Category: Editorial

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Editorial Player Resources

Are You Willing to Provoke an Opportunity Attack?

One of the more difficult things that new players have trouble remembering is that moving away from an opponent will draw an opportunity attack. As soon as players hear that moving their character more than one square away from an adjacent creature will result in that creature getting a free attack, all tactics that involve moving are thrown out the window. It’s almost as if they believe that drawing an attack and possibly taking the hit is the absolute worst thing that they can do on their turn.

As an experienced DM I’m going to tell you that you need to be willing to take an opportunity attack once and a while. From a mechanics point of view all opponents know as well as you do under what circumstances they’ll get to make a free attack on you. If you move away they’ll attack you as soon as your back is turned. If you try to use a ranged attack while standing next to them, they’ll see the hole in your defenses and attack you. And if you try to crawl away while prone you bet that you enemy will kick you as you scurry away.

But so what if they do? In most cases a monster’s basic attack is just that – basic. It usually is a straight up weapon attack, be it a sword or claw. Yes, it has the potential to hurt you but you need to weigh that against the value of taking the action that draws the attack in the first place.

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Editorial

D&D & Kids: How To Scare A Dragon

Every time I leave the house for my weekly Dungeons & Dragons game my son asks me, “Daddy, are you going to scare the dragons now?” To which I will invariably reply as I give him a hug, “Yes, daddy is going to scare the dragons.”

With this conversation completed I head out to scare the dragons. My son will be three later this summer, his concept of D&D is non-existent he just knows that every week his daddy goes to scare the dragons. I’m not even sure if he really knows what a dragon is, other than a big dinosaur.

The focus on my son’s question to me is on the word scare. He doesn’t ask if daddy is going to go slay the dragons, he uses the word scare. He might be just shy of three-years-old, but I think the word scare is an important distinction.

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DM Resources Editorial

D&D Math – Adding the Numbers

Player – I rolled a 15, plus 7. Do I hit his AC?

DM – What’s the total?

Player – Um, hold on. 15… (Counts under breath) 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. (At full volume again) 22! Does that hit?

DM – Yes it does. His AC is 14.

I’ve been playing a lot of public-play D&D over the past year; mostly D&D Encounters but also a fair amount of LFR. This is of course in addition to my regular weekly game. Playing in all of these games allows me to see how other people play and lets me learn from the experience. It also highlights problem areas in my game and in the game of the other players and DMs.

One disturbing trend that I’m seeing more and more is players that don’t (or possibly even can’t) do the math. They roll a d20, call out the result and then give me their modifiers and ask if they hit. In many cases the roll is high enough to beat the monster’s defences, so I know they hit even without the modifier added in; however, I always ask for the total before confirming a hit or miss. And it’s not only happening with attack rolls. It’ happens with damage rolls too.

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DM Resources Editorial

Should Monsters Employ Smart Tactics?

As the DM it’s my job to control all of the monsters during a fight. Each player runs his own character but everyone else involved in the battle is my responsibility. In some cases the Monster Manual provides tactics (albeit very basic tactics), but in the vast majority of situations it’s completely up to me to decide which monster attacks which PC and what power they use.

As the DM I have to decide if the monsters are going to do what’s most tacitly sound (basically, what’s best for the monsters), or are they going to do what seems most fair to the players at my gaming table? For a long time I’ve been doing what’s fair and paid little attention to tactics. But the more I’ve been thinking about this approach the more I think that it’s hurting my game.

D&D isn’t (or shouldn’t be) the DM vs. the players. It’s a cooperative, story-telling experience with a lot of thrilling combat thrown in. Although we often joke about winning D&D when the PCs defeat all the monsters during an encounter, this is obviously not the case. Yet if a PC dies during combat the player certainly feels like he’s lost the game. For this reason I generally try not to pick on one PC and have the monsters gang up on him. After all, no one like it when their PC dies. But am I really doing the players any favours by not having the monsters employ sound tactics?

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Editorial

The End of All Things is a New Beginning

How do you end an epic adventuring career? At the end of your adventures, what do you retire too? After Orcus has been pushed back into the depths of hell, the undead hordes have been repelled and the various forces of evil have been destroyed, what does an adventurer do?

