Author: Ameron (Derek Myers)

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Editorial

Greatest Hits 2011: The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

Without honesty there is chaos. I used this as a heading in the original article and the more I think about that line the more I believe that it’s the absolute truth.

When you play D&D at home it’s usually with a group of very close-knit buddies. This dynamic usually means that there are no problems or issues regarding trust and honesty. There are no strangers at this gaming table and it’s unlikely you’d want to cheat your friends. But when it comes to public play, some gamers (a few bad apples, as it were) will try to take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain, possibly at the expense of playing honestly.

I want to be clear that the overwhelming majority of my public-play experiences have been very positive. I’ve only ever had a couple of instances where players were caught, or even suspected of, cheating or intentionally being dishonest. However, I think that in some public-play situations, especially when there are newer players at the table, the desire to push the boundaries of trust are more prevalent.

During some D&D Encounters sessions players will try to gain an advantage by intentionally bending or breaking the rules. Where this is most problematic is among newer players that don’t have character builder and make PCs the old fashioned way. The carelessness with which some players throw together a character infuriates me. They add modifiers across the board because they don’t know or don’t understand when they apply or not. They’ll take more powers than they’re supposed to or use encounter or daily powers even after they’re expended. Even after I’ve politely given them the benefit of the doubt, explained that they’ve made an error somewhere and that they should correct it before the next game, they still use the flawed sheets.

I’ve finally had to crack down on bad character creation. I implemented a new rule that if you make your character without character builder you have to leave it with me between sessions so I can review it. In most cases I just recreate the PC in character builder to validate the numbers are right. At first I found lots of problems on every character sheet, but now that the group knows I’m checking they’ve become more diligent about accuracy.

What bothers me most is that some players (again, a very select few) didn’t feel that honesty was required until they realized they were less likely to get away with it. You always want to believe that people will do the right thing. In a gaming situation, especially with new players, you hope that they’re honest and will follow the rules of the game and of the unwritten social contract. All it takes is one or two bad instances to sully everyone’s view of D&D. So let’s all do our part to play honestly and encourage fair play in our games moving forward; because without honesty there is chaos.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 5)

It was only yesterday that this adventuring party met for the first time in Count Varis’s palace. Since then they fought and bled together. They met with Lady Tamora, ruler of Crystalrook, and they met with Lord Carric, ruler of the Sildane Forest. They followed the trail of the two young lovers, Juliana and Orlando, and crossed into the Feywild to find them. They battled an Echo Spirit, an Ochre Jelly, Mud Men, and a Hag along the way. It was a very eventful day that ended with a much needed and well earned rest. But now the party is awake and new challenges await them Beyond the Crystal Cave.

This week I was only able to play at one location. The other group ran into some scheduling conflicts and we’ll likely need a few make up sessions during the holidays to get back on track. At the FLGS where I did play I was the only DM able to make it out this week. I’ve run large groups before but I didn’t want to do so again this week. So when I arrived at my FLGS I asked one of the players if he’d be willing to go behind the screen this week.

Although he’d never run a game before I know he was eager to try. I also knew that every week he lugged every D&D book he owned, including the red box, to and from the game. He reluctantly agreed. We ended up with two DMs and eight players, so four per table. I took the younger players, leaving the veterans to play with the new DM. In the end things worked out pretty well for both tables.

The party at my table consisted of the following PCs: a Hamadryad Ranger (Scout), a Tiefling Paladin (Caviler), a Satyr Bard (Master Skald) [Fey Beast Tamer] and Belgos the Drow Ranger (Hunter). After last week’s massacre one of the more experienced players decided to swap out a striker for a leader. Good call.

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DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2011: The Little Details Make a Big Difference

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

I’m a big fan of adding in little details to my adventures and encounters as often as possible. In my home game my players know that I do this (at least they do now, almost a year after I wrote the original article) and enjoy the decision making and in-game rationalizing that often accompanies their discovery. They have to decide – Is this something important or not? Should we spend time and resources making this detail into something significant?

One other thing my players are learning is that as the little details become more common in my encounters, some of these details are actually quite significant to the adventure. Adding the little details for flavour is fine, but if that’s all you ever do then the players will get bored and start ignoring them. But, if you make a little detail important every once and a while you remind the players not to take any of them for granted.

