Tag: DM Resources

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D&D Encounters

Lair Assault Map Gallery

Last week we published the D&D Encounters Map Gallery which had pictures of every map from every season of D&D Encounters to date. Today we share the maps from Lair Assault.

Each Lair Assault is a specially designed dungeon delve that pits a party of five PCs against nearly impossibly odds. They adventures are designed to be challenging and there is a realistic expectation from the designers that many parties will suffer a TPK their first time through. In some cases the PCs only have a limited number of rounds to complete their objective, which of course adds another level of difficulty and complexity.

The maps for these adventures are often secret at the outset, but players are encouraged to replay the adventure using the knowledge they gained from their first time through. The maps are often simple and deadly; exactly what most DMs are looking for.

Some of the Lair Assault kits have included mini versions of the maps for the DM’s reference. Scans of these maps are posted below. When such maps were not provided I’ve resorted to photos of the poster map. I’ll continue to update this gallery as more Lair Assault adventures are released. I won’t post the current season’s map unless the PCs would normally have access to it at the adventure’s outset.

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DM Resources

Collaborative Dungeon Design

It’s unusual for DMs to get the players to help them design encounters. After all, part of the fun of being a player is the element of the unknown. Players love it and DMs relish in it. The idea that the DM springs the unknown on the players is practically a mandate of D&D. I know this is how things usually work when I’m the DM. I have a vision of what an encounter will be like or where it will take place and I make it happen. I create the encounters in secret. The last thing I want is for the players to have any foreknowledge of what’s next. In fact I’ve gone so far as to change details if I discover they know something they shouldn’t about the next encounter.

During my recent introduction to the Dresden Files RPG I experienced the extreme satisfaction of being part of the collaborative city creation process. The game takes place in a city that everyone helps develop. The DM (or in this case GM) still has the final say, but all the players work together to make the setting interesting. Of course it didn’t take long to see how this exercise could be just as useful to other games, namely D&D.

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D&D Encounters DM Resources

D&D Encounters Map Gallery

Since the beginning of the D&D Encounter program every adventure has come with at least one full-colour poster map. Regardless of your thoughts on any individual D&D Encounters season or the program as a whole, you have to admit that the maps have consistently been among the best elements of every adventure. The maps have depicted a wide variety of terrain since the program’s inception. Most maps are generic enough that they can easily be used by DM after the D&D Encounters program is done.

Below is a gallery of every map that’s been used (so far) for D&D Encounters. For DMs who have run some or all of the previous seasons of D&D Encounters, this gallery provides you with an easy, quick-reference to the maps. The next time you need a map with certain terrain or other specific features, just scroll through this gallery until you find what you need.

For DMs who have not run a season of D&D Encounters this gallery can serves as inspiration when you’ve got to create maps for your own campaigns. All of these maps were created using Wizards dungeon tiles, so you can recreate them yourself if you’ve got tiles. Alternatively you can draw your maps free-hand using these as a source of inspiration.

Sharing all the maps in this way is also a good advertisement for the D&D Encounters program. One of the reasons I keep running the adventures each season is so that I can keep these great maps. At my FLGS we’re always trying to get new DMs to run a season of D&D Encounters. By showcasing the great maps that come with each season our hope is that new DMs will step up and go behind the screen for a season or two.

The map is one of the most important parts of any encounter. The more dynamic and detailed the map, the better your chances of creating a truly memorable encounter. With a solid map, the rest of the details for an encounter seem to effortlessly fall into place. So the next time you need a quick map, take a look through this gallery and get inspired. After all, no one wants to fight monsters on a map that’s just a big featureless square.

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DM Resources

The New Initiative – Talk then Fight

“Everyone, roll initiative.” When the DM speaks these magic words we all know that it’s time for combat. This is how D&D works. The players determine who goes in what order and then you have at it. Since initiative is tied to Dexterity, PCs with the highest Dex almost always go first. And what do you know, the powers for most strikers – Rogues, Rangers, Sorcerers, Monks, Vampires – are generally tied to Dex so this is usually their best stat. The result is that the PCs who have the best chance of inflicting the most damage will act first in combat more often than not. This is all well and good if your objective is to kill everything you come across, but every now and then don’t you think there should be an opportunity to talk to your opponents before the hot-headed striker does something stupid like acting first and killing something?

We have it so engrained in our D&D mindset that rolling initiative is the natural precursor to killing monsters that very few PCs will take a second to try and defuse a combat situation with words. And those that do usually act so far down in the initiative order that by the time they get to go the fight is already well underway. Yet talking is a free action. In-game, your PC can talk even if it’s not his turn – even if he didn’t win initiative. However, players I’ve gamed with rarely take advantage of this before combat begins. Players roll initiative and want to act in that order. So why not roll two initiatives – one for talking and one for fighting?

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D&D Encounters DM Resources

It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Kill the Wizard

In this Lair Assault you’re are part of a special Drow “murder squad.” Your team must travel to the surface and kill a Wizard. It sounds straight-forward enough but failure will have devastating consequences. The Wizard has created a construct that he plans to mass produce and then set loose throughout the Underdark. These constructs have one purpose: kill all Drow. Your job is to Kill the Wizard, destroy the prototype, and ensure that no one can recreate it. Simple, right?

Lair Assault is part of Wizard of the Coast’s public play program. It’s intended to provide a whole new kind of D&D experience. There is very little role-playing in these adventures (by design). They are extremely combat heavy and reward smart play and clever tactics. It’s a power-gamers dream.

