Tag: DnD Next

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Does Alignment Matter in D&D?

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From November 2, 2010, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Does Alignment Matter in D&D?.

How important is alignment? Does it serve a practical purpose in D&D , or does it just take up room on the character sheet? The alignment mechanic underwent significant changes when 4e D&D was launched. The traditional or classic view of alignment was turned on its head. Nine alignments were pared down to only five; and two of the remaining alignments are, for the most part, off limits to players. So with only three real choices remaining does alignment even matter? Is this just a carryover from previous editions that no longer has a place in D&D?

As a player and a DM I believe that alignment is a vitally important part of every character sheet and that it doesn’t get nearly enough attention. In fact I’m extremely dissatisfied with how alignment is handled in 4e D&D.

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D&D Encounters D&D Next

D&D Encounters: Murder in Baldur’s Gate (Week 8.)

murder-in-baldurs-gate-coverThe latest law in Baldur’s Gate allowed dueling in the streets. In response, Ravengard enacted a law empowering the Flaming Fist soldiers to hold tribunals on the spot to better uphold the law, enact justice, and keep the city safe. Add to the mess a fire deliberately set in the warehouse district near the docks in Lower City and you get a pretty good idea of how things are spiraling out of control in Baldur’s Gate.

This week at Harry Tarantula North in Toronto we had 19 players and three DMs. I ran a table of six, all of whom had played with me during this season. However, one of the players decided to scrap his pre-gen and create his own character. The party ended up with the following PCs: Half-Elf Paladin (Carl McClure, candidate for Duke), Dwarf Fighter, Human Cleric, Elf Wizard, Human Monk, and Warforged Fighter.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Cheating in Dungeons & Dragons

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From April 17, 2009, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Cheating in Dungeons & Dragons.

People always look for short cuts or ways to get something for nothing. Why wouldn’t you take an opportunity to get ahead should the right circumstances present themselves?

Role playing games are not exempt from cheating. In fact, the game relies a lot on trust (something we’ll be exploring in a coming article). But what happens when players and DMs decide to cheat? How does that affect the game?

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Murder in Baldur’s Gate (Week 7)

murder-in-baldurs-gate-coverWith Upper City closing its gates to non-residents at 3 bells, the PCs decided to help merchants from Lower City and Outer City skirt the system by travelling through Underceller to bypass the gates. It took considerable effort and a battle with some skeletons, but the PCs found a safe passage and began escorting merchants.

This week at Harry Tarantula North in Toronto we ran three tables, all using the D&D Next play test rules. The other two DMs both had six players at their tables. I started with three players at my table and got two more after about 30 minutes bringing my total up to five. The party consisted of a Half-Elf Paladin (Carl), Halfling Rogue, Dwarf Druid, Human Monk, and Elf Wizard.

None of the PCs from last weeks session were present this week so we said they continued to escort merchants through Underceller as other events played out in Baldur’s Gate this week.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Splitting the Party Successfully

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From April 23, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Splitting the Party Successfully.

Experience teaches player to never split the party. However, there are times when it doesn’t make sense for the party to remain together. This might be because there are many tasks to complete in a limited amount of time or it might be because some party members have skills or powers that make them uniquely qualified to handle a task alone. Yet when presented with any opportunity to split the party, no matter how logical it might seem to do so, a lot of players insist on staying together. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that is not founded in any rational assessment of the situation. It’s an instinctual response based on a previous disaster and a slogan ingrained into them by the Wizards marketing department. Players need to take a deep breath and repeat after me: Sometimes it’s a good idea to split the party.

My gaming group has actually had a lot of success when splitting the party. It’s not something we do very often, but we are certainly open to the possibility when it makes sense. Most often when we split up each group or individual ends up with their own mini skill challenge, but every so often the DM has something else in mind and combat occurs while the party is separated from each other. We’ve found that there are ways to make combat with a split party work. It’s definitely challenging, but our approach to these situations are always fun and rarely result in anyone being left out while their character is off screen.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Murder in Baldur’s Gate (Week 6)

murder-in-baldurs-gate-coverBaldur’s Gate faced a crippling garbage strike during last week’s session. The PCs used magic to summon monsters to eat the garbage and clean the streets. The success of such a creative endeavour endeared Carl the Paladin, the party’s leader, to the residents of Baldur’s Gate and now his name is being shouted from the rooftops as a possible candidate for Duke.

This week at Harry T North in Toronto we ran three tables of D&D Next. The other two DMs each ran tables with five players. Three of my five regulars notified me that they’d be absent this week; fortunately we had two brand new players walk in so I added them to my group brining us up to a very manageable party of four. The party ended up consisting of two Dwarf Fighters and two Human Clerics – sometimes you get balance, sometimes you don’t.

