Category: DM Resources

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DM Resources

Using Player Behaviour To Influence Your Encounter Design

Does your archer always shoot an arrow at the enemy furthest away thinking that monster is the leader? Does your defender always attack the first monster he sees? Do your players constantly scan the battle map for hidden pit traps? Have you noticed that your players always use the same powers in the same order during every combat?

If you’ve answered yes to one of these questions or questions just like them then you have an incredible opportunity before you. Your players have presented you with the opportunity to design encounters based on their expectations and behaviour. As a DM you are about to have a great deal of fun designing and executing these encounters.

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DM Resources

Summoning and Banishment

Generally when a character uses a summoning or banishing power there is no real though about how the power works. A creature is either summoned from a distant plane of existence to do your bidding or a dangerous foe is removed from combat for a short period of time. However, since most powers that summon or banish are arcane or psionic in nature, there is certainly room for customization that can make for some very interesting role-playing.

Without changing the mechanics of how summoning or banishing powers actually work, the players and DM still have a tremendous about of flexibility when it comes to describing how these powers function within the game itself. Think of it as flavour text, but don’t stop there.

Consider for a minute the consequences and repercussions of summoning a creature to fight your battles or to banishing an incredibly deadly foe to some distant plane, even if it’s only for a very brief time period. A little imagination can add a lot of flavour to your game the next time a character uses one of these powers.

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DM Resources

Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 2)

Sometimes we want to challenge our players. Other times we want create an interesting story element. Occasionally, we even want to try to kill our players’ characters, though this occurrence is a rarity. No matter the reason, sometimes we simply need to design an encounter that can’t be beat. In Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 1) we discussed the questions surrounding why a DM would decide to create an encounter that his players couldn’t defeat. The reasons range from story driven motivations to simply wanting to challenge your players.

Today we take a closer look at how to design this type of encounter. How to implement and describe the encounter so that you get the desired effect. At the end of the day you can never predict player behaviour, they will always do the one thing you never expected, but you can plan for them.

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DM Resources

Designing Encounters That Can’t Be Beat (Part 1)

Rarely should the DM intentionally design an encounters that can’t be beat. However, there are times when the DM finds it necessary. I am not stating that all encounters should be designed as a player killers or deliberate total party kill encounters. Nor am I talking about introducing a villain that the characters will fight in ten levels, only to have them attack him at first level. This series explores the reasons behind why the DM might feels it’s necessary to design an encounter that can’t be beat and how to pull it off.

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DM Resources

Blurring the Line Between Encounters

Generally the definition of what constitutes an encounter is not something that is up for debate. During an encounter the PCs engage a bunch of monsters, perform a skill challenge, or some combination of the two. When the encounter is over the PCs have the opportunity to take a short, 5-minute rest after which they regain encounter powers, heal wounds by expending healing surges and move one step closer to achieving a milestone.

In a recent game we ran into a situation where this standard definition of encounter was questioned. As the DM I choose to make a few calls on the fly to keep the action moving. Afterwards the group spent a lot of time discussing whether or not we handled the situation correctly. The intent was not to critique the DM or the calls made at the time; rather we wanted to lay some groundwork just in case we ever found ourselves in a similar situation again.

After describing the situation to a few other DMs, I learned that our situation was not as unique as we thought and a lot of other groups had experienced similar circumstances themselves. As it turned out, no one was sure what the correct course of action was. Knowing that this situation might occur again at our table and that it may happen at your table (if it hasn’t already) I’m putting this conundrum to you, our readers. I’ll explain what happened and how we handled the situation. I’m looking for you input and feedback on our rulings.

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DM Resources Editorial

My Love Affair With Minions

It started innocently enough. At first just one and then another. Before I knew it minions had invaded my encounters. It was so easy to just add one more. I’ve considered counselling to help me deal with my problem. The last encounter I ran my players through had 23 minions in it. I’m afraid I’ve gone too far. I’m not sure I can reconcile my love affair with minions.

I worry my players may hold the excess amount of minions they face against me. That they may grow bored with encounters as they realize that they have less and less cause to roll damage dice. Worse, I fear they all may recreate their characters and come back as controllers.

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DM Resources Player Resources

You Broke What? – Describing Your Character’s Injuries

Rarely in D&D do we keep track of where our character is wounded. When he gets hit we just record damage and move on. In order for combat to run smoothly this is a compromise we’ve accepted from day one. Until you PC falls below 0 hit points you just assume he’s got full control over his entire body.

Last week I broke my arm and it got me thinking about how to introduce a system into 4e D&D that represented damage to specific areas of the body. The real trick was to do it in a way that actually added value to the game without just slowing things down or adding unnecessary new rules.

The way I see it, tracking specific damage can be handled in one of two ways: 1) strictly from a role-play perspective; or 2) as an actual mechanic that affects the numbers.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hook: The Mercenary Company

Did your adventuring company meet in a tavern? Perhaps they were recruited by a wise old wizard who needed help clearing out a pesky band of goblins? Of course there is always the village in need of rescue and the PCs just happen to be the only able bodied individuals around. Finally, the PCs might be the heirs of old adventurers destined for greater things.

Regardless of the initial start to your campaign your players will require a long term reason for why they continue to adventure together. Often adventuring parties are composed of personalities that have no real reason to remain together. That is where a Mercenary Company can provide the required glue to keep your adventurers together. Wizards of the Coast recently featured two different mercenary companies, Queen Filfaeril’s Blades and The Last Legion (DDI subscription required). Mercenary Companies allow you to keep the party involved with a long term campaign goal, while still providing other secondary adventures.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Solving the Skill Challenge Problem – Ensuring Everyone Contributes

Has this ever happened to you? The DM sets the scene and you realize that the party is about to face a skill challenge. As the fifth or sixth player to act you only get to make one meaningful skill check before the party achieves overall success. It was a good encounter because during some of the low complexity skill challenge you don’t even get to act before the party achieves their goal.

What makes this situation an even bigger problem is that most players try to use their best skill even though in many cases it makes more sense (from a story perspective) for them not to. They know that they’re only going to get one or two shots at making a meaningful contribution to the skill challenge, and they don’t want to be the guy who flubs the check and wracks up a failure.

The Dungeon’s Master team has come up with a way to ensure that every player gets to contribute during a skill challenge and that every player feel comfortable using the skills that make the most sense to complete the objective and not just the one or two skills that they happen to be strongest in. Here’s what we’ve come up with.

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DM Resources

How To Use Traps To Make Combat More Intense

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Paladin – What was that?

Rogue – Sounds like you stepped on a pressure plate.

Paladin – I thought you were keeping an eye out for traps?

Rogue – So I missed one.

Paladin – Is that supposed to make me feel more comfortable about the situation?

Rogue – Honestly, how did you get this far in life? Hold still, let me look… I said hold still, stop with the squirming.

<clank … clank … clank>

Paladin / Rogue – What was that?

Cleric – I have a bad feeling about this.

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