Author: Ameron (Derek Myers)

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Book Reviews Eberron Editorial

An Interview With Eberron Author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 3)

don-bassingthwaite-a

Today we complete our interview with Eberron author, Don Bassingthwaite. In this installment Don talks about The Tyranny of Ghosts, the third novel in the Legacy of Dhakaan trilogy, inventing the goblin language and who he would cast in the movie versions of his books.

Although the interview is presented in print and in multiple parts, we’ll make the complete interview available as an audio download in November’s Month in Review article.

You can read all about Don and follow him at his own website DBassingthwaite.com. You can also visit the Don Bassingthwaite page at Wizards of the Coast. It has a mini bio as wells as a list of the Forgotten Realms and Eberron books he’s written. They also provide sample chapters of his recent works for download.

If you missed the other installments, be sure to check out An Interview with Eberron author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 1) and (Part 2).

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Player Resources Top 10

10 Reminders for All D&D Players

During a recent game I took note of all the things the players at my gaming table, me included, could be doing better or doing differently. What I came up with was a list of general reminders that all players should review. Most of these are common sense kind of reminders, but I’m amazed at how often PCs forget to do the most obvious things. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the game or the most experienced player in the room, everyone benefits from a quick refresher.

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Editorial Player Resources

One More Reason that Character Builder is Awesome

A few weeks ago my regular gaming group began a short-term, four week campaign. Our characters started at level 7 and at the end of each week we level up. This gave us a great chance to jump right into some of the new classes and give them a try.

By keeping just below the Paragon tier we’re at the heroic “sweet spot.” We’ve got a few powers and items to choose from on our turn, but we’re not bogged down with so many choices that it slows play. It’s been a fantastic ride (with one more week to go). I highly recommend trying this approach to gaming. But that’s an article for a different day. Today I want to again express my admiration for the character builder.

For the mini-adventure described above I choose to play a Barbarian. And since I had my brand new copy of Primal Power I thought it would be a good idea to try out one of the new builds. The character I made was a kick-ass, dual-weapon wielding, Razorclaw Shifter, Whirling Slayer Barbarian. The problem was that most of the powers I wanted were from the new book, and until today they weren’t available in Character Builder. So I improvised.

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Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Streetwise

Streetwise can be more than knowing where to go, who to talk to and what to look for in an urban setting. The most common use for Streetwise is to gather information, but that’s certainly not the only way to use this skill. A clever DM can launch an entire quest beginning with a simple Streetwise check. The PCs may overhear a careless word at the tavern, a trader’s rumours in the market or the vain words of a noble. Streetwise may garnish information but determining its reliability is another matter all together.

PCs trained in Streetwise should have a clear advantage over those who don’t (in addition to the +5 bonus). If the player has provided a clever back-story for how the PC gained training in Streetwise, the DM may decide that certain avenues of exploration are easier than usual to that PC in certain circumstances. The exact nature of any additional fringe benefits is left up to the player and the DM to decide.

As with all skills, Streetwise is only limited by the player’s imagination. If you’re having trouble coming up ideas on how to use Streetwise creatively, here are 10 suggestions that you may find useful.

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Editorial

Should Players Suffer When PCs Die?

Death. Until this week, I’d never witnessed the death of a PC. It can have serious short-term and long-term ramifications on your campaign. In a world without easily accessible magic to raise a dead PC, death is final. Your guy dies and it’s time to create a new PC. But in most D&D campaigns magic is readily available (for a price) and you can revive a fallen comrade easily enough. Chances are if a PC dies as part of a long-term campaign you’ll bring him back from the dead, but what about a one-off game?

In a recent Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) game I played at my friendly local gaming shop I sat down with six complete strangers to play a level 4-7 adventure. During the first combat encounter one of the PCs was killed. Dead, dead. We had to decide what was more important, making the best in-game, role-playing choice or making the best out-of-game, real life choice.

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Book Reviews Eberron Editorial

An Interview With Eberron Author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 2)

don-bassingthwaite-a

We continue our interview with Eberron author, Don Bassingthwaite. In this installment Don talks about how much D&D’s game rules impact his writing as well as some of the challenges he experienced when 4e came out.

