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Book Reviews Eberron Player Resources

Review: Eberron Player’s Guide

eberron-players-guide-01Changes are happening in Eberron. The Eberron Player’s Guide hits shelves next week, but we have our copy now and we’re going to share with you all of its greatness. This is the first of two posts that we are publishing today. So if you’re a fan of Eberron already or just curious to see where this campaign setting is going with 4e D&D, then keep reading.

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DM Resources Player Resources

Playing Two Characters

I like playing two characters. As long as I get to create them both, then I’ll play two characters any time the DM allows it. But playing two characters when one is yours and one belongs to someone else is a lot more difficult and generally not as much fun.

I’ve played in games where the DM gave players the option of playing one or two characters. Most of my friends choose to stick with one character, but not me; if I can play two characters, I will. Here are some of the pros and cons I’ve found over the years of playing two characters in the same campaign.

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Player Resources

Big Bad Weapons

Sometimes you choose a weapon because it looks cool. Other times you choose a weapon that’s practical. And sometimes you choose a weapon that’s cheap. But most often you choose a weapon because it deals the most damage.

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DM Resources

Fighting One Monster is Boring

As a PC, I’d rather face five opponents than one. And, as the DM, I’d rather throw five opponents against the PCs than just one. This has been my take on combat since my earliest days of D&D. As new editions of D&D got released I kept an open mind and explored the possibilities again, but every time I found the outcome the same. It’s better to have the PCs fight a mob rather than one really tough foe.

I’ve encountered very few gamers (DMs or players) who disagree with me on this point. The number one reason I’ve heard is that it’s boring to fight just one monster no matter how powerful it is. So if no one wants to fight just one monster then it sounds to me like something’s not right with the game. And if that’s the case perhaps we can do something to change that. Let’s figure out a way to make fighting one really tough opponent as much fun as fighting five guys.

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Editorial

Is The DDI Now A Must Have?

It seems that the Dungeons & Dragons Insider (DDI) is living up to my wildest expectations. In his recent Apersand column (subscription required), Bill Slavicsek provided a lot more detail regarding the new content that Wizards of the Coast will make available during the next year through the DDI.

For those of you who haven’t shelled out for a DDI subscription yet, I’m going to summarize the high points of what’s on the horizon. Hopefully by the time you finish reading this you’ll want to become a DDI subscriber.

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Eberron Editorial

In Anticipation of Eberron

Eberron is coming. When Wizards launched 4e all eyes were centered on the Forgotten Realms. Now it’s Eberron’s turn to take centre-stage.

Eberron is the core campaign setting the Dungeon’s Master team plays in. We still follow the Forgotten Realms (especially through the LFR games) but we’re eagerly anticipating the new Eberron books. We feel that Eberron represents a more mature D&D game. It has all the comforts of a modern society recreated through magic. It’s not the traditional D&D you may be used to, and that excites us a lot.

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Humour Top 10

100 Great Things About Dungeons and Dragons

To celebrate out 100th post, the team at Dungeon’s Master has put together a list of 100 great things about D&D. Enjoy.

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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.

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Player Resources Skill Challenges

Knowledge Is Power

I was looking over the pre-generated characters Wizards provided for Worldwide D&D Game Day on May 23. Something interesting about the Eldarin Wizard, Althaea caught my eye. This character is trained in four knowledge skills. This seemed unusual to me as I find there is a tendency to be one dimensional when training skills. Physical characters take physical skills, charismatic characters take social skills and everyone ignores the knowledge skills. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that ignoring the knowledge skills is often a fatal decision made during character creation.