Author: Ameron (Derek Myers)

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 16)

The creatures guarding the entrance to the dragon’s lair were defeated, now it’s time to face the dragon herself. The party briefly debated how to proceed. The sneaky PCs could try to use Stealth to get the lay of the land undetected. The tanks could charge in and run full steam ahead towards any opponents that might be present. Or we could try Diplomacy and see if we could talk the dragon into not attacking the Keep.

Eventually the dim-witted Eldeth got restless and decided that a frontal assault was the way to proceed. Before anyone could change her mind she was already going down the ladder and into the hole, ready to fight the dragon or die trying. The rest of the party reluctantly followed. Fortunately level heads prevailed and we convinced Eldeth to hold her killer instinct in check until while we tried to parley.

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DM Resources

The Little Details Make a Big Difference

One thing I learned from reading the works of the late, great Gary Gygax is that memorable encounters often include a lot of little details. These details aren’t necessarily important to the greater adventure, but are important to the scene. If you’ve ever read any of Gygax’s now-classic adventures like the Keep on the Borderlands, Tomb of Horrors or the Temple of Elemental Evil you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The danger of including these little details is that the players may place more importance and significance on them then you ever intended. How you choose to deal with that eventuality can make a huge difference to your game. In a game I recently DMed, adding a little detail almost changed the course of the entire adventure.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: December 2010

During the first half of December we brought you new 4e D&D articles every day. During the second half of December the Dungeon’s Master team took some time off for the holidays and during that time we ran our 2010 greatest hits. With a mixture of new and old articles, readers visiting Dungeon’s Master in December were treated to a lot of great 4e D&D.

On or around the first of each month we collect everything we’ve published in the previous month and make it easily available for all of our readers. This lets you revisit your favourite article from the month before or if you’ve just discovered Dungeon’s Master it’s an easy way to get caught up on anything you might have missed.

Thanks to everyone who visited us throughout December. We welcome your feedback and appreciate it when you leave your comments.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Greatest Hits 2010: The 5-Minute Rest as a Skill Challenge

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 2010. 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.

Between my home games, LFR and D&D Encounters I’ve easily DMed over 100 hours of D&D during the past year. Of all the ideas I had as the DM during 2010, this was one of the ideas that stands out in my mind as a solid bull’s-eye.

Turning a 5-minute rest into a skill challenge seemed like such a simple concept. I wasn’t sure how well it would be executed in a real game scenario, but it turned out better than I’d hoped. It was one of those times when I didn’t feel bound or restricted by the rules. I used the existing materials as a guideline and adapted them to the situation at my gaming table. The result was an extremely memorable encounter.

Everything clicked. The players realized the importance and necessity of taking the rest at that point in the adventure and they were willing to role-play the scenario. Even though they’d typically just say they were taking the rest, this time they wanted to play it out. They understood the objective (to rest without being attacked) and knew the limitations they faced as “resting” character.

As one of the players commented in the original article, he felt the skill challenge part of the 5-minute rest was worked into the encounter so gracefully that he didn’t even realize a skill challenge was going on. When running a skill challenge, this is the highest compliment I think any DM can get from his players.

On the surface, I encourage you to use this idea in your next game and have the 5-minute rest become a skill challenge in itself. However, the more important lesson I hope you take away from this article is that the rules are there to provide direction. Ultimately it’s you – the DM – that drives the game. Feel free to bend and even break the rules from time-to-time if doing so will make the game better.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 15)

After taking a bunch of short rests to maximize healing, the party continued following the stone markers deeper into the swampland in search of Benwick and the Black Dragons.

We played a double session last week so the party for this encounter remained unchanged at seven. There was Berrian, Hagen, Sola, a Dragonborn Sorcerer, a crossbow-firing Human Rogue, a Human Wizard and a Human Cavalier. With a party this large the DM had to add more monsters in order to keep things challenging. I think his modifications over the past two encounters were balanced and appropriate given the party’s composition.

Any time you have seven players in the party you know combat will take a long time. This week’s encounter took us over two hours to complete. We took a serious pounding, which I’ll describe below. In order to keep this write-up to a reasonable length I’m going to skip over some of the more routine actions and just focus on the most exciting, interesting, stupid or controversial things. So just because I don’t account for everyone’s actions every round don’t think they weren’t contributing.

The party approached a clearing as quietly as they could and most of the PCs made adequate Stealth checks. Sola and the Cavalier, both wearing heavy metal armor, stood apart from those hiding as they brazenly walked along the path in plain sight. When they entered the clearing they saw a giant lizardfolk Bruiser standing atop a ruined dais.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Greatest Hits 2010: Making Boring Skill Challenges More Exciting

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 2010. 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.

There is one really obvious way to make any boring skill challenge more exciting that I didn’t mention in the original article – getting everyone to participate. I’ve noticed when I’m playing in public games at my FLGS (especially D&D Encounters) that some players aren’t participating in skill challenges. Any encounter you don’t participate in is going to seem boring to you.

Many players assume that it’s the DM’s responsibility to ensure everyone is included. I agree with this, but I also believe that experienced players must shoulder some of this burden. If you’re playing at a table where others aren’t participating try to encourage them to join in.

One reason I’ve heard that some players find skill challenges boring is because their character isn’t that good in very many skills. Too many players – especially newer players – think that they must use their best skills during a skill challenge. You have no idea how much I disagree with this thinking.

Let the narrative and the role-playing guide you during a skill challenge. Don’t look at the skills and then decide on your action, decide on your action and then look at your skills. If you’ve done a good job in-character of explaining what your character is doing and more importantly why they are doing it, the roll should be a lot less significant. Most DMs I’ve played with will usually ignore the roll and just award a success in this situation.

