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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 2)

This is the second part of the skill challenge presented yesterday. It involves a mixture of skill checks and combat. The number of combatants is directly related to how the PCs fared in the Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (part 1).

Background

A nobleman’s son has wracked up gambling debts with a loan shark named Keddy Grujo. If the debt is not settled by sundown today, the boy will be killed. The parents cannot afford to make the payment as the father recently purchased a new sailing ship. Desperate, the father hires the PCs to rescue the boy. Grujo will be in the presence of reputable people all day. He expects the parents to pay, but wants an alibi just in case. Grujo’s men have orders to kill the boy if the ransom is no paid by sundown.

  • This skill challenge is broken into two parts. The successes and failures incurred in part 1 do not carry over into part 2
  • If the DM chooses to make this one large skill challenge the PCs need to earn a total of 12 successes between parts 1 and 2 combined. In this case, failures incurred during part 1 will carry over into part 2.
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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 1)

This skill challenge is broken into two parts. Part 1 (presented below) has the PCs working under a very tight time lines and allows them to adjust DCs depending on what they consider to be acceptable risk. The objective is for the PCs to find out where the kidnap victim is being held captive. Part 2 (presented tomorrow) outlines how the PCs may go about rescuing the kidnap victim before he is harmed or even killed.

Background

A nobleman’s son has wracked up gambling debts with a loan shark named Keddy Grujo. If the debt is not settled by sundown today, the boy will be killed. The parents cannot afford to make the payment as the father recently purchased a new sailing ship. Desperate, the father hires the PCs to rescue the boy. Grujo will be in the presence of reputable people all day. He expects the parents to pay, but wants an alibi just in case. Grujo’s men have orders to kill the boy if the ransom is no paid by sundown. If Grujo’s agents learn that a rescue is afoot they will increase the number of men guarding the boy.

  • This skill challenge is broken into two parts. The successes and failures incurred in part 1 do not carry over into part 2
  • If the DM chooses to make this one large skill challenge the PCs need to earn a total of 12 successes between parts 1 and 2 combined. In this case, failures incurred during part 1 will carry over into part 2.
Continue reading “Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 1)”
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DM Resources

New 4e House Rules (Part 1)

Sometimes you have an idea while you’re playing and you think: “Man, this would make a great house rule.” And then you suggest it to the table and they shoot it down as dumb or too complicated or just unnecessary. And in most cases their feedback was bang on the money. However, every once and a while an idea that’s shot down refuses to die. Even though your immediate peer group thinks it’s a bad idea you’re convinced that it has merit. It is with this in mind that I’m writing this, the first of what I hope will be a series of articles, about house rules in 4e D&D.

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DM Resources

Campaign Design: Fleshing Out Your NPCs

Every campaign world is made of living, breathing NPCs. All of them have stories and a role to play within the campaign setting. From the lowly farmer to the mighty king, every NPC has a function and a purpose. As the campaign designer, your job is to define that role. Is the king a sinister tyrant? Is the peasant forming a rebellion? These are questions that you need to answer in order to bring your world to life.

This part of our series in Campaign Design picks up where the article on Politics and Groups of Influence left off. Now we look at the names and faces that dominate these political structures. Of course, not every NPC requires a fully fleshed out background, but the generalities are required. We’ll handle our look at NPCs in three sections: Common citizens, major players and villains.

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Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Bluff

Everybody lies and you can do it better than most because you’re trained in Bluff. But why limit yourself to just telling a convincing lie? Here are 10 new and creative ways to get more out of Bluff.

Bluff is not only applicable when speaking untruths. Any attempt at a falsehood is covered by this catch-all skill. Whenever you pretend to be someone you’re not, or mislead an opponent in combat, you rely on Bluff.

In many situations a Bluff check can or should be accompanied by another skill in order to make the lie more believable. It’s up to you and the DM to determine which situations warrant secondary checks, the appropriate DCs and what modifiers may apply.

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Class Discussions

Rangers: A Breed Apart

Elf Ranger by Devin HarriganYou are the protector of the wild, guardian of forbidden frontiers and shepherd to the weak. You attack your foe with blade, bow or beast. You provide no warning of your attack, dispatching your opponents quickly and decisively. You are a Ranger, and to you falls the duty and the privilege of fighting to protect the natural world.

In a recent poll held here at Dungeon’s Master we asked which class in the Players Handbook was most deadly. The response favoured the Ranger over all other options. As a result I’ve decided to take a deeper look at the class to explain just why it is such a deadly choice.

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DM Resources

More Than Just Minions

Killing minions feels good. So good in fact players do weird things in order to kill minions. Controllers who normally hide behind the defenders will charge with wild abandon to unleash a close blast spell if they believe they can drop more than one minion on their turn. Likewise, strikers will move into the thick of a group of enemies they don’t consider a threat to get their shots in on some easy minion fodder.

Here are a few fun things you can do to exploit the PC’s perceptions of minions.

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DM Resources Humour

Cheating in Dungeons and Dragons

People always look for short cuts or ways to get something for nothing. Why wouldn’t you take an opportunity to get ahead should the right circumstances present themselves?

Role playing games are not exempt from cheating. In fact, the game relies a lot on trust (something we’ll be exploring in a coming article). But what happens when players and DMs decide to cheat? How does that affect the game?

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DM Resources

Campaign Design: Politics and Groups of Influence

The world is starting to take shape, the geography has been defined and named and you have appropriate resources on hand to assist you. Now comes the time to start breathing life into your campaign setting. This entry in the Campaign Design series takes a look at Politics and Groups of Influence. This is a high-level view at the different powers and factions that exist within the world. We will examine particular individuals and NPCs in our next entry, but today it’s all about the organizations.

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Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Heal

You’re trained in Heal so you can patch wounds and stabilizing dying characters, but it doesn’t have to stop there. Here are 10 new and creative ways to get more out of Heal. Depending on your PC’s background and how you role-play him, Heal can encompass a wide variety of disciplines.

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