The idea of using little details to really flesh out a scene is usually a very good idea. However it can backfire, especially if these little details are uncommon in your game. As soon as you do add something a little bit quirky the players will immediately latch on to it as they did in the example I used in the original article. They know how D&D works and if you’re describing it there has to be a reason.

I’ve actually found this is a real problem with D&D Encounters. In order to keep each week’s encounter tight and succinct the authors and editors often trim the fat and provide just what you need to know. This makes any little detail stand out. What I’ve been doing (or trying to do) is to add a little bit of flavour every week. That way when a little detail is highlighted in the adventure, alarm bells won’t immediately go off for all the players at the table. Since they don’t know if the detail is important or not they spend time investigating, and the result is usually some pretty good role-playing. When done right, these little extras will often make an encounter that much more memorable.

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Humour Top 10

Greatest Hits 2011: 7 Appalling Things I Witnessed at the Gaming Table

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

No matter where you play D&D – at conventions like GenCon, at your FLGS or even at home – there are certain expectations regarding behaviour that all players are expected to follow. We take for granted that most of these things fall into the “common sense” category and assume everyone understands what’s expected of them. However, experience has taught me differently.

I’ve learned the hard way that when people participate in public-play D&D they tend to do things they’d never do during a home game. It’s as if they believe that public-play games give them a free pass with regards to a lot of very obvious objectionable acts. After seeing many of these violations in full force at GenCon this summer I had to write down some of the most egregious and appalling ones. My hope was (and still is) that gamers will read this list, realize they’re guilty of doing some of these things, and make a point of never doing them again.

During D&D Encounters over the past year I’ve witnessed a lot of these things with unfortunate regularity. As the DM I try to “correct” some of these poor practices, but it’s tough, especially because I don’t know a lot of these people very well. And I don’t think that it should always fall to the DM to be the bad guy.

I think that we all need to share the responsibility for letting other gamers know when they violate the social contract. Whenever any of us spots the things on this list happening we should do our part and inform the violator of the inappropriate actions they’ve undertaken. By working together we can make public-play D&D better and eliminate the 7 appalling things I witnessed at GenCon.

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DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2011: Let Monsters Use the Treasure

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

In our home games the monsters will often use magical items against us (treasure bundles we’ll earn if we defeat the monsters). Where this has become a bit of an issue is when the monster is using a magic weapon and the person who claims it wants to drastically change the weapon type.

For example, in a recent encounter we were fighting Githyanki. They were armed with Silver Swords, a character-defining item for this race. When we defeated them we discovered that one of them was using a +3 silver Greatsword sword against us. The PC who claimed the treasure (because he badly needed a weapon upgrade) was a Rogue who used a dagger. Normally the DM is supposed to just wave his magic DM wand and say “the item is now a dagger because that’s what you, the PC, need it to be,” but in this case the DM decided to do the more sensible thing and said no.

He was willing to change it from one big sword to another, but he felt that going from the biggest blade in the game to the smallest was too much of a stretch. The player was ok with this ruling and we actually though the DM made the right call.

In a another recent game we fought Salamander archers and one was using a Great Bow +3. Again, when the PCs defeated the monsters and claimed the weapon the DM would not allow the bow to become anything other than another kind of bow. And again we were ok with this ruling even though the rules say otherwise.

This is the only real drawback we’ve had when letting the monsters use magic items against the party. You either have to equip the creatures with the exact weapon-type that one of the PCs can use or you have to suspend disbelief and say that the treasure bundle says “+3 weapon” so the PC can make it whatever weapon he needs it to be. In our games we’ve opted to go the former route. In those rare circumstances where we can’t use the form of the item we find we have to expend time and resources to transfer the enchantment or we just sell it. More often than not we sell it because that is easier.

So DMs, before you give the monsters items to use against the party give some thought to how you’re going to handle the inevitable transfer of the item from monster to PCs. Will you let them change the weapon to a more suitable type or will you break the rules and insist that if it was a Great Axe when the monster used it against the party it has to be a Great Axe if anyone claims it as their own?

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Editorial

Greatest Hits 2011: Should PCs Charge Other PCs for Services?

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

Although charging for services can have devastating consequences for your game – especially if the demand for payment is completely unexpected – I do think there are ways to make it work. An alternative way to tackle this issue it not to charge PCs for services out of the blue, but to make special arrangements where payment will guarantee services or garnish special treatment.

