Categories
D&D Encounters

Recounting Encounters Podcast Update

dd-adventurers-league-logoThursday has been the day we post our D&D Encounter adventure recap for years. But when 5e D&D was officially released the D&D Encounters schedule was tweaked giving your FLGS a lot more time to complete the adventure; more time that most needed. At my FLGS it only took us about 10 weeks to complete Hoard of the Dragon Queen, episodes 1-3. With the official D&D Encounters part of the adventure was done, we stopped the recaps. But that doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting around doing nothing.

Each week Marc, Craig and I have continued recording new episodes of our podcast, Recounting Encounters. We don’t focus on weekly recaps any more, but we still have a lot to talk about. Sometimes we talk about problems we’ve experienced at our gaming table and how we’ve resolved them, other times we explore various interpretations of the new 5e rules. The point is that you can still catch our podcast every week until the new season of D&D Encounters begin in mid-March. Until then we’ll be sure to talk about things that will help your D&D game whether you’re a player or a DM.

Continue reading “Recounting Encounters Podcast Update”
Recounting Encounters: November 12, 2014 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Recounting Encounters: November 19, 2014 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Recounting Encounters: December 1, 2014 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Recounting Encounters: December 8, 2014 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Recounting Encounters: December 22, 2014 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Categories
Editorial

Merry Christmas

The Dungeon’s Master team wishes all of our readers a safe and happy holiday season.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s Master during the last year. Your continued support by visiting our site regularly and commenting often has helped make us successful. We hope you continue to visit during 2015 and we’ll keep providing relevant and interesting content.

In 2014 we saw the official release of D&D 5e and with that came the revamp of the organized play program in the form of the Adventurers League. It was a fantastic year for D&D and hopefully next year will continue to be just as great for gamers and the gaming community.

Although we didn’t put out as much new content in 2014 as we’d have liked, we’ll make a stronger effort in 2015 to get back into the habit of providing new articles that will help you make your gaming experience better.

If there’s a particular topic you’d like use to write about, please let us know. Also, we’re always looking for guest bloggers so if you’ve got something to say about D&D that you want to share with other gamers, contact us and we’ll see about giving you a shot.

If you’re still looking for a great gift to give yourself or someone in your gaming group, we have a suggestion that’s in everyone’s price range. Give the gift of D&D content directly into your inbox weekdays throughout 2014 by subscribing to the Dungeon’s Master RSS feed.


[jetpack_subscription_form title=”Looking for Instant Updates?” subscribe_text=”Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master Feed for up to date info from your favourite D&D site.” subscribe_button=”Sign Up Now”]

Categories
Friday Favourites Humour

Friday Favourite: Holiday Shopping Skill Challenge

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From December 11, 2009, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Holiday Shopping Skill Challenge.

‘Tis the season for giving and receiving gifts. Regardless of your personal or religious reasons for celebrating during the holiday season, everyone likes getting gifts. This is no secret to retail merchants. They know that you’ll be shopping for everyone on your list at this time of year and they want you to spend, spend, spend.

Shopping for Christmas presents can be a lot of hard, grueling work. It’s the part of the holidays that I like the least. So I decided to look at a challenging, real life situation through my D&D coloured glasses (as I so often do). A few months ago we put together a skill challenge called Battle for the Remote. It’s in that same vein that I present a holiday themed, real life skill challenge called Holiday Shopping.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Holiday Shopping Skill Challenge”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Should Monsters Employ Smart Tactics?

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From June 17, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Should Monsters Employ Smart Tactics?

As the DM it’s my job to control all of the monsters during a fight. Each player runs his own character but everyone else involved in the battle is my responsibility. In some cases the Monster Manual provides tactics (albeit very basic tactics), but in the vast majority of situations it’s completely up to me to decide which monster attacks which PC and what power they use.

As the DM I have to decide if the monsters are going to do what’s most tacitly sound (basically, what’s best for the monsters), or are they going to do what seems most fair to the players at my gaming table? For a long time I’ve been doing what’s fair and paid little attention to tactics. But the more I’ve been thinking about this approach the more I think that it’s hurting my game.

D&D isn’t (or shouldn’t be) the DM vs. the players. It’s a cooperative, story-telling experience with a lot of thrilling combat thrown in. Although we often joke about winning D&D when the PCs defeat all the monsters during an encounter, this is obviously not the case. Yet if a PC dies during combat the player certainly feels like he’s lost the game. For this reason I generally try not to pick on one PC and have the monsters gang up on him. After all, no one like it when their PC dies. But am I really doing the players any favours by not having the monsters employ sound tactics?

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Should Monsters Employ Smart Tactics?”
Categories
Book Reviews DM Resources

Review: Dungeon Master’s Guide (5e D&D)

dmg-5e-coverIt’s finally here: the third and final core book for 5e D&D – the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Let me tell you it was worth the wait. This books if fantastic. It is 320 pages of everything I was expecting from the 5e DMG. If you’re planning to stick with 5e then there’s no question, you’ll want this book.