Knowing the kind of players these adventures attract, Wizards has made them exceptionally difficult. They fully expect that some or all of the PCs will die the first time they try any new Lair Assault. In fact they said at the outset that they estimate 80% of all groups will suffer a TPK in their first run-through. With the gauntlet thrown down you have to decide if you’re brave enough (or dumb enough) to accept the challenge and try to Kill the Wizard.

This is the fifth season of Lair Assault and the second that is part of the Rise of the Underdark theme running through all Wizards of the Coast product lines right now. One thing that makes this installment unique is that the players get to play the bad guys in this adventure. Not only that, but as Drow every player at the table should watch his back because you never know if another member of the squad is going to stab you in the back.

The new season of Lair Assault runs from September 1 – November 30. (I realize it already started, but I didn’t get the materials until last week and I’ve needed time to get this report put together.) Below I share some of the high-level details. I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free. Some of my suggestions and observations may seem a bit spoiler-y but most of my points are pretty obvious or fairly common sense things so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’m certainly not going to give away anything that will give players an unfair advantage.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

5 Adventure Hooks: Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. Sunday is Wimwick’s birthday. So it seemed appropriate to write an article that was in some way birthday related. The solution: birthday-themed adventure hooks. Each of the hooks provided below are tied to someone’s birthday.

As a DM I find that I’m always trying to come up with a good reason for why something happens at a particular time in the adventure. Tying it to someone’s birthday is as good a reason as any.

I’ve tried tying key events in my campaign to a PC’s birthday but I usually experience two major roadblocks. 1) We don’t track time accurately (or at all) in most games. 2) Very few players ever bother to specify when their PC was born. In the end we just say that a PCs birthday falls when it’s important to the story or whenever the player wants it to happen.

In campaigns where tracking the passage of time (and by default birthdays and other milestones) was important we used to say that every PC you play has your birthday. However, in our group there are five Virgos so all the PCs ended up having their birthday within two weeks of each other. In the end we just let the power of plot drive PCs birthdays and that’s worked pretty well over the years.

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Editorial

I’m Getting Published in Dungeon Magazine

I’ve always said that writing for this blog is a lobour of love. It is its own reward. While that is indeed true, in the back of my mind I’ve always secretly hoped that it would give me the experience and exposure needed to write for Wizards of the Coast. Well, that dream is becoming a reality in September as Wizards will be publishing two of my submissions.

Way back in April 2011 Wizards reached out to a wide field of up-and-coming writers asking if they’d be interested in contributing to Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine. Many of these would-be authors, myself included, had no professional writing experience aside from what we posted on our gaming blogs. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to contribute to the D&D cannon.

The Table of Contents for Dungeon #206 (September 2012) is now live on the Wizards of the Coast website. I don’t know when in September my articles will be live, but when they are I’ll let everyone know.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: August 2012

Here at Dungeon’s Master August was all about public play, community and conventions. It was a really busy month for gamer, as many of us made the annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis to game our brains out. In preparation for the con, we re-ran a few relevant articles from our archives to get you stoked. Happening simultaneously in August was the finale of D&D Encounters season 9 and the launch of season 10. Throw in the RPG Blog Carnival and you’ve got a pretty good picture of August at Dungeon’s Master. If you missed any of the coverage this is a great time to get caught up.

Every month I extend a huge thank you to our readers. It was extremely rewarding to actually meet a lot you at GenCon and say thanks in person for visiting Dungeon’s Master. One of our readers actually refereed to me as a celebrity, which I must admit went straight to my head. Our goal has always been to provide articles that people enjoy reading and that help make their game better, any name recognition I’ve earned along the way is just a nice fringe benefit.

Thanks to everyone who visited Dungeon’s Master in August. Please keep leaving your thoughts and feedback in the comments. If you have questions for us, or are interested in writing as a guest author, please email me directly or send me a Tweet.

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D&D Encounters DM Resources

In Anticipation of GenCon: 8 Things I Learned at D&D Encounters

With only three days to go it’s safe to say that I’m super stoked about GenCon. For many, GenCon will be their first time playing D&D in a public-play event. And for many DMs this will be theri first time running an event outside the comfort of their own basement or living room.  No matter how experienced a DM you think you are, I’ve got news for you, DMing a public-play game for total strangers is very different from running your home game.

With that in mind I’d like to share some tips that I’ve picked up playing D&D Encounters every week at my FLGS. Running one encounter a week at my FLGS may not be exactly the same as running a full adventure at a Con, but I’ll bet that you find yourself facing many of the problems, issues and challenges I’ve faced on a weekly basis. When these things happen (and they will) just keep these eight tips in mind and you’ll be fine. Many of these tips will be especially relevant if you happen to have younger or brand new players at your table. Good luck!

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Editorial Player Resources

In Anticipation of GenCon: 7 Appalling Things I Witnessed at the Gaming Table

So far the articles we’ve published in anticipation of GenCon were tips to make your gaming experience better; plenty of “dos” that we think are helpful and important. Today we provide a list of “don’ts.”

Although we always try to see the positive side of things here at Dungeon’s Master, every now and then we have to acknowledge that there are some negative aspects of gaming and gaming culture. After last year’s GenCon I felt it was my responsibility to highlight a few of the worst things I saw at the gaming table and shine a big spotlight right on it. Many of the offenders guilty of the things presented in the article below don’t even realize that what they’re doing is considered uncool or rude. My hope is that by actually listing these things here today gamers will realize how off-putting or annoying these things are and avoid doing any of them at this year’s GenCon (or any game table for that matter).

We ran this as part of our Great Hits 2011 at which time I wrote a new intro for it. I think that the new intro is just as important as the original article so I’ve decided to include it with today’s re-post.

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