Category: Editorial

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 7)

What makes Dark Sun different from any other campaign setting? This question more than any other has motivated people to come out and try D&D Encounters over the past seven weeks. At first there was a lot of interest. People who used to play in Dark Sun came out to see the 4e version of their beloved campaign setting. Others were just curious to see what all the fuss was about. And for five weeks D&D Encounters did not disappoint.

Fury of the Wastewalker chapter 1 exposed the players and their characters to the harsh desert environment of Athas that makes Dark Sun so unique. The PCs struggled to survive in the blistering sun while trying to outrun a strange and vicious obsidian sand storm. Add to that the ever-present threats of the desert creatures determined to kill the PCs and take their food and water. Dark Sun quickly earned a reputation for its brutality and grit – and rightly so. This isn’t the light and fluffy D&D of the Forgotten Realms.

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Editorial Humour

More Confessions of a D&D Camp Counselor

This week I’m going to share more of my experiences from D&D camp, but I’m going to focus on the things that I learned from the kids and offer some advice for getting younger people into D&D. See last week’s Confessions of a D&D Camp Counselor for an introduction to D&D Camp.

I was really proud of my kids this week. I was fortunate to have four of the six kids I worked with the previous week and two new kids who were very clever and eager. Since I knew the kids a little better I decided that I should branch the programming out a bit. So in addition to playing D&D we did 3D paper craft dungeons and monsters, monster building and a LARP (live action role-playing game).

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 6)

The PC began chapter two after an extended rest and a level bump. The desperation they felt during the previous couple of encounters was replaced with the confidence that accompanies power. Full hit points, maximum healing surges, better attack scores, better defense scores and best of all they’re out of the blazing sun and away from the obsidian storm. So began week 6 of D&D Encounters Dark Sun.

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Editorial Humour

Confessions of a D&D Camp Counselor

I have a great job, I’m a counselor at D&D camp, which is to say that I have the best job ever. I don’t mean to gloat, but my time as a D&D counselor has been incredibly enjoyable and I’m sure if you read along you’ll share in the fun of the last week.

Before camp began, I spent a week learning about how to spot child abuse (very important!) and care for kids. Before I met the kids I went over to the camp director’s house in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. Myself and the other counselors met up and we played some D&D; I taught the old schoolers how to play 4e, while the director of the camp gave me a refresher on how to play 3.5e. After four hours of being paid to play D&D and think up campaign ideas it was time to get ready for the first day of camp.

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Editorial

2010 ENnie Nominations

The ENnie Award nominees were announced today. Regretfully, Dungeon’s Master did not make the final cut in the best blog category. We want to congratulate the great gaming blogs that did get nominated and we wish them all good luck in the Best Blog category.

Best Blog

Here’s the complete list of all the 2010 ENnie Award nominees.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 5)

The party survived. I was shocked. When I was reading the encounter in preparation for week 5 I was sure it would be a TPK. But as so often happens in D&D, the players did the unexpected and lived.

Since week 1 the PCs have had their butts kicked all over the place. They’ve taken exorbitant amounts of damage and use way more resources each week than one might expect to during a typical D&D encounter. Coming into week 5 they were literally down to their last legs. But after four weeks of hell, the PCs finally got lucky and that made all the difference.

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Editorial

Ameron’s 2010 GenCon Schedule

GenCon 2010, the four best days in gaming, starts exactly one month from today on Thursday, August 5. This year both Wimwick and I are going to Indianapolis. It’s my third GenCon and his first.

Although we’ve both registered for as many events as we could, there were still a lot of question marks in our schedule. Some events, like the Wizards of the Coast seminars, do not have firm times and dates yet. Other events, like Dark Sun Arenas: Glory and Blood and the Convention Delve: Lair of the Dread Witch were not available for preregistration. So with that in mind, here’s what my schedule looks like so far.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 4)

Today is Canada Day, a holiday across Canada, which meant that last night’s D&D Encounters Dark Sun had less than usual attendance. After three weeks with 20 or more participants, this week we were down to only 12 (including the two DMs). So with two tables of five, we returned to Athas.

Before we started the encounter itself, Jarvix performed a Comrades’ Succor ritual. This allowed the PCs to redistribute their remaining healing surges. So going into the encounter for week 4 everyone had full (or nearly full) hit points and at least one healing surge at their disposal during the combat. I want to thank the other DM running D&D Encounters for pointing out this ritual and explaining how to use it. Having never played an arcane character with Ritual Casting I had no idea. It made a huge difference.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 3)

What do you get when four PCs are attacked by goblins from high atop a rocky outcropping? One hell of a tough encounter. Week 3 was another grueling session for the players at my table. They eventually defeated all of the monsters, but the toll on their personal resources was costly. If they thought encounter 3 was tough, encounters 4 and 5 will be nearly impossible without a significant turn of events.

There they were getting pelted from above when we took stock of party’s ranged attack options. Yuka, no ranged attacks. Phye, no ranged attacks. Shikirr, no ranged attacks. That left Barcan. The same Barcan with only 2 healing surges remaining. Barcan with the poorest defenses of all the pre-generated characters. After only 5 minutes we knew this was going to ugly.

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DM Resources Editorial

5 Errors I’ve Made as DM

DMs aren’t perfect. There I’ve said it. Any DM that claims he’s never made an error when running a game is lying. Even the best DMs make mistakes. Over the years I’ve made plenty of errors while playing D&D. I’ve found that the best thing to do in these situations is to try and learn from the experience. So today I’m going to share with you the 5 biggest and most egregious errors I’ve made as a DM. I think you’ll find that these are fairly common mistakes made by DMs across the board.

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