Category: DM Resources

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Two-Hit Minions

The two-hit minion isn’t new. We first suggested the idea over two years ago in one of our very first articles, More Than Just Minions. It was a reaction to DMs who felt that the normal minions were lacking something. I’ve felt that way for a while now and a few months ago I decided it was time to start using two-hit minions on a regular basis. The results were fantastic.

During this season of D&D Encounters we’ve been running tables with very large parties. The more heroes there are in the party, the more monsters I’ve placed on the map. However, week after week of just adding more monsters was starting to get a little bit boring, not to mention that it led to combat encounters that were taking a very long time to complete. I knew that I needed to shake things up and my solution was two-hit minions.

When I was using regular minions I found that the players, upon learning which opponents had only 1 hit point, treated the minions differently than other monsters. A lot of the PCs ignored them. The PCs with powers that could target multiple creatures (usually the controllers) would often eliminate all the minions in one round. It was very unsatisfying for the players and for me as the DM. Enter two-hit minions.

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DM Resources

What Do You Mean All My Magic Items Are Gone!

The fastest way a DM can unite all the players into wanting to do him unspeakable harm is to even suggest taking away all of their magical items. The more items they have and the more powerful each item is, the more likely that the DM would face real bodily harm for going through with this suggestion. Nothing angers players more than taking away items that they earned.

Over the many years in which I’ve played D&D one common problem I’ve faced in every edition is power creep. Nothing has changed the balance of power in my games more than magic items. As soon as one player gets something that’s a little bit better than the rest of the party, everybody else wants one too. No, want isn’t a strong enough descriptor. The rest of the players feel entitled to something just as grand. So the DM eventually gives everyone else something to bring them in line with that first player. The cycle repeats and before you know it the power level of the party is exponentially higher than it has any right being at their current level.

Better item means better attack scores, higher output and higher defenses, which means that the DM needs to throw tougher monsters at the PCs in order to challenge them. When the PCs defeat these creatures (which under normal circumstances they’d have no business fighting in the first place and would normally not have a prayer of defeating) they expect treasure commensurate with the monster’s increased level. And the cycle continues.

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DM Resources

RPG Blog Carnival: Eldrick Tont – Defender of the Tiger Woods

Today Dungeon’s Master presents our contribution to this month’s RPG Blog Carnival: Memorable Characters Inspired From Real Life. The real life person, upon which my memorable character was inspired, is golf icon Tiger Woods.

Encounter Setup

The PCs seek the fabled Green Jacket. This enchanted cloth armor is awarded to the most deserving champion annually each spring. Combatants must travel to the Tiger Woods and defeat the reigning champion, Eldrick Tont. Tont accepts all challengers and is ruthless in defense of a prize he believes he rightly deserves.

The competition always takes place in the same clearing deep within the Tiger Woods. The terrain changes during each new encounter. Some areas are only covered in fine grass, while other areas have more dense foliage preventing movement and even line of sight. Some areas are completely devoid of plants, creating sandy traps and hazards. Pools of varying sizes and depths are also common obstacles that combatants must face.

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DM Resources

RPG Blog Carnival Reminder

There are only a few days left to participate in June’s RPG Blog Carnival: Memorable Characters Inspired From Real Life. The Dungeon’s Master team wants you to look to reality for gaming inspiration. Create a memorable character (hero or villain) based on a real life person and provide guidelines for how this character might be used in an RPG.

The character you create should have a clear connection to the real-life person from which they were inspired. The person can be someone from the past or present, dead or alive, hero or villain. Be creative.

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DM Resources

The DM’s PC – Something Between a PC and an NPC

The distinction between PC and NPC is pretty simple. You, the players, are the PCs (Player Characters) and everyone else you meet in the game controlled by the DM is an NPC (Non-Player Character). But the more I thought about it, the more I’m realized that there was a lot to be gained by introducing a kind of character that fell somewhere between these two absolutes.

