Category: Adventure Hooks

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Adventure Hooks

Adventure Hooks: Illusions

a-to-z-2014-iWhen people play D&D for the first time the class they often end up running is a Fighter. Most experienced gamers will agree that the Fighter is the simplest class to run. You grab a big weapon, throw on some armor, and attack the monsters. On the flip side of that coin I think the most difficult class to run is the Illusionist. Think about it, none of your illusion spells can inflict any direct damage to a monster. If you want to be useful and contribute to the party you need to be exceptionally creative and be able to use your illusions in really creative ways. Not something all players can do successfully or consistently.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “I” is for illusions as we share some crafty ways in which DMs can mess with heir players using nothing but make imaginary images and sounds.

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Adventure Hooks: Healing

a-to-z-2014-hTime heals all wounds. Unless you’re a PC in a fantasy role-playing game like D&D in which case there is plenty of healing magic at your disposal. Now divine spells and potions heal all wounds so nobody needs to stay down and out for more than a few seconds.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “H” is for healing as we explore way to turn the need for medical assistance into an interesting adventure hook.

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Adventure Hooks: Gambling

a-to-z-2014-gGambling can be thrilling. The idea that you can place a bet on something, and if successful win a sizable reward appeals to most people. Gambling can serve as an invigorating adrenaline rush for those who play for high stakes. It can be a form of entertainment for those who can afford to lose. It can give hope to the desperate and inspiration to the lazy. It doesn’t take much to find a reason for someone to gamble, especially PCs.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “G” is for gambling as we look at ways PCs can gamble or how others can gamble on them.

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Adventure Hooks: Warrior Needs Food, Badly!

a-to-z-2014-fVery few games I’ve ever played in or run spend much time worrying about what PCs eat, how frequently they eat, or where they get the food that sustains them. It’s not usually an interesting part of the game so we gloss over it. Obviously every living creature eats, but we just assume that meals happen behind the scenes. Food is not usually an important part of D&D. But it can be if we make it so.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “F” is for Food as we share some adventure hooks to satisfy your hunger for ideas.

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Adventure Hooks: Elf Quest

a-to-z-2014-eWhen I first got into comic books back in the early 80s I couldn’t get enough Spider-man and Batman. As far as my 10-year-old self knew, Marvel and DC were the only companies making comics. So when I first saw a copy of Elf Quest in my cousin’s comic collection I was curious. Here was this black and white comic that was the same size as a magazine. It didn’t feature superheroes but it was full of fantasy creatures like the ones I’d read about in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Could it be that I’d discovered an overlapping of my two geekiest hobbies? Absolutely!

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will be provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “E” is for Elf Quest as we draw inspiration from one of my favourite comics to come up with today’s adventure hooks.

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Adventure Hooks: Here Be Dragons

a-to-z-2014-dDragons have always been an iconic monster in D&D, but far too often they get turned into boring quantities. They are the elemental-themed bosses that you make sure you have resistances against before confronting. They are the fighter planes of the D&D movie, big and damaging but ultimately forgettable. They are monsters whose stats fail to convey their majesty. But they don’t have to be.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today Joe Lastowski helps out the Dungeon’s Master team by sharing some great adventure hooks about Dragons.

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Adventure Hooks: Coins

a-to-z-2014-c

When civilized societies do away with the bartering system they turn to currency to make transactions easier. In D&D and most fantasy settings the currency of the land is coins. Gold pieces, silver pieces, and copper pieces are the traditional staples from which coins are cast, but each fantasy world will have coins made from whatever materials make sense. For example in Athas, the world of Dark Sun, metals are extremely rare so coins are made of ceramics.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “C” is for coins as all the adventure hooks focus on currency.

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Adventure Hooks: Oh Baby

a-to-z-2014-bIn all the years I’ve been playing D&D very few characters in any of my adventuring parties have ever had kids. Even the PCs who live long and fruitful lives, adventuring into their old age and accumulating incredible amounts of wealth still don’t stop to settle down and have a family. It’s as if having kids in-game is a sign of weakness, or even a curse to your favourite PC. I suppose it’s because as soon as you say your character has people he cares about in his life the DM will use that against you.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today’s “B” adventure hooks all center around a baby in one way or another.

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Adventure Hooks: It Came From the Abyss!

a-to-z-2014-aIn D&D the Abyss is the place where Demons dwell. Some of the most fearsome, powerful, and iconic monsters in D&D call the Abyss home – Orcus, Demogorgon, and Lolth, for example (coincidentally all depicted on the covers of the 4e Monster Manuals). But for every named entity who’s managed to carve out a piece of the Abyss for themselves there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lesser beings that make up the vast majority of denizens.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today’s “A” article features adventure hooks that tie in to the Abyss.

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Greatest Hits 2013: The United Nations… of Monsters

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 2013. 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.

The idea is really quite simple; introduce a governing body to your game world that has representation from all races in your fantasy campaign. In the article we suggest a few ways to make this work. At the end of the article we provided some possible adventure hooks. Today we’ve got a few more.

These hooks will certainly work better if the DM knows he’s going to include the UN of Monsters in his campaign when the PCs are developing characters. The DM can provide direction without revealing too much. Enjoy.

  • Every party member is a different race (not that uncommon). They are approached by a mentor early in their adventuring career. The mentor explains that they are being considered for membership in a very exclusive club. Every time the PCs take on a quest they are scored and judged. Eventually some or all of the PCs are offered seats on the UN of Monsters’ council.
  • Every party member is the same race. They are brought together as special enforcers in order to protect and promote the culture and history of their people. They are fully aware of the UN of Monsters as they take orders directly from their race’s representative. Do they do so unconditionally? What would happen if their contact on the UN was killed or replaced? Is their loyalty to the UN of Monsters, their race, or the person who happens to hold office right now?
  • One of the PCs represents his race at the UN of Monsters. His race is expelled from the UN. Any protection his race had from being included in the UN of Monsters is gone. What does the PC do? Is he personally held responsible for any problems that spin out of the expulsion? Is it within his power to get his people back in to the UN? What are the consequences to other races that help?
  • The PCs witness monsters coming together after a natural disaster to provide aid. Creatures like Dragons and Giants (many of them evil) literally move mountains, redirect the flow of rivers, and rebuild infrastructure like roads and bridges. During this unexpected cooperation hunters attack and kill the creatures. What do the PCs do? What side does the party sympathize with?

The idea of a United Nations of Monsters is one I’ve kicked around for a long time. It certainly has a lot of potential for any fantasy game world. I hope that some DMs who read the original article and who read this rerun borrow it and use it in their campaign. If you’ve used a UN of Monsters or something similar, please share your experiences in the comments below.

From April 24, 2013, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: The United Nations… of Monsters.

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