The Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 comes out today and I’m very excited to have my copy! As there have already been several sneak peaks and advanced reviews, I’m not going to spend time rewriting what’s already out there. Instead I want to talk about something that is important to the team here at Dungeon’s Master, skill challenges.
That there is an expanded section on skill challenges in the DMG 2 is no surprise. Wizards of the Coast knew that there was more work to be done on the subject.
Change is coming to World of Warcraft with the announcement of the new expansion: Cataclysm. Whether you’re familiar with WoW or not change in fantasy games can be a good thing.
With the launch of 4e D&D, Wizards of the Coast brought change to the Forgotten Realms by advancing the timeline almost 100 years. This kind of change is pretty major and significant, but what about the smaller changes. I’m not talking about world breaking change. You don’t need to redefine the geography or have the PCs survive an apocalypse. I’m talking about smaller, subtler change to keep things interesting for the PCs.
When was the last time you brought change to your game?
War and political intrigue aren’t the only things brewing in Eberron. With the war over, various different groups are looking to profit during the new found peace. Of course developments over the course of the war have led to new barriers and opportunities in the pursuit of wealth.
In our second segment of Secrets of Eberron Revealed we take a look at a plot hatched by House Orien and a gambling scheme developed by the Wayfinders Foundation. In Secrets of Eberron Revealed (part 1) we featured the House Sivis Repository and the House Tharashk Fields of Blood.
Discover more Secrets of Eberron Revealed in our latest installments of this ongoing series.
Adventuring is a high risk profession. Traversing harsh terrain, exploring the cavernous underdark and fighting dragons are just a few things that may lead to an adventurer’s untimely and unexpected death. In a game with magical healing and resurrection rituals, the truly powerful don’t remain dead for long. But there will come a time when someone’s death truly means that they are gone forever. Honouring the dead can be an important role-playing experience to the larger campaign.
When was the last time you gave any thought to what your character eats? If your gaming group is anything like mine you don’t even track rations on your character sheet. A lot of players are content to let the little details remain little and not worrying about them. (It’s a good thing they have faithful servant to see to these things.) But in a fantasy RPGs like D&D, the world is full of strange and exotic creatures. So doesn’t it make sense that some of these beasts would eventually find there way into common cuisine?
Combat in 4e D&D does take longer as PCs get tougher. But there are a lot of tips and tricks for Speeding Up Your Game. We’ve come up with a few new ideas on how to keep your game move quickly and smoothly.
Although your faithful servant isn’t invisible he might as well be. He’s overlooked and often forgotten. Whenever you stop for an extended rest, the faithful servant is the one who sets up camp. He tends to your armor, weapons and other equipment. He sees that your horse is fed and groomed. He makes dinner and cleans up afterwards. Without the faithful servant you’d be lost. Yet you barely acknowledge him or even address him.
Do you use all of your daily powers every day? If you’re anything like me, you’re reluctant to use them if they won’t yield the best possible results. But how often have you held your daily powers in reserve and then not had a chance to use them? I know this happens to me almost every time I play.
PCs in 4e D&D have numerous powers at their disposal. Encounter powers are tougher than at-will powers, and daily powers are tougher than encounter powers. So if the daily powers are the strongest in you PC’s arsenal why are they not being used more often? By not using your daily powers every day you are, in essence, putting your PC at a disadvantage and are less effective.
Keith Baker, creator of Eberron, took time out of his busy schedule to answer 13 questions for us.
When we ran our early Eberron Campaign Guide review in July, it generated a lot of buzz and a lot of comments. I was thrilled to see that the book’s author, Mr. Baker himself, not only took the time to read our review but offered his 2 cents by leaving some comments of his own.
I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Baker in person a few times during this summer’s GenCon. He’s a very friendly and down-to-earth guy. I sat in on his free-for-all discussion about Eberron and it was well worth it. As you’d probably expect, he speaks of Eberron with remarkable enthusiasm. His insights into the draconic prophecy, resurrection in Eberron and undersea adventuring was awesome.
When Mr. Baker agreed to answer a few questions for us, the team at Dungeon’s Master tried to come up with something unique. We wanted to pose questions that Mr. Baker may not have been asked before or probably isn’t asked that often. We finally decided to just ask the questions that we, as gamers who play in Eberron every week, would find interesting. We hope that you find this Q&A as enlightening and enjoyable as we do.
August may be gone, but it is certainly not a month to be fogotten. We ran a lot of great articles and brought you our highlights and opinions about this year’s GenCon. Dungeon’s Master continues to grow every month and August was no exception. Thanks to all of our readers, especially those who comment regularily. Your feedback helps us improve and often gives us ideas on what kind of articles to write moving forward. So to all of our readers, thanks for making August great and we look forward to providing you with a lot more to read and talk about throughout September. For those who are new to Dungeon’s Master or if you missed some of our articles while you were on summer vacation, here are the month’s highlights. Enjoy.