Dark Sun is the hottest topic in D&D right now. We posted 10 Dark Sun articles here at Dungeon’s Master throughout the last month and promise to keep writing more on Athas and D&D Encounters season two. But that’s not all we covered in June. We still brought you plenty of player and DM resources as well as news from the D&D community. And just to let you know we haven’t forgotten about Eberron, we provided another installment in our ongoing Secrets of Eberron series. So whether you missed an article or two throughout June or you’ve only just stumbled upon our site, the Month in Review is a great way to get caught up on everything we ran in the past month. We’d also like to take this opportunity (as we do every month) to thank all of our readers for visiting Dungeon’s Master and for coming back again and again.

Highlights

Dark Sun

D&D Encounters season two began in June and with it we started getting our first taste of Dark Sun. As soon as we got wind of anything Dark Sun we were quick to post it here at Dungeon’s Master.

• Dark Sun: A Quick Player’s Primer – If you’re new to Athas and Dark Sun then this player’s primer is a must read.
• Dark Sun: New Rules – D&D Encounters brings us our first taste of Dark Sun, including two new setting-specific rules.
• A Dark Sun Skill Challenge: Crossing The Chasm – Our first Dark Sun skill challenge pits the characters against the harsh desert terrain of Athas.
• Review: The Outcast (A Dark Sun Novel) – Although hard to find, this novel is a fantastic read and a great introduction of the world of Dark Sun.

D&D Encounters

June saw the end to D&D Encounters, season one as Halaster’s Lost Apprentice concluded. One week later, D&D Encounters season two began. Fury of the Wastewalker introduced a whole new group of gamers to the world of Dark Sun.

• D&D Encounters (Week 12)
• D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 1)
• D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 2)
• D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 3)
• D&D Encounters: A Dark Sun Preview – An early look at D&D Encounters season two.
• D&D Encounters: Dark Sun Character Builder Files – If you want more than a 5″ x 7″ glossy of a character sheet, we offer you full character builder files for 4 of the 6 pre-generated characters.
• D&D Encounters Dark Sun Character Skill Cards – A complete list of all the skills for each of the six pre-generated characters.

Player Resources

• Class And Race Combinations That Break The Mold – Looking for a unique build? Check out these offerings.
• Creating A Character That Can’t Be Killed – Whether you think this build is selfish or indestructible, it’s still nearly impossible for him to be killed (again… after all he’s a Revenant).
• Should I Fight Or Should I Heal Now? – We try to determine the best time to heal rather than fight on. It’s not as straight forward as you might think.
• The 4e Necromancer Has Been Announced – Our love for the Necromancer continues as we share the details on the upcoming “official” version from Wizards of the Coast.
• Avoiding The Total Party Kill – Play smart and survive. DMs rarely plan to kill everyone.
• Embracing The Total Party Kill – Sometimes a heroic death is more memorable than barely surviving.
• Change, Change, and More Change to RPGA Play – Just in time for GenCon, the RPGA overhauls their rules. Now you can start your LFR characters above level 1.

DM Resources

• 5 Errors I’ve Made as DM – Nothing is more humbling than admitting your mistakes, and helping others avoid making the same ones themselves.
• A 4e D&D Rules Question: Teleporting What You Can’t See – We ask for your interpretation of a tricky ruling, and get plenty of excellent comments arguing both sides of the debate.
• Monster Manual 3: An Early Review – Plenty of classic, iconic monsters get the 4e treatment.

Eberron

The Eberron tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our Eberron resources.

• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 7) – Learn why Dragonmarked Heirs tremble before the Effacers and why adventurers should seek out The Drakes.

A Look Ahead

In July Dungeon’s Master will bring you more Dark Sun, more D&D Encounters and more Eberron. We’ll look at more ways to cheat death and make your PCs tougher. We’ll also be digging into our archive of over 400 articles and taking a fresh look at some familiar topics. Be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day as we keep bringing you fresh, new articles on 4e D&D.

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May was a great month for Dungeon’s Master. As we learned anything about the upcoming Dark Sun setting we shared it with eager readers. Our weekly recap of the D&D Encounters program continues to be popular and gets a lot of great comments. We also provided our usual opinion of how to make your D&D better for players and DMs.

Every month we publish a recap of all the material we published in the previous month. This is a great way for readers to get caught up on anything they might have missed. You’ll find all of May’s highlights below. Thanks to everyone who visited in May. We’ll keep striving to put out top quality work and welcome your comments, feedback and discussion.

Highlights

Dark Sun

The Dark Sun Campaign Guide may not be hitting shelves until August, but we’ve got plenty of great Dark Sun material to hold you over and get you excited about the new D&D setting.

• In Anticipation Of Dark Sun
• D&D Encounters: Dark Sun
• Dark Sun Characters for D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters is a 12-part adventure from Wizards of the Coast and it’s played out one encounter each week over 12 weeks. Check out our ongoing coverage and don’t miss the exciting conclusion happening in June.

