At the epic level the PCs are capable of acts that can change the path of history forever. The aim of this article is to help you embrace the capacity of the party and set a stage appropriately large for their abilities. This article is about spectacles that are just as big as PCs who can come back from the dead every day.

Enter: The Renascence Man, Woman or Child

In order to challenge the PC you need to respect their capability. By level 21 the party has a bag of tricks so deep that attempting to anticipate them is a fool’s errand. There are things that the PCs had to tackle at low levels that are, by now, tasks that are beneath them. The PCs at this point should not have to make Diplomacy checks to convince people that their task is important. Epic level characters shouldn’t have to make knowledge checks to recall simple details, their experience and access to information is so vast that such checks are just a waste of time and any attempt to withhold such information won’t add difficulty or strife, but will just annoy. The only time an epic level PC should be forced to make such checks is to demonstrate how far above such tasks they are.

In most cases skill challenges and encounters are put together in such a way to push the party. The skill challenge could be purpose driven, such as: “I know Josey the Rogue likes to steal,” so a challenge with Thievery developed, or it could be something simple like “I’ll teach that Fighter to mark everything,” but the party is in mind when the tests are made up. I’ve found that at epic level it can get really hard to think up high level examples of how each of those skills can be used and find a cohesive narrative for them.

Say you want to include Athletics and Acrobatics, so you have the PCs climb to the top of a 50-story tower, but then the Rogue needs to do something, so the item is in one of the world’s toughest safes (great idea!)… but then the Cleric needs to do something, so the safe is cursed by a devil that lives in it so that it can be expelled with Religion. By the time you find something for everyone in the party to do you often end up with a situation that denies all plausibility, even in a D&D game. Instead it is my suggestion that you work around this problem in the epic level from the other direction. Come up with your premise for the challenge and then work out the ways that the PCs can contribute. This way the difficulties they experience will feel like tie-ins, rather than add-ons.

They’ll Take a Beating

This is the time to remember that, while the party might be powerful, you as the DM have the ability to create anything. There is no arms race, you hold all the power. In the face of super capable characters the DM might be tempted to try to find ways to limit the PCs power but shouldn’t give in. At this level there is the greatest amount of forgiveness to a combat encounter as the party will have many ways to help them get back on their feet, from epic destiny features to leaders with massive amounts of healing. In combat encounters with epic level characters you will have the greatest amount of notice and leeway if you accidentally design a monster or an monster group that is too powerful.

In this way my advice is to create the biggest baddest thing you can think of and just fine tune it on the fly. Because of the massive amounts of damage and hit points it will be much harder for the party to track a monster’s hit points or the potency of healing effects it possesses so if the monster suddenly becomes bloodied or dies none need to be the wiser.

Bigger Numbers are Not More Fun

Letting the numbers escalate is poor game design. If my epic level game runs like my heroic level game, just with higher skill bonuses and defenses I’m inclined to consider my work as a designer a failure. To me the game design needs to scale with the ambitions of the PCs, not just their ability to deal damage. If you game gets to the point where your PCs are busting out calculators to figure out their total damage then you’ve added a game play aspect that is decidedly not fun. I can play “Use Calculator” any day of the week.

The Big Ideas

Alright, so you have in mind some basic guidelines that will help you towards good ideas, now where do we get them? Start with books, movies, videos games and the like and then practice a bit of one-upmanship. How far you’re willing to go will depend upon the tone of your game, but at this level I’m saying go big or go home.

Here is a notable example of famous action sequence and how the stakes could have been raised – Independence Day. Remember the scene where the alien mothership was beaming huge lasers to destroy the planet? Instead of simply killing people, the high beams could have coupled as mind control lasers, turning all life into thralls for the space invaders. This means that the important NPC that the characters could be trying to protect could be turned, so that they would have to negotiate their compromised NPC, fight off an army of innocent mind slaves and an army of aliens, as well as deal with the mothership. How does that sound? Pretty boring right?

Ok, so to up the ante, the NPC is the vessel of a god that the aliens are trying to prevent from reaching the sacred temple so that the god cannot ascend. In order to do this the aliens (who might was well be Orcs or Mind Flayers now) teleported the whole temple onto a collision course with a near by star. As a result the PCs have to manage this battle while it draws ever closer to a glowing orb of fiery death. To make matters worse there’s no breathable air in D&D space so the PCs have to leverage their magic items, special abilities and clever thinking to even hope to survive long enough to risk being burnt to death in the sun. How dull.

While their temple asteroid races through space towards becoming a spatial singularity, it passes through meteorite swarms, electrical storms and gets blasted by arcane radiation from the star. On given rounds random square are hit with these space missiles, struck with lightning, or burnt by solar flares. PCs with the right abilities, racial background or items can harness this power to deadly effect against their enemies or be killed horribly. Yawn, I think I’ll sit this fight out.

The evil henchmen boss jumps down from the Mind Flayer sky city (complete with mind controlling anti-momentum beams) and joins in the fray, successfully stealing the soul from the important NPC, and thus becoming a super boss, the powerful deified forces cause the creature to grow to enormous perorations, becoming an 10×10 creature, tentacles a flare, commanding the hordes of low level thralls to swarm the party. Their numbers are so great that the hordes are best treated as a terrain type, being too numerous to actually be slain. The PCs are flanked everywhere they go, grasping limbs acting as difficult terrain, but offering up hearty bonuses to any attack. I might roll up a character, come to think of it.

The PC’s finally manage to best the massive Mind Flayer, it’s body being cast into the dark void of space. Seemingly victorious, the PCs catch their breath as the thralls recover from their trance. Off in the distance there’s a noise of a crackle and a crunch (there can be sound in D&D space). To the horror of the party, the body of the slain Mind Flayer has collided with a near by moon, the darkness of it’s soul is transforming the galactic body into a plane of pure hate. The moon begins to rotate more quickly, moving towards the party and their temple asteroid at a frightening pace. This could either be a skill challenge if you need a break from the initiative order, or it could be time for the party to finally kill a planet.

Reeling It In and Fine Tuning

I could go on, but I’m sure the premise is already too ridiculous for most. The key will be to find the point at which you say to yourself “That’s too much, even for me!” and then stop there. Say you felt like you had enough to deal with when the temple was being launched into the sun. Now you do what you do with any old D&D encounter, polish up the various elements so that they all flow well. Pick the monsters that will get the job done with the least hassle (smaller stat blocks are always better), and straight forward mechanics for any environmental effects you may have, bearing in mind that few die rolls means a faster running game.

If in the end you’ve got something on your hands that you like but you don’t know if your party will be on board for 100%, then remember that in narrative terms it’s always easier to escalate a situation than it is to take things back. Say you really want to have the PCs deal with the lack of air, but you can tell from the looks on their faces that they’re not all for there new space-faring ways, you can hold back until a few rounds have passed and you’ve demonstrated to them that this is actually cool. Remember all the tools that you’ve built up as a DM until this point. Be descriptive, keep the pace up and encourage your players to participate in a meaningful way.

Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

So at this level of play, provided that you don’t want to just send the party through another dungeon where the monsters have more hit points, you likely get into situations that the base rules of D&D don’t really cover. This is good! You’ve been playing for 20 level and by this point everyone should know how the game works and you should be able to experiment with rules alterations that allow for things like combat in space. In a later article I’ll address some of the technical issues of taking the fight to the skies, but until then I suggest handing over some of your DM responsibilities to the players who, lets face it, are likely DMs themselves.

By giving jobs like tracking initiative and monster hit points to some of your players, you will be freed up to worry with higher level problems, like tracking how many more rounds of oxygen the players have left. Do you have a player who plays on their iPad when it’s not their turn? Well this is something productive that they can do with their iOS device, and it will give them an excuse to download another application, “ohhhh spread sheets!”