Although the interview will be presented in print and in multiple parts, when we’re finished we’ll make the complete interview available as an audio download.

You can read all about Don and follow him at his own website DBassingthwaite.com. You can also visit the Don Bassingthwaite page at Wizards of the Coast. It has a mini bio as wells as a list of the Forgotten Realms and Eberron books he’s written. They also provide sample chapters of his recent works for download.

If you missed the first installment, be sure to check out An Inteview with Eberron author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 1).

Continue reading “An Interview With Eberron Author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 2)”
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Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Nature

Nature, like all the knowledge skills in 4e D&D, encompasses a great amount of information. Its scope is quite broad and its use is often limited only by the PC’s imagination. Here are 10 new and creative ways to use Nature.

Knowledge skills can be used for more than just monster knowledge checks. This is certainly a very useful feature of the skill, but its use shouldn’t end there. During skill challenges, Nature can often be used to assist other skills depending on the circumstance.

The Druid, Ranger, Shaman and Warden all receive automatically training in Nature. The Barbarian, Bard, Sorcerer and Wizard have it as an optional choice. Nature may not be the most common skill, but there’s a pretty good chance that someone in the party will have a good Nature check.

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Editorial

Weekend in the Realms 2009

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On Saturday I participated in the 2009 Weekend in the Realms. “The Icy Queen’s Crossing” is an Living Forgotten Realms adventure for character of 1st to 4th level. Although pre-generated characters were provided, players were free to bring their own LFR character as long as they weren’t above level 4.

One of the things that made this event unique is that the “adventure takes place in the aftermath of the events depicted in the new Forgotten Realms novel The Fall of Highwatch, which was released on November 4.” Previous events have been tied to the release of gaming products like the PHB 2, the Monster Manual 2 and the DMG 2, but this is the first time a 4e adventure has been tied to a novel.

The purpose of these “event” games is to bring new players into the fold. These games are played in public settings, usually game stores and public libraries. Experienced players can meet new people and new players can get an introduction to D&D. It’s win-win. The adventure is straight forward and doesn’t require any background or familiarity with the game. With that in mind, here are the ups and downs of my experience playing in the 2009 Weekend in the Realms.

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Editorial

The Art of D&D (Part 1)

Do you recognize these names: Caldwell, Elmore, Easley, Fields, and Parkinson? If not, I’ll bet you’d recognize their work. These were arguably the most prolific and popular artists in D&D during the 1980s and 90s. Most of the D&D manuals, source books, adventures, novels and magazines of the 80s and early 90s featured the works of one of these five artists on their covers.

Each edition of D&D had a different type of art that was unique to that version of the game. Art of the original D&D consisted of a lot of line drawings. They were two dimensional and simple. With AD&D, the art was taken to a whole new level. It took on a realism that was, until then, uncharacteristic in role-playing games. Artists working to illustrate AD&D understood that just because dragons don’t really exist doesn’t mean they can’t be depicted as if they do.

This realistic approach was applied to more than the monsters. The heroes of various races and classes were shown battling these monsters of fantasy. You believed that this scene could really exist. The details were exquisite. The weapons and armor were authentic and accurate. With these works gracing the covers for D&D rule books, modules, magazines and novels it made you want to buy these books.

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Book Reviews Eberron Editorial

An Interview With Eberron Author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 1)

don-bassingthwaite-aWhen I was reading the excellent Eberron novel The Word of Traitors I discovered that the book’s author, Don Bassingthwaite, lives in my hometown of Toronto. I sent Don an email and asked him if he’d like to do an interview for Dungeon’s Master and he said yes. A couple of weeks later I had the pleasure of sitting down with Don at a local Starbucks where we discussed his road to success as a writer for Wizards of the Coast.

Although the interview will be presented in print and in multiple parts, when we’re finished we’ll make the complete interview available as an audio download.

Before we get started I think it’s only fair to give a shout out to Don himself. You can read all about Don and follow him at his own website DBassingthwaite.com. You can also visit the Don Bassingthwaite page at Wizards of the Coast. It has a mini bio as wells as a list of the Forgotten Realms and Eberron books he’s written. They also provide sample chapters of his recent works for download.

Continue reading “An Interview With Eberron Author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 1)”