• D&D Encounters (Week 8.)
• D&D Encounters (Week 9)
• D&D Encounters (Week 10)
• D&D Encounters (Week 11)

Player Resources

• Don’t Bring A Dagger To A Sword Fight - Are you more concerned with your weapon’s damage dice or the flavour and coolness it brings to your character?
• Your Best Resource: Healing Surges - If you aren’t using all of your healing surges then you need to read our suggestions on how to put your resources to their best use.
• The D&D Teen Comedy - Have you ever playerd a teenage character? Look to the 80s teen comedy classics to inspire your next campaign.
• R.I.P. Daggermaster: How the Errata Killed My Character - Sometimes it’s necessary to update builds that are clearly broken. The Daggermaster falls victim of the D&D errata.
• The Pitfalls of a Specialized Paragon Path - We consider the value of choosing a paragon path that offers extreme specialization and whether or not the role-playing benefits are enough when the mechanics don’t pay off in your campaign.

DM Resources

• My Campaign Should Be On TV - Our newest contributor, Skallawag, shares his ideas on how to structure a great campaign.
• Traps & Hazards: The Sword in the Stone - It may look like Excallibur, but drawing this sword from the stone won’t make your PC a king.
• Death and Resurrection - The impact of death’s grip and player mortality on your campaign.
• When Players Kill the Campaign - How do you fix a campaign broken by players who do the unexpected?
• Technology Is A Double Edged Sword - When the Dungeon’s Master team switch from MapTools to minis it forced us to look at the pros and cons of technology in D&D.
• What Music Is Playing During Your Battle? - A good song or great musical composition can change the perception of your game.
• 118 Tavern Names - Having trouble finding a creative name for your tavern, consult our list.
• Tavern Trappings - Once your tavern has a name, be sure to make the interior memorable.

The Best of Dungeon’s Master

During May we asked you, the readers, to help us choose The Best of Dungeon’s Master. Even though the voting is still open, here’s how the results shaped up after a month. Thanks to everyone who voted. The best of Dungeon’s Master are:

1. Eight Rules That Will Make You A Better DM (35%)
2. I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch! (32%)
3. What’s a +1 Sword? (23%)
4. More Than Just Minions (23%)

A Look Ahead

In June we’ll provide more information and articles on the upcoming Dark Sun setting, including weekly recaps of D&D Encounters season two. We’ll also be sure to balance that with a few new Eberron-centric articles. If you’re a power gaming, min-maxer then don’t miss our articles on powerful builds and complimenting magic items. Of course we’ll also have a few articles on skills and skill challenges. And before the month’s end we’ll hit our 400th post so watch for that too. June looks like it will be another great month at Dungeon’s Master so be sure to visit every day.

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April was another solid moth here at Dungeon’s Master. We covered a wide variety of D&D-related topics, many stemming from our very own gaming table. Some articles really polarized our readers and we received a lot of fantastic comments, many from first time posters. In April we welcomed our newest contributor, Bauxtehude, to Dungeon’s Master. We look forward to his new and unique views on 4e D&D. We want to thank everyone who visited our site this month and we will keep writing great articles about 4e D&D to keep you coming back every day. If you missed any of articles we published in April, here’s your opportunity to get caught up.

Highlights

D&D Encounters

“D&D Encounters is an exciting, weekly campaign that plays out one epic encounter at a time.” We continue our weekly coverage of the D&D Encounters program from Wizards of the Coast.

• D&D Encounters (Weeks 3 & 4)
• D&D Encounters (Week 5)
• D&D Encounters (Week 6)
• D&D Encounters (Week 7)

RPG Blog Carnival

Exchange of Realities, this month’s host of the RPG Blog Carnival: Let Me Show You My NPC. Our contribution looks at an interesting angle to creating important NPCs in your campaign.

• Hey, Isn’t That My Character: Using Retired PCs As NPCs

Skill Challenges

• 5 Ways To Include Rituals In Your Skill Challenge Design – Good skill challenge should have more than one way to overcome the problem. Encouraging ritual use is a great alternative to just using skills in the normal way.
• Creating and Running Engaging Skill Challenges (Part 1) | (Part 2) – Our newest contributor, Bauxtehude, offers his take on skill challenges.
• The Skill Challenges tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our skill aides and skill challenges.

Races

So far we’ve looked at the Dwarf, Tiefling and Goliath. In April we examined two of the new races from the PHB3.

• Born To Be Wilden – Our exploration of character races continues with the Wilden.
• The Shardmind -  Our exploration of character races continues with the Shardmind.

DM Resources

• Adding Favours to Treasure Bundles - Money and magic are good rewards, but favours can be even more valuable.
• Fighting an Opponent You Can’t Beat – After facing this situation in our own game we took a closer look at how to handle this controversial topic.
• How To Introduce A New PC – There are many ways to introduce a new PC to the party and in this article we discuss three of them.
• The Miracle Of Divine Power – Our look at the “Greater Power” in D&D.
• Time in D&D – Should PCs be required to take down time before leveling?
• Who Owned Your Magic Sword Before You Did? – We look at the idea of ownership and whether or not PCs should return found magic items.

Player Resources

• Character Creation: The Importance Of Planning Ahead – Short-term power gaming can hurt your long-term development if you don’t do your homework during character creation.
• Have You Retrained Today? – Keep your character versatile by retraining often.
• I Want Individual Rewards in D&D – Should PCs who exemplify their class or role deserve something extra for being heroic?
• 1 d100 and 2 d4s – The polyhedral die quiz at DicePool.com was all the rage in the blogsphere during April. Here are our results.

GenCon

Event registration for GenCon 2010 began in April. Both Ameron and Wimwick are going to Indianapolis this summer. To round out our Championship team we put out a call for any interested gamers to Join the Dungeon’s Master GenCon Championship Team.

A Look Ahead

In May we’re going to ask all of our readers to help us pick the best articles at Dungeon’s Master. Throughout May we’ll pit our best and most popular articles against each other and let you vote on the best of the best. We’ll also bring you weekly reports from D&D Encounters, provide some recommended reading, look at a few more races, talk about skill challenges, return to Traps & Hazards with the revolving door, and explore death and resurrection in D&D. Be sure to visit every day in May for more great 4e D&D articles.

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March was a great month for D&D and for Dungeon’s Master. Wizards of the Coast released the Player’s Handbook 3 and they began the new D&D Encounters program. Our article on D&D Encounters (Week 1) was referenced on the Wizards site in their D&D in the News article from Monday, March 22. They also linked to Dungeon’s Master from the Dungeons & Dragons Facebook page. We always appreciate it when we get a shout out from Wizards. For readers who found us through these links, we welcome you to Dungeon’s Master. On the 1st of every month we do a round-up of all the article we published in the previous month. This gives everyone a chance to check out any of the articles that they might have missed the first time around.

Highlights

Player’s Handbook 3

March saw the release of the Player’s Handbook 3. This marked the official release of the new psionic power source. We provided an in depth, 3-part review of the PHB3 commenting on the highs and lows (mostly highs).

• Player’s Handbook 3 (PHB3) Review (Part 1)
• Player’s Handbook 3 (PHB3) Review (Part 2)
• Player’s Handbook 3 (PHB3) Review (Part 3)
• Is More Really Better: A Look At Character Classes – Does having 25 classes to choose from really make the game better?

D&D Encounters

“D&D Encounters is an exciting, weekly campaign that plays out one epic encounter at a time.” We share our opinion and experiences after playing in week 1 and week 2 of the new D&D Encounters program from Wizards of the Coast.

• D&D Encounters (Week 1)
• D&D Encounters (Week 2)

Player Resources

• Make Your Character More Than Just Numbers – For those who want to really develop their PC, check out this reference guide.
• Death Pact Necromancer – Wizards aren’t the only class with Necromancers, now Warlocks can master undead too.
• The Party That Prepares Survives – We apply the lessons from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to D&D.
• Celebrating The Teiflings Infernal Heritage – Our exploration of character races continues with the Tiefling.
• The Goliath, A Giant Waste – Our exploration of character races continues with the Goliath.

Energy Resistance Magic Items

We’ve scoured the D&D Compendium and put together a list of every item that provides energy resistance in one way or another and grouped them by energy type.

• Improve Your Defenses With Energy Resistance (Heroic)
• Improve Your Defenses With Energy Resistance (Paragon)
• Improve Your Defenses With Energy Resistance (Epic)

DM Resources

• I Took The Railroad To The Sandbox And Told A Great Story – How you put the campaign together can be as important as the story itself.
• What Constitutes Difficult Terrain: A Look At Tactical Maps – Sometimes the best way to add realism to your maps is to go outside and see what the world really looks like.
• Effective Use Of Weather – Never underestimate the importance of weather in your campaign.
• The Evolution of the Dungeon Encounter – We’ve gone from many small rooms to fewer large ones, but is there room for some middle ground?
• Novel Adventures: Games with Predefined Endings – Wizards provides an excellent adventure derived from a novel that doesn’t completely railroad the players.
• Improve Your Defenses With Energy Resistance (DMs Analysis) – A look at how DMs can make best use of our energy resistance magic items lists – players beware!

Skill Challenges

• Skill Challenge: Lie To Me – Determining the truth takes more than a lucky Insight roll. Sometimes a skill challenge can reveal more than you intuition ever could alone.
• The Skill Challenges tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our skill aides and skill challenges.

Reviews and Editorial

• Wizards Delivers a Killer Monster Makeover – Ameron shares his thoughts on the new monster stat blocks coming soon from Wizards of the Coast in the Monster Manual 3.
• Wizards Delivers a Killer Monster Makeover (Part 2) – Suddry provides a slightly different look at the new monster stat blocks.
• Review: Avenger – We review the latest Forgotten Realms hardcover novel from Richard Baker.

Eberron

• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 6) – Our latest installment in this ongoing series focuses on Dragonmarks outside of normal bloodlines.
• The Eberron tab at the top of the page provides easy access to our Eberron resource page.

A Look Ahead

In April we’ll continue providing the Dungeon’s Master staples you’ve come to expect from us. More articles on skills and skill challenges, more Eberron articles, another installment or two in our ongoing series exploring PC races, book reviews and of course more feedback on D&D Encounters. We’re always open to your feedback and suggestions. If you have an idea for an article or want us to cover a particular topic, leave us a comment below of send us an email. Thanks to everyone who visited Dungeon’s Master in March and we look forward to having you return in April.

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February was month of milestones at Dungeon’s Master. On February 1, Dungeon’s Master celebrated its 1-year anniversary. To mark the occasion we posted the State Of The Dungeon – 1 Year Later and shared some details about how we’re doing after our first year. We’d like to thank all of the readers who have visited us during the past year. Your continued support and comments keep us motivated and let us know we’re on the right track.

Also in February Dungeon’s Master hit its 300th post. To celebrate this milestone, Ameron and Wimwick each took a stab at Creating King Leonidas (from the movie 300) as a level 16 PC. And to make the month even better we got another shout out from Wizards of the Coast on February 18 in their February News and Reviews. Check out all of the Dungeon’s Master highlights from February below.

Highlights

Skill Challenges

• Skill Challenge: Tavern Treachery – This skill challenge has an angry community take their frustration out on the unsuspecting PCs.
• Skill Challenges On The Fly – If the PCs do something completely unexpected, here’s how to use a skill challenge to put the campaign back on track.
• The Skill Challenges tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our skill aides and skill challenges.

Player Resources

• 6 D&D Convention Tips for Players- After participating in Spellstorm 2010, I put together these helpful tips for players.
• Dwarves Are The Best Race – We examine the advantages and optimal builds when playing a Dwarf.
• Celebrating The Teiflings Infernal Heritage- We examine the advantages and optimal builds when playing a Tiefling.
• LFR Magic Item Treasure Bundle List (Part 2) – We’ve updated the treasure bundle list for Living Forgotten Realms adventures.

DM Resources

• 6 D&D Convention Tips for DMs- After participating in Spellstorm 2010, I put together these helpful tips for DMs.
• Will The Desktop Kill The Tabletop, SurfaceScapes Thinks So – Find out how D&D may change as technology improves.
• Ritual Casting – Opening Up The System – With only a few small changes to the ritual casting rules all classes can have access to this aspect of the game.
• Only One Race in Fantasy RPGs – Are all of the racial choices in D&D necessary, especially if players don’t put any effort into making them unique?
• Traps & Hazards: The Open Portal – This is the first article in our latest ongoing series. The PCs need to act fast to close the open portal or else they’ll be overrun by the creatures pouring forth from it.

Eberron

• We added a new section to our website dedicated exclusively to Eberron-related content. The Eberron tab is easily accessed at the top of every page above the Dungeon’s Master banner. It’s a permanent, one-stop-shop for all things Eberron.
• Being Lycanthrope In Eberron- In a world with 13 moons lycanthropes are bound to act and behave differently depending on which celestial orbs are in the night’s sky.

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

• 2010 Olympic Mascots - The games may be over, but Miga, Quatchi and Sumi are ready to make an appearance in your next encounter.
• Skill Challenge: Olympic Games - We’ve tweaked the skill challenge mechanic and created a great way to pit PCs against each other or the best NPCs from around the globe.

Book Reviews

• Review: Martial Power 2 – We share the highlights of what you’ll find in the latest Power book along with our usual commentary and opinion.
• 5 Must-Read Zombie Books – Zombies deserve respect and reading these 5 books is a good start.

A Look Ahead

In March you can expect new articles from a lot of our familiar series. You’ll get more articles on skill challenges as well as a couple of new samples, more articles on Eberron including a new Secrets of Eberron Revealed which focuses on Warforged and House Cannith, more exploration of the races with Goliath next up, and more traps & hazards. With the release of the PHB3 in March, we’ll provide our review as well as significant commentary on its contents. As always we welcome your feedback and suggestions. If there’s a topic you’d like us to write about please send us an email or leave a comment below. There’s plenty of great 4e D&D material on the way in March so be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day.

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January was the month that Dungeon’s Master truly made its mark on the gaming map. On January 27, Wizards of the Coast featured us in their Spotlight Interview. If you haven’t read it, we encourage you to check it out. Since the interview we’ve had an unbelievable spike in our numbers. So for everyone who’s discovered Dungeon’s Master through the links from our interview, we hope you stick around and keep visiting. And to all of our readers, new and returning, we want to thank you for visiting Dungeon’s Master again and again. Without your support and your feedback we wouldn’t have reached this level of success.

