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Month in Review

Month in Review: October 2012

Two articles we wrote in October made a big splash with our readers: one about treasure maps and one about a player who did something very unexpected. Thanks in large part to Twitter and Reddit these two articles generated a lot of traffic and a lot of discussion. Although these were our most read articles last month they weren’t the only things we talked about in October. Undead also featured prominently at Dungeon’s Master as we posted three new articles on the subject.

If you missed any of the great articles we ran in October than this is your chance to get caught up and join in the discussion. Below we provide links to everything we ran last month.

We’d like to thank everyone who visited our site in October. We’d also like to thank everyone who took the time to leave us a comment. Your feedback is the best gauge we’ve got to determining if we’re on the right track and if our articles are helping you and your D&D games.

If there’s something you’d like to see on Dungeon’s Master or there’s a topic you like us to cover, let us know in the comments or contact us by email or Twitter.

Highlights

DM Resources

  • Lair Assault Map Gallery – Due to popular demand after posting the D&D Encounters maps, we present the Lair Assault gallery. Let these fantastic locales provide you with inspiration for your next adventure.
  • What a Dick Move Taught Us About Party Goals – When one of our players did something really unexpected it shook up our group and forced us to look at the goals that unite us in game.
  • The 5 Ws of Treasure Maps – Want to entice your players, give them a treasure map. Want them to be blown away, use the 5 Ws to really make your treasure map amazing.

Undead Spotlight

Following the tradition established by Wizards of the Coast, we offered three new articles featuring undead in October.

  • 5 Reasons Intelligent Undead Became Undead – A vampire or lich make truly dangerous boss villain  but given their intelligence it’s worth asking why these beings became undead in the first place. This can make an enemy more interesting (for existing undead) or can serve as an interesting adventure hook (for those about to make the transition).
  • 5 Ways to Make Mindless Undead More Interesting – Don’t write off skeletons and zombies just because the party gets tougher, use some of our suggestions to take the traditional mindless undead and make them deadly again.
  • Undead of Different Races – Not all undead were originally Human. Describe your undead as different races and be sure to give them access to their racial abilities and powers in the process.

D&D Encounters

Wizards of the Coast’s Rise of the Underdark story-arc continued through October as we saw the end of Council of Spiders and got a sneak peek at War of Everlasting Darkness.

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.

A Look Ahead

Although we’re a 4e D&D website we realize that a lot of people are shifting to the D&D Next play-testing. With that in mind we’re trying to provide more articles that are edition-neutral and can help anyone playing any edition of D&D. In November we’ll look at down-and-dirty character origins, the value of player handouts, how changing the seasons in game can impact your adventure, and how PCs deal with the consequences of their actions.

For those still playing 4e we will look at ways to make magic items interesting again by tying them into a PCs skill as well as revisiting the idea of items with charges. Later this week we’ll look at books set in the in a post-apoplectic setting. We’ also hope to have a new Master of the Dungeon comic strip later this month. And of course throughout November we’ll continue to bring you field reports of our D&D Encounters sessions with War of Everlasting Darkness session 1 kicking off today.

Be sure to visit Dungeon’s Master throughout November to get your D&D fix.


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3 replies on “Month in Review: October 2012”

Great, I’m eagerly expecting your coverage of War of Everlasting Darkness.

Please don’t pull a WotC and abandon us 4e players altogether. I’m introducing a few Next ideas in my campaigns, preparing my players for the unvaoidable, but we love this edition and will stick to it as much as possible.

@Ocampo
As long as 4e is still the current edition we’ll keep writing for that edition. Of course a lot of what we write is applicable to any edition and that’s certainly intentional. The main reason we’ve decided not to write about D&D Next very much is because all I’ve done is read the materials. My home group isn’t interested in play-testing and my experience is limited to GenCon and a few one-off sessions. As long as 4e is the edition I’m playing than we’ll keep supporting it (and by extension those who play it).

Fair enough. Your articles are quality stuff all the way. And I am aware we will have to make the move to 5e at some point. And I’ll stick to your site for great info and advice.

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