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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Staying Alive – 8 Ways to Keep Wounded PCs in the Game

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From June 5, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Staying Alive: 8 Ways to Keep Wounded PCs in the Game.

One of my biggest issues with D&D is the five-minute work day. This is when PCs expend all their best powers and burn through their healing surges so quickly that they’re useless unless they take an extended rest. The game is designed for PCs to have four or more encounters before they should need to take an extended rest but I suspect that many DMs rarely push through more than four encounters before calling it a day. However, there will be times when this just isn’t possible – either because it doesn’t make sense given how the story is progressing or the printed adventure doesn’t allow it. In these cases the DM may need to get creative to keep the PCs alive until the end of the day.

Assuming the PCs can still take short rests then output isn’t usually a big deal if the party continues on past four encounters. Sure they may not have those awesome daily powers at their disposal into the fifth encounter but they will have all their cool encounter powers. It’s healing surges that usually become the biggest problem.

Strikers generally have the fewest surges to begin with, and unless the player has a reasonable Constitution score or the Durability feat they’ll run out of surges quickly. What makes the problem worse is that as soon as monsters (intelligent monsters anyway) see a striker mowing through their ranks they’ll target the biggest threat (the striker). Unless you’ve got advantageous tactics or a decent defender at your side, strikers end up taking damage every fight.

So what’s a DM to do when this kind of thing happens? How do you keep a wounded party in the game and convince the players to push those PCs forward? It may just be a game, but players get emotionally attached to their PCs quickly and no one wants to enter a combat encounter knowing that their PC is likely to die. It’s a delicate situation that requires some careful manipulation. The key is not to do so in such a way that it insults the players or belittles the game mechanic. Players want to do well but they don’t want the DM to just give them an easy, unearned victory. It’s a real balancing act and here are 8 suggested ways to pull it off.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Storm Over Neverwinter (Week 7)

storm-over-neverwinter-coverLast week the party faced off against the Dragon Chartilifax, only to see the Dragon flee when it got bloodied. The PCs tended to the Prophet Rohini, took a short rest, and then ventured upward to confront Elden Vargas.

This week at Harry T North in Toronto we ran two tables of five. Even though we determined seating randomly, my table had four of the same five as last week. We lost our leader but gained a defender. Here’s what the party looked like: Human Wizard, Human Ranger, Human Assassin, Dwarf Fighter, and Goliath Monk (my character).

The party split up: the Ranger and Wizard climbed one staircase, the Fighter, Assassin, and Monk took the other. When the party reached the next level the storm raging outside seemed to intensify. Lightning struck the building repeatedly and the booming thunder caused the entire cathedral to shake and sway. The windows exploded inward and broke under the pressure. Lightning seemed to dance into the room through the open window creating crackling creatures made of electricity.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Game Day in Toronto – June 15, 2013

game-day-2013On June 15 you are invited to join fellow gamers from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) at George Brown College to participate in the D&D Game Day adventure, Vault of the Dracolich.

The adventure uses the new D&D Next rules and level 4 pre-generated characters will be provided. No previous experience with D&D or D&D Next is required. The mechanics are extremely simple and easy to learn as you play.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Search for the Diamond Staff – Preview

search-for-the-diamond-staff-cover

On June 12 we begin season 14 of D&D Encounters: Search for the Diamond Staff. As usual, the initial session (week 0) is designated for character creation. The adventure itself runs eight weeks, from June 19 – August 7. It’s convenient that the next week 0 will fall the day before GenCon. I’m sure that was intentional.

D&D Next

You once again have the option of playing this season’s adventure as printed using 4e mechanics, or using the conversion kit and trying the D&D Next play test mechanics. Personally, I’m going to encourage some of our groups to try D&D Next this season.

Adventure Overview

The adventure itself takes place in the Dalelands of the Forgotten Realms. The events of this season’s adventure happen right after the events of the D&D Game Day adventure Vault of the Dracolich (happening everywhere on June 15 and previewed tomorrow on Dungeon’s Master). On Game Day a group of adventuring parties acting together launched a coordinated assault into Dretchroyaster’s lair and stole an artifact called the Diamond Staff of Chomylla.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: The Hangover – The Movie That Begs to Be a D&D Adventure

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From July 8, 2009, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: The Hangover: The Movie That Begs to Be a D&D Adventure.

hangoverAs a DM, I often draw inspiration for my D&D games from the most unexpected places. This weekend I saw the movie The Hangover and afterwards I realized that the way the story is structured would work beautifully as a D&D game. For those readers who haven’t seen the movie, I won’t present anything in this article that will ruin it for you. The high points that I’m going to cover are all revealed in the trailer.

The basic premise for the movie is this: four guys go to Vegas for a bachelor party, wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened and then spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out what they did by piecing together clues they find along the way.