I’m going to go through the highs and lows of each chapter. The DMG is massive and there is a lot of great material here. I can’t possibly do it all justice so I’m going to really try and focus on the things that I felt were worth noting; the things I’d want to know if I was reading a review of the 5e DMG. If you have questions about any of the things I discuss or you want to know about something you thought was in there but I didn’t cover, leave me a comment below.

After I’ve had my piece I’ll give you my final thoughts on the book and then it’s up to you to decide if you want to buy it or not.

Continue reading “Review: Dungeon Master’s Guide (5e D&D)”
Categories
Humour

The Dungeon Master’s Guide 5e Disclaimer

dmg-5e-coverWe have the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide. Tomorrow Friday* we’ll be sharing our review of this magnificent book and on Friday many of you will have a chance to pick up your very own copy from select premium game stores. Until then, we thought we’d give you a teaser by sharing the new disclaimer. Enjoy.

Continue reading “The Dungeon Master’s Guide 5e Disclaimer”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Tavern Trappings

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From May 14, 2010, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Tavern Trappings.

old world tavernLast week we provided a list of 118 Tavern Names. In the article, Wimwick provided some good positioning around making a tavern more than just a typical, average, run-of-the-mill establishment. Giving it a name is an excellent start. But why stop there?

Considering how often PCs find themselves in taverns, it’s important that you take some time to make each one unique and memorable. You don’t have to spend hours on it; a few minutes will do the trick. Adding those little details brings the setting to life. Without these details your tavern is just a forgettable background. So before the PCs head to the next watering hole for a quick drink, take a minute to flesh it out a little bit. Using our list to find an appropriate tavern name is a great start, but don’t forget to describe the staff, the patrons and the décor.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Tavern Trappings”
Categories
D&D Encounters Editorial

D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen – Report Card

hoard-of-the-dragon-queen-cover-2This was the new beginning for D&D. It may have been season 19 of D&D Encounters, but this was the first adventure that used the official new 5e rules so in a way it was like season 1 again. We had high expectation for 5e, especially after participating in the D&D Next playtest for so long, and we had high hopes for the first adventure that used the new rules. It was a lot of fun and there were plenty of memorable encounters at the tables I ran.

Today I’m going to take a long, hard look at Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I’m going to identify the good and the bad and then judge it on its merits. Was it a good adventure? Did it work as a season of D&D Encounters? Read on and find out.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen – Report Card”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Eenie, Meennie, Mini – Using Minis that Match the Monster

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From July 20, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Eenie, Meennie, Mini.

beholderI wasn’t a fan of minis until 4e came along. The introduction of very tactical combat made the conversion easy. I enjoy the different perspective that a large mini represents on the battlefield, how lines of sight might be affected and how the battle in general unfolds. Of course it has also led to several members of the Dungeon’s Master team to develop rather large collections of minis. Which is all to my benefit as a player and DM.

One of the questions I’m constantly debating is whether to use a mini that matches the monster they player’s are fighting. Now let me clear up that last statement. If the players are fighting a dragon, a beholder or a giant I use the appropriate mini. The dragon might not be the right colour, thought that’s usually not a problem, but the mini at least represents the monster.

Where I’m less specific is with humanoid combatants. My half-orc’s might look like humans, and my minotaurs might look like elves. As long as I have a mini on the table I’m usually satisfied.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Eenie, Meennie, Mini – Using Minis that Match the Monster”
Categories
D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Episode 3, Session 4)

hoard-of-the-dragon-queen-cover-2The party defeated the half-Dragon and his five fanatical Barbarian underlings in the Dragon Shrine during the last session. Most of the PCs were pretty banged up so they took another short rest before advancing to the Dragon Hatchery this week. Fortunately none of the creatures still inside the caverns stumbled upon the PCs while they rested so after an hour it was down the stairs into the bowels of the cave.

We ran four table this week at Hairy Tarantula North in Toronto. Three groups are nearing the end of Episode 3 while the fourth table has already moved on to Episode 4. Our usual fifth which has also already moved onto Episode 4 decided to play on a different night beginning this week. It’s good for us because it frees up some space and it’s good for them because they’re now on a night where there’s nothing else going on at our FLGS giving them free run of the place.

This week I had seven players at my table, six of my regulars and one brand new player. The new players had a lot of experience with D&D 2e and 3e, but none with 5e. The table rounded out as follows: Elf Rogue / Arcane Trickster (4), Dragonborn Fighter (4), Halfling Rogue / Assassin (3), Tiefling Bard (3), Tiefling Warlock (3), Elf Ranger (3), Human Fighter (1).

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Episode 3, Session 4)”
Actual Play Podcast at Hairy T North (Season 19 / Episode 3 / Session 4) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download