Tag: Dungeon’s Master

Campaign Design: Geography

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date April 3, 2009
3 Comments on Campaign Design: Geography

All the world is a stage and you get to design it. Creating the geography for your gaming world is more than just placing mountains, streams and forest. Every decision you make during this stage of the game will effect future gaming sessions and expansions to your campaign setting. The geographic elements you work into your game world form the natural boundaries that are used to define the kingdoms and territories of your world. It’s important to get it right from the start.

Tags 4e, campaign design, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon Master Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Eberron, geography, resource, RPG, Wizards of the Coast

Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Intimidate

Mastering the Intimidate skill is difficult, probably more so than any other skill in the PHB. Intimidate is availabe to 12 classes (as shown in our Skill Matrix by Class) making it the most widely available skill (along with Athletics and Endurance). If you’re playing a class like the Fighter where you have very few skills to choose from, Intimidate is a very popular choice.

Despite the large number of PCs who take training in Intimidate, it’s a skill that has very limited uses. Using Intimidate during a skill challenge often counts as an automatic failure. If not, then you usually get only one try with Intimidate. In a perfect scenario a successful Intimidate check brings you one step closer to accomplishing the objective of the skill challenge. If you fail it can make future checks more difficult and count as one more strike. So it’s important to know when to use Intimidate and when to rely on a different skill.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Intimidate, resource, Skill Challenge, Skill Challenges, Skill Focus

Month in Review

Month in Review: March 2009

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date April 1, 2009

March was a good month for D&D and a great month for Dungeon’s Master. We hit our two month milestone and are gaining a strong and loyal readership. Our thanks to everyone who visits regularly and comments often. In March we published 26 new articles on a wide variety of topics. Here are the highlights just in case you missed anything.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, familiars, Humour, Module, Month in Review, PHB2, RPG, Skill Challenge, wizard familiar

DM Resources Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Matrix by Class and Race

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date March 30, 2009
9 Comments on Skill Matrix by Class and Race

The core classes and races now span three books: PHB, PHB2, and FR Player’s Guide. I’ve created two skill aides: one lists skill offerings by class, the other lists bonuses to skills and attributes by race.

I developed these to make things easier when creating skill challenges. They provide quick snapshots of all the skills by class and race, and eliminates the need for me to keep flipping between books.

As an added bonus I’ve found these aides incredibly useful when creating characters. They provide side-by-side comparisons of racial bonuses to attributes and skills.

Tags 4e, character class, D&D, DM Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, PHB, PHB2, Player Resources, Skill Challenge, Skill Matrix

Adventures

Module: The Spy In Our Midst

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 27, 2009
1 Comment on Module: The Spy In Our Midst

The Spy In Our Midst is the second module offering from the team at Dungeon’s Master. This module continues the adventure path started in our first module, The Magistrate’s Daughter. It is designed for first level characters. Playing both modules should provide PCs with enough experience to advance to second level. We hope that you enjoy the module and would appreciate your feedback.

Tags 4e, adventure, adventure path, D&D, DM, DM Resources, dragons, Dungeon's Master, dungeons, Dungeons and Dragons, Module, player, Skill Challenge, The Spy In Our Midst

DM Resources

The Spoils of War

When the fighting ends and the dust settles, it’s time to look at the spoils of war. How will your PC claim his fare share of the reward when the war ends? Your character’s motives for fighting will be the best guide for the DM when he decides how to reward the players.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy War, Slaves, Spoils of War, War

Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: History

History is one of those skills that many PCs are trained in but don’t really know how or when to use it. Here are 10 new and creative ways to get more out of History.

The basic assumption is that History can only be used to remember things that happened in the past. Sure it can be used in this way, but this is certainly not the only way to use History.

Eleven of the seventeen core classes can take training in History. Three races have a +2 racial bonus in History. So there is a very strong likelihood that every party will have multiple PCs who count History as one of their best skills. If everyone’s so good in History why isn’t it being used more? Lack of imagination, that’s why.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, History, Player Resources, Skill Challenge, Skill Focus

Editorial

Worldwide D&D Game Day 2009

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date March 22, 2009
4 Comments on Worldwide D&D Game Day 2009

gameday2009 I spent Worldwide D&D Game Day 2009 at 401 Games, a game store in downtown Toronto meeting new gamers and playing the adventure One Night in Weeping Briar. This was an adventure for five, 11th level characters and was designed to appeal to experienced gamers as well as people trying out D&D for the very first time. Overall, I think it was a great success, but I do have some feedback about Game Day that I’d like to share based on my experience.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, One Night in Weeping Briar, PHB2, RPG, Wizards of the Coast, Worldwide Game Day 2009

DM Resources Player Resources

Playing Really Smart Characters

Post author By Ameron (Derek Myers)
Post date March 20, 2009
16 Comments on Playing Really Smart Characters

So you’re playing a character with a really high Intelligence, a really high Wisdom or both. You, on the other hand, are just an average guy who likes to play D&D. Your real-life Intelligence and Wisdom are probably somewhere between 8 and 11 (I’ll be generous). So how do you make the most of a smart character’s best attribute?

Tags 18 Intelligence, 4e, D&D, DM, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, Smart Character

DM Resources

Split the Party

Generally speaking, you shouldn’t split the party. Sure, it might make sense based on the situation the PCs are in, but it’s a nightmare to play it out. What usually ends up happening is that half the people at the table can’t do anything but watch while their companions go left and they go right. It’s extremely difficult to keep the people not in the “active” group focused since PCs not in the scene can’t offer suggestions or actively participate. When I’m the DM, I do everything I can to discourage splitting up.

But an interesting thing happened this weekend during my Sunday night game. We split up and it worked spectacularly. My hat is off to Suddry, that evening’s DM, for taking a usually disastrous situation and making it one of the most memorable nights of D&D we’ve had in a long time. Here’s how it played out and what we learned from it.

Tags 4e, D&D, Don't split the party, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeons and Dragons, PHB2, Skill Challenge, Split the party, Splitting Up