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 2010 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.
On or around the first of each month we collect everything we’ve published in the previous month and make it easily available for all of our readers. This lets you revisit your favourite article from the month before or if you’ve just discovered Dungeon’s Master it’s an easy way to get caught up on anything you might have missed.
Thanks to everyone who visited us throughout December. We welcome your feedback and appreciate it when you leave your comments.
Highlights
Player Resources
- Prove Your D&D Superiority – If you want to get more out of your D&D experience try playing under a timer.
- What’s In Your Inventory? – Never underestimate the importance or value of the mundane, non-magical items that should always be included in your inventory.
- Dungeon’s Master Presents: Christmas with the Gamer – In this parody of real life we see how some people view their everyday life in terms of D&D.
- What Do You Do When Your D&D Game Is Cancelled? – We suggest some alternatives to D&D when you can’t get a quorum.
D&D Encounters
Throughout December we continued our ongoing coverage to D&D Encounters season 3, Keep on the Borderlands: A Season of Serpents. We follow the PCs as they explore a long-forgotten dungeon, experience betrayal, and seek revenge on those who hve wrongd them before two black dragons attack the keep. 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: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 11)
- D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 12)
- D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 13)
- D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 14)
- D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 15)
DM Resources
- Players who participate in one encounter, blow all of their resources and then expect (or in some cases demand) an extended rest before continuing onward perpetuate the problem known as the 5-Minute Work Day. With many blogs talking about this throughout December we offered a reason for the issue in The 5-Minute Work Day: Blame the Players. After stirring the pot, we presented ways to combat the problem in The 5-Minute Work Day: Solutions.
- Sometimes you have to challenge players who do everything they can to max out their skills; our solution is to use Really Hard Skill Checks from time-to-time.
Tomb of Horrors
We completed our adventure into the Tomb of Horrors with the release of eight more actual play podcast. The players realize that if they want to survive the Tomb of Horrors they have to play it smart. This isn’t your typical hack and slash adventure.
Greatest Hits 2010
During the last two weeks of 2010 the Dungeon’s Master team took some time off. While we were enjoying our Christmas vacation we ran some of our greatest hits from 2010. 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 2010.
- Greatest Hits 2010: Eight Rules To Make You A Better DM (Jan 21)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Convention Tips 6 for Players, 6 for DMs (Feb 22/23)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Fighting an Opponent You Can’t Beat (Apr 12)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Adding Favours to Treasure Bundles (Apr 14)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Who Owned Your Magic Sword Before You Did? (Apr 26)
- Greatest Hits 2010: My Campaign Should Be On TV (May 17)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Embracing The Total Party Kill (Jun 18)
- Greatest Hits 2010: 5 Errors I’ve Made as DM (Jun 23)
- Greatest Hits 2010: The 5-Minute Rest as Skill Challenge (July 6)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Confessions of D&D Camp Councilor (Jul 12)
- Greatest Hits 2010: Making Boring Skill Challenges More Exciting (Oct 25)
A Look Ahead
In January we go back to our regular routine here at Dungeon’s Master and publish new content Monday through Friday.
This month we’re taking a special look at LFR. Inspired by our 7 Reasons I Hate LFR article, an author of a recent LFR adventure approached us and worked with the Dungeon’s Master team to address all of our concerns about LFR. We’ll share this creative process as well as the actual play podcast of the new and improved adventure.
With D&D Encounters moving into the final chapter of Keep on the Borderlands we’ll be sharing level 3 versions of all the pre-generated characters later this week, and we’ll continue providing our weekly write-up of the adventure itself.
We’ll also keep bringing you more of what you expect from Dungeon’s Master throughout January including skill challenges, DM tips, adventure hooks, recommended reading and commentary on the D&D community. Be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master every day in January.