Category: Player Resources

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Player Resources

Interviewing for Party Members

a-to-z-letters-iShould inclusion in an adventuring party be automatic? We always assume that when a player is present at the gaming table his character will be welcomed into the current adventuring party. The problem is that you can end up with some characters that just don’t really fit in. This might be because they’re a non-traditional race, different alignment, opposing religious beliefs, or some other off-the-wall and completely unexpected reason. The point is that players shouldn’t assume that whatever character they choose to create will automatically be awarded membership in an existing adventuring party.

In order to weed out potential bad seeds, the party should conduct interviews of all potential candidates and choose the ones they want to let into the group. It’s not typically how things are done in D&D, but maybe it’s something we should begin doing on a regular basis.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Should the party have a chance to interview prospective new members? We find out as today “I” is for Interview.

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Player Resources

Heroic Archetypes – What Kind of Hero Are You?

a-to-z-letters-hWhy do we play our favourite RPGs? In my opinion it’s because we like to be social, hang out with friends, and enjoy their company after a hard week at work or school. It’s because it gives us an avenue to create and play in a land that is far away from real life for a few hours. It’s because these games give us an outlet to be creative with our characters, to model our own desires to be something that we cannot normally be in this society.

RPGs like D&D give me the chance to be a hero. I love rescuing the damsel in distress, defeating the evil overlord, or even slaying the ravaging iconic Dragon that laid the countryside to waste. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, literally and figuratively. Heroes and heroic tales are one of the most powerful forms of fiction.

It should come as no surprise to learn that heroes present themselves in as many facets as icosahedrons (d20s). So what kind of hero are you?

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today Dungeon’s Master welcomes guest poster Alton (a.k.a. Marc Talbot) author of the gaming blog 20ft Radius. “H” is for Hero as Alton shares five popular archetypes with us.

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Editorial Player Resources

Giving & Tithing in D&D

a-to-z-letters-gMost PCs are rich. I mean crazy rich. Seriously, compare the material wealth of even a level 2 PC to most regular people in any D&D game, the numbers are silly. As the PCs go on more adventures and find more treasure, that PC’s net worth grows exponentially. It doesn’t take long before the heroes have more money than they know what to do with. By the time they reach paragon tier it’s unlikely that they’ll ever be able to spend the riches they’ve earned along the way.

Knowing that PCs earn such tremendous wealth so quickly I’m curious how many players have their PCs give any of their treasure to charity? How much is given to support the local good causes (e.g., homeless shelter, orphanage, down on their luck veterans of war, etc.)? For divine character like Paladins and Clerics, how much of their earnings are tithed to the church? I’m willing to be that for most players the answer is a big fat zero!

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the “G” in today’s article to be for Greed or Giving. In the end I decided that an article on Giving was a better way to go as it sends a more positive message.

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Player Resources

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch – Toronto Tournament & 10 FTDM Character Optimization Tips

a-to-z-letters-f

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (FTDM) is unlike any D&D adventure you’ve every played before. Forget about fighting monsters, in this match-up player characters fight other player characters. That’s right; you get to fight your friends.

The tournament pits two teams of four against each other for exactly 1 hour of real time. Every time you kill a PC on the opposite team you earn a point. If your character is dead at the start of your turn you re-spawn and come back to life to keep fighting. At the end of the hour the team that’s scored the most points (most kills) wins. There’s no role-playing, just roll playing.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s the “F” is for Fourthcore Team Deathmatch, one of the most fresh and exciting D&D tournaments I’ve ever played in.

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Friday Favourites Player Resources

Friday Favourite: 10 Good Reasons to Play D&D

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From November 16, 2010, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: 10 Good Reasons to Play D&D.

Have you ever had to justify your love for D&D? Did you stand up for the game or did you deny everything? Are you one of those gamers who proudly and openly talks about his love of D&D? Maybe you enjoy D&D but don’t need to give anyone another reason to know that you’re a nerd? Perhaps you’re a closet gamer who nerds it up behind closed doors, but refuses to acknowledge anything D&D related in front of your social peers or members of the opposite sex?

Over the years I’ve often had to defend my love for D&D to my friends, family and even my wife. In my article Confessions of a Gamer (written shortly after Dungeon’s Master was first launched) I dared to bare my soul and shout from the (virtual) rooftops that I play D&D and I was proud of it.

I realized long ago that playing D&D was nothing to be ashamed of; in fact I went to the other extreme and created a D&D blog so I could write about D&D every day. The more I thought about it the more I realized that there are a lot of strong up-sides to playing D&D. So for anyone who faces ridicule for playing D&D, here’s a list of 10 good reasons to play D&D.

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Friday Favourites Player Resources

Friday Favourite: Always Train Your Worst Skills

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From December 7, 2009, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Always Train Your Worst Skills.

Imagine you have an attack score of +15. Your opponent, a savage brute, has an AC of 20 and his companions all have ACs between 10-15. Does this fight even interest you? You’d hit with almost every attack. It might be ok if this was a rare, one-off situation, but imagine that this was how combat shaped up every single time. Personally, I’d lose interest.

Yet this is exactly what’s happening during skill challenges at gaming tables everywhere. We’re so concerned with being really, really good at a couple of skills that when it comes time to use them we are almost guaranteed automatic success. Using Stealth to move undetected or using Athletics to climb any wall under any circumstance can be very cool and a lot of fun, but training the skills we’re already good at just makes using those skills a bore.

