Tag: DM Resources

Categories
Adventure Hooks Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Adventure Hooks – The Dangers of the Underdark

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From April 24, 2014, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Adventure Hooks – The Dangers of the Underdark.

The Underdark is the vast subterranean network of interconnected caverns that run beneath the surface world. The Underdark is filled with creatures living and thriving underground, uniquely adapted for life without sunlight. It’s the perfect place for adventures to explore when seeking fame, fortune and forbidden knowledge.

The most popular of the Underdark’s denizens are the Dark (Drow) Elves. Wizard has published plenty of books and articles on Drow if you want to know more about them. However, a lot of the hazards and dangers that Drow face are equally problematic for other races and PCs wandering aimlessly through the Underdark. So even if you don’t want your campaign to get bogged down in Drow details, you can still leverage some of the other stuff from those materials.

Besides Drow there are plenty of other monsters that you can use to thwart and challenge your party while they traverse the Underdark. Remember that PCs will likely need light to see, whereas many of the monsters they’ll face will not. If the PCs aren’t careful, target their light source and force them to fight or flee in pitch black.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Adventure Hooks – The Dangers of the Underdark”
Categories
DM Resources

Roll for Initiative… or Don’t – Alternative Approaches to Initiative

We’re all very familiar with these magic words: “Roll for initiative.” When the DM say this you know something big is about to happen. Many players live for these three magic words, because in their minds it means it’s time to fight monsters.

In D&D (and pretty much all other role-playing games) there is some kind of initiative mechanic; the means by which everyone can figure out who acts in what order. In some cases winning initiative can mean the literal difference between life and death for some characters.

Normally initiative is determined by rolling a d20 and adding your initiative modifier. The round begins with the highest initiative and proceeds to the lowest with each PC or monster acting when their initiative number is called. This has pretty much been the standard way of running initiative since D&D was first created. However, it’s not the only way to determine the order of action. In fact some of the initiative variants are proving to have noticeable in-game benefits which is causing more and more DM (me included) to adopt an alternative approach to initiative.

Continue reading “Roll for Initiative… or Don’t – Alternative Approaches to Initiative”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Design Encounters That Reward Cooperative Play

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From October 19, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Design Encounters That Reward Cooperative Play.

D&D has always been a game where players work together to accomplish a common goal rather than compete against each other for a prize. It is a game where the DM provides a backdrop for character conflict. Players are likewise not competing against the DM. Instead everyone should collaborate to create a great story and a fun experience.

In order to provide a backdrop where players can develop their characters, we need to let go of the tendency to design encounters to challenge the party’s damage output. The story should advance by developing such themes as characters actively helping others, conquering foes, and overcoming afflictions or wounds. If we use valid rewards for contributing to a team effort this will inspire others to reciprocate.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Design Encounters That Reward Cooperative Play”
Categories
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.

Continue reading “Adventure Hooks: It Came From the Abyss!”
Categories
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.

Continue reading “Dungeon’s Master joins the 2014 Blogging from A to Z Challenge”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Adjudicating and House Rules

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From February 19, 2009, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Adjudicating and House Rules.

DM – The bugbear sneaks up behind Ethan the Rogue and strangles him with a garrote. You’re immobilized until you make a successful escape check.

Nenia – I attack the Bugbear with a Magic Missile and use my Orb of Unlucky Exchanges to switch the immobilized condition from Ethan to the Bugbear.

DM – Wait a minute, you mean the garrote magically goes from around Ethan’s neck to around the Bugbear’s own neck? That doesn’t seem right.

Nenia – That’s right and if the Bugbear wants to free himself he needs to make an escape check.

DM – Against himself?! That definitely doesn’t sound right.

What happens when a situation comes up and you as the DM don’t know what to do? Generally it’s one of two things: 1) you know there’s a rule that will solve the dilemma but you can’t find it, or 2) the situation is so unprecedented that you never thought of how to handle it. As the DM, what do you do?

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Adjudicating and House Rules”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Running A Game With New Players

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From February 3, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Running A Game With New Players.