For example, in a lot of the D&D encounters sessions I ran this year there was only one leader for a party of six or more. With only two Healing Words to go around per encounter the competition for who got healed was pretty fierce. When multiple characters were injured the leader knew he needed to heal someone on his turn but wasn’t usually very picky about who it was. If two character were in equal peril (both bloodied or both unconscious) then it became a coin toss or roll of the dice. But what if one of those PCs made an arrangement with the leader ahead of time? He’s not asking for special treatment, just preferential treatment.

In circumstances where this PCs need is equal to that of another PC, the leader will earn extra compensation if he chooses to heal this PC first. The leader isn’t charging but is willing to accept payment for the service in order to help him decide who to help first. Once the other players learn that the leaders service are for sale they can offer him more lavish rewards or a greater cut of the loot. In this case they are less likely to resent the leader since he’s not charging all-of-a-sudden for healing, nor is he withholding it when needed most. He’s merely letting the PCs determine the way to break the ties. It wasn’t his idea to charge, he’s just taking advantage of the situation his allies created.

It could work.

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Editorial

Greatest Hits 2011

With 2011 nearing completion the Dungeon’s Master team is taking another look at some of our favourite articles from the past year. With over 250 articles posted over the past 12 months there are bound to be a few that you missed somewhere along the way. If you’ve only found Dungeon’s Master recently, this is a good way to discover some of our best work. For those readers who have been with us since the beginning, we think you’ll enjoy revisiting these articles again.

Over the next two weeks we’ll dig up those hidden gems that generated a lot of discussion among the gaming community or that we think best represent what we’re all about.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 4)

The heroes finished last week’s encounter by passing through the waterfall and emerging in a room with a couch, a wooden table and a fresco of an enchanted forest. They followed the only passage towards the sounds of crashing waves and weeping.

This week I managed to run the encounter twice. The beginning of the encounter was pretty much the same for both groups as it was a huge information dump designed to set the stage for the rest of the adventure. I’ll provide specifics about how the two groups handled things differently later in the article. For now let’s get right to the story.

As the heroes continued through the passage it seemed to transform from support beams to actual trees. The change happened so gradually that the PCs didn’t immediately realize they were no longer in the cave, but in a forest. They found themselves in a wide circle of toadstools. They worn path they followed along side the same stream continued towards the sounds of the weeping. Behind them they could hear the crashing of waves.

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Class Discussions Player Resources

Changing Classes

If your Wizard wants to dabble in swordplay he can always choose to multi-class in Fighter (assuming you meet the prerequisites). Or, if this is something you decided during the character creation process then you can make a hybrid character that combines aspects of both classes equally. But what happens if, after many levels as a Wizard, you decide that you don’t just want to be a dabbler who multi-classes. What if he wants to give up the arcane arts entirely and become a Fighter? What does he do then?

If you’re following the rules as written then you don’t really have any acceptable options. However, a creative player may be able to convince an adventurous DM to explore other possibilities, especially if they make sense in the context of the game.

Changing classes after character creation isn’t something that the 4e mechanics allow for. However, previous editions of D&D did. It’s not something that happens often so I’m not surprised that no 4e mechanic exists to accommodate this kind of thing. But sometimes there will be a really good in-game story rationale for why a PC must abandon his old class entirely and pursue another. In these cases we need to get creative.

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Humour

Dungeon’s Master Presents: Christmas with the Gamer (Encore)

With Christmas less than two weeks away I felt it was a good time to dust off this holiday-themed article from the Dungeon’s Master archive and give it an encore performance. First published last December, this D&D holiday-themed tale was inspired in part by real events that happened in my household over the holidays. Merry Christmas.

Originally published on December 15, 2010, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Christmas With the Gamer.

I’d rather be playing D&D. But it’s Christmas and my family is coming over for a big holiday dinner. So I’m forced to settle for the banality known as real life for the next few hours.

I lumber downstairs from my bedroom, making no effort to be stealthy. Anyone in the living room or kitchen with a half-way decent passive perception knows I’m on my way. As a triggered action when I reach the bottom of the staircase my mother, the controller, starts giving me orders. I have to clean the basement, playfully called the dungeon, before company arrives.

As I pass by the living room I notice my father watching football. My dad is the epitome of the Warlord class. He’s a generous leader who constantly gives up his actions to let other act in his place. Whether that action is taking out the trash, cleaning the basement, or mowing the lawn, he’s always been very generous and giving. He’s just that kind of guy. Even when my mother asks him to do something he takes advantage of his class features to give up his action and let someone else do twice as much on their turn.

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