Month: April 2014

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Adventure Hooks

Adventure Hooks: Illusions

a-to-z-2014-iWhen people play D&D for the first time the class they often end up running is a Fighter. Most experienced gamers will agree that the Fighter is the simplest class to run. You grab a big weapon, throw on some armor, and attack the monsters. On the flip side of that coin I think the most difficult class to run is the Illusionist. Think about it, none of your illusion spells can inflict any direct damage to a monster. If you want to be useful and contribute to the party you need to be exceptionally creative and be able to use your illusions in really creative ways. Not something all players can do successfully or consistently.

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “I” is for illusions as we share some crafty ways in which DMs can mess with heir players using nothing but make imaginary images and sounds.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast (Week 8.)

scourge-of-the-sword-coast-coverDuring our last session the heroes took care of the Orcs, Orogs, and the Ogre that inhabited the upper levels of Harpshield Castle. Afterwards the party decided to split into two groups and head down into the lower levels of the castle ruins using different entry points.

This week we were back to running four tables at Harry T North in Toronto, although a lot of our regular players were absent. The 4e table only had three players, the other D&D Next table had their usual six, and Craig and I had seven players divided into two groups and using D&D Next. So we were down to 16 players from our usual 20+.

I ran Team Noisy: Drow Paladin, Hal-Orc Paladin, Half-Orc Cleric, and Half-Orc Mage. Craig ran Team Sneaky: Halfling Rogue, Elf Cleric/Rogue, and Human Monk/Barbarian.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Healing

a-to-z-2014-hTime heals all wounds. Unless you’re a PC in a fantasy role-playing game like D&D in which case there is plenty of healing magic at your disposal. Now divine spells and potions heal all wounds so nobody needs to stay down and out for more than a few seconds.

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “H” is for healing as we explore way to turn the need for medical assistance into an interesting adventure hook.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Gambling

a-to-z-2014-gGambling can be thrilling. The idea that you can place a bet on something, and if successful win a sizable reward appeals to most people. Gambling can serve as an invigorating adrenaline rush for those who play for high stakes. It can be a form of entertainment for those who can afford to lose. It can give hope to the desperate and inspiration to the lazy. It doesn’t take much to find a reason for someone to gamble, especially PCs.

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “G” is for gambling as we look at ways PCs can gamble or how others can gamble on them.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Warrior Needs Food, Badly!

a-to-z-2014-fVery few games I’ve ever played in or run spend much time worrying about what PCs eat, how frequently they eat, or where they get the food that sustains them. It’s not usually an interesting part of the game so we gloss over it. Obviously every living creature eats, but we just assume that meals happen behind the scenes. Food is not usually an important part of D&D. But it can be if we make it so.

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “F” is for Food as we share some adventure hooks to satisfy your hunger for ideas.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Elf Quest

a-to-z-2014-eWhen I first got into comic books back in the early 80s I couldn’t get enough Spider-man and Batman. As far as my 10-year-old self knew, Marvel and DC were the only companies making comics. So when I first saw a copy of Elf Quest in my cousin’s comic collection I was curious. Here was this black and white comic that was the same size as a magazine. It didn’t feature superheroes but it was full of fantasy creatures like the ones I’d read about in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Could it be that I’d discovered an overlapping of my two geekiest hobbies? Absolutely!

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will be provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “E” is for Elf Quest as we draw inspiration from one of my favourite comics to come up with today’s adventure hooks.

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Editorial

3,000,000 Page Views

We did it. Today Dungeon’s Master hit 3 million pages views. Every day when I log into the blog’s back end I review our stats to see how we’re doing. I knew we were getting close to the 3 million mark and today, between the time I left work and the time I got home, we crossed that threshold. I’m blown away by this milestone.

We started Dungeon’s Master on February 1, 2009. It took us 31 months to reach 1 million page views. It took us another 17 months to reach 2 million page views. And it only took another 15 months to reach 3 million. Here we are 1,888 days since we first launched this little gaming blog and we’ve still here and still going strong.

We couldn’t have come this far without you, the readers. So today I’d like to say a very special thank you to everyone who’s ever visited Dungeon’s Master, especially those who visit regularly and comment often. Your feedback and support are a big part of what keeps us motivated to continue writing for this blog. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you.

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Categories
Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Here Be Dragons

a-to-z-2014-dDragons have always been an iconic monster in D&D, but far too often they get turned into boring quantities. They are the elemental-themed bosses that you make sure you have resistances against before confronting. They are the fighter planes of the D&D movie, big and damaging but ultimately forgettable. They are monsters whose stats fail to convey their majesty. But they don’t have to be.

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today Joe Lastowski helps out the Dungeon’s Master team by sharing some great adventure hooks about Dragons.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Coins

a-to-z-2014-c

When civilized societies do away with the bartering system they turn to currency to make transactions easier. In D&D and most fantasy settings the currency of the land is coins. Gold pieces, silver pieces, and copper pieces are the traditional staples from which coins are cast, but each fantasy world will have coins made from whatever materials make sense. For example in Athas, the world of Dark Sun, metals are extremely rare so coins are made of ceramics.

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. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “C” is for coins as all the adventure hooks focus on currency.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast (Week 7)

scourge-of-the-sword-coast-coverWhen we left our heroes they had just managed to get inside Harpshield Castle. A band of Orcs were currently camped in the castle and were likely to defend their position if challenged. The Half-Orcs in the party and the Drow took the direct approach and walked right up to the front door asking for admittance. The rest of the party’s sneaky members climbed over the wall and into the pig pen.

We ran three tables this week at Harry T North in Toronto. The 4e table and D&D Next table were both full, as usual. I’ve given up calling the group Craig and I are running two tables because it’s not anymore. This week I ran both tables by myself as Craig was unable to make it. However, we only had seven players so it was certainly manageable.

We had two new players this week; one brand new to D&D Next and the other a regular who’d missed a few weeks. The party I ran ended up with the following members: Half-Orc Cleric, Half-Orc Barbarian, Drow Paladin, Halfling Rogue, Elf Ranger, Elf Cleric/Rogue, and Human Monk/Barbarian.

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