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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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DM Resources Top 10

5 Ways To Include Rituals In Your Skill Challenge Design

Rituals are an underutilized aspect of 4e Dungeons & Dragons. One way to increase the way rituals are used in your campaign is to incorporate them into your skill challenge design. By providing opportunities for your PCs to use their abilities you increase their engagement in the campaign. They feel that they are more involved in what is occurring and are committed to seeing things through. Using rituals in your skill challenges does require a little bit of extra work, but is well worth the reward.

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DM Resources Top 10

6 D&D Convention Tips for DMs

Yesterday we shared 6 D&D Convention Tips for Players; today it’s the DMs turn. After running a few Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) adventures at the Spellstorm gaming convention this past weekend in Toronto, I’ve put together a list of things to keep in mind when you’re the DM. These tips are applicable to any D&D game, but even more so at a convention.

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Player Resources Top 10

6 D&D Convention Tips for Players

D&D is a complicated game. There are the general game rules, the specific rules that apply to player characters and then there’s your character himself. It can be tough just to keep all of that straight, especially if you’re just getting into D&D. After participating in the Spellstorm gaming convention this past weekend in Toronto, I’ve put together a list of things to keep in mind when you’re playing D&D. These tips are applicable to any D&D game, but even more so at a convention where you’re less likely to know all the people at your table.

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Book Reviews Top 10

5 Must-Read Zombie Books

Vampires, vampires, vampires. I’m getting sick of vampires. There are plenty of other cool undead out there. We don’t need to spend all of our time focusing on vampires. Take zombies, for example. This week the movie Zombieland was released on DVD. It’s a great movie that was lost in the shadow of all the vampire hype. Don’t get me wrong, I like vampires, but for monsters that shun bright lights they’re sure spending a lot of time hogging the spotlight. So move over vampires, and let the zombies have some attention for a while.

My first exposure to zombies in pop culture was through movies. It wasn’t until recently that I started reading zombie fiction. I was looking for something a little bit more engaging than just people being chased by the mindless undead. I’d had plenty of that on the big screen. I wanted my zombie story to have some kind of twist, something that sets it apart from the classic Dawn of the Dead, we’re coming to eat your flesh, zombies. I found exactly what I was looking for in the zombies stories below. Each combines a unique spin on the zombie genre with an excellent story.

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10 Ways To Get Your D&D Fix Over The Holidays

The Holidays are here. Time to kick back and relax with family and friends. Perhaps you’re blessed with a few days off work or a slower paced environment for a few short weeks. As a D&D player your mind will invariably drift to your favourite hobby and how you can get a few more hours of game time in.

My normal gaming group is on holiday hiatus and we won’t reconvene until the new year when we begins a new campaign. It’s actually more of a ressurected 3.5e campaign that’s been given a face lift and fresh legs with 4e, but I digress.

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Top 10

Top 5 Fantasy Books Of All Time

Christmas is coming and you’re likely looking for a great gift to pick up for that good friend, sibling or yourself. With that in mind I took a look at my bookshelf and selected my top 5 fantasy books of all time. It was tough narrowing it down to only 5 titles, after all I’ve enjoyed most (if not all) of the fantasy novels I’ve read over the years.

I quickly realized that I could stretch the list to 10, 15, 20 books or more very easily. With that in mind I needed to define my criteria for selection. I decided the book had to have had a large impact on me. It had to be a book I had read more than once over the years. Finally, the book had to take the genre in a different direction for me.

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Player Resources Top 10

10 Reminders for All D&D Players

During a recent game I took note of all the things the players at my gaming table, me included, could be doing better or doing differently. What I came up with was a list of general reminders that all players should review. Most of these are common sense kind of reminders, but I’m amazed at how often PCs forget to do the most obvious things. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the game or the most experienced player in the room, everyone benefits from a quick refresher.

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Top 10

Top 10 of the Past 200

Dungeon’s Master was launched in February and since then we’ve published a lot of content that we are really proud of. Today marks our 200th post and to celebrate we’re sharing the top 10 posts of the past eight months with our readers. It was an interesting exercise examining the information provided by Google Analytics and I can honestly say I’m surprised by the results. While I expected some articles to be in the top 10, I didn’t anticpate the order in which they would appear.

I’d like to thank you our readers for visiting the site, and for providing your comments and insight on the game that we all love. So here they are, the top 10 posts as selected by you, our readers.

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Humour Top 10

100 Great Things About Dungeons and Dragons

To celebrate out 100th post, the team at Dungeon’s Master has put together a list of 100 great things about D&D. Enjoy.