Tag: DM tools

Categories
DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From January 7, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps.

It happens in every campaign, one player decides to go off and pursue an agenda or lead that only they understand. The player is totally focused on their objective, nothing else seems to matter. No one else at the table understands it. The DM is at his wits end to contain and control the situation. The other players are slowing losing interest and the entire adventure is about to be waylaid.

If you’ve ever sat at a table where you weren’t the player things were focused on, you know the boredom that soon sets in. The frustration at wanting to move forward, but not being able to due to the indulgence or poor planning of the DM. If you haven’t lived through this eventuality you likely haven’t been playing D&D very long, but don’t worry I’m sure it will happen to you soon enough.

In order to make this eventuality less painful for everyone, here are five steps that provide some straightforward advice on how to handle things if one or more players decide to split the party.

Continue reading “Friday Favourite: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps”
Categories
DM Resources Player Resources

D&D Bingo

One of the things that I really like about the Lair Assault program is Glory awards. These are objectives that the characters can do throughout the course of the adventure that will earn them points. The points have no in-game significance; they’re merely earned by the players for bragging rights. At first I thought Glory was just a nice add-on but after only one or two sessions I realized that the players had their character take actions simply to fulfill the conditions listed on their Glory tracker. The more I thought about this phenomena the more I realized that using something like a Glory tracker in a home game could help the DM guide the party in certain directions without railroading the group. It could also add some brevity to the game as the PCs tried doing all sorts of crazy things simply because it was on their to-do list.

Initially I thought about just creating a laundry list and calling it Glory just like Liar Assault, but then I had a brainstorm: D&D Bingo! As players or their PCs accomplish pre-defined objectives they get to mark off squares as complete. The DM can elect to award prizes if PCs complete a single line, two lines, inside square, four corners, X, T, or full card – it really doesn’t matter. The idea is that once every player has a D&D Bingo card they’ll find additional motivation to do things they might not otherwise be inclined to do.

Continue reading “D&D Bingo”
Categories
DM Resources Editorial

Greatest Hits 2011: My Love Affair With Minions

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

I love minions.

It has been almost a year since the original article was published and my love affair with minions has not decreased. If anything the infatuation has only increased. Since this article on minions was published I’ve taken the DM hat off and returned to the other side of the screen. Yet, even as a player I love minions. 

I take great joy in watching how my DM deploy’s his minions, how he frustrates me and other players with their tactical usage. It’s most obscene, but I take a perverse joy when all the minions gang up on the controller. I attack something else for a round just to see what will happen. 

In my mind minions truly are the best tool in the DM tool box that 4e introduced. The ability to add swarms of easy to kill, easy to use enemies is fantastic. Minions can quickly change the dynamic of any combat. Player’s are often left guessing on which monster is the minion during the initial rounds of an encounter. Where minions really stack up is when their synergies mesh with the other monsters in the encounter. 

As a player I feel truly heroic when I dispatch multiple foes with a burst or blast attack. Sure, they only have 1 hit point, but that isn’t the point. The point is what minions truly represent in the game. The fodder. My characters are supposed to be powerful, there are opponents that I am supposed to be able to vanquish with impunity. Minions fill that role. 

I hope you enjoy another read of this article. Since it was first published it has become one of our most searched articles and whether you are a DM or a player I’m sure you’ll find the value, joy and satisfaction that minions inject into combat. As I’ve said, my love affair with minions stands. I don’t see us breaking up anytime soon.

Continue reading “Greatest Hits 2011: My Love Affair With Minions”
Categories
DM Resources

Giving Character Backgrounds And Themes Teeth

Da Vinci - Man in CircleCharacter backgrounds and themes are a great way to flesh out your character. They provide players with additional motivation to create a compelling back story for their character. This motivation appears in the form of additional class skills, bonuses to those skills and in the case of themes, encounter powers. From a meta-game perspective there isn’t a good reason not to take advantage of these optional elements that are presented during character creation.

