Category: Editorial

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Editorial

Dungeon’s Master Wants You!

Do you play 4e D&D? Do you have strong opinions about the game? Do you have ideas about D&D that you’ve always wanted to share with other gamers but lacked an outlet for doing so? Well then this is your big chance. The Dungeon’s Master team is looking for contributors.

If you’ve got good ideas and some writing ability we want to hear from you. It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a writer or if you’ve ever been published, what we’re looking for are good ideas from people with something to say.

We’re not just looking for new talent. This is a great opportunity for anyone who writes their own gaming blog to do a guest post on Dungeon’s Master. By contributing to our blog you’ll get a chance to plug your own (and we’re ok with that).

If you think you’ve got what it takes to write for Dungeon’s Master please send me an email (ameron at dungeonsmaster dot com). We’re looking for articles on pretty much any D&D 4e topic. Articles should be between 1,000-1,500 words. Regrettably the only compensation we can offer is bragging rights and a by-line. But you never know where that may lead. After all, writing for Dungeon’s Master is what got us a foot in the door with Wizards of the Coast.

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Editorial

1,000,000 Page Views

Today is my birthday. My day went from good to great when I realized that Dungeon’s Master hit the 1 million page view milestone around lunch time. Talk about icing on the cake. This is the kind of unexpected birthday present that made this day even better.

When Wimwck and I began this blog we didn’t know how things would turn out. We had high hopes and plenty of ambition. We read the other blogs that were big at the time (most of which are now defunct) and thought we had something to add to the online gaming community. So on February 1, 2009, we launched Dungeon’s Master.

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Editorial

The Future of Dungeons & Dragons – Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about what The Future of Dungeons & Dragons might look like by considering what the present edition of Dungeons & Dragons offers us as players in order to get a sense of what might lie ahead for the game. The ongoing Legends & Lore series by Mike Mearls provides some insight into what the designers are thinking about and they are clearly looking to the player base for feedback. Why else would Mike be writing his column? In short, the fine folks at Wizards of the Coast want to create a gaming experience that we, the players, want to play. Pretty simple really.

But in fact it’s not going to be simple at all. The reality is that everyone wants something slightly different from the game. We all play it a little differently. Go from one group to the next and you’ll encounter a new house rule or certain source books that are off limits. So designing a game we will all enjoy is a tougher prospect than it might originally seem.

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Editorial

The Future of Dungeons & Dragons

It happens every year, right after GenCon. I don’t know if it’s the hangover of a great week of gaming, which I missed this year, or if it’s the plethora of new information that GenCon brings us, but this time of year always makes me ask the question: what next? Where do we go from here? Normally we get a very clear picture of what’s forthcoming over the next 12 months at the D&D Preview Seminar. However, this year we only got highlights for the next few months. The primary reason for this is that Mike Mearls only just took over as the guy in charge and things are in flux. Or is there something more than that going on? Conspiracy theorists, think what you will.

If you want to know if there is something more going on in the background all you need to do is read Mike Mearls’ Legends & Lore column on the D&D website. If you’ve been following Mike’s column for the past little while you’ve gained some insight into what he’s thinking, the questions he’s asking the community and what it means for the future of D&D. I’m sure that 5e is being discussed behind closed doors, but I have no idea when it will be released. Actually I don’t care because I’m having a lot of fun playing 4e right now.

However, I am interested in where WotC is going with D&D and what the next incarnation will look like. In my mind the best way to figure out where you’re going is to look at what you’ve done in the past. I have no doubt that Mike and his team are doing this. But just to fulfill my ego, here are my thoughts on the subject.

