Tag: D&D

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 8.)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverThis week was the grand finale of D&D Encounters season 12. The PCs would face of against the forces off evil in an attempt to seal the rip in the Chaos Mote and ensure Miska remained imprisoned. The PCs would either be successful or die trying.

We ran a party of six this week. The members included a Drow Cleric, Half-Orc Barbarian, Elf Fighter (Slayer), Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen, Pixie Wizard (Witch), and Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid). In their possession were all three chaos artifacts: the Chaos Blade, Death Circlet, and Scroll of Final Words. With these three items the PCs felt that they had the means to ensure the forces of good would prevail.

Last week the PCs defeated Lareth the Beautiful and his minions. This week we began with the PCs returning to Hommel Lane from the Moat House. In the centre of town a crowd had gathered around the statue of Haffron Hommel. It seemed that the statue was now smiling. As the PCs approached the statue it spoke. “It feels incredible to be whole again, even if I cannot move!” it said.

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Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 8.) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 8.) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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DM Resources Editorial

Cat Lord

a-to-z-letters-cI remember it vividly. I was flipping through the AD&D Monster Manual II (still the only AD&D hardcover rule book I don’t own) and there he was on page 22 – the Cat Lord. Something about this creature grabbed my attention and my imagination in a way that few other monsters ever have. I think it was a combination of the name “Cat Lord” and the accompanying picture (by Harry Quinn) depicting a feline humanoid. This monster was majestic in a way that only a powerful hunting cat could be; yet he also exuded a sense of cool sophistication that has always stuck with me. It’s hard to put my finger on an exact reason, but something jumped off the page and into my imagination that has always led me to believe that the Cat Lord is one of the most interesting creatures in Dungeons & Dragons.

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. Today’s “C” topic is the Cat Lord, one of my all-time favourite D&D characters/monsters.

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Editorial

Board Games

a-to-z-letters-bIn the last year my home gaming group has played less D&D and more board games. At first it was just something to do when we didn’t have full attendance, but now we alternate every week between board games and role-playing games. When you’re playing board games that frequently you need some variety; after all you can only play so many games of Monopoly and Risk before you need to broaden your board game repertoire.

Over the past year or two my board game collection has increased from about a dozen classic games to over 50 games counting the new additions. I’ve also tried numerous games at my FLGS, gaming conventions, and some of the other guys in my gaming group have brought over their favourites. I’d say I’ve probably played close to a hundred different board games in the past year or so. It’s become such a big part of my social life that I’ve even got my wife and my parents to try new games.

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. In today’s article we shift from D&D to Board Games, our “B” topic for day two.

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D&D Encounters

Recounting Encounters with Against the Cult of Chaos author Shawn Merwin

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverToday Dungeon’s Master and 20ft Radius are proud to present a special episode of our podcast, Recounting Encounters. In this episode we talk to Shawn Merwin, one of the authors of this season’s adventure Against the Cult of Chaos.

Shawn is a freelance writer and game designer with a long list of impressive gaming credits to his name. His writing credits for Wizards of the Coast include Dungeon Delve, Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress, and Halls of Undermountain. He’s also been a very active member of the D&D public-play community having written for Living Greyhawk (LG) and Living Forgotten Realms (LFR). Most recently Shawn was one of the authors of the D&D Encounters season 11 adventure War of Everlasting Darkness and this season’s adventure Against the Cult of Chaos.

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Editorial

The Art of D&D (Part 3)

a-to-z-letters-aRole-playing games like D&D are the theater of the mind. The characters and events are only as real as the participants imagine them. For new players this can be overwhelming. After all, in a fantasy setting there are going to be a lot of things that your character should be familiar with but you, as an inexperienced player, have never heard of. This includes everything from exotic weapons to strange monsters. This is why the D&D books have always been rich with art.