The new players had some previous experience with RPGs, but nothing recent. I gave them a brief recap of what had happened so far in the adventure and then asked them how they saw these characters fitting in to the story. I suggested we just say they already knew some of the previous PCs but they didn’t want to do that (which was fine). They decided that they were wandering adventurers. When they heard the tales of Carl the Paladin they decided to find him and see if he really was as great as the stories made him sound.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Give Your Character Personality

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From February 22, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Give Your Character Personality.

When you ask a gamer to tell you about their character they will usually begin with class and race followed by the kind of weapon the PC uses, a list of their best magical items and then finally some really cool attack power or spell in their arsenal. And for most people that’s the answer they expect. But when was the last time you described a character as being a know-it-all, or a suck up, or a dreamer, or manipulative, or unusually arrogant?

Personality isn’t one of the boxes you need to fill in on a character sheet so many gamers, me included, often overlook this important detail when we create characters. More importantly we forget that every character has a unique personality. Looking back at my last few long-term characters I realize that they all had pretty much the same personality – mine.

In my experience, very few of us define our character by who they really are at heart, resorting instead to what they possess and what they can do. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this approach, but if you play a lot of RPGs you realize that a character with a well-defined personality can be a lot more interesting and a lot more fun to play. After all, personality goes a long way.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Murder in Baldur’s Gate (Week 5)

murder-in-baldurs-gate-coverDuring the last session the PCs spent a few days investigating acts of vandalism throughout Baldur’s Gate including the theft of hands from numerous statues around the city. When the hands from the Beloved Ranger statue were stolen the PCs led the investigation to recover them. They eventually captured two young nobles and recovered the hands from the Ranger statue.

About two weeks had passed since the events of the last session. The PCs had already earned a good reputation as heroes after their role in the events that happened on Founder’s Day, but their part in the recovery of Minsk’s hands elevated their reputations even more.

This week at Harry T North in Toronto we ran two tables of D&D Next. One of our DMs couldn’t play this week and his group of six all agreed to just do a double session next week. Another DM ran a full table with his six regular players. I began with five players, but about 15 minutes into the session two more of our regulars showed up. So I ended up running a party of seven PCs: a Dwarf Fighter, Human Cleric, Half-Elf Paladin, Halfling Rogue, Elf Wizard, Human Monk and Elf Ranger.

We seem to have lost a few players over the past couple of weeks. I suspect that has something to do with everyone going back to school. I hope that as they get back into a regular routine we see them come back and possibly even bring a few friends to try our D&D. Most of my players read the weekly posts on this website and on the D&D forums so if they do return I know they’ll have a pretty good idea of what they’ve missed and we won’t have to spend a lot of time getting them caught up.

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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: Undead Make the Scariest Villains

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From January 12, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Undead Make the Scariest Villains.

Would you rather fight a beholder or a zombie? This is a much more complicated question than you might realize. Look at this through the eyes of your character and not through the eyes of a meta-gamer. In-character what is the scariest monster you can imagine? For me it’s undead more than any other.

Most monsters are, well, monstrous. They are clearly different than you and they must be destroyed. The beholder is an abomination. It’s scary, and a big party of what makes it scary is that it doesn’t conform to a physical shape you’re comfortable with. It’s a giant floating ball with eyestalks swirling about. Even if you’d never seen a beholder before and knew nothing about it, your initial instinct as an adventurer would be to attack and destroy something so awful.

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D&D Encounters D&D Next

D&D Encounters: Murder in Baldur’s Gate (Week 4)

murder-in-baldurs-gate-coverDuring the last session the PCs witnessed tensions grow in Baldur’s gate as sumptuary laws were implemented and the Watch and Flaming Fist officers began enforcing it. The PCs got caught up in a street brawl between Flaming Fist officers and a mob of angry Lower City residents. The Fist prevailed and the PCs escorted most of the troublemakers to Wyrm’s Rock for processing.

A few PCs split from the group and met with Rilsa Rael, a member of the Guild working out of Little Calimshan. She provided a different perspective of the recent events happening in Baldur’s Gate and suggested the PCs stop working for the Flaming Fist. She went on to ask them (again) to help her and the Guild do what was best for Baldur’s Gate.

This week at Harry T North in Toronto we had another large turnout. In addition to our many regulars we had 2 brand new players join in the fun. For the first time this season we actually had four DMs ready to run tables.

Since this season began I’ve run massive groups each week (9 players twice and 8 players once). In order to try and fix this problem and speed up our sessions we recruited a fourth DM. Players at the first two tables (6 each) were all punctual so they started on time. That left two DMs and 6 players. Normally I’d just group these folks together and run a table of 7, but we were still expecting as many as 6 more players so we waited.

After about 10 minutes we decided to begin with both DMs running tables of 3. After all, none of the players had called, texted, emailed or Tweeted that they’d be absent, and I didn’t want to start with a table of 7 and have it balloon up to 9 or more. Of course no more players showed up so I ended up running a small group of 3: Half-Elf Paladin, Dwarf Fighter and Human Cleric. You know if we’d started with 7 everyone else would have shown up. Oh well.

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