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 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
- Bonus Action Points for the Party – Drawing on existing LFR adventure company guidelines we explore the possibility of adding more action points to your party to encourage creativity.
- Time Travel in D&D – Sending your PCs into the past removes their reputation and let’s them experience the campaign world in a whole new way.
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
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.