Over the past couple seasons of D&D Encounters I’ve had the opportunity to play with a lot of new players. Many of these players (usually the younger ones) were completely new to D&D or any RPG for that matter. While some of the DMs have found it frustrating to run tables with so many inexperienced players, I’ve found it to be quite rewarding.

During this time I’ve come up some guidelines for running games with new players. Although I put these together to help me manage tables of newbies, many of these points are still good to keep in mind when running any table, no matter how much experience your players have.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Running A Game With New Players”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Summoning and Banishment

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From March 7, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Summoning and Banishment.

summon-aGenerally when a character uses a summoning or banishing power there is no real though about how the power works. A creature is either summoned from a distant plane of existence to do your bidding or a dangerous foe is removed from combat for a short period of time. However, since most powers that summon or banish are arcane or psionic in nature, there is certainly room for customization that can make for some very interesting role-playing.

Without changing the mechanics of how summoning or banishing powers actually work, the players and DM still have a tremendous about of flexibility when it comes to describing how these powers function within the game itself. Think of it as flavour text, but don’t stop there.

Consider for a minute the consequences and repercussions of summoning a creature to fight your battles or to banishing an incredibly deadly foe to some distant plane, even if it’s only for a very brief time period. A little imagination can add a lot of flavour to your game the next time a character uses one of these powers.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Summoning and Banishment”
Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Really Hard Skill Checks

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From December 3, 2010, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Really Hard Skill Checks.

Have you ever needed to roll over 20 to succeed at a skill check? If you’re a combat-heavy PC then the answer is probably yes, but what if you’re a well rounded PC with decent attributes? Does your DM ever make a DC so difficult that it’s practically impossible to succeed? With very few exceptions most DMs won’t present DCs that are out of the reach of the average PC. My question is why not? I know I do when I’m the DM.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the actual numbers when it comes to skill checks and DC. We already covered this issue last week in Bauxtehude’s articles Exploring Skill Checks and the New DCs part 1 and part 2. The point I want to discuss today is whether or not DCs should ever be out of reach to all but the very best and most highly trained characters?

Too many players focus too much on combat and forget just how important the skills are to the game and to their character. Players need to realize that feats and powers that provide bonuses to skills are just as vital to victory as the feat that gives bonuses to attacks and damage or powers that deal multiple weapon damage.

By presenting circumstances where incredibly high DCs rear their ugly head, the DM reminds players that they shouldn’t expect an easy victory all the time. These reminders need to be nailed home for out of combat encounters even more than for combat encounters.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: Really Hard Skill Checks”
Categories
DM Resources

What Would It Take For You To Give Up Your Favourite Magic Item?

If your DM asked you to either have their PC give up his favourite magic item or cut off his own leg I’m betting it would be a really tough choice. And I think most players would rather the PC lose the leg than their magic item. That’s how important magic items are to most players.

When a PC acquires a new magic item it often become a significant part of that character. Many of us define our PCs by the items they possess, especially the really cool or powerful items.

Magic items are often seen as a sort of status symbol at the gaming table. If your character has magic armor, a magic cloak, a magic weapon or two, and numerous other miscellaneous baubles in his inventory he’s going to be deemed “better” than other PCs in the party who have fewer items with lower plusses. It’s not usually talked about but it happens.

With everyone clamouring for more items the DM’s natural instinct is to award magic items every time the PCs complete a quest or defeat a really difficult encounter. That’s just how D&D works – you kill monsters and take their stuff. And if they don’t have anything useful you sell what they had and buy something you can actually use. The result is a party with a ridiculous amount of magic items in their combined inventory, especially at higher levels. Welcome to the world of Monty Haul gaming.

So what’s a DM to do when he realizes that the party has too much stuff? The simplest solution is to take it away. However, this is not going to go over well with the players. After all, they didn’t do anything wrong. In fact they did everything right. They killed the toughest monsters and rightly earned all of their best stuff. Just because the DM was too generous doesn’t mean the players should suffer. So what other options are there?

Continue reading “What Would It Take For You To Give Up Your Favourite Magic Item?”