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When PCs Kill the Final Boss Too Soon

As a player nothing bugs me more than a villain that is protected by the power of plot. No matter what happens, no matter how creative or lucky the PCs get during a direct confrontation early in the adventure, this one particular villain cannot be killed, captured or defeated because the DM needs him during the final showdown. It’s the biggest tease in gaming and it needs to stop.

Now I’m not saying that DMs should never have the PCs engage the major villain before the final confrontation. I like it when the PCs get a glimpse of who they’re up against early on. But if circumstances happen to put the PCs into a fight with the big boss and they manage to take him down, don’t rob them of that victory. Obviously something went very, very right for the PCs or something went very, very wrong for the villain. In either case the encounter was likely memorable and no doubt thrilling. So why belittle such an amazing convergence of fortune and let the villain live simply because the story demands that he does?

In a home game the DM obviously has significant latitude to tweak the story if a big boss villain is unexpectedly killed early on, but in printed adventures it’s a lot more difficult. However, it’s never impossible and more DMs need to remember this. You are in charge of everything behind the scenes. You are empowered to make changes as you see fit. You are responsible to keep the adventure moving forward and ensuring the players are having fun along the way. Waving the magic DM wand and saying “he wasn’t really dead” is not the right way to handle things. Not when there are some many great alternatives.

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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From January 7, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps.

It happens in every campaign, one player decides to go off and pursue an agenda or lead that only they understand. The player is totally focused on their objective, nothing else seems to matter. No one else at the table understands it. The DM is at his wits end to contain and control the situation. The other players are slowing losing interest and the entire adventure is about to be waylaid.

If you’ve ever sat at a table where you weren’t the player things were focused on, you know the boredom that soon sets in. The frustration at wanting to move forward, but not being able to due to the indulgence or poor planning of the DM. If you haven’t lived through this eventuality you likely haven’t been playing D&D very long, but don’t worry I’m sure it will happen to you soon enough.

In order to make this eventuality less painful for everyone, here are five steps that provide some straightforward advice on how to handle things if one or more players decide to split the party.

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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: D&D Math – Adding the Numbers

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From June 20, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: D&D Math – Adding the Numbers.

Player – I rolled a 15, plus 7. Do I hit his AC?

DM – What’s the total?

Player – Um, hold on. 15… (Counts under breath) 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. (At full volume again) 22! Does that hit?

DM – Yes it does. His AC is 14.

I’ve been playing a lot of public-play D&D over the past year; mostly D&D Encounters but also a fair amount of LFR. This is of course in addition to my regular weekly game. Playing in all of these games allows me to see how other people play and lets me learn from the experience. It also highlights problem areas in my game and in the game of the other players and DMs.

One disturbing trend that I’m seeing more and more is players that don’t (or possibly even can’t) do the math. They roll a d20, call out the result and then give me their modifiers and ask if they hit. In many cases the roll is high enough to beat the monster’s defences, so I know they hit even without the modifier added in; however, I always ask for the total before confirming a hit or miss. And it’s not only happening with attack rolls. It’ happens with damage rolls too.

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DM Resources

Friday Favourite: Reputation

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. Today’s Friday Favourite is a special case. When we were still a fledgling site we did some guest posts for other gaming blogs. The first was an article on Reputation for The Core Mechanic. Unfortunately the site is now defunct and our article is no longer available. Until now. From April 6, 2009, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Reputation (Part 1).

Reputation is everything in D&D. Even level 1 characters have a reputation. It may only be a reputation for being eager to prove themselves, but it’s enough to get them noticed. What the PCs do today will have a direct impact on the opportunities afforded them tomorrow. Every adventure will add to their reputation and will impact how NPCs view them. It’s up to the DM to use reputation to enhance the overall game.

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DM Resources

Zombies: Breathing Life into an Overused Undead

a-to-z-letters-z

First it was Vampires. Then it was werewolves. Now the popular media seems obsessed with zombies. Where the Vampires and Werewolves got the Twilight treatment and were essentially emasculated by removing the fear factor, zombies for the most part have stayed true to their traditional monstrous selves that everyone’s come to know and expect.

Zombies are everywhere. AMC’s Walking Dead is one of the most popular shows on TV, and the comic that it’s based on is still going strong after 100 issues. It seems that there are more and more zombie novels on the shelves these days than ever before, and there have never been as many big-budget Hollywood movies featuring the undead menace as there are this year.

We’ve practically reached a point where zombies have become a cliché. They’re overused and dare I say it, are starting to bore us. After all, how many different ways can you tell a story that involves a zombie apocalypse? Well, that depends on how imaginative you are. The key to telling an interesting zombie story, or in the case of gamers, running an interesting zombie-themed camping, is to use an angle that we haven’t seen before or at least hasn’t been used to death.

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. In our final article of the A to Z challenge “Z” is for Zombies.

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DM Resources

Yawning Portal

a-to-z-letters-yHow many times has your adventure begun in a tavern? Too many, I’m guessing. It’s one of the most overused settings in D&D and the go-to locale for lazy DMs who need a quick way to get the PCs on the path to adventure.

