DMs are encouraged to say yes whenever possible in 4e D&D. But in a recent game we experienced a situation that was very unusual and saying yes didn’t seem appropriate. As the DM I said no at the time but agreed that we should do some investigation before the situation happens again. I’ve been scouring the boards to see if anyone else has encounter the same problem and after two weeks of searching I haven’t found a definitive answer. So for the first time since we started Dungeon’s Master I’m asking our readers for their thoughts and interpretation on the correct way to interpret this ruling. I suspect that there won’t be a clear-cut right or wrong answer, but I’d like to get some input from the online 4e D&D community before my next home game.
Category: DM Resources
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Dark Sun: New Rules
The Dark Sun Campaign Guide won’t be out for another two months. But you can get your Dark Sun fix starting on June 9 when the the second season of D&D Encounters begins. The adventure – Dark Sun: Fury of the Wastewalker – gives players and DMs their first taste of Athas, the world of Dark Sun. Yesterday we posted the pre-generated characters Wizards of the Coast provided with the D&D Encounters kit. Each character has some flavour unique to the Dark Sun setting, including character themes. What are character themes you ask? Good question. Here is the sidebar from the page 8 of the adventure.
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The D&D Teen Comedy
Lately I’ve been watching a lot of 80s teen comedies. Revenge of the Nerds, Real Genius, Summer School and of course the greats by John Hughes – Weird Science, the Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (to name just a few of my personal favourites). While watching these again recently, I started thinking about how the formula for a teen comedy could be used to create an interesting D&D campaign. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have kids in their mid to late teens get into all kinds of fun and frivolity when they are left unsupervised.
In the world of D&D most adventures begin their career in their late teens or early twenties. Other fantasy races are older, but their social, physical and mental maturity is roughly in the same place as a human reaching the age of majority. But what if we looked at heroes who were even younger? A bit less refined and a lot more naive. Level 1 adventurers already look at the world through rose-coloured glasses, but if they were a few years younger how much more would this outlook change?
Choosing a paragon path is one of the most decisive ways that two characters of the same class and race can differentiate themselves from each other. It also lets you better define your character as an individual. Your paragon path lets you better specialize within your class. But some paragon paths offer a much narrower focus of specialization than others. And in recently choosing one of these paragon paths, I realized that they can lead to more problems than players and DMs may realize.
What do you do when you discover an ancient red dragon living in your neighbourhood? You get adventurers to kill it, of course. But what happens if the adventurers don’t kill the dragon? It will be angry that you tried to kill it and it will likely destroy your village. If only there was a way to keep sending adventurers against the dragon while avoiding the dragon’s wrath after each failed attempt. The inhabitants of Burrow’s Scar have come up with just such a plan. Unfortunately for your PCs, they are likely to be the next heroes tricked into face the dragon.
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My Campaign Should Be On TV
My personal spin as a DM is to think of each individual gaming session as a television episode and have the overall arc of my campaign play like a television season. Television shows such as Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules and Legend of the Seeker have a genre similar to that of Dungeons & Dragons and can provide some insight and ideas into your own campaign.
Here are some basic elements to keep your campaigns fresh so you don’t get “canceled” by your gaming group.
The Dungeon’s Master team welcomes Skallawag into the fold. Skallawag, Wimwick and Ameron have played D&D together for over 20 years. Since Dungeon’s Master launched, Skallawag has provided many insightful comments. It took some coaxing, but we finally convinced him to write an article. We hope that this is his first of many articles and that you find his perspective on D&D as helpful and insightful as we do.
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Tavern Trappings
Last week we provided a list of 118 Tavern Names. In the article, Wimwick provided some good positioning around making a tavern more than just a typical, average, run-of-the-mill establishment. Giving it a name is an excellent start. But why stop there?
Considering how often PCs find themselves in taverns, it’s important that you take some time to make each one unique and memorable. You don’t have to spend hours on it; a few minutes will do the trick. Adding those little details brings the setting to life. Without these details your tavern is just a forgettable background. So before the PCs head to the next watering hole for a quick drink, take a minute to flesh it out a little bit. Using our list to find an appropriate tavern name is a great start, but don’t forget to describe the staff, the patrons and the décor.
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When Players Kill the Campaign
Players inevitably do the unexpected. A good DM anticipates the most likely options and plans for them. After all there are only so many choices during a dungeon crawl. But what happens when the unexpected scenario involves the characters themselves and not the choices they make? How can a DM prepare for players who want to changes their characters without warning? How is the long-term camping affected when the players decide that they want to try something new?
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118 Tavern Names
How many campaigns have you played where the DM started the campaign by stating “The party is in a tavern and an old man walks up to you with a job offer.”
Now my normal response is “What’s the name of the tavern?”
To which most DMs respond it doesn’t matter.
The problem is it does. Call me a stickler, but I like names for locations and I really like tavern names. They are amongst the most interesting locations in D&D to name and the very name can mean any number of things. A good tavern name adds atmosphere to the game and can become a place of fond memories for the players.
On the way home today I passed a van advertising a local restaurant, The Mermaid and the Oyster. My immediate thought was that I need to have a pint there.
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Death and Resurrection
Resurrection is a part of most fantasy games. Resurrection sits very comfortably next to fireballs and disintegration spells in the magic toolbox, but the player’s access to resurrection has a huge impact on more then the way that they die, it will have an impact on the tone of the entire game world.
Some of your fellow gamers may have had close and devastating experiences with death in their family or community. The topic of loss of life should always be discussed with respect for the fallen and for the survivors who carry their legacy. This article addresses death as it takes place in role playing games and is not intended to be a statement on the value of life.
Consider the treatment of death as the starting point for the flavor of a campaign setting. You should consider it the first decision you make about the world your PCs inhabit, even before you address issues like the number of continents or the role the gods play. Knowing and understanding the value of life in your campaign will dictate how PCs interact with their world.