From time to time the PCs may find themselves incarcerated. There are plenty of reason why this might be the case, but I think it’s fair to say most PCs will try to escape if the alternative is life imprisonment or execution. How the PCs ended up in prison and what happens to them when they get out is entirely up to the DM. This skill challenge just focuses on scenarios the PCs may find themselves in while incarcerated. This can be run as one large skill challenge or a series of smaller ones.
Category: DM Resources
Pirates and adventure on the high seas haven’t always been the typical D&D adventure setting. However, almost all PCs are required to travel by ship at some point in their adventuring career. The skill challenge below tackles the issue of surviving during a raging storm at sea.
Today is all about Eberron. The Eberron Player’s Guide is finally in wide release and earlier today we posted the skill challenge Maintaining the Karrnathi Army. As an added bonus, here is another Eberron-specific skill challenge.
The lightning rail is a key component of transportation and daily life in Eberron, so when service is disrupted the commerce of the Five Nations is effected. This skill challenge provides the DM with a quick encounter for the PCs that could lead to further adventure and intrigue.
Eberron is here and with our continued focus on skill challenges I thought I’d combine the two. My favourite nation in Eberron has always been Karrnath. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s ruled by a Vampire, the militant nature of the nation or that Atur reminds me of Las Vegas. Either way, I thought a skill challenge about the Karrnathi Army’s undead shock troops would be fun. Enjoy.
When PCs need information they generally go to a sage or some other knowledgeable NPC. But many PCs have training in the various knowledge skills so why not give them an opportunity to use them for more than monster identification. This skill challenge provides DMs with a way to reward PCs who have opted to take training in the knowledge skills with XP.
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Playing Two Characters
I like playing two characters. As long as I get to create them both, then I’ll play two characters any time the DM allows it. But playing two characters when one is yours and one belongs to someone else is a lot more difficult and generally not as much fun.
I’ve played in games where the DM gave players the option of playing one or two characters. Most of my friends choose to stick with one character, but not me; if I can play two characters, I will. Here are some of the pros and cons I’ve found over the years of playing two characters in the same campaign.
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Fighting One Monster is Boring
As a PC, I’d rather face five opponents than one. And, as the DM, I’d rather throw five opponents against the PCs than just one. This has been my take on combat since my earliest days of D&D. As new editions of D&D got released I kept an open mind and explored the possibilities again, but every time I found the outcome the same. It’s better to have the PCs fight a mob rather than one really tough foe.
I’ve encountered very few gamers (DMs or players) who disagree with me on this point. The number one reason I’ve heard is that it’s boring to fight just one monster no matter how powerful it is. So if no one wants to fight just one monster then it sounds to me like something’s not right with the game. And if that’s the case perhaps we can do something to change that. Let’s figure out a way to make fighting one really tough opponent as much fun as fighting five guys.
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One Page Dungeon Submission
Last week I whipped together a submission for the (awesome) One Page Dungeon Contest put on by Chatty DM and Chgowiz. You can read the back-story idea for the dungeon within the submission itself. In short, orcs are using some old dwarven ruins and caves beside a waterfall as a base of operations for raiding the countryside. Add the dwarves’ bane – a living spell, some water elementals living in the pool under the waterfall and some Myconids to the mix and an adventuring party will have their hands full.
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Rewards Beyond Experience
You’ve just defeated the powerful red dragon. Now it’s time to reap the rewards. As expected, the DM hands out treasure according to the treasure tables and provides experience points. The PCs take an extended rest and then they move onward towards the next challenge. This tried and true system has served us well for years and provides as the primary measuring stick for a PC’s success. Although this is the normal and expected means of progression for the game, there are other ways to reward the PCs beyond heaping new magic items on them or giving them enough XP to level.
Eliminating mundane, non-magical items from treasure hordes in 4e D&D was a great idea. But that doesn’t mean that the mundane treasures can’t be thrown in from time-to-time to create a more memorable encounter.
The way things were done in previous editions, where everything was stripped from fallen foes and monsters to sell off later may have made sense, but it hurt the game and slowed things down. I don’t know how many adventures I was a part of where an incredible amount of time was wasted gathering up long swords, suits of armor and other non-magical, every-day items from the corpses of the fallen foes and monsters. It often required an enormous amount of record-keeping and consumed valuable game time when we finally sold those items back to a local merchant. It unnecessarily side-tracked the game.
So in 4e if it’s not coins, jewels, art or magical items, the DM doesn’t describe it and the PCs don’t take it. It makes things simpler and, more importantly, faster. But just because we are now ignoring the mundane items doesn’t mean they don’t still exist. In some circumstances drawing attention to these now overlooked items can add some flare to an otherwise traditional encounter.