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Player Resources

Your Character’s Psychological Profile

The character creation process, be it for D&D or any other role-playing game, usually starts with filling in all the boxes and fields on the character sheet. In D&D the areas that usually get the most attention are the class, race, ability scores, skills and weapons. Once these are filled in you’re well on your way. For many this is where the creative process ends. They have all the hard facts they need to begin play. From a mechanics point-of-view they’re ready to explore dungeons and slay monsters.

For the number crunchers and power gamers this is all they’re interested in. They’ve filled in all the blanks on their character sheet so they must be done, right? I suppose, but what about the character’s personality? After all, this is a living being. Shouldn’t you spend at least a few minutes figuring out this character’s personality? It may not factor into their attack scores or skill checks, but it can help guide your role-playing and give you (and the rest of the players at your table) a better idea of who the character is and not just what kind of sword he wields.

Unfortunately the only area of the character sheet that even comes close to defining the character’s personality is alignment. However, in my experience alignment is one of the most overlooked or outright ignored parts of the character sheet. Even when it is completed it rarely carries any weight in how the PC is run. In previous editions of D&D there were nine alignments, in 4e we’re down to five. As new players come to D&D, alignment seems to be less important and plays a much smaller role in the character development.

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Editorial Player Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Don’t Be a Dick – 4 Tips for Following Wheaton’s Law

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2012. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

I strongly believe that the overwhelming majority of gamers are good people. It’s unusual for a gamer to intentionally be a dick. But there are certainly shades of grey when it comes to dickish behaviour. When it comes to minor infractions, pet peeves if you will, it’s up to all of us to identify the problem and work together to fix it. Of course what bothers me may not be a big deal to you and that’s where we get the shades of grey.

My own experience taught me that everyone has their own gaming-related pet peeves. There are things the people in my regular gaming group do that I don’t like and I’m sure there are things I do that they don’t like. In some cases the issues stem from personality clash, but in some cases it stems from ignorance. The former is tough to deal with, the later not so much… at least it shouldn’t be.

If someone at the table does something that bothers you should say something? Personally I would, but that’s just me. I’m a very direct person. I know that if you ignore a problem it doesn’t usually get better. But for many gamers this is not something they feel comfortable doing, especially if the person isn’t a close friend (think of situations during public-play or at a con).

Now think about it from the point of view of the person demonstrating dickish behaviour. There’s a good chance they don’t know that what they’re doing is causing problems. If you don’t tell them, how can they be expected to change? Nobody likes a player who’s being a dick, so as tough as some players may find this conversation I think a fellow gamer would appreciate the feedback. That’s just my two cents.

One more thing – when I ran this article the first time it was quickly brought to my attention that the original Character Builder is still available online and that some dedicated members of the gaming community have kept it updated as new materials come out. So keep this in mind when you get to the section “Ensure your character sheet is accurate.”

From July 16, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Don’t Be a Dick – 4 Tips for Following Wheaton’s Law.

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Editorial Player Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: When the Plus (+) No Longer Matters

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2012. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

When I wrote this article it was to make a statement about character development. The idea was that having a magic item with a special power you found interesting was more important than whether or not the magic was +2 or +3. But when I reread this article I realized that it’s also a commentary on the abundance of magic in 4e D&D. When we have so much magic in the game it really belittles all of it.

In a game where only one PC has a magic sword (think King Arthur and Excalibur, for example), everyone will look at the item and the character wielding it as extraordinary. But when every member of the party has a magic sword none of them are seen as special. This is compounded even further if all the bad guys have magic swords. Yet this is exactly how games in the 4e D&D world play out. There’s magic everywhere. And with so much choice it’s no wonder that players will overlook some items for the promise of something more to their liking later. Or in the case of the examples I use in this article, the PCs won’t trade up to better items because they’re happy with the ones they’ve got.

Personally I like games that are magic rich. To me that’s D&D. I’ll admit that eventually too much magic can complicate things (as we’ve learned during 4e epic play) but I’m ok with that. On the opposite end of things I’ve played games in low magic settings (Dark Sun, for example) and I’ve realized that this is not something I enjoy. There needs to be some kind of middle ground and I believe that we’re seeing that shape up in the D&D Next play-test packets.

There seems to be a definite shift with D&D Next towards making magic items special again. The mechanics are being retooled so that adding a +1 sword to any character is going to be a big deal. Tack on some kind of additional special property like a fire, lighting, or acid and now you’re really got something unique. I have high hopes that there will be a lot more balance in the distribution of magic items when they land on final rules. If done right, any magic treasure will be coveted and players won’t find that they reach a point where they no longer care about the plus on their item because they’ll just be happy to have any item at all.

From May 29, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: When the Plus (+) No Longer Matters.

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DM Resources Player Resources

D&D Bingo

One of the things that I really like about the Lair Assault program is Glory awards. These are objectives that the characters can do throughout the course of the adventure that will earn them points. The points have no in-game significance; they’re merely earned by the players for bragging rights. At first I thought Glory was just a nice add-on but after only one or two sessions I realized that the players had their character take actions simply to fulfill the conditions listed on their Glory tracker. The more I thought about this phenomena the more I realized that using something like a Glory tracker in a home game could help the DM guide the party in certain directions without railroading the group. It could also add some brevity to the game as the PCs tried doing all sorts of crazy things simply because it was on their to-do list.

Initially I thought about just creating a laundry list and calling it Glory just like Liar Assault, but then I had a brainstorm: D&D Bingo! As players or their PCs accomplish pre-defined objectives they get to mark off squares as complete. The DM can elect to award prizes if PCs complete a single line, two lines, inside square, four corners, X, T, or full card – it really doesn’t matter. The idea is that once every player has a D&D Bingo card they’ll find additional motivation to do things they might not otherwise be inclined to do.

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