Month in Review: January 2012

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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