The next time players are complaining that a skill challenge is boring; make sure that it isn’t because they aren’t participating. Once you’re sure everyone is involved in the skill challenge then use the guidelines I’ve described below to work on other ways to spice things up.

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DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2010: Adding Favours to Treasure Bundles

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 2010. 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.

When I wrote this article my games were in the early paragon tier (around level 11-12). Now that I have a few different characters nearing epic levels I’ve realized, as both a player and a DM, that favours are usually considered more valuable than monetary treasure.

As I noted in the original article, the characters reach a point when they don’t really need any more equipment and money just starts to pile up. The only thing that tougher PCs want is to upgrade from a +3 weapon to a +4 weapon. In the grand scheme of things the difference of +1 isn’t nearly as exciting or interesting as a favour.

I’ve found that the aspect of D&D that really appeals to me as my characters become more powerful is the role-playing. Sure combat is fun, but by the time I’ve reach level 20 combat often gets stale. However, role-playing a level 20 character and all the perks and privileges that come along with that kind of power, is where things get really interesting.

Part of what makes characters this powerful so interesting is knowing what they’ve accomplished and who they’ve met along the way. By accumulating favours over multiple levels you give yourself a good reason to keep in touch with NPCs from your character’s past, especially if you ever plan to collect that favour.

As a DM who often awards favours, I’ve found that the players keep better track of their previous deeds and the names of important NPCs so that they can collect the favour when needed. Players with a pocket full of favours will come up with the most creative and unexpected ways to call in those favours in order to accomplish their latest challenge.

If you’re not already awarding favours in your game, be it in place of treasure bundles or as an additional perk, I strongly encourage you do begin doing so. It will enrich your game more than you might expect. At least it has for me and my gaming group.

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DM Resources Player Resources Top 10

Greatest Hits 2010: Convention Tips 6 for Players, 6 for DMs

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 2010. 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.

When we were deciding which articles would make the cut and be included as our Greatest Hits of 2010 I kept coming back to the 6 Convention Tips for Players and DMs. After rereading them and I realized two important things.

1) Although the lists were inspired by things I witnessed (or regrettably didn’t witness) at a convention last year, most of these tips are applicable at any D&D game.

2) These tips are just as relevant today as they were when we first published them 10 months ago.

Upon making these realizations I knew that I had to include them in our Greatest Hits. But rather than run them as two separate articles I felt they’d pack more of a punch if they were combined into a single Greatest Hits article.

No matter how long you’ve played D&D or how many times you’ve been the DM there’s always room for improvement. Whether you’re playing a public game at your FLGS like LFR or D&D Encounters, or you’re playing a private game at your dining room table, be mindful of the things I’ve mentioned in the article below. If we all follow these simple rules games will run smoother and things will be better all around.

Playing with a tight-knit and experienced group in my regular weekly home game, we adhere to most of these points. However, I have noticed a couple of these things as big issues when I’ve played D&D Encounters on Wednesdays. Specifically #2) know your PC, and #5) plan ahead.

I realize that most of us are still getting used to D&D Essentials so there is going to be a learning curve on how the powers work. But if you’ve created your own character before the game started then it’s your responsibility to learn what all of the powers do and how to use them. Come on people, the PCs are only level 2 you don’t even have that many powers.

After playing a marathon session just this past Wednesday at D&D Encounters I’m also getting really frustrated by players that just don’t pay attention. First they have no idea when they’re going to act in the initiative (even though they always go after the same person). When their turn comes up they haven’t given any thought to which power they’re going to use. When it’s your turn, if you can’t decide what to do in 5-10 seconds then your default action should be basic attack or double move.

Take a look at our 6 tips for players and 6 tips for DMs and let us know of any other tips that you’ve found helpful at your table in the comment below. By sharing these pointers we all work together to make the D&D experiences a better one.

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Editorial

Merry Christmas

The Dungeon’s Master team wishes all of our readers a safe and happy holiday season.

It’s been almost two years since we began this blog and we continue to be amazed by the ongoing support from out readership. Thank you to all of our readers and to everyone who’s helped make Dungeon’s Master a success.

If you’re still looking for a great gift to give yourself or someone in your gaming group, we have a suggestion that’s in everyone’s price range. Give the gift of 4e D&D content directly into your inbox weekdays throughout 2011 by subscribing to the Dungeon’s Master RSS feed.

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Editorial

Greatest Hits 2010: Fighting an Opponent You Can’t Beat

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 2010. 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.

This article was a reaction to something that happened in one of my games. Although it seemed like a really big deal at the time, this remains the only instance where I’ve faced and opponent I couldn’t beat since I began playing 4e D&D and I think therein lies the real issue.

Players feel that they should be able to defeat everything thrown at them. The D&D Open Championship held at this year’s GenCon is a perfect example. The big opponent was Orcus, arguably one of THE most powerful creatures in 4e D&D. Yet every table of five was not only capable of defeating him, everyone expected that they would.

So the big question is whether or not DMs should – on occasion – remind players that they are not at the top of the food chain. Should the DM put the PCs into situations where they may end up fighting an opponent they can’t beat? If done properly, I think this kind of situation hold tremendous educational value.

Unless players try and fail, they’ll continue to think they’re the best there is. And as true as that is in most circumstances it never hurts to remind players that this isn’t always the case. Just try not to kill off too many characters in the process. D&D players tend to see this as something that needs to be avenged rather than a hard learned life lesson to take away and think about.

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