Category: DM Resources

DMs Are the Worst Players

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date January 11, 2013
10 Comments on DMs Are the Worst Players

They say that doctors make the worst patients; well I truly believe that DMs make the worst players. After DMing for long stretches DMs get used to having something to do all the time. They’re used to tracking initiative, running all the monsters, adjudicating rule disputes, playing the NPCs, and basically controlling the world. But when they give up the DM’s seat and go back to being one of the players all they have to worry about is running one character. For some DMs it can be a difficult transition. And for the new DMs it can spell disaster.

This is not to say that all DMs are bad players. Some DMs make the transition gracefully. This is especially true with a close-knit group where everyone takes a turn behind the screen. It’s the DMs who run the show for extended periods of time, especially during public-play or games with newer players that the transition from DM to player causes problems.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons

DM Resources

9 Ways to Improve 4e D&D

For the past few months my regular gaming group took a break from D&D. Now we’re gearing up to return to 4e D&D. However, some of my players are again talking about why they wanted to take a beak in the first place. They were getting bored. They felt that 4e D&D was too much of the same week in and week out.

One of the objectives of this blog has always been to talk about ways to improve your gaming experience. We share a lot of ideas and insights about gaming in general with an obvious focus on 4e D&D. Personally I like 4e the way it is, but I do recognize that there are opportunities for improvement. In fact I encourage creativity if the players think a change will make any part of the game more fun, or more exciting.

With this in mind I opened the floor to new ideas. I asked my gaming group what we could do differently to win back the players who were bored. They came up with a lot of great suggestions. Some of these we’d tried before with varying levels of success, others were things they’d read on the Wizards’ forums that we thought sounded fun. In the end we came up with a list of 9 things that we felt would jump-start our 4e D&D games.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Improvements

DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Don’t Fight to the Death

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 31, 2012
1 Comment on Greatest Hits 2012: Don’t Fight to the Death

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 2011. 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 PCs get hurt in combat you have two options for staying alive: heal or flee. Monsters don’t usually have the option to heal. They can’t use their second wind like PCs and very few monsters have powers or magic items that will allow them to heal. So when a monster is bloodied and approaching 0 hit points what do you think it’s going to do? Logically the answer should be flee, but if you’re a hardcore gamer you expect it to fight until it’s dead-dead.

This has always been one of those aspects of D&D that seems to make sense initially but makes less sense the longer you play. After all, if the objective of a combat encounter is to kill the monster why would the DM have it try to run away? How can I win if I don’t kill it? But as you play more D&D you start to realize that it doesn’t make sense that every single monster, especially those with high intelligence, would fight to the death.

I guess what it really comes down to is the kind of game you and your DM want to play. If you see combat as a zero sum game where the victors are the only ones left standing than keep fighting every monster until it’s down for good. But if you see victory as one side overpowering the other it doesn’t have to mean all of the other side is completely destroyed. Leaving opponents alive or letting them flee can create new problems down the road but it will add a certain amount of realism that is missing from a lot of games.

From January 4, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Don’t Fight to the Death.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Fighting to the Death, Greatest Hits 2012, Tactics

DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Collaborative Dungeon Design

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 30, 2012

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 2012. 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.

Two heads are better than one. Yet in D&D the DM almost always flies solo. It’s rare that the DM will ask any of the players for help, especially when it comes to designing encounters. After all, the DM doesn’t want one player knowing where the traps are or what kind of monsters that will attack the party around the next corner. So most DMs go it alone.

This can lead to problems when you have one DM doing all the work for extended periods of time. Most DMs have a certain style. They might use or avoid using some monsters. They might throw in lots of minions. They might overuse traps. The point is that the group may be bored or even sick of having the same DM give them the same things over and over again. My group rotates the DM to help avoid these problems but I know this is not the case for all groups. If you’re stuck with the same DM and you’re not wild about his DMing style what can you do? Insist the DM get help from the rest of the group.

In most groups each participant brings a different specialty to the table. For example in my group we have one player who loves to create new monsters. We’ve learned to draw on this skill when we need something unique (usually a big boss monster). Sure that player will know the monster’s vulnerability or lowest defense, but he’s good at not letting that affect his play. Another player is great at designing traps, so again the DMs will tap him for help to really make the next dungeon deadly.

The point is that DMs shouldn’t feel that they need to do all the heavy lifting by themselves. You’ve got a table full of gaming geeks that are all creative. Let them add their 2 cents to the design of an encounter. You don’t have to use what they provide exactly as they’ve provided it, but you should be open to the wealth of knowledge your gaming group can offer even when they’re just the players.

September 25, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Collaborative Dungeon Design.

