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Month in Review

Month in Review: January 2010

January was the month that Dungeon’s Master truly made its mark on the gaming map. On January 27, Wizards of the Coast featured us in their Spotlight Interview. If you haven’t read it, we encourage you to check it out. Since the interview we’ve had an unbelievable spike in our numbers. So for everyone who’s discovered Dungeon’s Master through the links from our interview, we hope you stick around and keep visiting. And to all of our readers, new and returning, we want to thank you for visiting Dungeon’s Master again and again. Without your support and your feedback we wouldn’t have reached this level of success.

Each month we run a month in review article. This gives readers a second chance to discover some hidden gem that they might have missed throughout the previous month. Normally we run the month is review on the 1st, but February 1 is the Dungeon’s Master 1-year anniversary and we already have something else in mind to mark the occasion.

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Editorial

PHB3 First Look: Hybrid Characters

Hybrid characters, the newest Player’s Handbook 3 debut content, were released as part of Dragon Magazine #383 (DDI subscription required). The concept of a dual classes and how the game designers were going to differentiate multi-classing from hybrids is something I’ve wanted to see for some time. I was very excited to see this update and to get my hands on the debut rules. Based on my first impression with the hybrid system I’m very impressed.

In short, the hybrid system opens up a wealth of new character options for players. While not every option will make sense or be optimized, the hybrid system allows players to tinker with various character concepts and build something unique.

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Editorial

Dungeon’s Master Spotlight Interview on Wizards of the Coast

About a month ago Bart Carroll from Wizards of the Coast asked the Dungeon’s Master team if we’d be interesting in doing an interview. Needless to say we were flattered to receive the offer and ecstatic about the possibility of getting some props from Wizards.

Well, today they published the interview. If you visit the Wizards of the Coast website you’ll find a little article called Dungeon’s Master — Spotlight Interview.

The Dungeon’s Master team wants to thank Bart Carroll and Wizards of the Coast for giving us the opportunity to talk a little bit about our site and to share a little bit more about the team behind the scenes.

We’d also like to thank all or our reader who continue to visit every day. It’s because of your continued support that Dungeon’s Master has been so successful and so much fun.

For those just discovering Dungeon’s Master (thanks to Wizards) we encourage you to visit regularly and comment often. We welcome your feedback and your ideas.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

The Skill Challenge Backdoor

In order to make skill challenges a little bit more interesting I like to try and build in a skill challenge backdoor. This is a very specific set of conditions which, if met, provide a significant advantage not normally available.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Reusing Skills in Skill Challenges

Does this sound familiar? The PCs begin a skill challenge. A couple of PCs have creative ideas and they go at it. They explain what they want to do, use a bit of role-playing and then make their rolls. Right off the bat you’ve got a couple of successes. But as you look around the table at the rest of the players you get blank stares. They either don’t know what to do or don’t want to risk getting a failure since their skill numbers are so awful. So they essentially repeat what the last PCs did.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenges and Rewarding XP

One aspect of skill challenges that doesn’t get a lot of mention is the reward that comes from achieving the objective. Since skill challenges are supposed to be as difficult and rewarding as fighting monsters, the expectation is to be rewarded with XP just like you would for a combat encounter. But in many cases the amount of XP awarded for a successful skill challenge shouldn’t be that cut and dry. There are situations when two parties might earn a different amount of XP for successfully completing the same skill challenge. I’ve reviewed the skill challenge reward system and have some suggestions for improvement.

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DM Resources Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 5)

More secrets of Eberron are revealed as we discover political plotting within The Twelve and we reveal the Mournland Express. Changes are coming for House Cannith. The ongoing internal family power struggle within House Cannith scares members of other Dragonmakred Houses. Other house scions plot to unify House Cannith by whatever means necessary. Take a trip on the mysterious Mournland Express, a secret subterranean lightning rail that travels safely beneath the Mournland.

Discover more Secrets of Eberron Revealed in our previous installments in this ongoing series.

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DM Resources

Eight Rules That Will Make You A Better DM

Admit it. As a DM there have been times when you’ve been stumped, regretted decisions, made a mistake or just wanted to quit. We’ve all been there and we’ve all looked for a way out of the situation. The following eight guidelines follow the KISS formula. Keep It Simple, Stupid. While they don’t cover every situation, they should provide a reliable fallback for DMs.

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Player Resources

A Beginner’s Guide To Dungeons & Dragons (Part 3)

Welcome to the third installment of our Beginner’s Guide to Dungeons & Dragons. D&D is primarily a social game, requiring five or six players for a normal session, though the exact amount will vary from group to group. Depending on your introduction to the game, you may already have a regular group that you play with. However, if your introduction to the game came through natural curiosity you may not have discovered a group.

Today we’ll provide new players with some assistance on how to find a regular gaming group. Additionally, we’ll point players in the direction of finding additional resources.

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Editorial

Spellstorm 2010: February 19-20

Attention Toronto gamers, Spellstorm is coming again this February. This is your chance to play some D&D, try some new games and meet other gamers in your community. I attended last year’s Spellstorm and it was a lot of fun. If you live in the GTA or can make the trip to Toronto in February, you’re in for a great weekend of gaming. Whether you’re new to role playing games or you’ve been playing all your life, Spellstorm caters to everyone’s varying levels of experience.

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