Don’t worry if things don’t work out so well. You have a table full of D&D experts, and they’ll be able to help you anticipate problems, fix things on the fly and let you know when to just can the idea for the sake of fun. The worst thing that can happen if you’re open to ideas and working with your players is that the first half of an encounter is a little wacky.

A Campaign World Turned Blasted Hellscape

In normal situations a PC is an entity of destruction. Practical experience tells us that D&D characters are seldom heroic or noble, but actually just a wrecking crew, and I’m sure plenty of stories come to mind, but for me the story that stands out is one of a PC throwing a bag of holding into a lake a draining the world of all it’s water. At epic level these problems are greatly amplified as the PCs will have the capacity to accidentally kill millions.

While most games are set and run in such a way that the players aren’t really interested in their actions being played out in such detail the risk of having your PCs literally RUIN EVERYTHING is real. So what’s to be done? Resist the urge to control everything. They will want to destroy the beautiful things you have created and you should let them.

The fact of the matter is that your world is an imagined one, and so there’s no real amount of damage that the players can do that can’t be undone. If they kill the god of the harvest and the crops don’t go and the millions starve, well then that’s their story. At the epic level it becomes far to hard to reasonably constrain PCs with magic canoes and the like. The silver cities of the great nations you have created will shine just as brightly after they are reduced to rubble. Whatever the damage the party has managed to do can eventually be set right and needn’t be worried about now, after all, that’s another story for another time.

Related reading:

• Epic Level Encounter Design – Part 1: Cut the Fat
• Using Player Behaviour To Influence Your Encounter Design
• Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 1 | Part 2)

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How often does a player at your table want to do something – in character – that is morally apprehensible and blatantly evil? It doesn’t happen often in my games, but it does seem to come up every once in a awhile. When it does and the action is questioned by the DM or the other players, the player whose character is taking the action usually says something like, “I would never do this, but my character has no issue with it.” I realize that fantasy RPGs provide an escape from reality and you can play any kind of character you want, but I think it’s important to know where to draw the line.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that there are some things that are deemed acceptable in the context of D&D even thought most players would never condone or support such actions in real life. For example, slavery in the context of D&D isn’t usually seen as a big issue. Killing is also given tremendous latitude if the creature or person on the other end of the sword is evil. Theft is perfectly acceptable and is essentially what the majority of adventurers do to earn their loot. I guess it really comes down to the context of the situation and the justification for these actions. If killing an entire tribe of Orcs will make the nearby city safer for “civilized people” then the act of genocide is seen as acceptable and even heroic.

Lately the despicable act that has reared its ugly head in my games is torture. In a lot of the encounters during public play the PCs had the opportunity to ask NPCs questions. In some cases the NPCs are friendly and will cooperate with nothing more than a polite request or a few gold pieces. But when it’s a villain or monstrous NPC, someone who clearly does not want to share information with the PCs, a lot of players have their character get violent and resort to torture to gain the information they seek.

I think the problem is that many players believe Intimidate is the torture skill. They think that if an Intimidate check is required they have to follow it up by inflicting bodily harm. If the check fails, if the person provides information the PCs don’t believe or if they simply don’t know the answer, the PC using Intimate will more often than not proceed to torture the respondent.

When I’ve had this happen at my table or I suspect it’s moving in that direction I often remind the PC asking the question that they should act according to their alignment. Good PCs are unlikely to resort to physical abuse to solicit information. If the interrogator is evil or unaligned I will then look to the rest of the party. After all, they’re a team and the action of one will reflect on the actions of all. I find it hard to believe that any good aligned PC would knowingly let the less scrupulous members of the party beat a prisoner senseless just to get information out of him. Yet I’ve seen this happen more and more in recent months.

Intimidate is a Charisma-based skill. It’s about imposing fear and often about subtlety. The threat of violence is an acceptable way to use the Intimidate skill, but the actual act of striking or stabbing someone to get information out of them is not. When a character begins crossing that line I will increase the DC. If the act clearly conflicts with their alignment or the party’s overall alignment I will again increase the DC. I don’t believe that Intimidate (or any skill) should be an automatic failure just for trying it, but I do think that sometimes the DC can be out of your reach.

In order for a subject to reveal informant following an Intimidate check there needs to be a plausible reason for them to give in (at least plausible in their own mind). This is where fear plays an important part in any Intimidate check and the Charisma part comes in. A threat to do something awful if they don’t talk is a way for them to avoid potential torture (which I hope few PCs would actually carry out anyway). If you’re already torturing them they have no incentive to reveal what they know since it’s safe to assume you’ll kill them anyway. A person under duress will often tell you anything to make the pain stop, usually incorrect information or what they think you want to hear. In fact using torture to solicit information may reveal bad intel which could lead to other problems down the road.

If a PC does resort to unnecessary acts of violence and torture to try and garner information from a suspect, there should be in game consequences for this PC and the party. Heroes gain a reputation and if your party is known for mistreating and torturing prisoners then others will start to treat you differently. People who might normally help you with an easy Diplomacy check may become tight-lipped. The more you torture your prisoners and the more brutal the acts, the less others will want to help you. All social skills will become harder. If one PC is the torturer he’ll likely face the worst of it, but everyone in the party will be painted with the same brush and find checks more difficult.

Fantasy games are supposed to be a fun way to escape reality and become a character unlike anything you could possibly be in real life. From the Wizard who hurls fireballs to the Knight who slays Dragons, your imagination is the only limitation. So if you want to play a character that is cruel and gains perverse pleasure from inflicting pain and torturing the helpless who am I to judge? I’m the DM – that’s who I am and I will judge. There needs to b a line at the gaming table and as the DM it’s up to you to make it clear where the line is. Treading it on occasion may be acceptable but crossing it at every opportunity is not. So the next time players decide that they want to use Intimidate and feel that cutting off fingers or stabbing out an eye is the way to accomplish this, strongly discourage such behaviour even if it’s deemed to be just in character, and remind them that Intimidate and torture are not the same thing.

Have you run into similar issues at your table when PCs want to use Intimidate? How have you handled it? Where have you drawn the line? How would you deal with a party who resorts to violence and torture (basically extreme brutality and violence) whenever they have to question prisoners?

Related reading:

• Skill Focus: Intimidate
• Does Alignment Matter in 4e D&D?
• Skill Challenge: Information Gamble

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Recently I’ve been charged with the task of running the first epic level campaign for the Dungeon’s Master crew. This series of articles will outline my process and some of my ideas for creating that high level campaign you’ve always wanted to run. This first article is about trimming down the game of D&D so that it runs well at the epic tier.

Picking the Right Tools for the Job

The game of D&D is like any other device in that it’s designed with a purpose in mind, and as per the demands of the design it meets some needs and not others. I think of these things along the lines of automobiles, where a station wagon and a race car can both be very effective though not at all compatible. Likewise 4e D&D is very different at level 2 and level 22. Heroic tier D&D is like your mother’s station wagon, if you put another dent in the bumper there’s a good chance that she won’t notice, where epic D&D is like a fine Italian F1 land rocket, which you can destroy in an instant by using the wrong fuel and oil.

Heroic tier D&D has a lot of features that make play interesting at that level that don’t really translate well to later play. We’ll review some of them now and you can decide if you want to cut them or not in favour of a more high performance and race worthy game.

Getting Away with More, More Often

At the epic level you as a DM won’t have the same level of accountability for a number of reasons. The game has lost any realism that it may have ever had. With monsters that can perform outlandish feats of magic or strength on par with the party there’s less room for reasonable complaints when monsters pull off tricks with the help of the DM fiat. Where the uncannily high stealth score of the level 1 Goblin who managed a surprise round can be disputed, it is harder for level 21 PCs to account for all the magic and trickery at play in their foes.

More so than in low level games, if you can dream it up it can happen. Just make sure that as you make alterations to the normal way that the game is played and let the rules flex a little to allow your epic level ideas flow more comfortably that the players are on board for all of this.