With a few small tweaks and adjustments this becomes a great D&D adventure. It can be a self-contained, one night game or the makings of a longer story arc. Here’s how I see it playing out.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Storm Over Neverwinter (Week 6)

storm-over-neverwinter-coverLast week the PCs travelled to Helm’s Hold, a cathedral turned hospital dedicated to helping those inflicted by the Spellplague. A safe haven for those in need, the doors of Helm’s Hold are always open. However, when the PCs arrived they found the cathedral locked down. After finally forcing their way inside, the PCs battled dominated acolytes as they explored the cathedral.

When the PCs entered the Main Hall they saw a black-cloaked figure wearing a bright red devil mask – the Tormentor! He was standing over a kneeling woman the PCs recognize as the Prophet Rohini. Rohini was clearly in pain, while the Tormentor poured fiery magic into her from his outstretched hand. Around the room are numerous Acolytes as well as a green-skinned Elf. The Elf held a woman in his arms.

The Tormentor looked up when the PCs opened the doors. His concentration momentarily broken, Rohini reached up and pulled away his mask before she collapsed. The Tormentor was Elden Vargis. “I see the time for deception is at an end,” he said. “Chartilifax, give me Karis and deal with this rabble.”

The Elf handed over the woman to Vargas and then turned to address the party. “Little heroes have come to play, little heroes die today.” His body shifted, his bones cracked as his limbs and torso distorted. His shoulder blades burst through his back and became wings. A Green Dragon reared up, rolling mad eyes and expelling poison fumes.

This week at Harry T North in Toronto we ran back-to-back sessions as we’d fallen a week behind. As we’ve done all season we continued to shuffle the PCs between the two tables each week. The group I played this week’s encounter with consisted of a Human Ranger (Hunter), Eladrin Ardent, Human Wizard, Human Assassin and Goliath Monk (my character).

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D&D Encounters

Recounting Encounters with Storm Over Neverwinter author Erik Scott de Bie

storm-over-neverwinter-coverToday Dungeon’s Master and 20ft Radius are proud to present a special episode of our podcast, Recounting Encounters. In this episode we talk to Erik Scott de Bie, author of this season’s adventure Storm Over Neverwinter.

Erik is a professional writer and game designer. Storm Over Neverwinter is Erik’s third contribution to the D&D Encounters program having written the adventures Halaster’s Lost Apprentice (season 1) and The Lost Crown of Neverwinter (season 6). He was also one of the main contributing authors for the Neverwinter Campaign Guide.

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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From January 7, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps.

It happens in every campaign, one player decides to go off and pursue an agenda or lead that only they understand. The player is totally focused on their objective, nothing else seems to matter. No one else at the table understands it. The DM is at his wits end to contain and control the situation. The other players are slowing losing interest and the entire adventure is about to be waylaid.

If you’ve ever sat at a table where you weren’t the player things were focused on, you know the boredom that soon sets in. The frustration at wanting to move forward, but not being able to due to the indulgence or poor planning of the DM. If you haven’t lived through this eventuality you likely haven’t been playing D&D very long, but don’t worry I’m sure it will happen to you soon enough.

In order to make this eventuality less painful for everyone, here are five steps that provide some straightforward advice on how to handle things if one or more players decide to split the party.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Storm Over Neverwinter (Week 5)

storm-over-neverwinter-coverChapter 2 began after the party took an extended rest. The storm continued raging over Neverwinter, but the rain and wind slowed considerably. The heroes took advantage of the break in the storm to take care of some personal business before heading to Helm’s Hold where they were going to meet Elden Vargas.

The party decided to split up. The Cleric and Deva Wizard went to visit Lady Sala Nidris and her son Zan, the Rogue went to the Beached Leviathan, the Shade Wizard stayed at Midnight’s Mask, and the Hexblade ventured off on his own to take care of a personal matter tied into his back story.

For the second week in a row we had more players than we could handle at the Silver Snail in Toronto. Due to limited space we can only run a maximum of three tables each week. All three were full this week – two tables of six and one of seven. A couple of our regulars decided not to expand the tables of six to tables of seven and instead took a week off. My table had six including a Human Warlock Hexblade, Wilden Cleric, Deva Wizard, Shade Wizard, Halfling Rogue and a Pixie Bard (Skald). So five of six from last week.

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Editorial Humour

The Big Bang Theory D&D Episode – A Gamer’s Perspective

tbbt-02The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) has made nerds cool by thrusting them into the main stream. The show has shone a spotlight on many nerd hobbies people used to make fun of and made them cool, or at least less nerdy. In this week’s episode “The Love Spell Potential” they guys played Dungeons & Dragons with their girlfriends. This wasn’t the first time the characters in TBBT played D&D but it was the first time they played for the entire episode. Although there were a few cheap shots taken at D&D and the people who play the game, the show did a pretty good job of bringing the game into the public eye.

As a hard core D&D nerd and vocal member of the gaming community I feel it is my responsibility to comment on this episode of TBBT. There was a lot of things right with this show and a few things wrong. Gamers and non-gamers alike can learn a few things about D&D from what they saw in this episode. Let’s review the highlights.