Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 9)

Worst encounter of the adventure. Yeah, I said it. I felt that this week’s encounter was poorly designed and completely unnecessary. I always try to find the positive side of things when I share these weekly field reports, and there were a few bright spots this week, but overall I did not like this encounter and really felt it was the low point of the adventure. Read on and find out why.

Last session the heroes defeated Drow slavers, and fought some Goblins, a Bugbear, and a Giant Spider in the stalactite fortress called the Demonspur. They continued across the rope bridge and headed towards the gates of Zadzifeirryn. This week’s encounter began when the party arrived at the gates. Two portcullises blocked a walkway passing between the massive walls of Zadzifeirryn. Close to the gate a winch was bolted into the rock and an Ogre was chained to the wall beside it.

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Editorial Player Resources

Never Leave a Man Behind

Pop quiz: Your ally just took massive damage and fell unconscious, what do you do? If you’re the leader this is an easy one; use one of your healing powers and revive your fallen comrade. If you’re any other role your answer had better not be leave him for the leader. When a PC falls during combat it’s everyone’s responsibility to bring him back into the fight – not just the leader. Admittedly the leader is usually the one that can revive unconscious PCs easiest and fastest, but you’re part of a party, a team, and everyone should look out for one another. Don’t shrug your obligation to your teammates and let a dying ally make death save after death save while you keep fighting.

Now I know there will be times when it might make more sense for the striker to keep attacking or for the defender to just keep the bad guy locked down, especially if either of them has an incredibly low Heal check, but these should be the exceptions. Regardless of circumstance unconscious PCs should not be forgotten or ignored. Dismissing your dying ally is the same as leaving him behind.

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Editorial Player Resources

Don’t Be a Dick – 4 Tips for Following Wheaton’s Law

I’ve been gaming a long time and for the most part I’ve had very positive experiences. This is especially true when it comes to public-play gaming. The people who come out to my FLGS to play D&D Encounters, Lair Assault, LFR, D&D Game Day, Free RPG Day, or just a pick-up game are for the most part really good people. I’ve found this to be true when I’ve gone to conventions as well. Gamers in generally are pretty good people who enjoy the hobby and want to have fun.

However, every now and then you get a player that is the exception. In some cases they’re genuinely trying to be extra helpful and come off as the Gaming Jerk, and in other cases their inexperience and lack of gaming protocol leads them to step over the line. At the end of the day it’s important to follow Wheaton’s Law: Don’t be a dick! Obviously, no one comes to the gaming table planning to break Wheaton’s Law but it happens. Regrettably I’m seeing it happen more often so I felt it was time to help the newer players by sharing a few words of wisdom and providing four tips on how to avoid breaking Wheaton’s Law.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 8.)

After last week’s fight against the elite Drow of House Jaelre the PCs advanced though the secret passage. The tunnel eventually led them to a vast, wide-open cavern so deep that they could not see the floor. Extending out into the darkness in front of them was a rope bridge clearly made in part from spider web strands. Three other similar-looking bridges stretched out from other walls of the cavern. All of the bridges converged at the top of a huge stalactite. The naturally inverted tower seemed to be hollowed out with chambers within.

This week our numbers were down at both locations where I play D&D Encounters. At Dueling Grounds we were down from 12-15 players most weeks to only seven this week. At Harry T North (which is the group I write about) we were ready to split into three tables but with a few players absent we were down to two tables of five. So my group kicked out the non-Drow interloper and ended up all Drow once again. Here’s how the party broke down.

  • Drow Rogue #1
  • Drow Rogue #2
  • Drow Wizard (Bladesinger)
  • Drow Druid
  • Drow Cleric
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DM Resources Editorial

The Things We Do Not Talk About in D&D

Warning: This article discusses topics that are for mature readers. The ideas presented herein are intended to encourage a frank and mature discussion about adding darker, seedier topics to games with mature players. These ideas are being presented in the context of an imaginary, fantasy, role-playing game and are in no way intended to encourage, promote or glamourize them.

Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Slavery. These are not the kind of things you generally think about including in a typical D&D game. After all, in a fantasy world why not preserve the fantasy and keep things idyllic? The only Evil (with a capital “E”) in most D&D campaigns are the monsters and NPCs bent on ruling or destroying the world. These are things the heroes can deal with, often at the end of a sword. Throwing more complicated Evils into a campaign setting, problems like substances abuse and slavery, for example, are not generally the kinds of things that can a) be handled by the PCs alone, or b) resolved in a single adventure. These are “big picture” problems that would just muddy the waters of most D&D campaign settings. Yet they are problems and issues that would certainly be present in most campaign settings. After all, these are problems that almost every society on Earth has faced and still does face in one way or another. So why not add them to your role-playing games and give the players a chance to try to do something about it?