Wealth, loot and magic items

At low level play the DM can be the item police and do a good job of keeping the amount of material wealth that the party has in check because at the most characters are going to have two or three items. Keeping this in line serves an important purpose. In the low levels of play the DM is often trying to express the level of frailty of the party to make their eventual victory seem sweeter, or just to keep game balance in check. At the epic level it might be best just to let these things go as the players have access to an impossible level of wealth and likely have magic items in their bag of holding that you forgot that they had.

Instead of trying to reign in their access to magic items just make use of your DM powers to make item use a nonissue. You can separate the gear issue into two areas by creating your own supremely powered items or by making monsters that can only be killed by specific weapons or artifacts or methods. Now items are either PC tools or plot devices. The main concern to be had with player gaining too much gear is that they might abuse it to overcome challenges that you have placed in front of them too easily. If you can manage your larger and more important combat related challenges in such a way that they relate to plot device style items that you have personally planted in the game then your characters will be free to run around with as many magic swords as they please and all of that book work is eliminated.

Streamlining Combat

A lot has already been written on this topic, some of it by me, so it’s better that you just read what’s already been written. However I will make one caution about monster design at the epic level. While epic level monsters may have these really attractive looking long stat blocks with lots of powers, I’ve found that as stat blocks get larger the monsters get less fun to fight in equal proportions. If you’re building monsters or just picking them from the book remember that if you only need a wrench you should just leave the 17-in-1 multi-tool at home.

So what if you can’t find good simple monsters at level 24 that do what you want them to? Just find a monster with the right over all stats and make a reminder with a sticky note that their basic attack immobilizes. Who cares if it’s not in the book? You’re the DM, save yourself the grief. At this level I cannot recommend strongly enough the trick of cutting the monster’s maximum hit points in half and doubling their damage output. It will cut an easy half-hour off of any combat encounter. Finally, this might be the time to lose all those fancy three stage save ends effects. It’s epic level, just have them turn to stone the first time, some of your character have powers that read like “Whenever you die, you don’t die, and instead the person who killed you dies, and you get a pie and have really nice hair. Do you workout?” so they will be able to cope.

Encourage the Players to Make Simple and Familiar Characters

So at level 6 your cute little Warlord and Ranger combo impressed everyone but you’re not in the little leagues any more. Your whole party might be on board for it, but chances are at level 21 the tables isn’t going to want to wait while you try to remember your 15 power/feat/item combo that gives you an extra 2d6 against some guy with 500 hit points. Level 21 is a good time to invest in a character that has high defenses and a good attack score and then call it a day. You’ll save a lot of time that would be otherwise spent flipping through your 12 pages of power cards.

Level 21 is a poor time to try out a new class for the first time. Remember the race car analogy? When you say that you want to play an Invoker from scratch at level 21 I picture Woody Allen being forced into an F1 car while he tries to explain that he learned to drive on an automatic and that the helmet is making him feel claustrophobic. Stick with something you know so that the task of building a level 21 character isn’t so daunting and so that the learning curve isn’t so steep.

Even better, if you and your players can all agree to use a reduced rule set, say playing only from the PHBs, you can all better anticipate what each other’s characters will be capable of, and there is a lower chance of experiencing a plot foiling ritual or epic destiny feature.

Be Prepared to Enlist Help

The role of a DM is normally taxing. Working out the plot threads and encounters is hard even when the players are in a well defined area. At the epic level players are going to gain access to teleportation over vast distances, exotic mounts and forms of transportation and depending on the campaign setting even airships. In many RPG video games restrictions on transportation form one of the main devices to enforce the game’s pacing, a great example is the magic canoe from FF1 which is never brought up before you need to go paddling to the previously roped off volcano.

The temptation might be to try to come up with reasonable explanations as to why the PCs are stuck in one area, but resist this. With the six minds in the party they’re going to think of something that you didn’t and you’ll look like a jerk when you have their path blocked because they lack a magical canoe or some other McGuffin. Instead enlist their help when creating the adventure. Ask the player what things they think they’ll want their characters to do that way you can better anticipate where the action should be focused. If you have a party member who is good at separating player knowledge from character knowledge you can have that person help anticipate plot holes and brain storm workarounds, or even help to guide the party covertly in game.

We’ll continue this look into epic play throughout May. Here’s a taste of what’s coming up.

• Part 2: Developing Challenges Appropriate for Epic Level Characters.
  Making new dungeons with higher level monsters is boring! Why not kill gods, race enemies atop bus sized magic missiles roaring through the earth’s crust, or use the party’s collective power to blow up a moon? This one is all in the title.
• Part 3: Taking the Battle to the Skies
  Tired of fighting in a 10 x 10 room or in another clearing in the woods? Why not bait your characters into throwing themselves off an airship and fighting the monsters in a 3,000 foot free fall through a thunder storm? This article will help you deal with the increased ease with which PCs take to the skies in Epic level encounters.

What are some of the experiences you have had with epic level D&D? Are there any game play elements that you have found cumbersome at high levels that worked fine in the heroic tier?

Related reading:

• Tiers Of Play: Epic
• Choosing An Epic Destiny Is Harder Than You Think
• Building Better Monsters (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4)

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Every hero needs a teacher. It’s a common part of many origin stories; the hero is taught by a washed-up has-been who used to be a great master in his day. Of course the hero doesn’t usually know of the master’s glorious past or the fall from grace that led him to his current predicament.

Training isn’t really a part of the mechanics in 4e D&D (although it was in the previous editions). However, creative DMs can come up with any number of reasons for the PCs to need special training in order to achieve the latest campaign goals. The idea of training and refining skills isn’t limited to just low-level adventurers. No matter what level your PC happens to be, there’s always something he can learn from a legendary sword master.

The key to making any interaction between a PC and a teacher interesting is for the master to be a fully fleshed out characters with a story of his own – the more quirky and eccentric the better. Shrouding a legendary sword master in mystery and intrigue is a sure way to get players interested. Throw in a compelling story motive and suddenly the PCs will do whatever they can to find the legendary sword master.

To help get you started here’s an example plot hook for working a legendary sword master into your game.

• A powerful enemy has returned after a long absence (maybe a demon that was banished a generation ago?). This villain is on the verge of destroying civilization. The only way to stop him is to learn a special fighting style that only a select few sword masters know. The PCs must find one of these legendary sword masters and then convince them to teach the PC the special technique. But convincing the sword master to train the PCs may be more difficult than expected.

Below are examples of six legendary sword masters, each with a background and personality. These six are just the first of many we’ll share in the coming weeks. Feel free to use any or all of them in your next campaign. No matter what kind of adventure you’re running, I’m sure you can find a way to slip one or more of these legendary sword masters into the story. Have fun with them.

1) The Refined Wild Man

During a lavish social interaction the PCs are introduced to society’s upper echelon. One of the men they meet is an exceptionally refined man who clearly has some Orc in him. However his mannerisms, dialogue and personality are absolutely befitting someone of his position in society. It isn’t until one of the PCs recognize a symbol on the man’s cane that they suspect he’s actually a legendary sword master. But that man was a wild-eyed barbarian who led hordes of screaming savages into some of the bloodiest battles ever fought. How could he possible be this prim and proper now?

[Inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo (the book or movie) this is indeed the legendary sword master. After he conquered his enemies and acquired more wealth than he could ever spend he decided to undertake an even more difficult challenge – becoming a party of civilized society. Using his enormous wealth he’s distanced himself from his past. None of his social peer suspects his true origins.]

2) The Golem

On his final adventure, the sword master defeated an evil Wizard. But before the Wizard was killed he sent the master’s soul into a nearby iron Golem. The Golem is bound to the Wizard’s old dungeon and master’s spirit has been trapped in the clumsy iron body for decades. When the PCs find the Golem the master readily accepts the opportunity to pass on his skills to a worthy apprentice. As the PCs become more adept the master becomes happier.

