Author: Ameron (Derek Myers)

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Secret Identity

As the PCs become more powerful and earn a reputation they’re going to become better known across the land. However, there are going to be times when this fame and notoriety will actually be a hindrance. So when one of those situations arises why not throw a skill challenge into the background of the story in order to remind the PCs that if they want to keep their identities a secret it’s going to require a little bit of work.

I want to stress that this kind of skill challenge should be going on in the background and not be a full-on skill challenge in the traditional sense. By the time the PCs have earned enough experience to be recognized, a skill challenge to hide their true identities will seem beneath their level. When I say recognized, I mean to the extent that they can no longer walk among the common folk without drawing crowds and onlookers.

However, by making this a skill challenge with real consequences and XP, the players will realize that it needs to be taken seriously. It also gives the players additional motivation to really get into the role-playing.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 19)

The Keep continued to be overrun by Liazrdfolk. As the PCs ran towards the Inner Keep to fortify their defensive position they caught glimpses of the Black Dragon, Yulbraxis breathing acid on Lord Drysdale’s men in the square. They immediately rushed to aid these brave men. These heroes had already slain one Black Dragon, it was time to kill another one.

For the first time in weeks our party was down to only six players and what a difference it made. I’m not suggesting that anyone get turned away from a D&D game, especially D&D Encounters, but with the numbers back to normal the game ran a lot smoother and a lot faster. I think it’s fair to say that this was also at least in part because after 19 weeks most of us have come to know our characters so well we could run them with our eyes closed.

For week 19 our party consisted of Berrian, Quinn, Sola, a Cavalier, a Rogue and a Runepriest. No new players and no new characters this week. Just six PCs that we’d come to know and love.

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Editorial

Retreat Is Always An Option, At Least It Should Be

A common belief among many D&D players is that if the party is balanced and the DM is doing his job properly, every encounter is beatable. This kind of thinking among players instills within them with a sense of invulnerability – an invulnerability that they do not in fact possess. However, with the way that the 4e D&D mechanics work, more often than not players should have a pretty reasonable chance of overcoming a balanced encounter. Thus players continue believing that they’re capable of defeating everything they face. It never even occurs to them that in some instances they’ll face an opponent they can’t beat.

Sometime, however, you’re fortunate enough to play with a group that doesn’t mistakenly believe that they can overcome every encounter put before them. When this kind of party senses that they’re in over their head they will consider retreat as a viable option. It’s not something that will come up very often, but when it does it can have a really dramatic effect on the game.

Twice in the past week I’ve had parties toy with the idea of retreat; once during a level 1 game and the other during a level 16 game. I have to admit that I was very surprised at how differently the two groups rationalized the situation and made their choices.

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DM Resources

Henchmen in 4e D&D

As your character earns enough XP and gains sufficient level doesn’t it make sense that he’d start to attract some followers? Your character is a role-model for aspiring heroes. Tales of his exploits and successes will eventually reach the ears of impressionable youngsters. Inevitably some of them will take steps to seek out your character and bask in his greatness. Whether they seek to learn from him directly or they just want to be close by the next time something awesome happens, your PC has made a name for himself and gaining henchmen is one of the consequences of his fame.

Your character’s ever-developing reputation is a big part of what defines the PC and is just as big a part of how other people will interact with him. But we’ve already written about Reputation (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) so we won’t bother retreading over that ground again. Instead I want to look at the idea of PCs attracting henchmen of their own.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 18.)

The siege on Restwell Keep continued. The PCs managed to stop the lizardman army from breaching the front gates long enough for reinforcements to arrive and shore up the defenses. Now the heroes moved through the inner courtyard towards Fountain Square to meet up with Lord Drysdale. When they arrive at Fountain Square they see a dozen lizardfolk overwhelming Drysdale’s soldiers. “They’re coming from Benwick’s house,” cries one of the solders. “They must have a tunnel.”

This week we were a party of eight: Berrian, Hagen, Quinn, Sola, a Cavalier, a Rogue, a Runepriest and a Sorcerer. Just like last week’s encounter, the players each got to command one of the soldiers in addition to their own PC on their turn. The soldiers were minions who could attack using their swords or crossbows.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Campaigns in the Cold (Part 1)

This summer we ran a series of adventure hooks that featured numerous bizarre and strange happenings that occurred in the Sun & Moon Tavern (part 1 | part 2). These articles have been incredibly popular and continue to be among our most widely read pages from the past six months. It seems pretty clear to us that our readers want more short, quick adventure hooks.

One of the reasons the Adventure Hooks from the Sun & Moon Tavern were so popular was that they all centered around one common location. It made coming up with the adventure hooks easier for me as the DM, but I think it also made them more appealing for readers.

Before I sat down to brainstorm more adventure hooks I wanted to come up with a theme to tie them all together. The answer was as simple as looking out my front door. I decided to put together adventure hooks that all took place in a snowy environment.

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DM Resources Editorial

Putting More “Action” in Action Points

As D&D has evolved over the years many rules and mechanics have been tweaked and changed in order to make the game better. I think one of the greatest improvements was when actions points were introduced with the Eberron Campaign Setting back in 3e D&D. They began as bonus to your d20 roll. Expending an action point meant a good attack became a great attack. With 4e D&D the action point was changed and this good idea became a great idea. Now you actually got another action when you used an action point. Awesome!

Recently I’ve been thinking back to how Wizards of the Coast described the original action point mechanic. One of the reasons it was introduced was to add an extra level of excitement to encounters. This was your chance to have your character do something truly remarkable. You suddenly gave greater consideration to trying new things that were over the top and spectacular.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 17)

This week we began the final chapter of the adventure. Over the next four weeks the PCs will help Lord Drysdale and his men defend Restwell Keep from the besieging lizardfolk army lead by Benwick and the Black Dragon. The heroes will defend the Keep or die trying.

All along I was looking hoping for a thrilling conclusion to this 20-week adventure and it looks like that’s exactly what Wizards has in store for us. The PCs are in a situation where things are happening at a rapid pace. They’ll be lucky to get short rests between the fighting. Everything they’ve done until now has some impact on what’s to come during the final weeks. I only hope that the adventure and the execution at my FLGS lives up to my own expectations.

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DM Resources Editorial

Undead Make the Scariest Villains

Would you rather fight a beholder or a zombie? This is a much more complicated question than you might realize. Look at this through the eyes of your character and not through the eyes of a meta-gamer. In-character what is the scariest monster you can imagine? For me it’s undead more than any other.

Most monsters are, well, monstrous. They are clearly different than you and they must be destroyed. The beholder is an abomination. It’s scary, and a big party of what makes it scary is that it doesn’t conform to a physical shape you’re comfortable with. It’s a giant floating ball with eyestalks swirling about. Even if you’d never seen a beholder before and knew nothing about it, your initial instinct as an adventurer would be to attack and destroy something so awful.

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Player Resources

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands Level 3 Characters

Beginning today all characters for D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands have advanced to level 3. Wizards of the Coast encourages everyone to create their own character using D&D Essentials. However, for those players who don’t have the time or resources (character builder) to create their own level 3 character, Wizards has provided six pre-gens.

What Wizards has not provided are guidelines for leveling up the pre-gens. So the Dungeon’s Master team has created level 3 versions of all six pre-gens for your convenience.

You can download the characters individually or all six together in one zip file. We’ve also made the character builder files available for download so that you can equip the pre-gens with any magical treasure they might have acquired during the previous 16 weeks of adventuring.

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