From the category archives:

DM Resources

6 D&D Convention Tips for DMs

February 23, 2010

Yesterday we shared 6 D&D Convention Tips for Players; today it’s the DMs turn. After running a few Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) adventures at the Spellstorm gaming convention this past weekend in Toronto, I’ve put together a list of things to keep in mind when you’re the DM. These tips are applicable to any D&D [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Skill Challenge: Olympic Games

February 18, 2010

The Dungeon’s Master team has used the basics of the skill challenge to create a unique form of athletic competition. Each skill check is scored as the PCs vie for top spot. PCs can compete against each other or against the world’s greatest NPC athletes. This is more than just opposing Athletics checks.
Since this is [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

2010 Olympic Mascots

February 17, 2010

The 2010 Winter Olympics began on Friday. The mascots for the Vancouver games are cute, cuddly and culturally significant. At least that’s what most people see when they look at Sumi, Quatchi and Miga. I, on the other hand, see three creatures that I want to include in my next D&D adventure.
Using the information provided [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Skill Challenges On The Fly

February 11, 2010

What happens when your PCs make a choice that takes your adventure 180 degrees away from where you intended? Or when those same PCs kill the NPC who will provide the information they require to move onto the next step? Or when the PCs just aren’t picking up on the very obvious, to your mind, [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

Skill Challenge: Tavern Treachery

February 10, 2010

It’s well known that the PCs bring vast amounts of wealth back to town after a weekend plundering the local ruins. However, the citizens of a local town are tired of catering to the needs of spoiled, holier-than-thou adventurers. The town isn’t getting rich from the adventurers and no monsters ever attack. Add on the [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

LFR Magic Item Treasure Bundle List (Part 2)

February 8, 2010

A few months ago we provided you with a Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) magic item treasure bundle list. The original list included a complete inventory of magic items available from 78 different LFR adventures. As promised, we’ve updated the list and added loot from 23 more LFR adventures. This includes 8 paragon adventures for PCs [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Traps & Hazards: The Open Portal

February 2, 2010

During the coming weeks we’ll be looking at traps and hazards in 4e D&D. I’m not going to waste time taking about pit traps or exploding doors, there’s plenty of that stuff in the DMG. What I’m going to focus on are traps and hazards that are much more elaborate and interesting.
These are things that [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

The Skill Challenge Backdoor

January 27, 2010

In order to make skill challenges a little bit more interesting I like to try and build in a skill challenge backdoor. This is a very specific set of conditions which, if met, provide a significant advantage not normally available.

6 comments Read the full article →

Reusing Skills in Skill Challenges

January 26, 2010

Does this sound familiar? The PCs begin a skill challenge. A couple of PCs have creative ideas and they go at it. They explain what they want to do, use a bit of role-playing and then make their rolls. Right off the bat you’ve got a couple of successes. But as you look around the [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Skill Challenges and Rewarding XP

January 25, 2010

One aspect of skill challenges that doesn’t get a lot of mention is the reward that comes from achieving the objective. Since skill challenges are supposed to be as difficult and rewarding as fighting monsters, the expectation is to be rewarded with XP just like you would for a combat encounter. But in many cases [...]

10 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries