April was a skinny month when it came to content at Dungeon’s Master. I’ll admit that I didn’t come anywhere close to getting articles out every day. However, I’d like to think that what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality. The number of visitors to Dungeon’s Master dipped a little bit (which I suppose it to be expected when you go from 20+ articles a month to only 12) but they are still holding strong.

When our iron man publishing streak finally came to an end in March I was really concerned that we’d lose readers. But after seeing the numbers remain more or less consistent I realized that perhaps publishing five articles a week was too much. When you didn’t have to read five articles a week you were more likely to actually read the three we did put out. So moving forward I think well try to hit three or four articles a week and we hope that you’ll continue to visit and comment on everything we do publish.

That being said if you did miss anything in April, this is your chance to get caught up. We’d like to thank all of our readers, new and returning for your loyalty and support.

Highlights

DM Resources

• Adventure Hooks: The Legendary Sword Masters (Part 1) - When the PCs need to learn some special fighting technique from a master of arms, use one (or more) of these interesting and legendary sword masters. Finding them and convincing them to help are two tasks that may not be as easy as the PCs expect.
• Applying the Touch of God to Divine Characters - Clerics and Paladins are more than just guys in the party, they’re the conduit for the gods themselves and should receive appropriate rewards (in the form of bonuses) when they role-playing this incredible responsibility in a befitting manner.
• D&D: The Final Frontier - Bring the feel of the Wild West to your next D&D camping as the PCs explore and settle the final frontier of your campaign world.
• Splitting the Party Successfully - Just because Wizards has been saying “Never Split the Party” doesn’t mean that they’re right. There are ways to split the party and we give you some points on how to make it work.

Player Resources

• The Drow Are Coming! - It seems that 2012 is the year of the Drow. Find out what’s in store for D&D Encounters and D&D Lair Assault throughout the rest of the year.
• Playing Drow Part 1 – Embracing the Evil - In our first installment of this series we begin our exploration of playing Drow with a look at the uncharacteristic and often problematic aspects of playing an evil PC.
• D&D Next and the Fate of Character Builder - As D&D Next play testing is about to open to the masses we make some educated guesses at the fate of character builder.

D&D Encounters

During D&D Encounters throughout April the party delved deep within the Sunset Shrine as they battled cultists and searched for the source of the Abyssal Plague.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 6)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 7)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 8.)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 9)

Stuffer Shack’s 2012 RPG Site of the Year Contest

I’m proud to announce that Dungeon’s Master was one of the five finalists in the running for the Stuffer Shack 2012 RPG Site of the Year (SOTY) contest. There were 34 sites submitted for consideration and the fans voted for their five favourites. We were honoured and grateful to make this list of finalists.

• Gnome Stew
• Dungeon’s Master
• G*M*S Magazine
• The Id DM
• Nearly Enough Dice

Yesterday Stuffer Shack announced The Id DM as their pick for 2012 RPG Site of the Year. I’d like to congratulate The ID DM on their win. They run a great gaming blog. I encourage you to visit their site and see for yourself why they were extremely deserving of this recognition.

A Look Ahead

The Dungeon’s Master home campaign has finally moved into the epic tier and with this transition will come articles about playing at high levels beginning tomorrow as Bauxtehude offers the first in a 3-part series. As D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye draws to an end we’ll have our usual report card highlighting the good and bad from season 8. Then we transition into the D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen as the Drow begin their takeover of the Wizards 2012 product line.

As new materials for the next season of D&D Encounters and Lair Assault are available we’ll do our usual preview to let you know what’s in store for public play in the coming months. We’ll also have additional installments in our ongoing series of tips for playing Drow, new adventure hooks, recommended reading, field reports and actual play podcasts of Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw and of course weekly updates on D&D Encounters.

As D&D Next play-testing opens to a wider audience in May we’ll try to offer some of our initial feedback on what’s to come without violating the confines of the NDA.

Be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master regularly in May as there is plenty of great 4e D&D material in store for the moth to come.

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We might not have published articles every day in March, but the days we hit were chalked full of great 4e D&D content. If you missed any of our articles over the past month then this is your chance to get caught up.

It finally happened; our Iron Man streak ended in March. For the first time since we launched Dungeon’s Master we took a few days off during the March break (see March Broken). However, even with a few days off our numbers continued to climb.

Strong articles that covered topics like how to keep players involved in the game when dice go cold, including a blind player at your table, methods for dividing treasure, a humorous look at what your weapons says about your character, and new pre-gens for D&D Encounters all contributed to another great month at Dungeon’s Master.

We want to thank everyone who visited our site over the past month and encourage you to continue reading. We invite you to comment on articles that you like, hate, or have questions about. And if there’s something you want us to write about send us an email or comment below and we’ll see what we can do to accommodate.

Highlights

DM Resources

• 8 Ways to Get Out of a Gaming Slump and Make Your Game More Exciting - Reignite the spark in your D&D game by following these 8 pointers; you’ll be glad you did.
• Ameron Answers 20 Quick Rules Questions - We joined numerous other gaming bloggers who wanted to document their take on a list rules that often change from campaign to campaign.
• How a Blind Player Improved Our Game - DMs should be descriptive enough that a blind player can follow the adventure without special assistance.
• The Oil of D&D – Residuum as a Natural Resource - Conflict for natural resources is commonplace in real life, but would it work in a fantasy campaign setting where magic itself was the resource being fought over?
• Tips For Making Encounters More Interesting - Every encounter should be different and exciting, and we share a few tips for DMs who might need some help in that department. You players will thank you.
• Understanding Initiative and Surprise in D&D - After seeing it done wrong too many time, Buxtehude shares his insight and personal methods for handling surprise the right way.

Player Resources

• Dividing Treasure - We share various methods for dividing treasure and minimizing conflict over who gets what loot.
• How To Solve the Cold Dice Problem - When the dice gods forsake players there are still plenty of ways for the player to be useful and productive.
• What Your Weapon Says About Your Character - If the clothes make the man think about what his weapon say about him.

D&D Encounters

We began D&D Encounters season 8, The Elder Elemental Eye in March. The PCs are hired to investigate an outbreak of the Abyssal Plague in Easting. Once there they discover that the plague was intentionally spread by cultists. By the end of week 5 they’d discovered the cultists’ hidden shrine and began a dangerous dungeon crawl to discover the source of the Abyssal Plague and possibly a cure.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 1)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 2)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 3)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 4)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 5)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye – Pre-Generated Characters

Eberron

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

• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 14) - Our newest guest author, Alton from the blog 20ft Radius, contributes to our ongoing series revealing the Secrets of Eberron.

A Look Ahead

After taking a few days off in March I realized that the world won’t come to an end if we don’t produce new content every single day. That being said, in April we’ll likely drop down to four posts a week, rather than the usual five. If the creative juices are really flowing we might manage to squeeze in five articles some weeks, but our new benchmark will be four new 4e D&D articles every week.

In April we’re planning articles on using social skills, subterranean adventuring, wild west adventuring in D&D, field reports of the latest Lair Assault, some recommended reading, new adventure hooks and of course weekly field reports from D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye. We may even manage to sneak in a funny article or two to mark April Fool’s Day. April should be a great month so be sure to visit every day.

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February 1st marked our third anniversary here at Dungeon’s Master. It certainly doesn’t seem like three years have passed to us, but when we look through our archives there’s no denying the abundance of articles (this article is number 866). Wimwick shared some of our stats in the State Of The Dungeon – Year 3 and from everyone here at Dungeon’s Master we again thank you, the readers, for making all of this possible. It’s because of your support and comments that we keep on doing what we’re doing and providing 4e D&D articles every weekday.

After three years we decided it was finally time to reveal The New Dungeon’s Master Banner. Thanks to Winston Lew for designing something so awesome. I think it breathes new life into our site and adds an additional level of professionalism that our previous banner lacked.

February was a big month for public play as we completed another D&D Encounters season. With that came our report card followed by a preview of the new season the begins tonight. We also shared a first look at the new Lair Assault.

In addition to additional public play resources we also provided new adventure hooks, a contribution to the RPG Blog Carnival, a new skill challenge (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) and an interesting look at the Super Bowl with a D&D spin. If you missed any of the great articles from the past month this is your opportunity to get caught up.

Thanks to everyone who continues to visit Dungeon’s Master regularly. If you haven’t commented before please do, we want to hear from you. If you’re not a subscriber, then we have to ask: what are you waiting for? Subscribe today. We make it easy by providing a subscribe link at the bottom of every article (866 and counting).

Highlights

DM Resources

• 8 Adventure Hooks: The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time - Most hooks are designed to entice PCs to follow a certain path to adventure, but every once in a while they might find themselves in the thick of things before they really know what’s going on.
• Adventure Hooks Inspired by The Simpsons (Part 1) - Do you love The Simpsons? Then why not mine the 500+ episodes for adventure ideas? We start you off with hooks from some of the earliest episodes.
• Individuality vs. Group Dynamics - Most players know that they should never split the party, but those same players forget that sometimes there is good reason to do so.
• Running A Game With New Players - These tips are good for all DMs, especially those running D&D Encounters or other introductory adventures.
• Somewhere Between Living and Dying - Being down for the count and rolling death saves sucks! We’ve created a new condition called Gravely Wounded that keeps dying PC in the game… somewhat.
• Would Giants Beat Patriots in D&D? – Making Sports Teams More Suitable for D&D - We look at an interesting way to combine the love of professional sports with D&D by creating our own league whose teams are the literal embodiment of their nickname.

RPG Blog Carnival

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival was hosted by Nevermeet Press and the topic was Things to Love, Things to Hate.

• RPG Blog Carnival: Things to Love and Things to Hate About Healing Surges - Love ‘em or hate ‘em healing surges are a fundamental part of 4e and certainly changed the way we play D&D.

Player Resources

• Give Your Character Personality - Personality goes a long way. Take the time to make your character more than numbers. We’ve even provided links to random personality traits for your convenience.

D&D Encounters & Lair Assault

The heroes continued their assault of Soryth’s fortress in an attempt to rescue Juliana and defeat the evil Hag once and for all in the final week leading up to the thrilling conclusion of D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave. Once the season was finished we provided our usual report card highlighting the good and the bad from the entire season.

• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 11)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 12)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 13)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave – Report Card

Be sure to visit the D&D Encounters Archive, a repository of all our D&D Encounters articles including the weekly recaps and the pre-generated characters.

• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye – Preview - Starting today a new band of heroes begin a new quest in the Forgotten Realms. Be sure to check out the preview before sitting at the table tonight.
• D&D Encounters – 4 Tips for Players - Although most players have likely made new characters already, we share a few tips and suggestions that we think everyone will benefit from during character creation.
• D&D Encounters: DM Compensation - As a long-time veteran of the D&D Encounters program I felt it was time to discus a delicate subject – DM compensation. If you haven’t already weighed in, please leave us your thoughts in the comments.
• It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw - It’s time for another season of Lair Assault. This time you fight Orcs on Dinosaurs. Need I say more?

Skill Challenge

The Skill Challenges tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our skill aides and skill challenges.

• The Valentine’s Day Skill Challenge - Even gamers are look for love on Valentine’s Day. In this humourous, real-life skill challenge we offer ways to help you succeed by putting things into familiar 4e D&D skill challenge mechanics. Good luck!

A Look Ahead

March is a mystery. For the first time in a long time we have nothing concrete planned for the month to come. We will of course continue to report on D&D Encounters and Lair Assault (Talon of Umberlee and Attack of the Tyrantclaw). It’s safe to say there will also be a few new adventure hooks and maybe even a book review, but the rest of the roster is empty. So I put it to you, the readers, to tell us what you’d like to see on Dungeon’s Master throughout the next month. What topics or resources do you want to read about? In any event we’ll still continue to produce new 4e D&D articles every weekday so be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master throughout March to see what we come up with next.

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The announcement from Wizards of the Coast confirming that they are indeed working on the next iteration of D&D was the biggest news in gaming this month. A lot of people began speculating on what’s to come, but for now Wizards has not released a lot of details. Our existing relationship with Wizards of the Coast and an NDA restricts us from delving into this topic in too much detail, but what we can share on the subject we did. While the majority of the blogosphere wondered about what’s to come we continued providing great materials every day for those of us playing 4e now.

January ended up being a month for players with most of our articles aimed at them and not the DM (for a change). We continued to provide weekly recaps of D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave and launched our Pre-Generated Character Library. We looked at the old 3d6 method for creating ability scores, fixing the maximum number of hit points characters have, and the importance of contacts.

If you missed any of our articles from January this is your perfect opportunity to get caught up. We encourage you to read any of the articles you might have missed or to revisit some of your favourites.

We want to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s Master throughout the month of January, with a special shout out to everyone who left us comments. We measure our success largely based on what you, the readers, have to say. We welcome your feedback and encourage continued debate and discussion on every article we write.

Highlights

D&D Next

Wizard of the Coast officially announced that they are working on the The Next Iteration of D&D. Few details were released at this point but we do know that in the short term they are inviting fans to do extensive play-testing. The Dungeon’s Master team were fortunate enough to be pre-selected for the Friends & Family play testing and have already begun trying out what’s on the drawing board.

DM Resources

• Adventure Hooks – Moral Choices - Good adventure hook can throw PCs right into the action, but really good hooks force the players to make difficult choices.
• Announcing the Pre-Generated Character Library - We’ve collected all the pre-gens Wizards created for D&D Encounters and archived them in one easy to find location.
• Don’t Fight to the Death - Just because we all insist on killing every monster we face doesn’t mean that it’s always the best way to see an encounter play out.
• Dungeon Master – The Little Guy in Red Robes - When PCs won’t take a hint or trust an important NPC it might be time to introduce the Dungeon Master as a character in your game.
• RPG Blog Carnival: Toronto’s Underground PATH is a Fantastic Location - Sometimes the most fantastic locations are right outside your front door.
• You Make the Call – Questions About Rules (Part 2) - In our second installment of this series we look at strange situations when you’re dazed.

Player Resources

• Ameron Answers 23 Questions - Like most of the gaming blogs, we too answered Zak’s 23 questions.
• Do You Have The Right Tools (or PCs) For The Job? - If the players have multiple characters to choose from, assign a mission commander and let him choose the troops to ensure he’s got the right tools for the job.
• Fixed Maximum Hit Points for PCs - We look at how D&D would change if everyone had approximately the same number of hit points regardless of level or XP.
• It’s All About Who You Know - The contacts the PCs make during their adventuring career should play a larger role in the ongoing campaign.
• Switched at Birth – An Origin Story - Your PC’s background will do more to define who he is in the beginning of his adventuring career than anything else so put some thought into it and be creative.
• Take a Break From D&D, Play a Board Game - With all the churn surrounding D&D Next, this might be a good time to try something other than RPGs for a week or two.
• The Advantages of Using 3d6 Over Point Buy - Roll those d6s when creating characters and embrace the random elements it brings back to character creation.
• Utility Powers – The New Face of Customization - Despite all the choices players have during character creation and advancement, Sndwurks explains why it’s the utility powers that really make a PC unique.

D&D Encounters

• The Pre-Generated Character Library
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 7)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 8.)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 9)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 10)

Eberron

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

• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 13) - House Orien and House Deneith work together to keep the Lightning Rails safe and reliable. The last thing they want the general public to know is that the “Desperadoes” keep robbing the trains and getting away with it.

A Look Ahead

Tomorrow, February 1, marks our third anniversary so watch for the “State of the Dungeon.” Season 7 of D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave concludes in just a couple of weeks, and after that we move on to season 8, D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye in which we get a reimagining of The Temple of Elemental Evil. We’ll continue to provide weekly recaps as well as a report card once season 7 is finished and a preview of season 8 as soon as the materials are available. We’ll finally have a chance to play and report on D&D Lair Assault: Talon of Umberlee, and when the materials for the next Lair Assault are available we’ll preview them for you. Also in February we’ll make good one our promise from last month and take a look at the Drow and adventuring underground, as well as provide some recommended reading and new adventuring hooks. Don’t miss a single article. Be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day in February.

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During the first half of December we brought you new 4e D&D articles every day. During the second half of December the Dungeon’s Master team took some time off for the holidays and during that time we ran our 2011 greatest hits. With a mixture of new and old articles, readers visiting Dungeon’s Master in December were treated to a lot of great 4e D&D.

For your convenience we’ve collected all the articles we published in the previous month and presented them in one easy to access place. This gives you a chance to catch up on anything you might have missed or take another look at an article you found particularly interesting or enjoyable.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s Master throughout December. We welcome your feedback and appreciate it when you leave your comments. If there’s a particular topic you’d like us to write about or if you’re interested in writing an article for us, email us and let us know. Find our contact information on the About page.

Highlights

Player Resources

• Changing Classes - If multiclassing or building a hybrid character just isn’t enough, you can always change classes all together and in this article we provide some guidelines for how to do it.
• Keep PCs Grounded – A Look at Flying in D&D - Now that Pixies are available as a playable race DMs have to be more mindful of advantages flying PCs may have during encounters.
• Nationality and Character Backgrounds - If you choose a geographic background for your PC, show some national pride during role-playing.
• The Golden Level of Heroic Adventure - Sndwurks explains why the mid-heroic tier brings the most enjoyable D&D play experiences.

DM Resources

• Gaming in Silence - Too much table talk? Try putting the party into a situation where any vocalizations will be problematic and run a game in complete silence.
• No New Magic Items - What happens when the ability to create new items is forever lost? How does the in-game economy change and what new value is assigned to even the most mundane items?

D&D Encounters

We continued our ongoing coverage to D&D Encounters season 7, Beyond the Crystal Cave as the PCs followed the trail of the missing lovers, Juliana and Orlando, through the Crystal Cave and into the Fey Wild.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 2)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 3)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 4)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 5)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 6)

Greatest Hits 2011

During the last two weeks of 2011 the Dungeon’s Master team took some time off. While we were enjoying our Christmas vacation we ran some of our greatest hits from 2011. 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 2011.

• Greatest Hits 2011: Should PCs Charge Other PCs for Services? (Jun 23)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Exploiting Racial and Class Powers: Dragon Breath (Apr 13)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Let Monsters Use the Treasure (Feb 25)
• Greatest Hits 2011: 7 Appalling Things I Witnessed at the Gaming Table (Aug 12)
• Greatest Hits 2011: The Little Details Make a Big Difference (Jan 4)
• Greatest Hits 2011: My Love Affair With Minions (Oct 28)
• Greatest Hits 2011: The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D (Mar 21)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Band of Brothers: Adventuring Parties of the Same Race (Aug 19)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Make Magical Item Identification Harder (Oct 7)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Two-Hit Minions (Jul 13)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Character Catchphrases (Apr 8.)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Hurry Up and Wait – A Look a Delaying and Readying Actions (Oct 18.)
• Greatest Hits 2011: Are You Willing to Provoke an Opportunity Attack? (Jun 29)

A Look Ahead

In January we go back to our regular routine here at Dungeon’s Master and publish new content Monday through Friday.

We’ll take a look at monster tactics, a new installment of You Make the Call, a look at underground adventuring, a spotlight on Drow, new adventure hooks, a new resource page featuring level 1 pre-generated characters, commentary on the Lair Assault: Talon of Umberlee, and of course weekly field reports of D&D Encounters.

January should be another great month here at Dungeon’s Master so be sure to visit every day.

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November was another great moth at Dungeon’s Master. There was an unintentionally heavy focus on player resources and D&D public play this month, not that there’s anything wrong with the way that worked out. There were still articles for the DM including three articles featuring new adventure hooks.

Our readers really like getting to know the Dungeons’ Master team a little bit better in November when they got to see inside Ameron’s Game room and heard Ameron, Wimwick, Bauxtehude, Suddry and Skallawag take on Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan. And our newest ongoing series where we ask you to Make the Call and weigh in on the rules was a lot more popular and positive than we expected so watch for another installment in the near future.

We’d like to thank all of our readers for visiting Dungeon’s Master in November. We encourage everyone to leave us comments and let us know what you think about our material, good or bad. If you have ideas for future articles or are interested in writing a guest post for us, please email us or comment at the bottom of this article.

In case you missed any of the great articles we ran in November, this is your chance to get caught up. If your one of those loyal readers who visits every day it might be worth checking out some of the articles again to see what other people said in the comments.

Highlights

Player Resources

• Ameron’s Game Room - I’ve found that gamers love to see what other gamers have in their collection. This look at my game room shows where the Dungeon’s Master magic happens!
• Building a Better Avenger - In response to my harsh criticism of the Avenger, Sndwurks provides a great new build for the Avenger.
• Characters with Secret Identities - Whether you’re the Dread Pirate Roberts or Batman, there are a lot of good reasons to keep a secret identity.
• How Observation Changes Characters’ Behaviour - We explore the possibility that PCs will act differently if they know they’re being watched and judged for their actions.
• Players Need to Be More Creative - With DMs everywhere dying to say yes players need to push the boundaries of what their PCs can do more often.
• The Holiday Shopping Skill Challenge (Encore) - In honour of Black Friday we took another look at this humourous skill challenge inspired from real life.
• You Make the Call – Questions About Rules (Part 1) - Sometimes PCs want to do something so outrageous or unexpected that the rules don’t cover it. We shared a few examples and ask you to weigh in.

DM Resources

Adventure Hooks

Adventure hooks always do well so we gave you more of what you wanted in November with three new articles featuring adventure hooks. We also added an Adventure Hooks category in the left column so you can find all those hooks in one easy place.

• 8 Adventure Hooks for Campaigns on the High Seas
• 10 Adventure Hooks Found in the Library
• Adventure Hook: The Magical Bazaar

Public Play

November was a very big month for D&D public play events. Season 6 of D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter finished and season 7 of D&D Encouenrs: Beyond the Crystal Cave began. During the transition we shared a sneak peek of the new season and completed a report card for the last season.

As Season 1 of Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan nears its end we shared seven actual play podcasts including a recording of the Dungeons’ Master team achieving victory. With season 2 of Lair Assault: Talon of Umberlee set to begin in December we revealed some of the high level (spoiler free) details in out preview article.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

Beyond the Crystal Cave

• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 1)
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave – Preview
• D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave – Pre-Generated Characters

Lost Crown of Neverwinter

• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter – Report Card
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 14)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 13)

Lair Assault

• Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan – Round-Up
• It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Talon of Umberlee

A Look Ahead

In early December I’m attending a special conference at the Wizards of the Coast head office in Seattle to discus the future of their public play program. I’m not sure how much I can say about it at this point, but I’ll share whatever details I can afterwards.

Again this year, we’ll be re-running  some of our greatest hits from 2011 throughout the last two weeks of December. This gives the Dungeon’s Master staff a much-needed vacation and gives our newer readers a chance to discover some of our best offerings from the past year.

Be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day in December for some great new articles as well our best from 2011.

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Our October articles covered a wide variety of topics for players and DMs. Chances are that throughout October there was at least one or two articles that appealed to you no matter what kind of gamer you are, no matter if you’re a DM or player.

We looked at magic items beginning with magic item identification, adventure hooks where the loot is part of the plot, and then whether or not monsters should use the magic items against the PCs. There was emphasis on cooperative play including an in-depth look at assisting, the benefits of playing someone else’s character and encounter design tips that reward cooperative play.

Throw in a deep discussion on death, a look at the silly aspects of fantasy gaming, D&D Encounters field reports and, of course, an article about zombies and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the eclectic mix of topics we covered in October. If you missed any of the great articles from October then this is your change to get caught up.

We’d like to thank all of our readers for continuing to visit Dungeon’s Master every day. We value your opinion and encourage you to keep providing your feedback in the comments section. We want to hear what you have to say and enjoy the discussion that your comments generate. Even if you disagree with our stance on an issue or topic, the discussion gets people talking which is always our goal.

Highlights

DM Resources

• 7 Halloween-Themed Articles – We compiled 7 articles from our archives featuring a macabre theme, perfect for any Halloween-inspired adventure or campaign.
• 7 Tips For Running an All-Zombie Campaign - Want to turn your D&D adventure into an episode of the Walking Dead? Here are tips on how to do it along with a lot of excellent comments from our readers.
• Breaking Away From Procedural Story-Telling - Don’t limit your campaign to A-B-C linear story-telling; throw in some red herrings and tangents that don’t immediately get resolved.
• Curse Your Sudden, Yet Inevitable Betrayal - Sndwurks explains why PCs who leave the adventure always seem to become villains; and why the players love it so much.
• Death’s Impact in D&D - Whether your campaign sees death as permanent or a revolving door of Raise Dead rituals, there should be a serious real-life discussion about how such loss affects the characters and the world they live in.
• Design Encounters That Reward Cooperative Play - Dantracker suggests ways to design encounters that challenge group objectives, challenge group tactics, and challenge group cohesion.
• Embracing the Silly Aspects of Fantasy Gaming - Just because the players think something is ludicrous doesn’t mean it’s at all out-of-place in a world of fantasy and magic; just look at the Delver’s Delight a Spa for Experienced Adventurers.
• From Looking to Looting in Legends & Lore - Dantracker provides running commentary on Monte Cook’s “Magic and Mystery” article in the Legends & Lore column.
• Let Monsters Use the Treasure - What started as an innocent question at my gaming table (paraphrased at the top of the article) ended up creating a lot of discussion and debate about whether or not monsters should be equipped with magic loot they can use against the party. Join the discussion and leave a comment.
• Make Magical Item Identification Harder - In another magical item article we look at ways to make magic item identification harder and more interesting.

Player Resources

• Hurry Up and Wait – A Look a Delaying and Readying Actions - Sometimes it’s better to hold your action until it can be used to its fullest potential. Here’s what you need to know if you decide to wait.
• Let the Players Roll More Dice - One way to keep players more engaged is to use active defenses and have them roll AC, Fort, Ref and Will.
• Playing Someone Else’s Character - Prove that you know how to make the best character by playing someone else’s and then providing them with feedback
• Use Teamwork, Aid Another - One of the most underused action during combat is to aid another player. We’ve shed new light on this rule-set to help increase awareness and spotlight the benefits.

RPG Blog Carnival

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival hosted by Campaign Mastery is “Making the Loot Part of the Plot.” The Dungeon’s Master contribution was 7 Adventure Hooks for Making the Loot Part of the Plot.

D&D: Heroes of Neverwinter for Facebook

In September we shared beta codes for the new Facebook game D&D: Heroes of Neverwinter with 100 lucky readers. Once the game was officially released we provided a review as well as an interview with one of the developers, Ed Del Castollo.

• Heroes of Neverwinter Review
• Interview With D&D: Heroes of Neverwinter Developer Ed Del Castillo

D&D Encounters

With Neverwinter on the verge of a violent civil war the heroes struggle to find the Lost Heir and convince him to meet face-to-face with Lord Neverember in hopes that it will quell the bloodshed.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 9)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 10)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 11)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 12)

A Look Ahead

In November we’ll complete D&D Encounters season 6 and move on to season 7, Beyond the Crystal Cave. As soon as we have more details on the new season we’ll be sure to share all the details with you. November is the final month for Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan so expect new field reports, tips and strategies as well as actual play podcasts of all the excitement.

Also in November we’ll look at new ways to use action points, creative ways to use darkness in your game, tying magical item usage to skill checks, and new house rules for re-rolls. If you have any question or suggestions for articles please email us. We’re always open to your input and ideas.

November looks like it will be another great month here at Dungeon’s Master. Don’t miss any of the excitement and be sure to visit us every day.

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September was a great months at Dungeon’s Master. We started the month by hitting the very significant milestone of 1,000,000 Page Views. During September we welcomed two new contributors, we brought you weekly write-ups of D&D Encounters and shared our first attempt at Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan, and we also shared 100 Beta codes to the new Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter. The month in review is your chance to get caught up if you missed any of the articles we ran in September.

We want to thank all the readers who visit Dungeon’s Master day after day and month after month. It’s because of your continued support and your comments that our website continues to flourish. As always, we welcome your feedback and comments so keep them coming. You can always email Wimwick or me if you have one-off questions or ideas for articles.

Highlights

Dungeon’s Master News

Our regular readers may have noticed Wimwick’s absence throughout September. He’s returned to school full-time so the number of articles he’ll be able to contribute in the coming months will be substantially less than it’s been in the past. This was a big factor in our decision to put out a call for guest writers in the posting Dungeon’s Master Wants You! Many people expressed interest in writing for us and we were able to feature the work from two of them this month.

The first of our new writers is David Buresh (Sndwurks). Sndwurks and I played together in the D&D Open Championship at GenCon the past two years. When I told him we’d be asking for guest contributors he jumped at the opportunity. He has extensive gaming experience and has a lot of great ideas on how to make your D&D game better. These were his first two articles and we hope to see more from him in the coming months.

• D&D Tactica: Enter the Offender - What happens when you combine the best features of the defender and striker roles? You get the offender.
• Improve Your Game By Removing Save Ends - Sndwurks suggests taking save ends effect out of the hands of players and either changing the effects to have finite duration or force the PC to sustain with an action.

The second new writer is Kenneth McNay (Dantracker). Dantracker suggested a new regular column in which he analyzed Mike Mearls’ Legend & Lore articles. Of course the very next week Mearls announced he’d be turning the column over to Monte Cook. Dantracker shared his take on the changeover as well as on Monte Cook’s first article for us in September.

• Goodbye Mearls, Hello Cook: Reflecting on Legends & Lore
• Tip of the Iceberg: Monte Cook’s First Legends & Lore

In the coming months we’ll be giving a lot of new authors a chance to write for us here at Dungeon’s Master. If you’re interested, please email me. For everyone who has already contacted me, keep those submissions coming.

DM Resources

• Even a Regular Item Can Become an Adventure Hook - Need an idea for your next adventure? Look no further than you PCs’ equipment list.
• Naked Combat - We look at what happens when the PCs are stripped of all their items, either intentionally or unintentionally.
• Say What? – Languages in D&D - Language selection should be an important and significant part of character creation and it’s up to the DM to emphasize this by making the choice matter in-game.
• Traps: Challenge the Players and the Characters - When presenting traps, hazards and puzzles to your players it’s important to find the balance between challenging them and their character.
• Why Are We Doing This? - As PCs become more powerful they’ll need a strong motivation to continue adventuring beyond acquiring gold and magical items and it’s a challenge many DMs many not be ready for.

Player Resources

• 8 Things I Learned at D&D Encounters - Whether you play D&D Encounters or not, most of these points are relevant at just about any gaming table.
• Confessions of a D&D Camp Councilor: Year II – Best Bits - With another year of D&D Camp finished, Bauxtehude shared the best bits of his 2011 experiences.
• Giving Character Backgrounds And Themes Teeth - Wimwick explores ways to keep background and theme benefits relevant to the story, especially as character evolve and grow.
• Lair Assault – The New Gold Standard for D&D Adventures - I finally had a chance to play and run Lair Assault. It was fantastic. Here I share my thoughts on the adventure, offer some advice and present an actual play podcast.
• The Honor System - Does you PCs have a code or honor? From Wild West gun slingers to Japanese Samari, there are many ways to adhere to an honor code without the need to create a new mechanic for doing so.
• What are the Best Feats? The Results Are In! - It took two months but we finally have the results of our poll. Find out what our readers consider to be the best feats in D&D today.

D&D Encounters

As season 6 of D&D Encounters moves forward, we continue providing weekly field reports and audio pod casts. Issues raised in the Week 6 article made considerable waves and the adventure’s author, Erik Scott de Bie, even jumped in and contributed to the discussion in the comments section.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

• D&D Encounters – Only On Wednesday
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 4)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 5)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 6)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 7)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 8.)

A Look Ahead

In October we’ll look how you can find inspiration for battle maps by looking at real locations, we’ll return to our series on exploiting racial and class powers, you can visit us every week for our recount of D&D Encoutenrs: Lost Crown of Neverwinter, and we’ll bring you more reviews and comments about Lair Assault.

As we continue to work with our new contributors we plan to run articles on traps, puzzles and hazards, an article about women in gaming, and a look at some of the most under-appreciated artists in D&D. And of course what’s October without a few articles about undead. It looks like October will be another great month so be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day.

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August was a great moth for gamers and for us here at Dungeon’s Master. The month began with another fantastic GenCon. Following the Con we shared some of the things we saw (good and bad) including previews of D&D Encounters, Lair Assault and the D&D Open Championship. We also received a shout out from Bart Carroll on the Wizard of the Coast website in his August 17 article A Look Back at Gen Con.

In August we continued narrowing the list of best feats in 4e (voting is still open), we looked at playing in a party where everyone is the same race, and we shared more of the antics from D&D camp. Our critique of 4e D&D and our speculation of what might be in store for 5e D&D also generated a lot of excellent discussion. August we saw the conclusion of D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard and the beginning of D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter.

If you missed any of the great articles from August, this is your change to get caught up. We want to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s master in August and hope that you continue to visit our website everyday in September. We always welcome your comments and feedback so don’t be shy.

Highlights

DM Resources

• Campaigns Set in One Location - There’s no need to travel across the country in search of adventure when there are many interesting locations that can contain an entire campaign.
• The End Is The Beginning - Showing the players how their campaign might (or will) end can set a very positive tone for the entire campaign to come.
• The Future of Dungeons & Dragons – Part 1 | Part 2 - Wimwick begins by running 4e D&D through a skill challenge as he critiques what’s working and what’s not before he speculates on what 5e D&D might look like and where there’s room for improvement.
• Incremental Encounters - Let the party’s successes and failures determine the difficulty of subsequent encounters.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard

• D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 13) - The adventure comes to an end as the heroes battle Vontarin’s ghost and attempt to break Evard’s curse once and for all.

D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter

Set in the Neverwinter, season 6 of D&D Encounters has the heroes returning to the Forgotten Realms where they find themselves swept up in a civil war between the Lord Protector Nevermember and a mysterious stranger called the Lost Heir wearing the Lost Crown of Neverwinter.

• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter – Preview
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 1)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 2)
• D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 3)

Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan

The newest public-play event from Wizards of the Coast begins in September and we have two preview articles to raise awareness and excitement.

• Sneak Preview – Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan and D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave
• It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan

 GenCon 2011

• In Anticipation of GenCon: Skill Challenge, Road Trip to GenCon - We share an article from our archives and hope that your trip to GenCon this summer was as much fun as the Con itself.
• 7 Reasons Why I’d Rather Be At GenCon - Wimwick tries to make the best of a bad situation as he stayed behind and the rest of us played games in Indianapolis.
• The 2011 D&D Open Championship - Although we didn’t make the finals, I was able to get a pretty good account of the entire adventure from a very forthcoming DM.
• 7 Appalling Things I Witnessed at the Gaming Table - Some behaviour is inexcusable at the gaming table and I regrettably witnessed a few first hand while at GenCon this summer.