[The master learned long ago that his spirit can be easily freed from the Golem’s body – all he has to do is kill someone. When he does, the victim’s body will be restored to life and the spirit of the master will change bodies with the victim trapping the victim’s spirit inside the Golem. The master has been waiting for a worthy vessel to find him and the PC is exactly what he’s been waiting for all these years.]

3) The Stage Performer

A stage performer happens to share the same name as the sword master the PCs seek. He’s easy to find as the lead member of a famous acting troupe. If the PCs watch him perform scenes with weapons (which he does in almost every show) they realize that his movements are exaggerated and not those of a true warrior. When asked about his background he laughs off any suggestions that he is the legendary master they seek. He explains that it’s an unfortunately coincidence that’s both helped and hurt his career. He assures them he’s not the one they seek. Yet something about his performance has at least one PC convinced that if this man’s acting is as good as his swordplay then he could indeed be the master hiding in plain sight.

[This could easily be true or false as the story demands. Keep the PCs guessing. If he is the master then the PCs will have to figure out what they can offer him for his services as a teacher. After all he’s rich and famous, what else could he possibly want or need?]

4) The Blessed Paladin

Finding this legendary sword master isn’t difficult. This Paladin established a monetary to his deity and welcome all who are faithful. His skills are still sharp but he has other… issues. He talks to his sword, which he believes is the voice of god talking to him. Of course no one else has ever heard the sword speak and the Paladin explains that it is a test of faith. If you believe you too can hear the wisdom of his deity through the enchanted blade. He’s willing to teach anyone who converts to his faith but part of the conversion means accepting the Paladin’s sword as a direct conduit to his deity. Any doubt of this absolute truth will immediately anger the Paladin and he will forever banish blasphemers.

[Is he mad or blessed? DMs should have fun with this one. Any PC who converts should have his new faith tested repeatedly. Some of the monks who serve the Paladin will try to trick the PCs into questioning the sword validity which will lead to expulsion. Yet there is still a chance that the Paladin is indeed blessed.]

5) The Circus Performer

The PCs believe that the sword master they seek is living out his twilight years as a circus performer. The anonymity of the circus is an ideal place for a man trying to hide from his past. If he’s here the PCs will have to find him. Remember, he doesn’t want to be found. He could be anyone. The most likely candidates are the sword swallower, the knife juggler/knife thrower, and the strongman. But in truth it really could be anyone.

[If the master misses his former life than he’s likely doing something that will keep his sword skills sharp, however, if he’s still trying to distance himself from his former life he’s just as likely to be someone who doesn’t handle weapons at all like an acrobat, animal handler or even ticket taker.]

6) Danger Sense

It seems odd that a legendary swordsman like this one would seek solitude and give up the comforts someone of his impeccable reputation deserves. The PCs heard that one reason this master has been so successful is that he possess a danger sense that alerts him when trouble is near. When they find him wandering the woods he was already aware of their approach. He’s willing to train them and at first things seem fine. As the party travels with the master they are attacked numerous times and each times his danger sense alerts them. However, after a few days the master senses dangers that never materializes. Where are the dangers he’s sensing? Why are there no attacks?

[The master’s danger sense, although 100% accurate, warns him of false danger as often as it warns him of real danger. Over the years this has made him quite paranoid. He knows that he gets false readings (something he is very embarrassed about and won’t reveal to the PCs) but the false feelings are indistinguishable from genuine danger so he has to treat them all seriously. After a few days of this the party gets less and less rest and everyone gets really edgy and paranoid.]

Related reading:

• Adventure Hooks for Divine Characters (Part 1 | Part 2)
• Adventure Hooks: Welcome to the Sun & Moon Tavern (Part 1 | Part 2)
• Adventure Hook: The Mercenary Company

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Experience teaches player to never split the party. However, there are times when it doesn’t make sense for the party to remain together. This might be because there are many tasks to complete in a limited amount of time or it might be because some party members have skills or powers that make them uniquely qualified to handle a task alone. Yet when presented with any opportunity to split the party, no matter how logical it might seem to do so, a lot of players insist on staying together. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that is not founded in any rational assessment of the situation. It’s an instinctual response based on a previous disaster and a slogan ingrained into them by the Wizards marketing department. Players need to take a deep breath and repeat after me: Sometimes it’s a good idea to split the party.

My gaming group has actually had a lot of success when splitting the party. It’s not something we do very often, but we are certainly open to the possibility when it makes sense. Most often when we split up each group or individual ends up with their own mini skill challenge, but every so often the DM has something else in mind and combat occurs while the party is separated from each other. We’ve found that there are ways to make combat with a split party work. It’s definitely challenging, but our approach to these situations are always fun and rarely result in anyone being left out while their character is off screen.

Splitting into two groups

I’ve playing in many adventures when it’s made sense for the party to split into two groups. The intent is to complete objectives that have minimal likelihood of leading to combat. After all, the main reason PCs don’t want to split the party is because they know combat is more difficult with three PCs than six; especially if the leader is in the other half of the party.

Yet there are times when the course of events leads to combat when the party is divided. In some cases it’s because the PCs have made poor choices, in some cases it’s because they made poor rolls, and in some cases it’s because that’s what the DM had planned all along. Regardless of the reason, don’t panic when this happens. Unless the DM is trying to make a point about the dangers of splitting the party you should have a chance of surviving.

When a group is divided combat can be problematic. Not only is it dangerous for the smaller than usual party, but it can be boring for the players whose characters are not present. When this happens at my gaming table any player whose PC is not present is drafted as assistant DMs and gets to help run monsters. This is a chance for the players to basically fight one another. It’s a great way to keep everyone involved and in some cases it’s a good way to elevate tensions that might be mounting within the group. Having the PCs fight one and other is usually a bad idea, but letting the players run monsters and than having those monsters beat up on the party is perfectly acceptable.

After the combat is over and the scene shifts to the remaining PCs it’s time to switch hats. These PCs who just got clobbered by the DM’s assistants should now have an opportunity to return the favour. This also reminds everyone that what goes around comes around. The players running monsters may focus on the PC run by the guy who, in the previous fight when he was running a monster, was particularly brutal on the PCs. This is the one time when us vs. them mentality is actually encouraged.

All PCs on their own

In the rare circumstances when everyone goes in a different direction to do their own thing only a particularly vindictive or sadistic DM will initiate individual combat. However, if the circumstance demands combat happen while everyone’s separated there are ways to make things play out smoothly.

In my recent home campaign the PCs were enjoying some down time after the end of the last adventure. They’d all gone their separate ways and were enjoying a well deserved vacation. Unbeknownst to the PCs, one of their enemies hired assassins to carry out a coordinated attack on each of them simultaneously. The result was all five PCs engaging in their own individual combat.

Playing this out in the traditional way would be long and boring. So instead the DM decided to try something different. Each PC faced three assassins which meant the DM had to keep track of 15 monsters. However, rather than run 15 different monsters over five different combat scenarios, the DM wrapped everything together into one fight. Rather than have each PC’s Assassin #1 make separate attack and damage, the DM attacked once, rolled damage once and then moved on. This one attack represented Assassin #1 in each of the 5 encounters. The DM still had to keep track of hit points for 15 monsters, but he was only rolling three attacks per round instead of 15. Each PC faced his own set of assassins and as they started killing them off those PCs could ignore the DM’s corresponding attack rolls.

The result was a really interesting and fast-paced combat encounter. Not what you’d expect when you split the party. The encounter still played out like a regular encounter. Normally when you split the party some players sit around while others are in the spotlight, but by combining the mechanical aspects of the five individual combat encounters no one was left out. It still felt like a normal encounter, but each player still had the thrill and danger of individual combat.