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Editorial Player Resources

The 2011 D&D Open Championship

The D&D Open Championship is a chance for the best D&D players to pit their skills against one of the most difficult adventures Wizards can put together. It’s intended to be grueling and to force players into making really difficult decisions. And to make it even more difficult the players have only 45 minutes in which to complete each encounter. When the clock runs out it’s game over. This is one instance when it truly is the players vs. the DM

This year Wizards had help creating the adventure, The Fires of Mount Hotenow. There was a contest in which they asked people to submit their ideas for killer encounters. The best five were used to make up the adventure. One other important aspect of the D&D Championship that was changed was that this year players were allowed to continue playing the adventure, even if they timed out. However, they didn’t earn any additional points after timing out. In past years if you ran out of time you were done – full stop. But this year it was possible to complete the entire adventure even if you took more than 45 minutes in the first encounter. If, however, the entire party was killed then it was truly over.

I was again teamed up with the members of “The C Team.” We played in the second slot of the second day. Of the 44 parties that went before us only two completed the Championship for real, and five more completed it after timing out. As it turned out, no one else managed to complete the adventure in any of the subsequent slots. So once again Wizards put together an adventure that was brutal. And man, was it both fun and frustrating at the same time!

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DM Resources Editorial

5 Reasons to Say No

I believe that players should play the characters they want to play. I’m a total 4e, say yes convert. It took me awhile to come around but when I’m the DM I encourage creativity and I say yes… a lot. However, I’ve realized that as much as I want to always say yes, there are times when I probably should not. In a few of these cases it’s actually caused me more grief in the long run.

Players make choices during character creation and between levels during character improvement. Normally I’m very hands off as a DM and let the players do whatever they want as long as it’s legal. But it’s this absolute freedom of choice that often ends up causing the most problems. If I’d only stepped in earlier and said no, a lot of the problems I’ve experienced wouldn’t have been problems at all.

It’s taken me a while but I’ve learned the hard way that just because a choice is legal in character builder doesn’t mean that the DM has to automatically say yes to every choice that the players make. In fact the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that sometimes the DM should step in and say no; especially during character creation. Here are five examples.

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Editorial

Ameron’s 2011 GenCon Schedule

GenCon 2011 is quickly approaching. The best four days in gaming start in just 22 days on Thursday, August 4. This year I’m making the trip to Indianapolis solo. It will be my fourth GenCon. Here’s what my schedule looks like. In addition to the events I’ve already got tickets for, I plan to try and get in on as many rounds of the Convention Delve as I can.

Dungeons & Dragons

As you know (or as you should be able to guess by now if you’re a regular reader) the majority of my schedule is filled with D&D games. I was very disappointed to learn that there was only one paragon level LFR adventure being offered this year and I was shocked that there were no epic level games on the schedule.

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Editorial

Deities! A D&D Love Story

One of the joys about writing a D&D blog is that from time to time interesting projects come to our attention. Take Deities! An Album About Love and Dungeons & Dragons. Sounds bizarre and off the wall doesn’t it? Yet, Chris Littler is working to bring this project to life. I have to say I am more than a little bit intrigued.

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Editorial

D&D Core Rules: Role Playing

This past week Wizards of the Coast ran an article about the core rules of Dungeons & Dragons. The current staffed were poled as to their thoughts on the rules and what rules had carried through the different editions of the game. The most constant point present was the power of the d20 to represent most actions. I have to agree, the d20 is what I associate with D&D more than any other die and this goes long beyond when the coined the d20 System.

What I noticed about the list was that no one listed role playing. My initial thoughts were, how bizarre or perhaps telling that role playing is not included in this list. Then I took a step back and I looked at the list and the initial request again. They were looking for rules, for mechanics. Role playing is neither of these things, it is a mindset.

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Editorial

June RPG Blog Carnival Round Up

The June RPG Blog Carnival has concluded and the Dungeon’s Master team would like to thank all the participants. This month we asked you to create a memorable character inspired from real life. The participating posts were all very engaging and creative. While reading each of them I found myself thinking, now why didn’t I think of that?

I hope you enjoyed this month’s carnival and the submissions that it brought. Be sure to read each submission and surprise your table with a character inspired from real life.

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