There’s a reason that so many adventures begin in a tavern – it works. After all, the PCs are usually of different races and have varying backgrounds so where else would this rag-tag, miss-match bunch of people ever meet other than in the tavern? The only other place that comes to mind is a prison cell, but beginning an adventure in prison forces a blemish on every PC that the players may not agree with so the tavern returns to the top of the list.

Despite having a good reason to begin an adventure in the tavern, the very idea of beginning another adventure in the tavern drives me crazy. But I’ve come to realize that it’s not the idea of the tavern as much as that fact that it’s a non-descript tavern. If the DM feels its necessary to start things in the tavern I think it’s his responsibility to make it more than just four walls, some tables, and a bar. If taverns are such an integral part of D&D then the DM owes it to the PCs to make the tavern interesting.

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. We look at taverns and the importance of making them interesting, as is the case in today’s “Y” Yawning Portal.

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DM Resources

The Xanathar

a-to-z-letters-xIn September 2012, I had two articles published in Dungeon Magazine issue 206. The first article was called “The Xanathar: Beholder Crime Lord of Waterdeep” and in it I provided a new take on one of Waterdeep’s most infamous criminals. The second was an adventure called “Eyes on the Ball” in which the PCs found themselves forming a tenuous allegiance with The Xanathar and his lieutenants to stop an evil slaver.

Today I’d like to share some of the background and insights that inspired my re-imagining of The Xanathar. But in order to do that I need to first provide some context. It all began in 1987.

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. Today the “X” is for Xanathar, the name of the most notorious crime boss in the Forgotten realms and my part in adding to the canon of D&D.

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DM Resources

Venger

a-to-z-letters-vMy first exposure to Dungeons & Dragons was through the Saturday morning cartoon in 1983. I was 9 years old at the time and the show fascinated me. I could relate to the characters because they were around my age. The fantastic elements of D&D – the magic, the monsters, and the adventures – left tremendous feelings of wonder and awe on my young and impressionable mind. When I was invited to actually play D&D in the years to follow, I was immediately on board.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only player who created characters that mimicked the heroes from the show. This was likely due in part to my limited experienced with the game and limited knowledge of the choices available. But it was just as likely because I thought those characters were cool.

venger-01The other thing I wanted to do as soon as I started playing D&D was to fight Venger. According to the title sequence of the D&D cartoon, Venger was the force of evil in the world of Dungeon & Dragons. He wasn’t just some bad guy, he was THE bad guy. Forget fighting Bullywugs, Orcs and even Dragons, point me in the direction of Venger! I never got my chance to fight Venger, and after a little while I realized that I didn’t need to fight him to enjoy my D&D experience, but a part of me still wants to take him on. After all he is a great villain.

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. “V” is for Venger, the force of evil in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

The United Nations… of Monsters

a-to-z-letters-uOne thing the fantastic worlds of D&D always seem to have in common is extreme racially diversity. Hundreds of intelligent races and monsters coexist on one planet, often even on one continent. In a world with magic this improbability becomes accepted as part of the campaign world. But have you ever wondered how all those monsters continue to coexist?

Think about it, why haven’t the biggest and most powerful creatures completely decimated some of the less populace races? It’s almost like there’s some kind of force in place to ensure that no matter what kind of creature, monster or humanoid you happen to be, you will never be the last of your kind. Every race will continue to live in some form or another in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

What if the reason that no species is hunted to extinction is that the monsters themselves have some kind of arrangement or agreement in place? What if the Giants agreed not to destroy the Orcs and the Dragons agreed not to wipe out the Halflings? What if the Beholders agreed not to eradicate the Svirfneblin and the Goblins agreed not to kill every last Pixie. What if there was some kind of governing body, a council if you will, that had representation from every sentient creature on the planet and that this group met in secret to decide on matters concerning all beings in the gaming world? It could happen. In fact, who’s to say it hasn’t already happened.

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. Today “U” is for United Nations of Monsters, a governing body where all the races of the D&D world come together in peace for mutual benefit and prosperity.

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DM Resources

Terrain to Challenge Epic Characters

a-to-z-letters-tWhen creating encounters many DMs, especially rookie DMs, focus first and foremost on the monsters. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this approach. However, just as many DMs will regrettably spend almost no time creating interesting terrain to flesh out the encounter. They’re so concerned with finding the right balance of monsters that the locale is nothing more than an afterthought.

Good encounters should have interesting terrain features. There should be things that will make the combat more interesting; anything from obstacles to hide behind, to hazardous areas to try and push your enemies into. You character will engage in lots of battles and even though the monsters may change the combat doesn’t really. The right terrain makes any mundane combat encounter more interesting.

At low levels terrain features need be nothing more than a deep pit, a campfire, a few tall trees, or a meandering stream. But by epic level none of these terrain features will be significant. Feel free to add them for flavour, but they certainly won’t challenge the PCs or change the outcome of the battle. Epic terrain needs to be as grandiose and diverse as the PCs. Today we’ll share a few ideas on how to create terrain that challenges epic characters.

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. Today “T” is for terrain as we explore its need to change and evolve as the PCs become more powerful.

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