Story first, mechanics second

It’s unusual to split the party in D&D because it’s unusual for DMs to create situations where the PCs would even consider splitting up. But when those situations do arise remember that there are ways to split the party and make things work. Don’t tie yourself down because you’re worried about how the mechanics will play out. If there’s a compelling reason to split the party, consider the possibility and don’t just should out “Never split the party!” when the DM dangles multiple options in front of you.

I’m sure a lot of us have horror stories about splitting the party but I’m interested in hearing about times when splitting the party worked for you. What did the DM do to make the situation a success? Did players not in the scene participate or did they wait patiently for their time in the spotlight?

Related reading:

• How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps
• Split the Party
• Skill Challenges On The Fly

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It’s unusual for a D&D campaign to take place in on location. Most adventures involve extensive travel and exploration. The heroes go out, adventure, kills some monsters, find some treasure, and then return home to spend their hard earned cash and brag about their accomplishments. As the PCs get more powerful they will usually venture farther out and fight tougher monsters, but inevitably they return home.

In most established campaign setting there are very few areas of the world map that are considered to be untamed or unexplored. The likelihood of the PCs finding someplace that is truly the frontier of society is extremely rare in most campaigns. By the time the heroes started their adventuring career everything had already been discovered. Sure some civilizations might have fallen and their runes are now a place of great mystery, but the idea of going someplace and finding something truly new (at least to the PCs in your campaign) is pretty much revolutionary. And you know what, that really sucks for the players. After all, trailblazing the wild frontier is a thrilling adventure in itself and can add considerable depth to any campaign.

This kind of adventure has nothing but potential. Think about it, in a campaign setting where vast expanses of the world are completely unknown the PCs will face danger and adventure with every single step they take. Getting there will be half the fun for the first time in a very long time. Random encounters will become the norm since they really have no clue what the standards are in a wild and untamed land.

The road not taken

What road? Your PCs are the fist ones here so they can go where they want. They’ll likely follow the natural contours and game trails, but essentially they can go in any direction at any time. They don’t have a specific destination in mind (like a town) because there likely aren’t any out here. It’s go where you want, when you want, at the speed you want and in the direction you want. Some DMs hate putting this kind of freedom into the players’ hands because it can lead to almost anything. But crafty DMs will simply make things happen regardless of what the PCs choose.

If you want them to find a lake and have an encounter with some lizardfolk then guess what? They find a lake whether they go north or south and they encounter the lizardfolk whether they get there during the day or night. By giving the players the illusions of choice they get tremendous satisfaction in shaping the adventure, and by knowing that you’re going to run them through a set encounter or two or three no matter what they do you can be prepared for their antics.

Travelling in general is overlooked in many 4e D&D games. After all, if it’s going to take a week to get from point A to point B then the PCs will have plenty of time to heal up and expend healing surges after any random encounters. And if they only get into one or two fights a day then they should have no trouble defeating them because they’ll have so many of their resources available. But in a campaign where the PCs are doing nothing but travelling you can introduce some house rules to reflect the weariness that travel brings.

For example, after the heroes have been travelling for a week or longer they only regain half hit points from healing surges, or maybe they cannot regain full surges after an extended rest. This encourages the PCs to still play smart and not meta-game every encounter along the way. It also encourages them to do whatever you deem necessary to get back to full health. Suddenly skill challenges for travelling overland, foraging for food and creating shelter actually matter.

Monster knowledge? Yeah, right.

Experienced players know that as soon as a battle begins they can make monster knowledge checks to try and learn something about the monsters they’re facing. The idea is that you’ve either fought these creatures before or pick up some knowledge about them from other adventurers or possibly even an old book. None of these things really apply if you’re exploring the wild frontier. Sure there will be some standard monsters that are native to similar climates in other parts of the known world, but many if not most of the creatures the PCs will face should be new (at least to their PCs). You can rule that monster knowledge checks are simply not possible or you can pump up the DC. Doing this is a good way to reward PCs with exceptionally high knowledge skills.

The rewards of exploring

Not only will PCs face new monsters but there’s a good chance that they’ll find exotic treasures. At first this might be in the form of valuable gems or minerals, but as many monsters are intelligent the PCs could find magic items that they’ve never seen before. Of course knowledge is also a more tangible and valuable reward in this kind of adventure. Everything the PCs can document accurately, be it new monsters, new plants, and even the cartography of the unknown areas will be valuable to someone when they get home. If the campaign’s long-term arc is for the PCs to choose the sight for a settlement then they can get the pick of the best locations in the area where the future town is going to be built.

Safe passage

In a path-finding adventure where the PCs are trying to find the best pace for a new community or village, finding the spot is only the first part of a much longer campaign. The PCs are hardened and experienced adventurers capable of fighting monsters and surviving the harsh conditions that this new frontier brings; however the regular people that will be expected to come to this new settlement will likely be typical, regular, non-adventuring NPCs. Ensuring their safety will be a full time job. And it’s not just defending the town as it grows. Whatever means is established for transporting good and people will likely be hazardous as well. Attacks from monsters initially and bandits eventually means that someone will need to work at protecting the lines of transportation.

Now it’s unlikely that the PCs will be expected to do all of these things, but a creative DM can have the PCs get involved in some way with each facet of frontier life one gaming sessions at a time. Each difference session will likely play to the strengths of different characters and classes, so it’s a really good way to keep everyone interested.

We come in peace

Just because the PCs and the society they come from has never explored this new frontier doesn’t mean that it’s uninhabited. If the land is bountiful and resources are plentiful then there’s a good chance someone else noticed this as well. It might be another humanoid race or it could be intelligent monsters. Whatever the case, the PCs should learn pretty quickly that diplomacy goes along way. Some combat will be inevitable, but this is another opportunity for the DM to use structured skill challenge to let the PCs make use of their social skills.

A lot of players, knowing that their adventure is going to be an exploration type of game, may think that strong, combat-heavy builds are best. DMs should really emphasize that the party needs diversity to succeed. With so many aspects of exploration falling to skill checks there will be a lot of opportunities for structured skill challenges with real consequences for success or failure. Encounters where the PCs realize it’s better to talk or encounters where talking is their only chance of survival should be common enough to hammer this home for all players. Suddenly they see the value of taking feats like Linguist or Skill Training.

The frontier beckons

Creating a full campaign that are based on or parallel the settling of America’s wild west frontier has a lot of potential but may not appeal to all players. It’s the kind of campaign that can be exceptionally rewarding but will require significant commitment. But that’s not to say that the details above are only good in this circumstance. A lot of these points can easily be applied to smaller, one-off adventures. Any time the PCs head into an uncivilized or wild frontier that’s uninhabited by the familiar, the DM can treat it as an exploring adventure and use the points we’ve described above.

Have you ever played or run a campaign like the kind we’ve described here? What worked and didn’t work? If you were to take on this kind of challenge what other tips or tricks would you recommend?

Related reading:

• Monster Knowledge
• Knowledge is Power (Part 1)
• Knowledge is Power (Part 2)
• Skill Challenges
• On the Road
• Travelling Underground

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Oil. In the real world it is one of the most precious resources on the plant. Those who have it are rich for possessing it. Those who don’t have it are willing to buy it and kill for it. In an industrial world run on oil there’s nothing more valuable. But in D&D oil isn’t important. After all, very few game worlds are mechanized and those with any industry use a more abundant resource: magic.

In fantasy role-playing is there an equivalent to oil? Something so precious and integral to society’s prosperity and advancement as oil is in the real world? Again the most likely answer is magic. But magic isn’t a limited resource. After all, magic is, well, magic. It doesn’t have any real tangibility and certainly doesn’t have to follow any rules or logic. It can be whatever the game needs it to be. But that’s not to say that a campaign world couldn’t be made more interesting if magic was a finite resource.