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

Star Wars Pre-Gens for D&D Encounters

Belgos, Brandis, Fargrim, Jarren, Keira, Valenae. If you’ve played D&D Encounters over the past year or so than you know these six heroes better than you know your own mother – well, maybe not that well, but they hold few surprises any more. Wizards of the Coast provided copies of these pre-gens with every season of D&D Encounters since March of the Phantom Brigade five seasons ago. This was an intentional and deliberate decision on their part to encourage players to create their own characters. However some players prefer to play the pre-gens and have been clamouring for more. Since Wizards isn’t providing new pre-gens it falls to us, the fans, to create our own new ones.

In our Pre-Generated Character Library we’ve collected all of the official pre-gens and posted many fan-made pre-gens to expand your options. Today we add nine new Star Wars themed pre-gens to the library. These are courtesy of Andrew Asplund and Tales from the Gamer Viceroy.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 7)

Chapter 2 began with some role-playing and a comprehensive skill challenge, but no combat. This week made up for the absence of fighting with a pure hack and slash encounter as the PCs faced a party of Elite Drow. Was this to be another TPK?

I ran one of the two tables of seven this week at my FLGS. Here’s how my table broke down.

  • Drow Fighter
  • Drow Rogue #1
  • Drow Wizard (Bladesinger)
  • Drow Cleric
  • Drow Druid
  • Drow Rogue #2
  • Kobold Druid (Sentinel)

The players are really showcasing the best way to embrace the chaotic nature of playing Drow. Of course this is completely unintentional, they just suck at teamwork. However, some of them are finally starting to show some sense of party cohesion as they gain more familiarity with their characters. They still have plenty of room for improvement but now that everyone has a pretty good idea of what everyone else can do things are running a lot more smoothly. Now they just need better teamwork.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: June 2012

After a fantastic Canada Day long weekend we bring you the Month in Review for June (better late than never). Although June was one of the leanest months since we launched Dungeon’s Master we made up in quality what we lacked in quantity.

Our articles on minions, TPKs and Ameron’s D&D bucket list all generated discussion and got a lot of excellent comments. Our ongoing coverage of what some are calling the most deadly season of D&D Encounters since Dark Sun is also generating a lot of buzz. Throw in a D&D web comic and you get a pretty good idea of what we were up to in June.

We want to thank all of our readers for visiting Dungeon’s Master in June. We realize that a lot of people are play-testing D&D Next but we like to think that most of our articles are edition neutral and will still apply to your campaign regardless of what edition you play. So be sure to keep visiting and keep commenting.

If you missed any of the great articles from last month than this is your chance to get caught up.

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Adventure Hooks

5 Adventure Hooks: Time is Running Out

A lot of DMs, me included, have run into the problem known as the 5-miute work day or the bed problem. This is when some or all PCs expend all of their resources more quickly than expected and demand an extended rest to recharge, regardless of what is happening in the story. We’ve run numerous articles on this topic and even offered a few ways to overcome it. (See The 5-Minute Work Day: Blame the Players and Solutions.)

Today we’re examining this problem from a slightly different angle. In my experience the best way to avoid the 5-minute work day is to put the PCs on the clock. Set up a situation where resting is simply not an option. Tie something in the story to a ticking clock and make it clear that the zero-hour event (whatever it may be) will happen well before 8 hours are up. So if the PCs try to take an extended rest it’s essentially game over.

This kind of adventure should only be undertaken on rare occasions. After all, very few PCs lives as exciting as Jack Bauer and will only find themselves working under this kind of exceptionally tight deadline in the most unusual and rare of circumstances. When DMs decide that it’s time to put the PCs into one of these situations you want to make it memorable. The encounters shouldn’t seem overly forced in order to work. With this in mind we present 5 Adventure Hooks below that will help you put the heroes in a fight against time as well as the usual hazards and monsters.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 6)

Chapter 2 began with the party refreshed and recovered from the perils that they faced through the first five encounters. If they had not already level up, everyone should have been level 2 for this chapter. Having completed their extended rest they were once again back on Valan’s trail in an attempt to recover the Pendent of Ashaba.

This week’s encounter was very different than most players expected. There was no combat; it was a series of puzzles and skill challenges. The last time this happened was way back in D&D Encounters season 1. I’m sure some players hated it while others reveled in the opportunity to actually role-play their character for a change.

The no combat, all skill challenge encounter had the added benefit of being short. At the two FLGS where I play all tables finished in under an hour with most taking about 45 minutes. I’m sure the short encounter was designed this way intentionally to allow DMs in the U.S. to either play two encounters this week and get ahead, or play two encounters two weeks from now catch up since stores (in the U.S) will be closed on Independence Day.

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