The covers of most D&D books depict scenes where heroes battle monsters in some lavish and clearly fantastic setting. This draws you in and gets you to pick the book up (an important first step), but the interior art plays a very important role as well. It’s the interior art that’s going to fill in those blanks we’re talking about. In the original AD&D hard cover rule books the interior art did an amazing job of unlocking the imagination and guiding new players towards the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

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. In today’s article we return to a popular subject and one we’ve written on before: The Art of D&D, our “A” topic to kick off the month.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 7)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverIn week 2 this party visited the Moat House and nearly got wiped out by the bandits. This week they finally decided it was time to return to the Moat House and investigate the strange happening going on in the dungeon level below the old fort.

I ran a party of five that included a Half-Orc Barbarian, Drow Cleric, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), an Elf Fighter (Slayer), and Drow Wizard. I’ve now got seven regular players rotating in and out of my group, but their respective schedules have kept at least one away for the past month. Next week I expect all of them to be there for the finale which should make things interesting.

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Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 7) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 7) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Editorial

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

When we first launched Dungeon’s Master we posted new content every single day for the first month. After that we decided to just post on weekdays. For over three years we posted new content every single weekday. For the last year I’ve been slipping. I’ve tried to post content at least twice a week but even that’s been a struggle some weeks. In April things will change.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: 5 Reasons to Say No

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From July 19, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: 5 Reasons to Say No.

I believe that players should play the characters they want to play. I’m a total 4e, say yes convert. It took me awhile to come around but when I’m the DM I encourage creativity and I say yes… a lot. However, I’ve realized that as much as I want to always say yes, there are times when I probably should not. In a few of these cases it’s actually caused me more grief in the long run.

Players make choices during character creation and between levels during character improvement. Normally I’m very hands off as a DM and let the players do whatever they want as long as it’s legal. But it’s this absolute freedom of choice that often ends up causing the most problems. If I’d only stepped in earlier and said no, a lot of the problems I’ve experienced wouldn’t have been problems at all.

It’s taken me a while but I’ve learned the hard way that just because a choice is legal in character builder doesn’t mean that the DM has to automatically say yes to every choice that the players make. In fact the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that sometimes the DM should step in and say no; especially during character creation. Here are five examples.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 6)

against-the-cult-of-chaos-coverLast week the party stormed the Temple of the Lawbringer and faced off against Bullywugs, Wights and Priestess Devi. After the fight the PCs took a short rest and that’s where we picked things up.

This week I ran a table of six. One of our regulars was absent but another player brought a friend. I’ve had a brand new player at my table every week since we started. The fact that they all keep coming back is a good sign. The party included a Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Half-Orc Barbarian, Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen, and Syndrina the Drow Paladin (Cavalier) pre-gen.

As the PCs searched the basement of the temple they found a Drow in one of the cells. Since we already had two Drow in the party we said that they knew her. This made adding the new PC marginally plausible. In the other cells they found evidence that people were held here recently although no one was there now.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos (Week 6)”
Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 6) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 6) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Gaming in Silence

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From December 5, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Gaming in Silence.

Playing D&D is a social experience. It’s often as much about getting together with your friends as it is about killing monsters. But I’ve noticed that we spend a lot of time talking about stuff that isn’t even related to the game. This has really become a big problem in public-play games at my FLGS. I’ve noticed that over the past few sessions of D&D Encounters I’ve had to ask people (with alarming frequency) to stop talking when it’s not their turn and pay attention to what the other players are doing, and that got me thinking: what if you weren’t allowed to talk during an encounter or an entire gaming session? How would things change?

To begin this kind of gaming experiment, the DM must make it clear to the players right from the outset that anything they say, anything at all, even if it’s something that their characters obviously wouldn’t say, is going to count as an utterance by their PC. Absolutely everything the player says his character says. No exceptions. Silence is going to be the key to success. Excessive noise will either force the PCs to fight something they know they have no chance of defeating (hence all the sneaking around) or it will lead to a final confrontation that is a lot more difficult because the PCs kept talking. In either scenario, the stakes should be incredibly high.

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