In this context we’re looking more at magical items rather than spells like the ones Wizards and other arcane characters use during combat. We’re looking at a tangible, physical embodiment of magic. Using what’s in the rules as written for guidance I suppose we’re actually talking about Residuum. In D&D Residuum is basically magic dust (or as we often joke in my home campaign, Pixie dust). It’s the byproduct left over when magical items are disenchanted. Residuum can be used to make new magical items and perform rituals. So in the fantasy settings of D&D Residuum is probably the closest thing we have to oil in terms of physical valuable commodities.

I have yet to see anything that suggests Residuum is in limited supply. I’ve always made enough available in my campaign to advance the plot. But if we assume that there is some kind of limit to the amount of Residuum out there it could open up a whole new set of motives for adventurers. As today’s real-world super-powers send troops to parts of the world where oil is abundant, so to can DMs send PCs to those areas of the campaign world where Residuum is abundant. The only problem is that none of these details are documented.

Have you ever thought about where Residuum comes from? Is it a mineral that is mined like ore or gold? Perhaps it’s grows naturally like a flower or plant? In a world with magic any explanation is possible, but for Residuum to take on the importance in a campaign world to the extent that oil is important in real life these details need to be fleshed out.

I’ve actually give this a lot of thought and I think that in a fantasy world Residuum should be in some way connected to the elements that make your game world fantastic. I’m talking, of course, about Dragons. Like the mythical Elephant Graveyard, I think a Dragon Graveyard should be the source of Residuum. Raw Residuum is created when the scales and bones of dragons decompose. Dragon scales have always been coveted, but now there’s an even better reason to collect them after defeating a wyrm.

By tying Residuum to Dragons you eliminate the possibility of any lesser beings stumbling upon a random field or Residuum plants and suddenly becoming a power base in your campaign. That’s not to say that some ingenious kingdom hasn’t found a way to capture and breed dragons to harvest Residuum, but it makes the possibility highly unlikely.

Dragons are intelligent enough to set aside petty differences to protect the remains of their ancestors. I just don’t see Dragons allowing the races of men to ravage their graveyard and claim Residuum. If Dragons understand the value and power that is literally in their bones they’re likely to keep their final resting places secret and will protect them from would-be thieves and common adventurers.

Tying Residuum to Dragons is just an idea. If your campaign world doesn’t have Dragons or such creatures are exceptionally rare (Dark Sun, for example) then this idea would need to be adjusted. I still think that it should be tied in some way to the organic aspects of the fantastic elements of your games. Perhaps anything that is not found in the real world will break down into residuum when it dies – everything from Elves to Goblins to Unicorns to Beholders. However, looking back to oil as a comparative resource, it should take a considerable amount of time for any of the more common elements of fantasy to produce any useful amount of Residuum. This is why I liked the Dragon example. Given their rarity having their remains become Residuum more quickly (if not immediately upon their death) doesn’t seem like it would break the game mechanics.

Of course, Residuum isn’t the only magical commodity in D&D. In Eberron Dragonshards are already as important as oil. Everything that we would use oil to power in the real world is powered by magic, mostly dependent upon Dragonshard, in the Eberron campaign setting. Wars are already fought over Dragonshards, but imagine how much more bloodshed would happen if the Dragonshards became even rarer.

By creating a physical, tangible commodity that powers your game world you provide new motivation for the PCs adventuring within it. The aimless wandering by random adventurers can be focused towards more significance aspects of the campaign setting. If Residuum is your game-world’s oil then everyone will want it. If it’s tied to Dragons then these fantastic creatures will become even more revered than they would be otherwise.

Changing the way an entire campaign setting works by making magic tangible is a serious proposition and shouldn’t be taken lightly. I see this more as an idea for experienced DMs and players looking for a way to add something new to their game. It opens the door for a lot of political intrigue and open conflict. DMs running campaigns in such a world need look no further than recent real-world history for adventure hooks and plot arcs. Each adventure can easily be “ripped from the headlines” replacing conflicts for oil with battles for Residuum.

Do you think that having a resource as valuable as oil in your D&D campaign would change things for the better? Do you think that Residuum is the right choice for such a resource or should magic just be unlimited?

Related reading:

• No New Magic Items
• Stop Abusing Dragons!
• Should Dungeons & Dragons Deal With Social Issues?
• Make Magical Item Identification Harder

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DM – You’ve defeated the skeletons. As you search the bodies you realize that one of them was carrying a +1 frost weapon.

Ethan the Rogue – As the striker I should get the magic weapon. The more often I hit the faster I can drop monsters.

Barrack the Fighter – Now hold on a second. I may not be a striker, but as a defender it’s important that I hit monsters ignoring my mark. I think I should get the magic weapon.

Delian the Paladin – Excuse me, guys; this was an item from my wish list. I’m working on a whole cold-theme and already the feats Wintertouched and Student of Moil. Using a frost weapon will give me bonuses when I make cold-based attacks.

Sterling the Warlord – You’re all forgetting that it’s my turn to get the next magic item so I believe the frost weapon is mine.

How often does this happen in your game? As soon as it comes time to divide the treasure everyone tries to lay claim to the best stuff. This is usually a bigger issue when a party is lower levels and there aren’t as many items to go around, but even when the group advances into the paragon tier there can still be some bickering about the division of items.

Over the years I’ve seen many groups handle the division of loot in many different ways. There are certainly pros and cons to all methods and it’s really up to the groups themselves to figure out which method works best for them.

Equal Shares

This is usually the best way to handle things. All coins are divided equally and magic items are distributed evenly throughout the party. No one PC can claim a second magic item from the loot until everyone else in the party has one.

• Pros: Dividing everything equally seems the fairest way to do things. By ensuring that no one can claim two items before another PC as one you’re less likely to have one player complain that their PC was overlooked. This is how things work during D&D Encounters and for the most part it works pretty well.
• Cons: There are two huge cons doing things this way. 1) Not all items will be equally suited for every PC, and 2) not all items are the same level. Everyone usually wants a magic item or implement, magic armor, and magic neck item. Getting an item that fills another slot before filling these three is not usually desirable, especially if everyone else is getting one of these. So when one of these three appears in the treasure horde there’s often fierce competition to determine who gets it. Some players will actually pass on an item they can use that isn’t a weapon, armor or neck item knowing that there will be fewer competitors to argue with when one finally shows up. I’ve actually had games where no one will claim a magic item unless it’s one of these three. All of the players would rather put the magic boots, gloves, or belt into their backpack as “party loot” than claim and equip it.

Sell Everything

All treasure (except artifacts) have gp values in D&D. This method has all items tracked by their gp value and everyone gets an absolutely equal share of everything.

• Pros: This is often the only way to stop fighting. When a +1 weapon worth 1,000 gp is discovered the PC who claims ownership must buy out the rest of the party’s interest in the weapon. In a party of five, the owner would owe the other four PCs 200 gp each. Since the party is likely to find more treasure during their travels this doesn’t have to be an actual cash transaction at the time the item is found. Someone keeps a ledger and runs a tally of who owes what. When the party has some down time they figure out who owes who.
• Cons: I see this as a very petty way to divide loot. This says “we can’t get along and have to nickel and dime the other players to maintain order at the table.” It creates an extra and unnecessary level of logistics at the gaming table. This is a good way to handle non-magic treasure like gems and art objects, but not magic items.

Wish List

Each player provides the DM with a wish list; a list of all the magic items he wants his PC to possible find during the adventure. When the party finds treasure the DM or player will announce that it was from his wish list and his PC gets it.

