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.