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 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 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.