As we say goodbye to another season of D&D Encounters we reflect and discus what we liked and did not like about season 12. I’ll admit that I think Against the Cult of Chaos was one of the better seasons of D&D Encounters we’ve had so far. I do have some criticisms, but in the grand scheme of things I think the good far outweighs the bad. Review my list and let me know your thoughts on D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos as a whole in the comments below.
Month: April 2013
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Interviewing for Party Members
Should inclusion in an adventuring party be automatic? We always assume that when a player is present at the gaming table his character will be welcomed into the current adventuring party. The problem is that you can end up with some characters that just don’t really fit in. This might be because they’re a non-traditional race, different alignment, opposing religious beliefs, or some other off-the-wall and completely unexpected reason. The point is that players shouldn’t assume that whatever character they choose to create will automatically be awarded membership in an existing adventuring party.
In order to weed out potential bad seeds, the party should conduct interviews of all potential candidates and choose the ones they want to let into the group. It’s not typically how things are done in D&D, but maybe it’s something we should begin doing on a regular basis.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Should the party have a chance to interview prospective new members? We find out as today “I” is for Interview.
Why do we play our favourite RPGs? In my opinion it’s because we like to be social, hang out with friends, and enjoy their company after a hard week at work or school. It’s because it gives us an avenue to create and play in a land that is far away from real life for a few hours. It’s because these games give us an outlet to be creative with our characters, to model our own desires to be something that we cannot normally be in this society.
RPGs like D&D give me the chance to be a hero. I love rescuing the damsel in distress, defeating the evil overlord, or even slaying the ravaging iconic Dragon that laid the countryside to waste. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, literally and figuratively. Heroes and heroic tales are one of the most powerful forms of fiction.
It should come as no surprise to learn that heroes present themselves in as many facets as icosahedrons (d20s). So what kind of hero are you?
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today Dungeon’s Master welcomes guest poster Alton (a.k.a. Marc Talbot) author of the gaming blog 20ft Radius. “H” is for Hero as Alton shares five popular archetypes with us.
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Giving & Tithing in D&D
Most PCs are rich. I mean crazy rich. Seriously, compare the material wealth of even a level 2 PC to most regular people in any D&D game, the numbers are silly. As the PCs go on more adventures and find more treasure, that PC’s net worth grows exponentially. It doesn’t take long before the heroes have more money than they know what to do with. By the time they reach paragon tier it’s unlikely that they’ll ever be able to spend the riches they’ve earned along the way.
Knowing that PCs earn such tremendous wealth so quickly I’m curious how many players have their PCs give any of their treasure to charity? How much is given to support the local good causes (e.g., homeless shelter, orphanage, down on their luck veterans of war, etc.)? For divine character like Paladins and Clerics, how much of their earnings are tithed to the church? I’m willing to be that for most players the answer is a big fat zero!
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the “G” in today’s article to be for Greed or Giving. In the end I decided that an article on Giving was a better way to go as it sends a more positive message.
Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (FTDM) is unlike any D&D adventure you’ve every played before. Forget about fighting monsters, in this match-up player characters fight other player characters. That’s right; you get to fight your friends.
The tournament pits two teams of four against each other for exactly 1 hour of real time. Every time you kill a PC on the opposite team you earn a point. If your character is dead at the start of your turn you re-spawn and come back to life to keep fighting. At the end of the hour the team that’s scored the most points (most kills) wins. There’s no role-playing, just roll playing.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s the “F” is for Fourthcore Team Deathmatch, one of the most fresh and exciting D&D tournaments I’ve ever played in.
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Eberron A to Z
For years my home game has taken place in the world of Eberron. It’s one of the official settings from Wizards of the Coast but it hasn’t received much love lately. All the focus seems to be on the Forgotten Realms. That’s all well and good, I too like the Forgotten Realms, but I think people need to be reminded of just how cool Eberron is.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s the “E” is for Eberron, my all-time favourite D&D campaign setting.
Inspired by the Blogging From A to Z Challenge I’ve put together my own list of Eberron A to Z. Hopefully this shines the spotlight back on Eberron and encourage some of our readers to check it out if they’ve never played there before or return to it if you’ve been away for a while.
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Dungeon’s Master – What’s in a Name?
When I meet other gamers I introduce myself as Derek, but in the next breath I quickly add that I write as Ameron on Dungeon’s Master.com. After four years of blogging a lot of gamers immediately recognize the blog’s name even if they don’t recognize mine.
Name recognition is one of the most important parts of having a successful website. Your potential audience has the search engine at their finger tips and when they type in those key words they’ll get many options to choose from. If they don’t recognize the name of your website they’re less likely to click on your link. That is assuming that your website even comes up on the first page.
When we first thought of starting a gaming blog we wanted to make sure that all of our hard work was going to pay off. We wanted people to read our stuff and we wanted them to keep coming back for more. We felt that the quality of our articles would help us build a solid and loyal readership (which it did), but the trick was getting people to visit in the first place.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s the “D” is for Dungeon’s Master as we share the process behind how we came up with our blog’s name.
This week was the grand finale of D&D Encounters season 12. The PCs would face of against the forces off evil in an attempt to seal the rip in the Chaos Mote and ensure Miska remained imprisoned. The PCs would either be successful or die trying.
We ran a party of six this week. The members included a Drow Cleric, Half-Orc Barbarian, Elf Fighter (Slayer), Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen, Pixie Wizard (Witch), and Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid). In their possession were all three chaos artifacts: the Chaos Blade, Death Circlet, and Scroll of Final Words. With these three items the PCs felt that they had the means to ensure the forces of good would prevail.
Last week the PCs defeated Lareth the Beautiful and his minions. This week we began with the PCs returning to Hommel Lane from the Moat House. In the centre of town a crowd had gathered around the statue of Haffron Hommel. It seemed that the statue was now smiling. As the PCs approached the statue it spoke. “It feels incredible to be whole again, even if I cannot move!” it said.
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Cat Lord
I remember it vividly. I was flipping through the AD&D Monster Manual II (still the only AD&D hardcover rule book I don’t own) and there he was on page 22 – the Cat Lord. Something about this creature grabbed my attention and my imagination in a way that few other monsters ever have. I think it was a combination of the name “Cat Lord” and the accompanying picture (by Harry Quinn) depicting a feline humanoid. This monster was majestic in a way that only a powerful hunting cat could be; yet he also exuded a sense of cool sophistication that has always stuck with me. It’s hard to put my finger on an exact reason, but something jumped off the page and into my imagination that has always led me to believe that the Cat Lord is one of the most interesting creatures in Dungeons & Dragons.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s “C” topic is the Cat Lord, one of my all-time favourite D&D characters/monsters.
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Board Games
In the last year my home gaming group has played less D&D and more board games. At first it was just something to do when we didn’t have full attendance, but now we alternate every week between board games and role-playing games. When you’re playing board games that frequently you need some variety; after all you can only play so many games of Monopoly and Risk before you need to broaden your board game repertoire.
Over the past year or two my board game collection has increased from about a dozen classic games to over 50 games counting the new additions. I’ve also tried numerous games at my FLGS, gaming conventions, and some of the other guys in my gaming group have brought over their favourites. I’d say I’ve probably played close to a hundred different board games in the past year or so. It’s become such a big part of my social life that I’ve even got my wife and my parents to try new games.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. In today’s article we shift from D&D to Board Games, our “B” topic for day two.