Each month we run a month in review article. This gives readers a second chance to discover some hidden gem that they might have missed throughout the previous month. Normally we run the month is review on the 1st, but February 1 is the Dungeon’s Master 1-year anniversary and we already have something else in mind to mark the occasion.

Highlights

Convention Announcement

On February 19-20 we encourage gamers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to check out the Spellstorm 2010 gaming convention. There will be plenty of Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) adventures for those of us who enjoy D&D, but there’s more than just D&D on the calendar. Check out the Spellstorm registration website for a complete event listings.

Skill Challenges

For the first months since Dungeon’s Master was launched we didn’t run any sample skill challenges (something we will remedy next month). However, we did run four articles to help make skill challenges more exciting for DMs and players.

• Skill Challenges and Rewarding XP – We present some alternate methods for rewarding XP during a skill challenge and we talk about the how to deal with a Challenge Breaker.
• Reusing Skills in Skill Challenges- Clamp down on players who try to copy everyone else during skill challenges. Here are some guidelines for DMs when it comes to rewarding multiple successes for using the same skill.
• The Skill Challenge Backdoor – Give your PCs an unexpected edge during skill challenges by providing a backdoor method for bonuses and checks.
• CSI: D&D – Sometimes finding the most important clues require more than just a Perception check.

For skill aides and sample skill challenges that you can drop right into your campaign, click on the Skill Challenges tab at the top of the page above the banner.

DM Resources

• Eight Rules That Will Make You A Better DM- Even the best DMs can benefit from these tips.
• The Monster Balancing Act – Sometimes you want to use a lot of weak monsters and sometimes you only want to use a few tough monsters. I share my experience as I discover it’s a difficult balance.
• A World Run By Monsters: How Daybreakers Inspired My Campaign – Picture a town just like any other. The townsfolk are good people who go about their daily lives as productive members of society. Now imagine that they’re all monsters.

Player Resources

• A Beginner’s Guide To Dungeons & Dragons (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) – This three part series is a must-read if you’ve just discovered Dungeons & Dragons. These articles provide some basic tips beyond what you’ll find in the Player’s Handbook to help get you started.
• Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 1 | Part 2) – How does an ability score of 8 (or lower) affect the way you role-play your PC? We provide some suggestions in this two part series about how to explain and possibly even overcome your low attributes.
• PHB3 First Look: Hybrid Characters – With only 6 weeks until the release of the PHB3, we continue our First Looks series by featuring hybrid characters.
• Getting The Most Out Of Rituals – Probably the most underused aspect of 4e D&D, we provide examples of how to make rituals more applicable to your game.
• Benefits to Adventuring in the City – If your campaign is set in the same city over a long period you may deserve some of these bonuses.

Eberron

• Secrets Of Eberron Revealed (Part 5)- We return with a new installment of this ongoing series. Learn about The Twelve and what they will do to keep the dragonmarked houses strong; and take a trip on the Mournland Express.
• Review: Son of Khyber- Read our review of the second book in the Thorn of Breland series from Eberron creator, Keith Baker.

A Look Ahead

February is a month of milestones for Dungeon’s Master. February 1 is our 1-year anniversary. A few days later we’ll publish our 300th post (try as we might, we just couldn’t get the two to fall on the same day). Beyond these milestones we’ve got another month of great articles planned. You can expect more on skill challenges as well as new sample skill challenges. We’ll bring you more Eberron articles including more Secrets of Eberron and a one-stop shop for Eberron resources. Expect pre and post coverage of  Spellstorm 2010, more book reviews and recommended reading, an updated Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) treasure bundle list, more about rituals and a new series on traps in 4e D&D. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions so if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover send us an email or leave a comment. February already looks like a great month so be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day.

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In December we were again thrilled to receive a couple of shout outs from Wizards of the Coast in their December News and Reviews. On December 1, they linked to our article on The Art of D&D and on December 11, they linked to our Holiday Shopping Skill Challenge. Thanks to these referrals from Wizards, Dungeon’s Master has seen a steady traffic increase throughout November and December as we welcome a lot of new readers. We’ve collected all of the articles we published throughout the previous month and present them in one place for your convenience. So if you’re new to Dungeon’s Master or you just happened to miss a couple of days while you were away over the holidays, here are the highlights from December.

Highlights

Design a Holiday Dungeon Contest

Throughout November and December we ran our first contest called Design a Holiday Dungeon. Although it was a very difficult decision, we eventually selected Krangel’s Workshop (PDF) submitted by Corwin Riddle as the winner of our Design a Holiday Dungeon Contents. Thank you to everyone who submitted entries.

