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DM Resources

How Do You Like Your Dungeon Maps?

Map by Dyson Logos


The Dungeon’s Master home group currently uses a rotating DM system. Each of us takes a turn and as we approach the end of our segment we cue who ever is on deck to get ready to take over in a week or two.

The rational for this is that none of us has the time to truly run a long term campaign and it allows each of us to take a turn being the DM. As players we experience different styles in encounter creation, story telling and pacing.

The aspect I’m enjoying is seeing what everyone does with their maps when their shot as the DM comes around.

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DM Resources

Adventure Builder Workshop: Location

Movies and television are great for portraying fantastic locations. I can still recall the sense of wonder I first felt when I saw the Argonath while watching The Fellowship of the Ring. With equal wonder I recall the first time I saw Naboo and the massive waterfall that cascaded away from the city. These two scenes fill me with wonder and a sense of adventure. Of course movies and television have the advantage of being primarily visual mediums. As a DM we use words more than visuals, this doesn’t mean we are limited in what locations we portray to our players. We are merely limited by our imaginations.

This is the second in a series that focuses on the Adventure Builder Workshop held at GenCon this past August. The first in the series focused on the villain, today we turn our attention to locations.

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Editorial

The Evolution of the Dungeon Encounter

“Hey what dat noise?”

“What noise dat you talk’n bout Oloorin?”

“Sounds like fight’n, maybe we go see?”

“Wha you talk’n bout? We have important job, we guard chest in 10 x 10 room. We stay put.”

“Uh… ok, if you say. What we do if someone come through dat door?”

“Probably we die. Dat da life of two orcs guarding chest in room.”

Sound familiar? Ok, maybe I’ve gone a bit too far with some stereotypes, but how many DMs have designed a dungeon that had a room with a few monster that just waited for the door to open?

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Editorial

Greatest Hits 2009: Taking The Dungeon Out Of Dungeons And Dragons

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 2009. 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.

The concept of the dungeon crawl has had a great deal of debate since the release of 4e. The design of encounters in 4e, has changed the nature of the dungeon. Rather than a large, traditional-style dungeon that players explore five feet at a time, dungeons in 4e are more about large set piece encounters. The dungeon is little more than a series of hallways connecting the rooms that drive the plot or adventure forward.

The focus of this article was to debate whether the dungeon crawl could be removed in favour of a skill challenge. The article generated a great deal of discussion amongst the community. Looking back on those comments it’s apparent that the community has a great deal of interest in trying out new concepts. It was also apparent that there is a great deal of passion and debate about how this classic aspect of Dungeons & Dragons should be handled.

Without desiring to launch an edition war, we decided to bring this article out of the archives for a second look. There are a great many concepts presented that we at Dungeon’s Master will be following up on in the new year.

From April 7, 2009 Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Taking the Dungeon Out of Dungeons & Dragons.

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DM Resources

One Page Dungeon Submission

Last week I whipped together a submission for the (awesome) One Page Dungeon Contest put on by Chatty DM and Chgowiz. You can read the back-story idea for the dungeon within the submission itself. In short, orcs are using some old dwarven ruins and caves beside a waterfall as a base of operations for raiding the countryside. Add the dwarves’ bane – a living spell, some water elementals living in the pool under the waterfall and some Myconids to the mix and an adventuring party will have their hands full.