Tags 4e, Collaborative Dungeon Design, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012

DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Minions: Full Disclosure

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 29, 2012
1 Comment on Greatest Hits 2012: Minions: Full Disclosure

We’ve written a lot about minions here at Dungeon’s Master. We like minions… a lot. As DMs, as players, and as bloggers, we have an unhealthy obsession with minions. There’s just something to be said for monsters that fall with a single hit.

As a player when I see that the party is outnumbered 2:1 I know we’ve got a tough fight in front of us. When the combat ends and the party stands victorious it feels good. We did our job as heroes and defeated the bad guys. So what that some of them were minions, they were all out to kill us. And therein lays the heart of this article.

A monster is a monster and it has the power and opportunity to kill the PCs if they do nothing. The fact that it’s got only 1 hit point shouldn’t matter. If you see an Orc with a sword running at you do you really care if he has 1 hit point or 100? No. You get out of the way or try to stop him before he can reach you. If a single arrow drops him, great; if it takes seven arrows that’s less great.

The point is that players need to try and put themselves into their characters’ shoes more often. Stop looking at the map and minis as a player and look at it as a character. Don’t assume that some monsters (minions) are less important or less threatening than other monsters. As long as the monsters are standing consider them a threat and don’t let up until every one of them, minion or otherwise, is down.

DMs try using some of the tips we mention in the article below to disguise your minions and keep the players for easily distinguishing them from the more powerful monsters. When the players don’t know which monsters are minions they treat them all equally and consider them all deadly. This mentality makes combat encounters a lot more interesting and enjoyable for everyone.

From June 26, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Minions: Full Disclosure.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012, minion

Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: The 5 Ws of Treasure Maps

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 26, 2012
1 Comment on Greatest Hits 2012: The 5 Ws of Treasure Maps

Although all 5 Ws are all important I find that “who” can often be the most interesting. Finding out who drew they map can be a rich part of any adventure. Assuming that the PCs don’t want to the whole world to know they have this map and are searching for information on its origins, it can lead to some very interesting role-playing. No doubt the PCs will want to consult with experts, look up answers for themselves in lost tomes, and likely be secretive about the whole thing. Perhaps they even realize that misdirection can throw others off their trail. The point is that no matter which skills your party is good at, almost every skill can be put to use in some meaningful way when it comes to finding out who drew the map.

As almost an afterthought in the original article I mentioned providing the players with a handout. In retrospect I think this point should have been given more prominence. Players love handouts. As soon as they have something tangible in their hands they’re hooked. Provide them with a rough map, throw on some unlabelled locations, a few cryptic notes in the margins, and maybe some strange symbols that they can’t immediately decipher, and you know that the PCs will stop at nothing to solve the mystery and find the treasure.

The beauty of treasure maps is that they’re equally useful in any role-playing game, any editions, at any level, and in any campaign setting. This is a big reason why I like giving the PCs treasure maps regardless of what game I’m playing.

From October 10, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: The 5 Ws of Treasure Maps.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012, treasure map

DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Undead of Different Races

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 23, 2012
2 Comments on Greatest Hits 2012: Undead of Different Races

Many years ago my home group played an extended campaign in the Ravenloft setting. In this setting each country (or Domain as they’re called in Ravenloft) is ruled by a Lord. The overwhelming majority of these Lords are undead and exceptionally evil. Any campaign that takes place in Ravenloft is going to be filled with every kind of undead imaginable. Most Lords have undead armies at their disposal so Skeletons, Zombies and Vampire Spawn are the typical foot soldiers that PCs will engage, at least initially.

As much as we loved playing in Ravenloft we eventually just got sick of fighting undead. So when we finally escaped from the horrific setting and returned to the Forgotten Realms we decided as a group that none of the DMs would use undead for a long time to come. For years following our Ravenloft expedition our party never ran into a single undead opponent – which we were ok with.

Looking back on our decision to ban undead from the game I realize that it wasn’t so much undead that we were sick of but the plainness of the undead we fought most often. The only variation between the Skeletons was the weapon in their hand. Even though each new Monster Manual presented us with plenty of new undead creatures, none were really that different than what we’d seen before.

I suspect there are other DMs and gaming groups that have gone through undead fatigue much like my group did, and I’ll bet that in many cases it was the lack of variation that led to the problem. Before taking an extreme measure like we did all those years ago, take steps to make your undead more interesting. You don’t necessarily have to give them new powers (although that is certainly an option); you just have to make them interesting. By describing a detail as simple as their original race you can add life back into your undead, so to speak. And if you feel that giving them access to their racial power that’s certainly a way to make even the most boring and predictable undead foe something to fear again.