Skills and Skill Challenges

• Always Train Your Worst Skills – We explain why it’s better to be average in a whole bunch of skills rather than really, really good in a just a few skills.
• Skill Challenges In A Vacuum – We look at how to improve skill challenges by rewarding players after every successful check.
• Skill Challenge: Crafting Items – Since there is no Craft skill in 4e D&D we present a skill challenge for how to make items using your 4e skills.
• Skill Challenge: Holiday Shopping – Sometimes real life situations can best be described in D&D terms, as was the case with this skill challenge.

Player Resources

• What Do PCs Do For Fun? – We’ve provided some suggested ways in which PCs can unwind and have some fun between adventures.
• Why You Want a Controller In Your Party – When 4e D&D first came out nobody seemed to give Controllers the respect they deserve. Now that more gamers are getting into paragon and epic tiers of play that attitude is changing. Find out why.
• Playing Against Type – Don’t choose a race/class combination merely because the numbers are good; try choosing an interesting race/class combo that presents interesting role-playing opportunities.
• Tiers Of Play: Epic – We’ve played some epic level dungeon delves and share our thoughts and findings with you.

Editorial

• 10 Ways To Get Your D&D Fix Over The Holidays – Christmas may be over but this list still provides excellent ways to get your D&D fix.
• New Moon Through the Eyes of a Hardcore D&D Fan – The novel New Moon isn’t just for teenage girls.
• Dungeons & Dragons Is More Than A Role-Playing Game – Players and DMs learn a variety of real-life skills and end up with a wide range of knowledge by playing D&D.
• Open Game Table Vol. 2: Call for Nominations – Our friends over at The Core Mechanic need your help deciding what to include in the upcoming Open Gaming Table Vol. 2.

Greatest Hits 2009

During the last two weeks of 2009 the Dungeon’s Master team took some time off. While we were enjoying our Christmas vacation we ran some of our greatest hits from 2009. These were a combination of articles that generated a lot of discussion, got a lot of traffic and were just pieces that we liked. If you missed any of these the first time around or just last month when we ran them a second time (with new introductions) here again are some of our greatest hits from 2009.

• Greatest Hits 2009: Are All Gamers Fat? (Jun 12)
• Greatest Hits 2009: Avoiding Death (Feb 11, Feb 24)
• Greatest Hits 2009: D&D Lego (Jul 29)
• Greatest Hits 2009: I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch! (Apr 14)
• Greatest Hits 2009: Keith Baker Answers 13 Questions (Sep 2)
• Greatest Hits 2009: Psionics Suck! (Jul 10)
• Greatest Hits 2009: Should Players Suffer When PCs Die? (Nov 13)
• Greatest Hits 2009: Taking The Dungeon Out Of Dungeons & Dragons (Apr 7)
• Greatest Hits 2009: The Gaming Jerk (Aug 7)
• Greatest Hits 2009: The Hangover: The Movie That Begs to Be a D&D Adventure (Jul 8 )
• Greatest Hits 2009: The Necromancer (Oct 6)
• Greatest Hits 2009: What’s a +1 Sword? (Jul 13)

A Look Ahead

Here’s what’s in store for January 2010. As the Dungeon Master team shifts gears in our own D&D campaign so to will we be shifting gears in the type of articles you’ll find in early 2010. Ameron is taking over the reigns as full-time DM and will be sharing some of his tips, tricks and sample encounters for paragon level play. We’ll still spend time focusing on skills and skill challenges in January. We’re particularly excited about our new approach to handling skill challenges; especially those designed for PCs with exceptional skill numbers. We’ll share more of our recommended reading list, including reviews of the latest Eberron and Forgotten Realms novels. And on February 1, Dungeon’s Master celebrates its 1-year anniversary. As always we welcome your feedback and suggestions. If there’s a particular aspect of D&D that you’d like to see us cover, send us an email or leave us a comment. Our goal is to make D&D better for everyone.

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November was a great month for Dungeon’s Master. The site got a shout out from Wizards of the Coast. They linked to two of our articles in the November News and Reviews on November 18. We were thrilled to discover that the folks at Wizards read our site and liked what they read enough to send new readers our way. Readers new and returning found many great articles in November. And as always we want to thank you, the readers, for visiting us and returning day after day. If you happened to miss any of November’s articles, here’s a recap.

Highlights

Holiday Dungeon Contest

In November we launched the Design a Holiday Dungeon Contest. The contest deadline isn’t until Sunday, December 20, so there’s still lots of time to submit your entry. We’ll announce the winner the week of December 28. Keep those holiday themed dungeons rolling in.

Skills

In Skill Focus: Nature and Skill Focus: Streetwise we continued our ongoing exploration of alternative ways to use skills. We added The Kitchen Adventure to our expanding skill challenge library. And we offered some suggestions for Using Rituals In Skill Challenges.

Eberron

We were fortunate enough to get an interview with Eberron author Don Bassingthwaite. He was very forthcoming about how he got his start writing D&D novels, how his work continues to impact the Eberron setting and even who he’d cast in movie versions of his books (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3).