• Pros: Unless two PC have asked for exactly the same item (which happens), this makes ownership disputes a thing of the past. It’s from your list, you get it. End of story. This is how most DMs I’ve played with during home games run things. They intersperse a few other random items, but the showpieces are most often right off of someone’s wish list.
• Cons: This puts a lot of control of who gets items in the hands of the DM. If the DM isn’t paying attention he may inadvertently reward some players more often than others. This method can also backfire if some players don’t provide wish lists. When the DM tries to come up with suitable loot, the intended player isn’t interested because he doesn’t think it’s an item he’d like. Although this method can save the DM considerable time, it cheapens the whole experience of defeating monsters and sifting through their treasure for something new. There are no more surprises. It’s anticlimactic if you know the treasure is going to be the +3 Sunblade you requested or the +3 Dwarven Armor the player next to you requested.

Common Sense

Despite the name, this is the method I see used the least. When an item is discovered the party gives it to the PC that it’s most suited for regardless of its level or how many other items that PC might already have.

• Pros: A striker with a really awesome magic weapon or a defender with really high defenses will help the party as a whole. If the Warlord usually commands the Ranger to attack every round then it makes more sense to give the Ranger the magic weapon and not the Warlord even if the Ranger already has three other magic items and the Warlord has doesn’t have any. Things will even out in the end.
• Cons: Some items, like magic weapons, are usable by any class so it’s not always so clear cut as to which PC it’s most suited for. In these cases the party will usually determine ownership randomly. This method for dividing treasure will result in some PCs having more items than others which can create some in-game and out-of-game jealousy. DMs need to be mindful of this and try to keep things balanced.

Roll Off

In a game where the dice determine so much already, why not let them determine who gets the next magic item. Everyone rolls a d20 and the highest wins.

• Pros: This method is often combined with all of the others listed above whenever there’s a dispute for really versatile treasure like magic weapons. It’s up to the DM to decide if everyone can roll off. When multiple items are found we’ll often have everyone roll off. Highest roll picks first, next highest roll picks second and so on. No matter how much logic might have otherwise been used to lay claim to an item, players who roll poorly and get nothing are not usually as disappointed as they would be if using any of the other methods listed above.
• Cons: A player with really hot dice can end up with a lot of treasure before anyone else has a single item. A healthy does of the Equal Shares and Common Sense methods often keep this con in check.

Pay for Play

This is certainly a controversial method but it needs to be included. PCs are rewarded based on the significance of their contribution to the battle that yielded the loot. Those PCs who really stood out get a greater share than those PCs who were unconscious or missed with every attack.

• Pros: With so many intangible criteria likely in play, the biggest up side to this method is people will really strive to play their character. In the few occasions when I’ve seen this kind of method employed the role-playing was fantastic. Everyone knew that they needed to stress the importance of each action and explain how it was helping. The fight usually took longer but they were a lot of fun and very memorable.
• Cons: With each class filling a different role it’s exceptionally difficult to come up with a consistent measuring stick that you can apply equally to all PCs. Is a striker who kills three monsters entitled to a larger share of the loot than the leader who healed four PCs during the fight? What about the Fighter who took over 100 hit points worth of damage while protecting the Wizard? If your group decides to try this method I’d recommend using something akin to the Renown Points in D&D Encounters. Things like reviving a dying ally, killing multiple minions, and moments of greatness will net each PC points and then use the points to determine who gets what share of the loot.

With treasure being so integral to 4e D&D it’s important that the loot is divided at least somewhat evenly regardless of what method you use. At low levels getting the shiny new item may be a big deal but as PCs advance I’ve found that the players become less enamored with loot. This is especially true if you’re using the inherent bonuses system. DMs should keep a close eye on each PC’s inventory and make sure that one PC isn’t getting too much or too little of the treasure. The goal is to have fun and if one PC is capable of doing things no one else is because he’s got twice as many magic items, the other players will feel belittled. On the flip side, if one PC is always getting left out of the loot distribution they won’t be able to contribute in a meaningful way which will hurt the party as a whole in the long run.

How does your group divide treasure? Have you run into problems and had to switch from your preferred or usual method to one of the others listed? What other methods of dividing loot have you used?

Related reading:

• Let Monsters Use the Treasure
• 7 Adventure Hooks for Making the Loot Part of the Plot
• Benefits of Random Treasure
• The Spoils of War

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It will happen to you one day and when it does don’t be embarrassed, it happens to all gamers. I’m talking about cold dice. Eventually the dice run cold for all of us. Maybe the d6 keeps coming up 1, the d12 won’t roll higher than 3 or the d20 isn’t cooperating at all and you haven’t hit a monster all fight. Eventually the dice gods will correct the problems and balance the scales, but until then a streak of poor rolls can crush even the most experienced player.

When a player goes through a bought of bad dice karma it can actually have a detrimental effect on the entire group. Even though everyone else rolls as expected and has fun doing so, one player’s poor rolls can effect the overall mood of the entire table. I’ve learned over the years that when this happens (and it will, if it hasn’t already) players and DMs can actually do a lot of things to turn the tide.

What Players Do

As a player with bad dice karma you can ride it out or follow the three steps below until you achieve satisfaction and turn your luck around.

1. Verbally abuse the dice: Yelling, complaining, and even cursing at the dice may not actually help but it will often make the player feel a little bit better. I’ve seen more than my share of dice get berated only to roll the desired number on the very next throw. It could be luck or it could be that the die took your threats seriously. Either way I’m a believer.
2. Switch dice: I’ve never met a gamer who didn’t own more than one set of dice. When the dice are running cold it’s time to cal in a reliever. However, even this isn’t always effective. After all, even relief pitchers need to warm-up before they can strike out the next batter. By the time the new dice warm up the battle could be over… and your PC could be dead.
3. Destroy the offender: In extreme cases where a die just won’t roll the number you need when you need it, a player might go to the extreme of destroying the dice. I’ve heard players claim that they’ve smashed bad dice with a hammer, melted them in the microwave, thrown them in a lake, or subjected them the wrath of a soldering gun. One of the players in our main group actually used a paint stripper to melt his pesky d20. (Note that destroying dice can be dangerous so please exercise caution if you’re going to do more than throw a d20 into a lake.) One important reminder if you’re going to go to this extreme: be sure to line up the rest of your dice where they can see the show. By witnessing the execution they’ll know that you’re serious when you threaten to destroy them for poor rolling.

Have you even seen a melted d20? Other dice take note.

What DMs Do

In all seriousness there will be times when a players dice just won’t roll high enough for him to make a meaningful contribution. I’ve been that guy and it’s awful. The game drags on and you actually dread your turn coming up in the initiative because you know you’ll miss again. As the DM I see this happen a lot. It doesn’t usually happen for more than a coupe of rounds but every so often it becomes a real problem.

As the DM you have ultimate control over what happens in your game. There are plenty of things that you can do to help the player suffering from cold dice. Make them a more active participant by adding elements to the game that don’t depend on great dice rolls or that don’t require dice rolls at all. Here are a few examples.