One of the most common D&D axioms is “Never split the party.” As many players have learned over the years this is sound advice. In most cases when the party divides into smaller groups or one character goes off on his own, they make themselves vulnerable and often end up dead. But I believe that the real reason to never split the party is because it divides the game. The DM has to jump back and forth between both groups. Each group has to have enough to do during their session to still enjoy the gaming experience, but the DM has to be conscious of how much time the group out of the spotlight spends doing nothing.

The type of story-telling that D&D creates and encourages, focuses on a party of adventurers who, for the most part, are always together. Strength in numbers and all entails; nothing new here. However, in fantasy literature that focuses on an adventuring party, including classics like The Lord of the Rings upon which D&D was heavily based, the story is constantly shifting between the characters as they do different things simultaneously.

This is something that doesn’t work well with the way D&D mechanics were created, and in some cases it’s really too bad. Many DMs, myself included, often feel that their hands are tied when they’re trying to come up with a really excellent story for their next campaign.

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DM Resources

3 Quick Ways To Increase Role Playing At Your Table

In reading Ameron’s reports on D&D Encounters and in my own observations there seems to be a lack of role playing occurring in D&D. Another way of looking at it is, there are good role playing opportunities presented with combat encounters that just seem tacked on providing an excuse for combat.

The pace of 4e D&D combat tends to squeeze role playing out of the equation. I find this happening to the extent that 4e could almost be classified as a tactical combat game rather than a role playing game. The opinion might be extreme, but it does have merit. If you are looking to ensure that more role playing occur at your table and not sacrifice the fun that 4e tactical combat brings consider the points below.

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DM Resources Editorial

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 Editorial

Should Monsters Employ Smart Tactics?

As the DM it’s my job to control all of the monsters during a fight. Each player runs his own character but everyone else involved in the battle is my responsibility. In some cases the Monster Manual provides tactics (albeit very basic tactics), but in the vast majority of situations it’s completely up to me to decide which monster attacks which PC and what power they use.

As the DM I have to decide if the monsters are going to do what’s most tacitly sound (basically, what’s best for the monsters), or are they going to do what seems most fair to the players at my gaming table? For a long time I’ve been doing what’s fair and paid little attention to tactics. But the more I’ve been thinking about this approach the more I think that it’s hurting my game.

D&D isn’t (or shouldn’t be) the DM vs. the players. It’s a cooperative, story-telling experience with a lot of thrilling combat thrown in. Although we often joke about winning D&D when the PCs defeat all the monsters during an encounter, this is obviously not the case. Yet if a PC dies during combat the player certainly feels like he’s lost the game. For this reason I generally try not to pick on one PC and have the monsters gang up on him. After all, no one like it when their PC dies. But am I really doing the players any favours by not having the monsters employ sound tactics?

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

9 Adventure Hooks

The best adventures begin with a simple idea. And if you’ve been DMing as long as I have then you know that sometimes coming up with that idea is tougher than you might think. Whether you’re looking to begin a long-term campaign or a one encounter adventure, the right adventure hook makes all the difference. If the PCs aren’t interested right off the bat everything becomes more difficult.

To help new and experienced DMs alike, Dungeon’s Master again shares 9 adventure hooks. They’re generic enough to be suitable for almost any camping, yet provide enough intrigue and mystery to get even the most skeptical PC asking questions and biting the hook.

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Book Reviews DM Resources Player Resources

Playing Yourself as a D&D Character

Last week fantasy author Joel Rosenberg died. Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series was my introduction to fantasy fiction. In book one, real world college students become the characters they created when they are transported into their fantasy role playing game. Once inside the game world they realize that in addition to possessing all of the powers and skills of their characters, they still also know everything they did in real life. These characters apply their modern beliefs and values along with rudimentary technology into the game world and become a powerful force striving to make an imperfect world better. As an avid gamer I thought this was the most brilliant premise I’d ever heard the first time I read these books.

The series capped at 10 books, but for many fans the essence of what made this series great ended with book five. Books six through 10 saw the real world character retire (or die) and their children become the focus of the adventures. I’ve read those first five books many times. And even though I’ve read hundreds of other fantasy novels since then I still think that the initial premise of the series holds up. I mean, really, who among us hasn’t imagined themselves as their character at one time or another?

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