Tag: D&D Next

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Coins

a-to-z-2014-c

When civilized societies do away with the bartering system they turn to currency to make transactions easier. In D&D and most fantasy settings the currency of the land is coins. Gold pieces, silver pieces, and copper pieces are the traditional staples from which coins are cast, but each fantasy world will have coins made from whatever materials make sense. For example in Athas, the world of Dark Sun, metals are extremely rare so coins are made of ceramics.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “C” is for coins as all the adventure hooks focus on currency.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast (Week 7)

scourge-of-the-sword-coast-coverWhen we left our heroes they had just managed to get inside Harpshield Castle. A band of Orcs were currently camped in the castle and were likely to defend their position if challenged. The Half-Orcs in the party and the Drow took the direct approach and walked right up to the front door asking for admittance. The rest of the party’s sneaky members climbed over the wall and into the pig pen.

We ran three tables this week at Harry T North in Toronto. The 4e table and D&D Next table were both full, as usual. I’ve given up calling the group Craig and I are running two tables because it’s not anymore. This week I ran both tables by myself as Craig was unable to make it. However, we only had seven players so it was certainly manageable.

We had two new players this week; one brand new to D&D Next and the other a regular who’d missed a few weeks. The party I ran ended up with the following members: Half-Orc Cleric, Half-Orc Barbarian, Drow Paladin, Halfling Rogue, Elf Ranger, Elf Cleric/Rogue, and Human Monk/Barbarian.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: Oh Baby

a-to-z-2014-bIn all the years I’ve been playing D&D very few characters in any of my adventuring parties have ever had kids. Even the PCs who live long and fruitful lives, adventuring into their old age and accumulating incredible amounts of wealth still don’t stop to settle down and have a family. It’s as if having kids in-game is a sign of weakness, or even a curse to your favourite PC. I suppose it’s because as soon as you say your character has people he cares about in his life the DM will use that against you.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today’s “B” adventure hooks all center around a baby in one way or another.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: It Came From the Abyss!

a-to-z-2014-aIn D&D the Abyss is the place where Demons dwell. Some of the most fearsome, powerful, and iconic monsters in D&D call the Abyss home – Orcus, Demogorgon, and Lolth, for example (coincidentally all depicted on the covers of the 4e Monster Manuals). But for every named entity who’s managed to carve out a piece of the Abyss for themselves there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lesser beings that make up the vast majority of denizens.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today’s “A” article features adventure hooks that tie in to the Abyss.

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DM Resources

Dungeon’s Master joins the 2014 Blogging from A to Z Challenge

a-to-z-2014-badgeIt’s that time of year again; time for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title or theme of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. So on April 1 the article will begins with A, on April 2 it will begin with B, and so on all the way to the Z article on April 30.

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Friday Favourites Player Resources

Friday Favourite: Casting Raise Dead

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From March 29, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Casting Raise Dead.

What happens when you cast the raise dead ritual?

While Raise Dead is only a level 8 ritual, I would argue that it is one of the most powerful rituals in 4e Dungeons & Dragons. The ability to return a soul to its body is awesome and is a power beyond the understanding of most people.

This month (March 2011) the RPG Blog Carnival is hosted by Campaign Mastery and the focus is on Life and Death in RPGs. At Dungeon’s Master our contribution to this discussion will focus on the implications of casting the Raise Dead ritual.

All societies have grappled with the question of what happens beyond life. In a society where the ability to raise the dead exists, the question becomes what does it take to bring a soul back and restore the body to life? What toll is imposed on the caster of such a spell? What is involved in casting such a ritual?

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D&D Encounters D&D Next

D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast (Weeks 5 & 6)

scourge-of-the-sword-coast-coverWe ended week 4 with the party exploring the subterranean area beneath Julkoun. Regrettably I was unable to participate in the week 5 session, but the game went on without me. So in this week’s blog post I’ll do my best to quickly recap what happened while I was away and the move on to the details of what happened this week.

We’re still running four tables at Hairy T North in Toronto. The other two tables (one 4e and one D&D Next) have been full with six players at each most weeks. Craig and I continue to see the numbers at our combined tables dwindle. Last week Craig ran both groups together but only had eight players. This week we again had eight players but with two DMs. I’m not sure why we’ve lost so many of our regulars. Although we have had a few walk-ins this season, only one has stuck around. Two of the players at my table already told me they’ll be absent during the next few sessions so our super table may be down to a single table before the season ends.

This week the party ended up with the following members present: Half-Orc Mage, Half-Orc Paladin, Half-Orc Cleric, Elf Ranger, Elf Cleric/Rogue, Gnome Druid, Halfling Rogue, and Drow Paladin.

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Editorial Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From March 21, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D.

I think that the vast majority of people who play D&D take for granted just how important trust and honesty are to the game. In order for everything to work we have to assume that everyone playing is honest and trustworthy. Of course, we don’t come right out and ask this of the other players; you merely accept it as fact. If players cheat or abuse the trust we’ve given them in good faith, then the system won’t work and the gaming experience will be tarnished.

Just this past weekend I was playing a Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) adventure at my FLGS and something happened that really highlighted the importance of trust in D&D. It was an unusual situation, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that perhaps it’s time to discuss just how vital trust and honesty are in D&D.

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D&D Encounters D&D Next

D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast (Week 4)

scourge-of-the-sword-coast-coverSent to Julkoun by Duke Daggerford to investigate a missing shipment of goods and the strange appearance of a dozen messenger pigeons with no messages, the PCs found Goblins manning the guard towers and no evidence of the townsfolk dead or alive. During last week’s session the PCs got inside the walled village, killed all the Goblins in the towers, and defeated six Bugbears. Now they proceeded into the underground sections of the village: the Warehouse Basement and the subterranean inn & tavern, Jester’s Pride.

We’ve seen a steady decline in our numbers over the past few weeks at Harry T North in Toronto. The 4e table is holding strong with six players and the other D&D Next table was down to five this week. The double group that Craig and I are running started with 12 players in week 1 and was down to only six of our regulars and two new players this week.

Both new players decided to play Clerics making the party composition look like this: Halfling Rogue, Human Cleric, Drow Paladin, Half-Orc Mage, Half-Orc Paladin, Elf Ranger, Human Cleric, and Elf Cleric/Rogue.

My group, the Half-Orc Mage, Half-Orc Paladin, Elf Ranger, and Human Cleric were inside the Warehouse. The other group, the Halfling Rogue, Human Cleric, and Drow Paladin were about to enter the Jester’s Pride. The Elf Cleric/Rogue was still in the guard tower waiting and watching while the rest of the PCs continued their searching.

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Class Discussions D&D Next Player Resources

New Bard Subclass for D&D Next: College of Faust

bard-1One thing we decided when long ago was that we wouldn’t post new classes, feats, powers, or that kind of thing here at Dungeon’s Master. Since most players use Character Builder to create their characters it seemed like a waste of time to post any home brew material since we knew there was little chance of anyone actually using it in their game. However, as we transition to D&D Next we return to a system that a) doesn’t have character builder, and b) encourages players to be wildly imaginative when they’re creating characters.

This doesn’t mean that we’re planning to post a whole bunch of home brew material like new classes, items, or spells, but we are going to be more open to the possibility of such articles.

Last week as I was browsing the D&D sub-Reddit I stumbled upon a really creative take on the Bard class for D&D Next. I reached out to the author (/u/MightyWarWren) and asked him if we could post his version of the Bard here at Dungeon’s Master in order to give it more exposure. He agreed.

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