Class Discussion

• We continued to review and revise the Necromancer: Paragon Path and the Necromancer: Epic Tier.
• PHB3 First Look: The Seeker – After a few sessions of play-testing we presented our thoughts on the new primal controller class.

Dungeon Master Resources

• Playing a Recognizable Archetype – Have you ever run a game based on established characters like King Arthur, Robin Hood or even the members of Star Trek: The Next Generation? If not, this may just change your mind.
• LFR Magic Item Treasure Bundle List – Give your PCs the treasure they want by consulting this complete LFR treasure inventory before choosing your next LFR adventure.
• Engaging Your Players – Give your PCs just enough information to keep them wanting more.

Player Resources

• Brave Warrior, Heal Thyself – This article provides a list of magical items that lets any PC heal himself by spending extra healing surges.
• Get a Real Job – What was your PC’s career path before he decided to become an adventurer?
• 10 Reminders for All D&D Players – Everyone can benefit from a few helpful reminders, even the Dungeon’s Master team.

Editorial

• Should Players Suffer When PCs Die? – This article kicked up a lot of controversy and had our readers sharing their opinions on how to handle character death in 4e D&D.
• One More Reason that Character Builder is Awesome – Following November’s Character Builder update, Ameron made a discovery he couldn’t keep to himself.
• The Art of D&D (Part 1) – A look at five artistic masters who’s work has become synonymous with D&D from the 80s and 90s.
• Top 5 Fantasy Books Of All Time – Wimwick shares his thoughts on the best fantasy novels he’s ever read.
• Weekend in the Realms 2009 – Ameron offers his feedback after participating in the latest Weekend in the Realms.

A Look Ahead

In December we’ll keep bringing you the kind of articles you’ve come to expect from us here at Dungeon’s Master. More skill challenges, more entries in our Skill Focus series, part 2 of our look at the art of D&D, more product reviews, and over the holiday break we’ll highlight some of our best articles from 2009. We’ll also announce the winner of our Holiday Dungeon Contest the last week of December. There’s plenty going on throughout December so be sure to visit us every day.

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October saw some significant changes throughout the RPG blogging community with the announcement that the guys currently running the RPG Bloggers Network are stepping down and handing over the reigns to someone else. The Dungeon’s Master team followed the posts and emails that ensued and decided to see where the dust settles. Until then, we’re going to just keep on doing what we do best, post great articles about 4e D&D.

In October we posted a lot of great articles including many featuring undead, the Necromancer and the macabre, two new entries in our Skill Focus series, three new skill challenges, advice for running and playing in solo games and of course a few articles about Eberron. If you missed a few days in October, now’s your chance to get caught up. All the month’s highlights are presented below. Thanks to all the readers who visited and commented in October. A special thanks to everyone who subscribed to our RSS feed this month. Knowing that people want to hear what we have to say about D&D helps keep us moving in the right direction month after month.

Highlights

Undead

In October, Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine focus heavily on undead. We thought we’d follow their example.

• All Men Are Created Equal… Except the Revenant – When the party’s new recruit is actually undead, how will PCs and NPCs react?
• Survive a Zombie Attack by Using the Zombie Survival Flowchart – When the zombies attack will you be ready? Consult the flowchart to be sure.
• Using Undead Intelligently – Time is an undead villain’s greatest asset, be sure to keep that in mind when using them in your campaign.
• Using Fear: Scare the Player, Not the Character – Creating genuine fear in D&D is difficult. Perhaps the best way to role-play fear is to scare the player.
• The Necromancer – What motivates a Necromancer? Regardless of alignment, the Necromancer is a complicated class.
• Necromancer: Heroic Tier (Revised) – Since no official version of the Necromancer is available from Wizards, we’ve created heroic, paragon and epic powers of our own. After some play testing and feedback we’ve revised the heroic tier.

Skill Challenges

Our skill challenge library continues to expand with the addition of these three new skill challenges and two new entries in our Skill Focus series.

• Skill Challenge: Find the Phylactery – Destroying a Lich’s physical body is just the first step, now you have to find its phylactery.
• Skill Challenge: Unlock the Phylactery – You’ve found the Lich’s phylactery, now you have to unlock it in order to destroy it.
• Skill Challenge: Battle for the Remote – An example of a skill challenge in every day life. Good luck, guys!
• Skill Focus: Diplomacy – 10 new ways to use Diplomacy.
• Skill Focus: Religion – 10 new ways to use Religion as well as some suggestions for how to use this skill in combat.

The RPG Online Community

The future of the RPG Bloggers Network is uncertain as the current admins announced they’re stepping down. Wimwick weighs in on the situation with his commentary On The RPG Bloggers Network. Ameron offers further suggestions to the RPG Blogging community in Changes are Coming to the RPG Bloggers Network, Update Your Blogroll.

