop talking when it’s not their turn and pay attention to what the other players are doing, and that got me thinking: what if you weren’t allowed to talk during an encounter or an entire gaming session? How would things change?

To begin this kind of gaming experiment, the DM must make it clear to the players right from the outset that anything they say, anything at all, even if it’s something that their characters obviously wouldn’t say, is going to count as an utterance by their PC. Absolutely everything the player says his character says. No exceptions. Silence is going to be the key to success. Excessive noise will either force the PCs to fight something they know they have no chance of defeating (hence all the sneaking around) or it will lead to a final confrontation that is a lot more difficult because the PCs kept talking. In either scenario, the stakes should be incredibly high.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 5)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverWe began this session in the cellar of the Golden Grain Inn. The PCs defeated Bertram, Derek, four goons and two Bullywugs last week. With the festivities still going full force upstairs they didn’t know how long they had before these guys were missed. They took a short rest, cleaned up evidence of the fight and moved the bodies into the secret passage. Hopefully this would buy them some time if anyone got curious and came to check on things.

This week we continued to draw in new players at our FLGS. Two of my friends visiting from out of town joined us as well as three brand new players and the return of a player who was absent for the past few sessions. Had we not had a few regulars absent we wouldn’t have had room to accommodate everyone at the three tables in the store. As it was I ran a table of seven PCs. The party included an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch), Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Drow Wizard, Svirfneblin Seeker, Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen and once again Fargrim the Dwarf Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.

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D&D Encounters

Lair Assault: Round-Up and Podcasts

lair-assault-logoThe Lair Assault program provides power gamers with the chance to prove once and for all who’s the best of the best. Wizards designed killer adventures that challenge the most experienced gamer. When the players at my FLGS heard that such a thing existed they demanded that we play these adventures as quickly as possible and as often as possible. Although we’ve suffered a lot of TPKs along the way it’s been a thrilling program that’s met with great success in the Greater Toronto Area gaming community.

Every time we played Lair Assault we recorded the session. Some of the players found it useful to go back and listen to the games to see what they could do differently the next time through to improve their chances of victory. Others just enjoyed listening to the party fumble their way around a killer encounter. Today we’re sharing these podcasts for your listening pleasure.

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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: How Observation Changes Characters’ Behaviour

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From November 28, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: How Observation Changes Characters’ Behaviour.

dreams-of-red-wizardHow often has your character done something during the heat of combat that he would never do under normal circumstances? Usually these uncharacteristic actions revolve around killing the enemy. It could be something marginally questionable like attacking an unarmed opponent or it could be a lot more extreme like killing an opponent that has already surrendered.

We don’t often worry too much about the consequences of these actions because the only witnesses are the other members of your party, and let’s face it they’re probably just as guilty of the questionable behaviour as you are. But lately I’ve wondered if players would make different decisions for their characters if they knew that the PCs were being watched. Would PCs still act with impunity if there was a good chance of their actions being seen by others?

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 4)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverLast week the PCs traveled to the Caves of Chaos where they faced wave after wave of monstrous minions. They managed to save Otis, retrieve the Chaos Blade, and escape with their lives. They were too wounded to make the long trip back to Hommel Lane so they camped and took an extended rest.

They questioned Otis who was very forthcoming. He explained that the ghost who helped them was none other than Hafferon Hommel. He told Otis and his adventuring party all about what was really going on including that existence of a chaos mote, an imprisoned deity of evil trying to escape a celestial prison, and three items of power that were needed to seal the rift and stop this god from slipping through. The first item was the Chaos Blade blade which the party now possessed. The second was the Scroll of Final Words which the ghost beleived was in possession of an evil cleric known as “Beautiful.” The third was the Death Circlet which was currently in the possession of great evil near Hommel Lane.

This week I ran a table of five PCs. Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch), Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Drow Wizard, and Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.