Author: Wimwick (Neil Ellis)

Taking the Dungeon Out of Dungeons and Dragons

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date April 7, 2009
23 Comments on Taking the Dungeon Out of Dungeons and Dragons

Throughout the life-cycle of Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons have been evolving. Recent discussion around the RPG Bloggers Network has revolved around the Mega-Dungeon. The nostalgia brought up from this discussion is fantastic and brings to mind memories of exploring vast labyrinths. For that matter, it reminds me of playing The Bard’s Tale on my Commodore, but I digress.

Recently, Ameron has written about dungeons. He’s covered the topic through a skill challenge and as a DM aide on pacing the adventure. His articles got me thinking about dungeons and the place they hold in the game. First and foremost I’m not advocating that dungeons be removed from our great game and that we rename it Dragons. I do think there is a case to be made towards handling dungeons in a different manner and the mechanics of 4e lend themselves to it.

Tags 4e, D&D, dungeon crawl, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, megadungeon, Skill Challenge, Wizards of the Coast

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Geography

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date April 3, 2009
3 Comments on Campaign Design: Geography

All the world is a stage and you get to design it. Creating the geography for your gaming world is more than just placing mountains, streams and forest. Every decision you make during this stage of the game will effect future gaming sessions and expansions to your campaign setting. The geographic elements you work into your game world form the natural boundaries that are used to define the kingdoms and territories of your world. It’s important to get it right from the start.

Tags 4e, campaign design, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon Master Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Eberron, geography, resource, RPG, Wizards of the Coast

Adventures

Module: The Spy In Our Midst

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 27, 2009
1 Comment on Module: The Spy In Our Midst

The Spy In Our Midst is the second module offering from the team at Dungeon’s Master. This module continues the adventure path started in our first module, The Magistrate’s Daughter. It is designed for first level characters. Playing both modules should provide PCs with enough experience to advance to second level. We hope that you enjoy the module and would appreciate your feedback.

Tags 4e, adventure, adventure path, D&D, DM, DM Resources, dragons, Dungeon's Master, dungeons, Dungeons and Dragons, Module, player, Skill Challenge, The Spy In Our Midst

Editorial

Why Wizards Missed The Boat With The Insider

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 18, 2009
17 Comments on Why Wizards Missed The Boat With The Insider

Over the past few weeks there’s been some debate over what it means to play Dungeons & Dragons, whether you’re an old school player or part of the new school. If you’re interested in these debates you can read more at A Butterfly Dreaming or at Whitehall ParaIndustries. I don’t want to enter into this debate, but the question of “What is D&D?” got me thinking about what I enjoy about the current edition. It also made me think of the aspects of 4e where I feel Wizards of the Coast fell short.

Before I go any further I should explain that I’m a fan of D&D in all its incarnations, but currently 4e has my heart. I enjoy the pacing, tactics and feel of the game. My gaming group debated upgrading as we always do when a new edition is released and as we usually do we tried out the new edition. Our group is happy with the decision to switch, 4e works for us.

Tags 4e, D&D, digital, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons & Dragons Insider, Dungeons and Dragons, massive multiplayer online, MMO, Wizards of the Coast

Editorial

How Many Classes Are Too Many?

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 17, 2009
18 Comments on How Many Classes Are Too Many?

Player’s Handbook 2 hits shelves today and in it are eight new core classes. Eight more! In my opinion, that’s too many. I don’t have the PHB2 yet – I wasn’t one of the lucky bloggers to get an advance copy. And you know what? I’m not sure if I’m going to buy it since the character builder will be updated with all the new classes, races, feats and powers at the end of the month anyway. But I have read the tidbits already released through the Dungeons & Dragons Insider and the abundance of new classes infuriates me.

Tags 4e, barbarian, bard, character class, D&D, druid, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, evoker, gnome, half-orc, PHB2, players handbook 2, resource, skills feats, sorceror, Wizards of the Coast

Class Discussions

Necromancer: Epic Tier

It’s Friday the 13th and we thought what better way to celebrate than with some Necromancer Epic Tier powers. The Necromancer Epic Tier powers follow up on our previous posts containing Necromancer powers for the Heroic Tier and Paragon Path.

With Wizards of the Coast releasing Arcane Powers later this year it’s only a matter of time before we have the official Necromancer Paragon Path and a slew of powers to support it. In the meantime, if you’re playing a high level Dungeon Delve and would like to play a Necromancer at the Epic Tier we hope that these powers will add some flavour to your game.

Tags 4e, D&D, D&D 4e, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Necromancer, necromancer epic tier, necromancer heric tier, necromancer paragon path, player, Player Resources, resource, RPG, Wizard, Wizards of the Coast

Class Discussions

What Class Are You? – Wimwick

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 12, 2009
5 Comments on What Class Are You? – Wimwick

Wizards of the Coast wants to know what class you are. It’s to help determine the classes that will be released in PHB3. Ok, maybe not but it’s a fun little quiz.

Me I’m a Rogue, but that’s no suprise. I knew I was a Rogue when I introduced myself to you, so I can’t say I’m shocked at the outcome..

The quiz is fun, but it isn’t rocket science to figure out what class you’ll end up with. Check it out.

D&D Home Page – What Class Are You? – Build A Character – D&D Compendium

Tags 4e, character class, Cleric, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Fighter, Paladin, Player Resources, quiz, Ranger, resource, Rogue, RPG, Warlock, Warlord, what class are you, wizards, Wizards of the Coast

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Prevalence of Magic & Cosmology

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 6, 2009
1 Comment on Campaign Design: Prevalence of Magic & Cosmology

What would a fantasy setting be without magic and divine beings fighting their celestial wars? At this point you have decided which historical and fictional elements to use in defining your campaign world. You are now ready to start fleshing the world out in greater detail.

Tags 4e, arcane, campaign design, D&D, deities, divine, DM, DM Resources, dungeon master, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Magic, magic systems, pantheon, religion

Class Discussions Player Resources

Familiars Have Arrived

Yesterday, Ameron congratulated Wizards of the Coast for removing familiars from 4e D&D. While many of you may agree that familiars were an unnecessary game mechanic that added little value, others may miss the little critters. We’ve since learned that Wizards is bringing back familiars later this year in Arcane Power. But for those of you who don’t want to wait that long, we present our take on familiars.

Why would someone miss familiars you might ask? Let’s take a look why this might be the case. Familiars are cool. That’s right, having a hawk circling the battlefield or a snake wrapped around your staff is just a cool statement about your Wizard. It adds to your PC’s personality and can provide for some interesting role playing. Is that a Ferret in your pocket or…?

Tags 4e, Class Discussions, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, familiar, familiars, player, Player Resources, resource, Wizard, wizard familiar

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Historical and Fictional References

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date February 28, 2009
6 Comments on Campaign Design: Historical and Fictional References

In the last article we dealt with the Next Steps in campaign design, today we’ll discuss various campaign settings, historical periods, novels and talk about the themes that exist within the fantasy genre. This is my favourite part of design as it’s where you get to really dream about the different possibilities. Make sure you have your notebook handy and any of the Resources that you’ve collected to help you along the way. You’re bound to have more than a few flash insights at moments that you aren’t actively working on your campaign world and you’ll want to jot them down for future use.

Tags 4e, a song of ice and fire, Beowulf, campaign design, D&D, DM, DM Resources, dungeon master, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, george rr mart, Glen cook, JRR Tolkien, resource, RPG, the black company, Wizards of the Coast