Author: Ameron (Derek Myers)

Reputation (Part 3)

Your deeds define your reputation. Basking in your success is the easy part, but what happens when things don’t go quite as expected? Your reputation is easily tarnished by a few bad outings, and now you’ve got to live with the consequences.

This is the third of three articles examining reputation. Reputation (part 1) appeared on The Core Mechanic a few days ago. It was aimed at the DM and provided him with direction for using reputation as a campaign tool. Reputation (part 2) and Reputation (part 3) are aimed at the players and provides insight on how PCs can shape their own reputation and gain the most benefit from doing so.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, heroes, heroic, Player Resources, point of light, reputation

Humour

Funny Feats

You don’t have to be 6-years-old to find something funny, but it helps. In fact some of the best humour comes from those innocent little children. So with child-like sensibility in mind I’ve created Funny Feats as my contribution to this month’s RPG Blog Carnival: Humour and Gaming hosted by A Butterfly Dreaming.

Tags 4e, Cootie Shot, D&D, Do Over, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Feats, Fingers Crossed, Funny Feats, He’s Cheating, Humour, Insulting Rhyme, Kiss It Better, Red Rover

Player Resources

Reputation (Part 2)

As a PC, your reputation is in your own hands. The choices you make during your adventuring career will have a direct impact on your PC’s reputation. The jobs you accept, the method you employ and even the company you keep all factor in to the bigger picture, which defines your reputation.

This is the second of three articles examining reputation. Reputation (part 1) appeared on The Core Mechanic a few days ago. It was aimed at the DM and provided him with direction for using reputation as a campaign tool. Reputation (part 2) and Reputation (part 3) are aimed at the players and provides insight on how PCs can shape their own reputation and gain the most benefit from doing so.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, heroes, heroic, Player Resources, point of light, reputation

DM Resources Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Assisting (Part 2)

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date April 8, 2009
10 Comments on Skill Focus: Assisting (Part 2)

Assisting with skill checks needs to be something more than just a quick roll or an afterthought. I like the concept of assisting and I think there’s a lot of room to build on this mechanic. In Skill Focus: Assisting (Part 1) I was complained about what I think is a broken mechanic and shared my ideas on how to improve it. This time I’m only going to focus on the positives. I’m going to explore what actions constitute assists and expand on them.

Tags 4e, Assist, D&D, DC 10, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Skill, Skill Challenges

DM Resources Player Resources

Reputation (Part 1)

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date April 6, 2009

The Dungeon’s Master team is happy to announce that we’ve guest authored an article on The Core Mechanic today. Our article on Reputation is the first of three posts examining character reputation in D&D.

Reputation (part 1), which appears on The Core Mechanic, is aimed at the DM and provides direction for using reputation to its fullest potential. Reputation (part 2) and Reputation (part 3) will appear here at Dungeon’s Master in the next few days. They are aimed at the players and provide insight on how the PCs can shape their own reputation and gain the most benefit from doing so.

Please check out our contribution to The Core Mechanic and while you’re there spend some time browsing the site. It’s full of great D&D articles that many DMs and players will find useful.

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Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, famous, Player Resources, rep, reputation, resource

Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Intimidate

Mastering the Intimidate skill is difficult, probably more so than any other skill in the PHB. Intimidate is availabe to 12 classes (as shown in our Skill Matrix by Class) making it the most widely available skill (along with Athletics and Endurance). If you’re playing a class like the Fighter where you have very few skills to choose from, Intimidate is a very popular choice.

Despite the large number of PCs who take training in Intimidate, it’s a skill that has very limited uses. Using Intimidate during a skill challenge often counts as an automatic failure. If not, then you usually get only one try with Intimidate. In a perfect scenario a successful Intimidate check brings you one step closer to accomplishing the objective of the skill challenge. If you fail it can make future checks more difficult and count as one more strike. So it’s important to know when to use Intimidate and when to rely on a different skill.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Intimidate, resource, Skill Challenge, Skill Challenges, Skill Focus

Month in Review

Month in Review: March 2009

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date April 1, 2009

March was a good month for D&D and a great month for Dungeon’s Master. We hit our two month milestone and are gaining a strong and loyal readership. Our thanks to everyone who visits regularly and comments often. In March we published 26 new articles on a wide variety of topics. Here are the highlights just in case you missed anything.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, familiars, Humour, Module, Month in Review, PHB2, RPG, Skill Challenge, wizard familiar

DM Resources Editorial

Don’t Skip the Slow Parts

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date March 31, 2009
11 Comments on Don’t Skip the Slow Parts

Does this sound familiar?

We’re going to skip the next three rooms of the dungeon. There are no traps, no monsters and no treasure. I want to speed things along so we can get to the good part.

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve uttered these lines a few times when I was the DM and it was repeated just this week at my gaming table by our current DM. It got me thinking: if we’re going to blow past a few rooms or a minor encounter because it’s not deemed important or exciting, then why is it in the module in the first place?

Tags 4e, Boring, D&D, DM, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Skip Slow Part, Slow Part

DM Resources Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Matrix by Class and Race

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date March 30, 2009
9 Comments on Skill Matrix by Class and Race

The core classes and races now span three books: PHB, PHB2, and FR Player’s Guide. I’ve created two skill aides: one lists skill offerings by class, the other lists bonuses to skills and attributes by race.

I developed these to make things easier when creating skill challenges. They provide quick snapshots of all the skills by class and race, and eliminates the need for me to keep flipping between books.

As an added bonus I’ve found these aides incredibly useful when creating characters. They provide side-by-side comparisons of racial bonuses to attributes and skills.

Tags 4e, character class, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, PHB, PHB2, Player Resources, Skill Challenge, Skill Matrix

DM Resources

The Spoils of War

When the fighting ends and the dust settles, it’s time to look at the spoils of war. How will your PC claim his fare share of the reward when the war ends? Your character’s motives for fighting will be the best guide for the DM when he decides how to reward the players.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy War, Slaves, Spoils of War, War