DM Resources

• Benefits of Random Treasure – Treasure parcels may have simplified rewards in 4e, but the elimination of that random element means most players are not finding those great items they’d never normally select themselves.
• A Dragon’s Horde of D&D Resources – We provide you with plenty of resources that will help make your game even better.
• D&D Party of One: Solo Adventuring (Part 1) – Tips for DMs looking to run a game with just one player.
• D&D Party of One: Solo Adventuring (Part 2) – More tips for DMs looking to run a game with just one player.

Player Resources

• D&D Party of One: Solo Adventuring (Part 3) – We conclude this series with tips for players who find themselves in a solo adventure.
• Top 10 of the Past 200 – As we hit our 200th post, we presented readers with a list of our 10 most popular articles.

Eberron

• What Happened On The Day Of Mourning? – The Mourning is the greatest mystery in Eberron. Any explanation is possible, but we think these have real merit.
• The Origin Of Dragonmarks – Where did the first dragonmarks come from and how are they tied to the draconic prophecy and the draconic races? We offer some suggestions.
• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 4) – In the latest installment of this ongoing series we look into the Q’barra Jungle Hunt and the secrets of the Dreadhold Information Network.

A Look Ahead

In November you can expect more skill challenges, new entries in our Skill Focus series, the revised Necromancer paragon path and epic destiny, a look at the art of D&D, some recommended reading from Dungeon’s Master, and a multi-part interview with Eberron author Don Bassingthwaite. Stay tuned during November for the first Dungeon’s Master contest announcement. We’re looking at another great month here at Dungeon’s Master so be sure to visit every day.

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September was a big month for D&D with the release of the DMG2. Keeping that in mind, we ran a lot of articles geared towards the DM last month. But that didn’t mean that we forgot about the players entirely. As usual we try to provide a good balance between DM and player resources. We also provided two new skill challenges, a couple of book reviews, some Eberron-specific materials and of course our opinion on a number of D&D related topics. September was another great month at Dungeon’s Master and as we so often do we want to thank you, the readers, for visiting us every day. If you’re new to Dungeon’s Master then you might have missed some of the great articles we ran throughout September. Here are the highlights.

Highlights

DM Resources

• More Tips for Speeding Up Your Game - We share a few of the tips that have helped speed up our game.
• An Accidental Solution to the Slow Combat Problem - Cooperation and familiarity are apparently the keys to speeding up combat.
• Preparing Red Herring in 6 Easy Steps - Your game doesn’t take place in a vacuum, so let the PCs discover some of the things going on in the world around them even if it has nothing to do with the campaign.
• Styles Of Play - A look at the appeal between long-term, short-term and one-shot campaigns.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility - We looked at the things DMs do when preparing for a game.
• Monsters on the Menu - Why not explore exotic foods in your next camapaign. Haven’t you ever wondered what a dragon, beholder or purple worm tastes like?

Players Resources

• Use Your Daily Powers Every Day - You’ve got them, use them. Every day, without exception.
• What Do You Look Like? - Go beyond the numbers, really tell us about your character’s appearance.

Eberron

• Keith Baker Answers 13 Questions - The creator of Eberron shares his thoughts and insights about Eberron with us.
• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 2) - Discover House Orien’s Project Ascent and The Nymph’s Laugh.
• Secrets Of Eberron Revealed (Part 3) - Discover Marshall Abuse and The Talenta Nature Preserve
• Review: Word of Traitors - We review the best Eberron novel released to date.

Skills and Skill Challenges

• Skill Challenge: Honour the Dead - The PCs must weigh their options and determine the best way to honour the passing. of a friend.
• Skill Challenge: Babysitting the Brats - The PCs are about to face the most dangerous threat of their adventuring careers… kids.
• First Look PHB3: Skill Powers - We review and comment on the new utility skill powers forthcoming in PHB3.
• Dungeon Master’s Guide 2: Skill Challenges - The DMG2 hit shelves and we took a look at the vastly improved skill challenge chapter.

Editorial

• Review: Corsair - Our look at this excellent Forgotten Realms novel.
• What Does World of Warcraft Have To Do With Your D&D Campaign? - Take a page from WoW’s book and don’t be afraid of change.
• I Wish for a Wish Spell in 4e D&D - We look at reasons for and against the exclusion of the wish spell from 4e D&D.

Humour

• Respect Your Faithful Servant Or Else… - A tongue-in-cheek look at how all the little things get done in an adventurer’s life.

A Look Ahead

October is traditionally undead month at Wizards of the Coast and we thought we’d follow their lead in this regard. So throughout October we’ll provide a lot of undead related articles for DMs and players. We’ll look at how to run intelligent undead villains like the lich and the vampire, we’ll re-revisit the 4e Necromancer and we’ll take a look at the ever-expanding vampire phenomenon and how it affects D&D. In just a few days we’ll reach our 200th post and to celebrate the milestone we’ll share Dungeon’s Master greatest hits. Be sure to visit us every day in October.

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