Category: DM Resources

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DM Resources

Building Better Monsters Part 2: More Than the Sum of Its Parts

In Building Better Monsters Part 1 we talked about the inspiration for monsters and how to identify the ideas that make up a monster design, mainly the monster’s form and its function. This time around we’re digging into the stat block. Every DM has read a stat block before but they’re worth paying close attention to. Stats are the functional manifestation of the monster, and stat blocks are the way that your ideas about monsterhood will be recorded. As such stat blocks are a sort of monster design fundamental, a rudiment for DMs.

You’ve come up with your own idea for a monster so it is time to realize these ideas mechanically. You want to have your design support your plans for your creature as elegantly as possible so that when you get to the table your creature behaves how it ought to with as little effort from you the DM as possible. You have an idea of what you want that monster to do, and good design will let you do that more easily. In order to put all the parts together gracefully a monster designer needs to have a good understanding of what all the parts at their disposal are so that they can put them together creatively.

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DM Resources

Building Better Monsters Part 1: Meet Your Maker, Monster

This article is the first in a series of four on designing monsters from scratch, getting the most out of your homemade monsters and understanding the mechanics of monsters so that you can use and build them creatively in your game.

  • Part 1 deals mostly with the larger ideas behind monster design so that you’ll be able to build the monster that fits the bill.
  • Part 2 is about the stat block, what it means and the relevant in-game and out-of-game factors that can change your understanding of the stat block.
  • Part 3 is about designing statistics for your monster and how various interpretations of the statistics can change the way your monsters will function as part of a narrative.
  • Part 4 is about implementing your designs and the process of review. Now let’s begin.
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DM Resources

Foregoing a Short Rest

How important is resting in D&D? The rules allow for characters to rest between encounter in order to heal and regain the use of encounter powers, but just because the rules state that characters can rest does that mean that character should rest?

At low levels DMs always try to find ways to keep the party moving forward. Without a compelling motive, many games end up suffering from a bad case of the 5-minute work day. The players don’t want their characters to die so they’re always looking for an excuse to rest and regain the use of their best powers.

However, I’ve realized from my own recent gaming experiences that as characters get tougher the players are a lot more willing to keep their PC’s adventuring without resting between every single encounter.

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DM Resources

Designing Social Encounters

Creating combat encounters is a lot easier than creating social encounters in D&D. When it comes to combat most DMs have a really clear idea of what they need to do to prepare. Social encounters by their very nature tend to be less predictable, catching many DMs woefully unprepared for the decisions and actions the party chooses. Although there are guidelines on how to set up and run skill challenges, more complex social encounters that rely on role-playing and interaction with NPCs can become more complicated than fighting Orcus himself.

Most social encounters are played out as skill challenges, if the DM even feels that there is a significant challenge involved. If the goal is merely to meet an important NPC or find out a particular piece of information while hanging out at a bar, than a little bit of role-playing may be all that’s required. However, if the goal is more complex and if there are consequences for failing, then a skill challenges is likely the best way to adjudicate the encounter.

The amount of work required by the DM to create these encounters is really dependent upon the group’s play style. If they’d rather just bash monsters with their weapons and spells, then social encounters will be looked upon as the filler between fights. But for groups that enjoy the role-playing side of things, a social encounter presents an opportunity for them to really develop their PC and use skills more heavily then they usually do during combat. Once you know which type of group you’re designing the encounter for then you can decide if you want to do it the fast way or take the detailed approach.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Television Scripts As D&D Adventures

Week in and week out the DMs of the nation are writing phenomenal adventures for the players who gather around the gaming table. The work is endless and occasionally we DMs run out of time and energy. Game day is approaching and we haven’t even started writing out the adventure. We have what is more commonly referred to as writer’s block. We just don’t know what to do with the game this week and a blank page is staring back at us.

Normally, when this happens I put away my D&D supplies and I switch on the television. It doesn’t matter what I watch, I just need to let me mind wander allowing ideas to come to me freely. It’s at the end of several hours of mindless television watching that it hits me, the adventure I’ve been looking for has been literally staring me in the face for the past several hours.

Television and the endless and often mindless content that it produces is the DMs best friend.