They take on the biggest challenge imaginable, they settle down and open a tavern.

It seems every tavern in fantasy gaming is run by a retired adventurer. An old axe or sword hangs above the mantle, reminding all of the tavern owners exploits. When the hour grows late the proprietor can be found sharing tales of past adventures to eager patrons. The twinkle in the owners eyes isn’t just from the joy his audience is getting from the story, it’s also from the extra gold that is flowing into the tavern.

Of course the real question is why would a retired adventurer, rich beyond all imagining, more powerful than most living beings want to be a tavern owner?

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Editorial

Should PCs Charge Other PCs for Services?

What if, during the heat of combat, when you’re down to your last few hit points and in desperate need of healing, the Cleric only agrees to use Healing Word if you promise to pay him 500 gp? What about a Rogue who won’t disarm and open a locked treasure chest unless he gets half of whatever’s inside it? Should characters be able to charge party members for performing unique services?

Normally this kind of behaviour isn’t tolerated at any D&D table. The game is cooperative and everyone’s supposed to get along. It’s assumed that all character brings something useful to the party dynamic. In the end everyone will contribute as necessary to accomplish the greater objective and by doing so everyone is entitled to an equal share of the spoils. But isn’t it reasonable to assume that every once and a while a PC will feel that what they bring to the table far outweighs that of the others? And in these circumstances is it wrong for them to take advantage of the situation for personal gain?

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Editorial

Should Dungeons & Dragons Deal With Social Issues?

Dungeons & Dragons is set in a fantasy world that draws on our own worlds history for inspiration. Sprinkle in some folklore and we have the role playing game we know and love. However, when we look at our historical world and even events that are transpiring right now in the world, we realize that there are some glaring differences. From race to gender roles, poverty to crime there are many issues that could be explored and discussed through the narrative of the story. Should D&D, through the role playing that is a core component of the game, deal with these are other social issues?

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D&D Encounters Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade – Report Card

Another season of D&D Encounter comes to an end and once again I feel it’s my responsibility to sum up the whole experience and provide some honest feedback.

The Characters

Of all the Pre-generated characters that Wizards of the Coast has provided since D&D Encounters began, these were by far the best. All six characters were fairly well-rounded and easy to play. None of the players felt that any one pre-gen was worse than the rest (Barcan, you know what we’re talking about).

This season more than any of the previous season we had a lot more players make their own characters. Although the character were all supposed to be created using D&D Essentials products, I wasn’t that restrictive. If you made a character in character builder I allowed him regardless of class or race.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 13)

This is it, the grand finale. Would the heroes find the Arrow of Time? And if they did would they use it to slay the Dragon, Actherimos? The fate of Hammerfast, Salazar Vladistone and the PCs themselves would all be decided by the night’s end.

The week there were seven PCs in the party – Belgos, Jarren 1, Jarren 2, Valenae, a Dragonborn Fighter, a Dwarven Runepriest and a Human Wizard. After completing the rooms in the upper level of the Monastery over the previous few encounters, I allowed the party to take an extended rest before proceeding. They simply did not have the necessary resources to proceed otherwise. Everyone began this week’s adventure refreshed and at 100%. Full hit point, full healing surges, all daily powers and one action point a piece.

They proceeded down the staircase and into the caverns below. The cavern seemed to be in the midst of an earth quake, rocks and dust falling from the ceiling. However, the Time Trap they encounter on the upper level seemed to still be active on the lower levels as well. At least it was until the party began proceeding through it.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 12)

March of the Phantom Brigade, encounters 11 and 12 could be played in any order. Of course, my table did encounter 12 first. So last week we only covered the events that took place during the encounter 11 parts, skipping over encounter 12 until this week. A bit confusing I’ll grant you, but it worked really well. Be sure to check out the D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 11) field report if you haven’t already. That should help clear up any confusion.

Last week at our FLGS we ran a double session covering encounters 11 and 12. The heroes had the opportunity to explore the two rooms that made up the main floor of the Dwarven Monastery before heading down to the caverns below. The adventure clearly indicated that the PCs could explore the rooms in whichever order they wanted to. In order to avoid any spoilers for groups that chose to run encounter 12 first, we simply ran both encounter back-to-back.

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