From October 15, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Undead of Different Races.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012, skeleton, undead, Vampire, zombie

DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Staying Alive: 8 Ways to Keep Wounded PCs in the Game

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 22, 2012

In the original article we talked about ways to bend the rules or tweak the numbers to give PCs a fighting chance when they’re low on hit points and healing surges. One thing that we didn’t really address that I think deserves mentioning are the PCs starting number of healing surges.

There will always be times when the party cannot continue because they’re out of surges. More often than not it’s the PCs that began with few surges in the first place that make the most noise about taking an extended rest. At my tables it always seems to be the strikers, and more specifically the Rogues and the Vampires.

I think it’s important for the DM, and even the other players in your gaming group, to talk to players who choose to run characters with minimal starting healing surges. It is a striker’s job to get into the thick of things which usually results in them talking some hits; however, good tactics and planning ahead can reduce the chances of these PCs running out of surges before everyone else. Yet trying to convince these players to have a good starting Con score, take the Durability feat, or just play smarter is often a challenge.

If the entire group addresses the low healing surge issue early, the party as a whole can develop tactics to overcome this obstacle and ensure the softest PCs stay on their feet and don’t blow through all their surges in the first fight. It’s a behavioural change that a lot of D&D players are not comfortable making but by addressing this early (possibly even during character creation) it can make for better games down the road and eliminate the frequency of the 5-minute work day without the need for any of the tricks we suggest in the article below.

From June 5, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Staying Alive: 8 Ways to Keep Wounded PCs in the Game.

Tags 4e, 5-minute rest, 5-minute work day, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012, Healing Surge, healing surges

DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: The New Initiative – Talk then Fight

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 21, 2012
1 Comment on Greatest Hits 2012: The New Initiative – Talk then Fight

Nothing makes me happier than hearing a player say that his PC wants to try and talk their way out of a fight. I try to encourage my players to have their PCs pursue options for resolving conflict that don’t involve combat, but it’s usually a hard sell since they want to fight monsters. When someone actually thinks talking is a better option I will go out of my way to let them have their say before the swords start swinging and the arrows start flying.

In order for the new initiative I’ve proposed to be successful the DM needs to remember the importance of saying yes. Sure it normally takes a standard action to get a bloodied opponent to surrender, but if you’re going to allow for a talking initiative then you need to be flexible enough to allow an Intimidate check done at the beginning of combat as a free action to have a similar effect. If the DM rewards creativity and demonstrates that he’s willing to bend the rules to let something cool and interesting happen, more players will try acting during the talking phase of initiative.

A good DM will let the role-playing and a solid skill check lead to results that the PCs are not used to seeing. These results can vary from an all out surrender to delaying combat for a few rounds. Different skills should result in different outcomes as well. Bluff can be used to distract or misdirect, Diplomacy to negotiate surrender or non-aggression, and Intimidate to command into submission or scare enemies away. Words can be powerful and when delivered at the right time and in the right way PCs will see that a Diplomacy check can yield better results than all of their daily and encounter powers combined.

From September 17, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: The New Initiative – Talk then Fight.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012, Initiative

DM Resources Editorial

Greatest Hits 2012: How a Blind Player Improved Our Game

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date December 19, 2012

Describing enough detail for a blind player to visualize in their minds what’s happening in a typical game of D&D is tough. It requires a vivid imagination and a good grasp on the creatures and places in the game. Doing it well requires practice. Unfortunately it’s not a skill that too many DMs or players possess. But that’s changing.

A lot of people have had a chance to delve into this kind of gaming experience through the D&D Next play testing. It encourages quick combat encounters that don’t use a map or minis. It encourages exploration through description and experimentation. In essence it expects you to describe places and actions as if there was always a blind person at the table. You may not have thought about it in those terms but it’s true.

It all comes down to details. DMs should stop making generalizations by giving something a title; instead describe the details. When you tell the players the room has a king-sized bed and a dresser and a table they’ll get that it’s a master bedroom and not a kitchen. So why use the term “bedroom” at all? Just describe the contents and let the players determine the function. The same goes for people and monsters. Don’t describe NPC by race and class; rather describe their attire, mannerisms, speech patterns, smell and personality. Let the players decide if this is a noble, a thief, or an adventurer.

By making the players use their imagination to take in a scene it will open their thirst for details. They’ll ask questions they never usually ask like what colour is the carpet or if they smell incense. When players can’t use their eyes to see a map or a mini they’ll fill in the blanks with the details the DM provides and likely add a few of their own. When this happens it will take your game to a whole new level of enjoyment.

From March 19, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: How a Blind Player Improved Our Game.

Tags 4e, blind, D&D, D&D Encounters, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Greatest Hits 2012