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DM Resources Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 10)

The Thronehold Tournament is the most mysterious and lucrative gambling tournament in Eberron. It happens every year in the very castle that once housed the Five Nations’ one true king. Today we reveal the history of the card tournament that according to the castles’ guardians, House Deneith, doesn’t exist. Are you ready to learn about the fastest way to earn a fortune in Eberron?

Click on the Eberron tab above the Dungeon’s Master banner to find the previous installments in this ongoing series as well as many other great Eberron articles and resources.

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DM Resources

How To Make Your Players Feel Heroic

I’ve realized of late that I enjoy designing tough encounters. Encounters where perhaps the forces border on overwhelming. Where encounter after encounter my players are being pushed to the brink. It’s almost like a test of endurance, can they take just one more encounter? Will they prevail or will I have finally pushed them too far?

Much of my motivation for designing encounters this way comes from taking too many extended rests with daily powers unused and healing surges remaining. These extended rests haven’t been taken because we though we needed them or could get away with them. No, they came about because we had completed the adventure. In short as a player in 4e there have been few encounters that I feel have truly pushed myself and other players to the edge.

Of course what I have also realized is that making every encounter a slug fest, where at the end of the final encounter the party is completely out of resources is also boring. Furthermore, my players are beginning to wonder if I’m out to kill their characters. When the time for an extended rest rolls up they have a look of relief on their faces. Instead of a feeling of satisfaction or euphoria at completing the encounters, they are just glad it’s over.

I realize that while I’m challenging the players, I’m not creating moments for them to feel truly heroic. As a result I’ve developed a series of guidelines to assist me in my adventure design.

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DM Resources

How To Use Prophecy And Divination To Tell The Story

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

With these lines a quest was born unlike any known before or since.

Developing a prophecy or using divination to assist in the story telling of your campaign can be as simple as two lines or as complex as you want it to be. Of course you’ll need an overarching quest to tie everything to, the prophecy simply provides motivation or guidance to your players. The prophecy can be a detailed guide to the adventure or a mysterious code that provides occasional direction.

This week at Dungeon’s Master we’ve been discussing aid from divine and otherworldly sources in detail. Ameron started the discussion off with Divinations – Is Some Magic Just Too Powerful for PCs and then continued with a piece on Divine Intervention.  The discussion was continued by Callin and his post at Big Ball of No Fun – How to Handle Divinations.  In other words there has been no shortage or articles about divination in the 4e blog community this week. I would also encourage people to read Prophecy Points as a Reward for Roleplaying from The Big Red Box Blog.

I felt it was only appropriate that we cap the week off with an article not about reacting to the use of divinations in game by players, but to the active use of divination and prophecy by the DM as a storytelling tool.

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Class Discussions DM Resources

Divine Intervention

I’ve always had a fondness for divine characters. The idea that these classes actually receive divine power directly from their deity everyday in the form of prayer spells has always blown my mind. Unlike the Wizard who need to study and learn their spells, the power of a divine character is based largely in the strength of his faith.

Even though I’m not a particularly devote person in real life, playing a pious character is a role I have very little trouble getting into. This character actually receives confirmation every day that his deity not only exists but allows the PCs to act in his name. I just don’t see how your faith can waiver after you’ve felt the touch of your patron.

As the DM I’ve tried to emphasize this connection between divine characters and their deity at my gaming table. The DM (acting in his role as the patron deity) provides the divine PC with something useful for the upcoming adventure. Usually this is just information that would otherwise be unknown to the PC, but often I granted power boons as well. However, I’ve found this to be a more difficult undertaking with 4e D&D then it ever was in previous editions.

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DM Resources

How Much Input Should Players Have On The Campaign?

Different DMs embrace different ideas about how much input their players have on the campaign where some DMs run a sandbox campaign, other than major NPCs everything that happens in the game is left to the whim of the players. Others have a more restrictive idea about how much input players should have. Some do not allow player input at all, preferring to run modules or use adventures published through LFR.

The level of player involvement is usually determined before the campaign begins. The DM gives a rough idea of what the players can expect of the campaign. My normal practice is to provide my players with an overview of the start of the campaign and the central theme. This allows them to create characters that are appropriate. It doesn’t make too much sense for a player to create an urban Ranger for a game that is going to take place 90% of the time in the Underdark.

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