Category: DM Resources

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DM Resources Player Resources

Benefits to Adventuring in the City

Most D&D adventures take place in the wild and untamed areas of the world. After all, that’s where the monsters live. If your objective is to destroy powerful monsters and loot their treasure hoard, then you can expect to travel to far off places. After all, how many ancient red dragons have you ever heard of that live comfortably in a two-story townhouse in the merchant’s district of your local town?

Urban settings in D&D tend to be the place the PCs go after the adventuring is done. It’s difficult to adventure in the city since fighting in the streets is generally frowned upon in most civilized urban areas. If you’re used to killing everything you fight, then having to pull punches and not execute the local authorities when they come to break up a bar brawl might be a reluctant change of pace for many players and their PCs. Who would ever want to play a long-term, city-based camping? That depends on what type of PC you’ve got.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Crafting Items

When the skills were streamlined for 4e D&D one of the skills that disappeared was Craft. That’s not to say that PCs can’t create things anymore, it’s just that this kind of task isn’t something you’re likely to use very often. It’s a task more suited for an NPC, not an adventurer.

However, there might still be times when you do want to create something yourself. You might require a unique device to accomplish a goal, you might need to pose as a smith or carpenter, or you might need to craft your own weapon as the first part of an epic quest.

When PCs find themselves in this situation the DM needs to determine just how significant the outcome is going to be. If it’s just something you’re doing during your down time then no role playing is probably required. In fact no roll is likely required either. However, if the success or failure of your handiwork will affect the outcome of things to come, then perhaps it’s time to turn your labours into a skill challenge.

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DM Resources

LFR Magic Item Treasure Bundle List

Living Forgotten Realms games are great. As a DM you just select the adventure you want to run and download it from the Wizards of the Coast website for free. All the prep work is done for you. All you have to do is read the adventure. As a player you can use the same character at any sanctioned LFR event (provided you are of the appropriate level). You also know that if you complete the adventure you’re in for some fairly good rewards.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: The Kitchen Adventure

There are tasks in D&D that are deemed so trivial or non-important that they happen off screen. You just assume stuff happens and the game proceeds. In many cases no checks are even required. Then there are the tasks that are a little bit more important and the result of the check will have some kind of impact on the game. Nothing life-or-death, but some noticeable effect. And then you have full blown skill challenges with all the structure and XP that comes with it.

From time to time it’s interesting to take some of those marginally important tasks and turn them into skill challenges. These are opportunities to encourage creative role-playing. There is structure and there is XP, but the real objective of the encounter is to have fun. If the PCs happen to earn some XP along the way then that’s just a bonus.

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DM Resources

Engaging Your Players

You’ve laboured over your new campaign for months, meticulously going over the various details of the world. You’ve planned out the campaign’s major points and can’t wait until the PCs are required to rescue the Twilight Princess from her prison in the Nine Hells.

As you reach that pinnacle in the campaign you realize something disheartening, your PCs don’t really care. All the work you’ve done, all the creativity and detail you’ve put into this grand moment is going unnoticed by your PCs.

They haven’t bought into the campaign.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Unlock the Phylactery

The Lich
The Lich

In our earlier skill challenge, the PCs defeated a Lich and managed to find its phylactery. Liches are wily combatants and they plan for all contingencies, including having their phylactery found. If the PCs thought vanquishing a Lich was based on pure combat, then they didn’t do their research properly.

This is the second of two skill challenges that deals with Liches and their phylacteries. In part 1 the PCs must Find The Phylactery and in part 2 the PCs must Unlock The Phylactery.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Find the Phylactery

phylacteryDefeating a Lich is not a simple as overcoming it in combat. Liches tie their life force to objects known as phylacteries. The phylactery can range from mundane to mystical. Each Lich has their own preference on what constitutes an acceptable phylactery. What Liches have in common is that their Phylactery is to be well hidden and well protected.

This is the first of two skill challenges that deals with Liches and their phylacteries. In part 1 the PCs must Find The Phylactery and in part 2 the PCs must Unlock The Phylactery.

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DM Resources Editorial

Using Fear: Scare the Player, Not the Character

How do you scare a PC? It’s not as simple as you think. With any role-playing situation, the emotions of the PC need to be separated from the emotions of the player running the PC. So just because something scares Delian the Paladin doesn’t mean it’s going to scare me the player. It’s up to me to role-play my PC’s actions and emotions accordingly. The more I’m willing to get into character the more effective this kind of situation will be.

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DM Resources

Using Undead Intelligently

Hallowe’en is just around the corner and in the spirit of the occasion we wanted to look at undead and how to use them in your campaign. Of particular interest are intelligent undead and how you as a DM can use those interests to your advantage.

Vampires and lichs hold a special place in D&D lore. Some of the greatest villains have been drawn from their ranks. This is due to their longevity, access to resources and single minded desire to complete their objectives.

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DM Resources Player Resources

D&D Party of One: Solo Adventuring (Part 3)

As we continue our look at solo adventuring we shift our focus from tips for DMs to tips for players. No matter how many hours of D&D you’ve played, taking on a solo adventure for the first time is a real eye-opener. Most players find it challenging yet highly rewarding. For players new to the game who may not have tried this approach to D&D, we’ve provided a few tips that should prove useful. We encourage DMs to check out D&D Party of One (Part 1) and D&D Party of One (Part 2) for the flip side of this series.

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