• Miss effects: A lot of powers in 4e D&D still do stuff on a miss, most daily powers for example. If a player is going through a cold dice streak encourage them to use powers that will have some effect regardless of the dice roll. Since most PCs only have a few daily powers you might have to come up with a way for them to use these powers more than once a day. I’ve let players recharge a daily power by trading in two encounter powers or cashing in an action point. Be creative and do what it takes to keep the player involved. If none of the PC’s attacks do anything on a miss you may also allow them to retrain on the fly.
• More than just fighting: The most interesting combat encounters usually have something going on other than just the fighting. It’s a good idea to include non-fighting options in any encounter, but it is especially important if you’ve got a player with cold dice. Mini-skill challenges are a popular choice but they usually require decent rolls as well, so that isn’t always going to be the best alternative. Try to include tasks that anyone can do, tasks based more on role-playing that aren’t dependent on dice. These should make sense for the encounter and be more than just busy-work. Try to work in some kind of reward for the PC who completes the non-fighting tasks to emphasize the task’s importance to the encounter and the story.
• Get a new job: Sometimes there are tasks that need to be done during combat that no one else is willing to do. Don’t feel that just because you’re a striker you HAVE to attack every round. If the dice are cold find another way to be useful and get a new job (until your luck changes). We’ve found that giving one PC a bunch of healing potions and then having him go where he’s needed most has been very effective when a PC can’t perform his usually job (usually because he’s out of healing surges). As the medic you can also aid you allies by performing Heal checks to trigger their second wind or grant saves. These tasks do require a roll, but if you’ve got a really good Heal skill then you may only need to roll a 3 to succeed.
• Assist others: As mentioned above, performing a Heal check on your allies can certainly be a useful way for a guy with bad dice to contribute in a meaningful way. Along those lines there’s always the opportunity to assist with other skill checks. Assisting is usually much easier and won’t require you to roll a 20. Worse case scenario if you fail the check you only impose a -1 penalty which isn’t that bad.
• Accept help: Many players and DMs forget that it’s possible to assist others with attack rolls or assist to pump up their defenses. If a player is consistently rolling badly, introduce a few friendly NPCs to assist him. This can really improve a PC’s odds. Alternatively the DM can find ways to give the slumping PC combat advantage as often as possible. A helpful NPC can become the PC’s flanking buddy, or maybe there’s a terrain feature that knocks creatures prone. It seems like such an obvious and simple thing, but sometimes that +2 to the attack roll can make all the difference.
• Group checks: The beauty of group skill checks is that the entire party isn’t screwed if one guy rolls poorly. In a party with six PCs, only three need to make the check successfully for the group to succeed. By using more group checks when a player is on a cold streak you let them roll dice but alleviate some of the pressure if they roll poorly. If the group does fail, the blame isn’t solely on the one player’s shoulders.
• New dice: If all else fails and one player has unprecedented bad luck it’s time to go to extreme measures. This is when the players need to pass the hat, collect a few bucks, and just buy the player a new set of dice. This gives the player the freedom to get rid of his old dice. Depending on how unlucky he’s been of late he may even want to destroy the bad dice permanently. Just remember to let the new dice watch.

What did you do the last time you went on a really long cold streak with your dice? As a DM, how have you handled this situation when it’s happened at your gaming table? Please share your ideas and your stories.

Related reading:

• Dice Rituals
• Let the Players Roll More Dice
• Use Teamwork, Aid Another

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I’ve heard a lot of people say that 4e is really just a video game turned into a table-top role-playing game. The game is too tactical and relies too much on the visual aid of a battle mat and minis. These criticisms always talk about the limitations and restrictions of 4e. I admit that the visual component is certainly important, but the game is certainly not limiting. D&D is so much more than what’s on the table.

When I recently ran an adventure at my FLGS a new player sat down next to me, introduced himself and told me he was blind. I wasn’t sure how to handle this news. I was concerned that I’d have to make significant adjustments to my game in order to meet the needs of the blind player. He was really good about it and just told me to do what I’d normally do but to be sure to describe things (like the map) so that he could accurately picture it in his mind.

This seemed like a reasonable request. After all, everything in the game is described in the adventure, right? Nope.

Think about how much of the game is not described. We just take for granted that because I can see the map and see the minis that I don’t necessarily have to describe the scene in as much detail. But when one of the players cannot see the map or the minis, you realize just how much of the game relies on visual input.

As the game progressed I realized that just because I wasn’t used to describing things to the extent that a blind person required didn’t mean that the details weren’t there. To be honest, I realized that I’d become a lazy DM. But as I was forced to describe those little details I quickly remembered how much more we can get out of a typical D&D adventure by being descriptive.

By adding the intangible details and really describing the scene, the players started to realize that they could get more out of D&D then just moving their minis around the map and killing monsters. Having the blind player at the table really brough the role-playing back to D&D.

Characters

Usually when I ask players to describe their characters they give me an answer like, “I’m playing a Human Fighter,” and often the player has a mini that looks like a Fighter. It may not be exactly what they imagine their character looks like, but it gets the job done. After that, we know that the mini with the big sword and green cape is Joe’s Fighter. But when someone at the table cannot see the mini it forces the player to actually describe more than the character’s race and class.

During the game with the blind player the previously sufficient description “I’m a Fighter” became “My character is an average-looking Human male well over 6 feet tall and easily 250 lbs. He’s wearing chain mail, a dark crimson tabard with a gold emblem, and a black cloak. Although his main weapon is a great sword, he’s also got a couple of daggers tucked into his belt, another one jammed into his left boot, and a crossbow slung over his back.”

Suddenly we realize that the lame mini Joe was using to depict his placement on the map looks nothing like the character he’s actually playing. But until he was asked to describe his character for the blind player he didn’t feel it necessary to add these details. More importantly none of the other players felt the need to ask for them. We were content to play on knowing he was simply a Fighter.

And of course, as soon as the first player described his character with this level of detail the rest of the players felt the need to follow suit. What really impressed me was that everyone knew exactly what their character looked like. In their mind they had all of these details worked out, but until this game they’d never felt the need to share these details.

Map and Monsters

Maps make DMs lazy. Why describe a room or the terrain when I can draw it or use dungeon tiles to depict it? I’ll admit that I often just say something like, “This is what the room looks like,” and point at the map. But when the blind player was at my table I had to remember that he needed the non-visual description. I began describing the room with its shape and dimensions, followed by the terrain features and obstacles. I made note of things like the smells and sounds because I realized that a blind person would know to use his other senses to gather information. I had each player describe their placement on the map relative to the blind player’s mini as well as to each other. When monsters entered the room I made sure to describe their placement and their appearance.

Normally when I place monsters on the map I say “These guys with yellow cloaks are actually.” This works well since I don’t have a lot of different minis. It also helps the players quickly identify the bad guys. They know that regardless of what the monster actually is, guys with yellow cloaks are the enemy. However that doesn’t cut it when there’s a blind player.

I had to make a point of actually describing the monsters. In reality the blind player had solid D&D monster knowledge so when I said Gnolls he knew what I was talking about, but I still felt it was my job as the DM to take a minute to describe them. What would usually have been “You face six Gnolls,” became “Six tall, dog-men standing almost 7 feet tall enter the room through the door on the far side. They smell of wet fur, wield clubs and yip like dogs as they move about. Three hug the east wall as they look for cover behind the crates while the other three growl and bark as they charge in a straight line towards the PCs.”

Details Bring About Better Role-Playing

By adding these little details to the description it really changed the dynamic of the game. Knowing that the blind player relied on description to better take in the scene, all the players got right into describing their actions. It wasn’t just moving the minis and rolling a d20. It was describing how they moved, what weapon they used, how they used it, what power they use and then depending on if they hit or miss the creatures, what happened.

In all of the time I’ve played 4e D&D the game with the blind player was one of the most entertaining because the group realized how much fun it was to get into the game and describe the details. They no longer assumed that any action was obvious. When they moved their mini they described it “I rush up, I sneak, I slide on my knees, I cart-wheel, I flip and roll.” Likewise with attacks “I slash at his midsection, a smash his kneecap, I shoot an arrow in his arm, I fire a Magic Missile in his butt.” Taking a few extra seconds to describe things made the game more interesting and everyone actually paid attention even when it wasn’t their turn. Believe it or not the descriptive flare even helped clarify actions in terms of standard, move, and minor, while painting the scene.

Where many players see the tactical map as rigid confinement, these players realized it was merely a guide. So many of the rules rely on precise distances, shapes, and placement that people forget how much fun D&D really is. By taking a few seconds to add some description and some flavour to your actions you become more invested in the encounter and in the greater story.

The next time you’re playing D&D pay attention to how much is described and how much is just assumed based on what you can see. Ask yourself if your descriptions would be adequate if there were a blind persona at the table? I think you’ll find that the added details will improve your game and encourage a lot more role-playing.

Related reading:

• The 4th Action: Standard, Move, Minor… Role-Playing
• What Do You Look Like?
• Adventuring Company Symbols

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