By opting in you give your character an edge, simply put you have a more powerful character at your disposal. Beyond the mechanics your character background and theme gives you a role-playing edge. Your choice at character creation reinforces the vision you have for your character. The choice of background and theme gives your back story additional credibility.

In fact you can use the background and theme to either assist you in creating your back story. Playing a Rogue who you envision is down on his luck and from the lower class? The Guttersnipe theme might fit in with your concept and provide you with some additional ideas on how to play your character. Of course backgrounds and themes can assist in supporting a back story you have already created. A character I created a few years ago was inspired by the Beijing Olympics. I was up late at night with my newborn and was watching a lot of gymnastics. I decided I would make a Rogue who aspired not to being an adventurer, but an athlete. In this case the Athlete background is a perfect fit for my character concept.

Continue reading “Giving Character Backgrounds And Themes Teeth”
Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge Next

I was done with skill challenges.

I don’t know how I got to this point. Perhaps it was my approach to them, trying to account for multiple options or not having a clear objective. Maybe I wasn’t introducing the skill challenge correctly, confusing my players. It’s possible that what I perceived as a skill challenge was better off handled with a few skill checks. It might even have been that I enjoy the tactical nature of 4e combat that I was willing to sacrifice one aspect of the game for the other. Finally, maybe it wasn’t me. Maybe it was my players who either found my challenges boring, lacking in direction, or they themselves desired more combat, less talk.

I’m not going to pretend to know the answers to my skill challenge troubles. What I do know is that this past week everything clicked.

Continue reading “Skill Challenge Next”
Categories
DM Resources

Eenie, Meennie, Mini

I 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 “Eenie, Meennie, Mini”
Categories
Editorial

June RPG Blog Carnival Round Up

The June RPG Blog Carnival has concluded and the Dungeon’s Master team would like to thank all the participants. This month we asked you to create a memorable character inspired from real life. The participating posts were all very engaging and creative. While reading each of them I found myself thinking, now why didn’t I think of that?

I hope you enjoyed this month’s carnival and the submissions that it brought. Be sure to read each submission and surprise your table with a character inspired from real life.

Continue reading “June RPG Blog Carnival Round Up”
Categories
DM Resources

3 Quick Ways To Increase Role Playing At Your Table

In reading Ameron’s reports on D&D Encounters and in my own observations there seems to be a lack of role playing occurring in D&D. Another way of looking at it is, there are good role playing opportunities presented with combat encounters that just seem tacked on providing an excuse for combat.

The pace of 4e D&D combat tends to squeeze role playing out of the equation. I find this happening to the extent that 4e could almost be classified as a tactical combat game rather than a role playing game. The opinion might be extreme, but it does have merit. If you are looking to ensure that more role playing occur at your table and not sacrifice the fun that 4e tactical combat brings consider the points below.

Continue reading “3 Quick Ways To Increase Role Playing At Your Table”
Categories
Adventure Hooks Class Discussions DM Resources

Adventure Hooks for Divine Characters (Part 2)

Last week we gave you 10 Adventure Hooks for Divine Characters. Today we add to that list by providing 10 more. As we mentioned in last week’s article, adventure hooks featuring divine characters can be a lot more complex than typical hooks.

The faith of the divine PCs will often dictate which side of the conflict presented in the adventure hooks they land on. It’s up to the DM to decide which side of the conflict will make for the most interesting encounter. Just remember that divine PCs may choose to act in the best interest of their faith even if it’s not in the best interest of their party.

Continue reading “Adventure Hooks for Divine Characters (Part 2)”
Categories
DM Resources

Building Better Monsters Part 4: Monster Themes and Implementing Your Designs

If you’ve read this far you’ve got the goods to design a monster, so now it’s time to think of your creation as part of the bigger picture, as a denizen of a universe. You’ll need to consider how your monster relates to the world around it as well as other monsters so that you can determine how to role-play them and how they will act in combat.

There are loose themes that the most monsters will fit in if your campaign fits into any of the better-known genres. The themes for monsters are based on creature type, location and its association with other creatures.

Continue reading “Building Better Monsters Part 4: Monster Themes and Implementing Your Designs”