Eberron

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

• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 12) - If you thought there was a lot of excitement and adventure on the surface of Khorvaire, wait until you learn about the underwater metropolis called Madidus.

A Look Ahead

In September Lair Assault is set to make its debut at your FLGS. I’m predicting that this will be all the rave in the D&D community over the next month. As we have an opportunity to play Forge of the Dawn Titan ourselves we’ll be sure to provide you with more insights and possibly even a few actual play podcasts. I suspect that we’ll see a lot of very interesting and optimized characters played at Lair Assault which will no doubt lead us to write about character creation in the coming month. We’ll still continue to bring you weekly field reports on D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter and more actual play podcasts of those experiences as well.

Also in September we look forward to welcoming a new member to the Dungeon’s Master writing team so be sure to visit every day in and see what we’re writing about next.

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July was another great month for us here at Dungeon’s Master. In July we began our poll to find the best feats in 4e D&D and thanks to your voting we’re half way there. Our articles on two-hit minions, revamping the skill training system, and reasons to say no to your players all received a lot of comments and sparked lively debate. On the last day of July we posted a preview of the upcoming D&D Game Day which is already proving to be a very popular topic (although I’m sure the scans of the 13 character themes from the upcoming Neverwinter Campaign Setting are at least partly responsible for the traffic spike).

We’d like to thank everyone for visiting us in July and we hope you’ve enjoyed what you read enough to keep coming back throughout August. If you missed any of our articles from July we take this opportunity at the beginning of every month to give you a quick one-stop shop where you can see everything at a glance. This is your chance to read (or reread) all of the articles we ran in July.

Highlights

DM Resources

• 5 Reasons to Say No - Although the 4e mantra is “Say Yes,” we look at some very reasonable exceptions when its ok to “Say No.”
• Confessions of a D&D Camp Councilor: Year II – Finding the Ideal DMs – Bauxtehude returns to D&D Camp for another year, this time as the director.
• D&D Core Rules: Role Playing - In response to the Wizard article on the core rules of D&D, Wimwick wondered why there was no mention of role-playing?
• Eenie, Meennie, Mini - How much of an impact do minis have on your game?
• Forget Training Skills; Let’s Go Back to a Skill Point System - Drawing on previous editions of D&D, we explored one way in which skills training in 4e could be reworked.
• How Do You Like Your Dungeon Maps? Whether you use tiles or draw your maps yourself, they are in integral part of D&D whether you like it or not.
• June RPG Blog Carnival Round Up - June’s RPG Blog Carnival ended with this round-up of all the great submissions.
• Two-Hit Minions - Just when you though minions couldn’t get any better we rolled out the two-hit minions.
• What Do You Mean All My Magic Items Are Gone! - Have you ever taken away all of a party’s magical items? It may restore the power level but it often leaves very angry players.

Player Resources

• Choosing An Epic Destiny Is Harder Than You Think - As our campaign moves closer to the epic tier we look at the difficulties of choosing just the right Epic Destiny for your PC.
• What are the Best Feats? Round 1, Vote Now! - Although voting is closed, check out the original 32 feats in our poll and see how the voting turned out. I’ll bet some of the results surprise you as much as they did me.
• What are the Best Feats? Round 2, Vote Now! - With 16 feats remaining in our round-robin, we try to narrow down the best feats to the top 8. Voting continues for another week.

D&D Encounters and D&D Game Day

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard

• D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 9)
• D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 10)
• D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 11)
• D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 12)

D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter

• D&D Game Day: Gates of Neverdeath Preview - A prequel for D&D Encounters season 6, in this preview we provide all 13 character themes from the forthcoming Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

GenCon

• Ameron’s 2011 GenCon Schedule - If you’re going to be in Indianapolis for GenCon this summer, check out my schedule and see if we have any games in common. I’m always happy to chat with our readers.
• In Anticipation of GenCon: Convention Tips 6 for Players, 6 for DMs - This article is one of our greatest hits and is certainly worth another look even if you’re not going to GenCon.

Skill Challenges

The Skill Challenges tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our skill aides and skill challenges.

• Skill Challenge Next - Wimwick shares how he jump started skill challenges in our home campaign after they stalled in many recent games.

A Look Ahead

At the beginning of August we have GenCon, which means plenty of great reports from Indianapolis. We’ll have the final weekly field report of D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard as well as a report card on the entire season highlighting the good and bad. Tomorrow we’ll share a preview of season 6, D&D Encounter: Lost Crown of Neverwinter and then follow that up with weekly field reports as the season progresses.

Throughout August you can also expect new adventure hooks, skill challenges, a look at moving your game to the epic tier, and we’ll finish our poll to determine the best feats. Bauxtehude has also promised us more stories from D&D camp.  It looks like August will be full of more great 4e D&D materials so be sure to visit us every day.

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