Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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DM Resources

Minions: Full Disclosure

Is the DM obligated to tell the players that monsters are minions? I never do. Players don’t treat minions like they do other monsters. They don’t see them as threatening. And why should they, after all a minion only has 1 hit point and will fall with any hit that inflicts damage. In my mind the minion was one of the best additions to 4e D&D.

DMs can throw lots of monsters at the heroes, and as long as a bunch of them are minions then the PCs will just mow through them. They still have to target and hit them, but if a hit is scored the monster falls. There are, of course, some variations and exceptions to traditional minions – some minions explode when killed, some get a final attack and others still will rise from the dead to fight again after they’ve been killed once. Here at Dungeon’s Master we’ve introduced two-hit minions that, as the name implies, need to be hit twice to finally kill them. Regardless of what kind of minion you’re facing the commonality is that it doesn’t make a difference if you deal 1 point of damage or 100 points of damage with a single hit, you just have to hit them.

Minions are great and I encourage DMs to use them regularly, but DMs need to be careful how and when they reveal that some monsters are minions. As soon as player know that some for their opponents are minions they use this meta-knowledge to influence their PCs’ actions. For this reason I never disclose the fact that monsters are minions. I let the players discover this fact when their characters do. And if they make some poor assumptions I rarely correct them.

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Humour

Master of the Dungeon Webcomic – Epic Combat, Round 1

Today we’re trying something new at Dungeon’s Master – a webcomic that we’re calling “Master of the Dungeon.” One of our players, Matthew Domville, is a talented writer and artist who has been publishing his own webcomic, Cinema Bums, for over a year now. We’ve finally convinced him to branch out and do a D&D comic for us.

Today we present the first of what we hope are many D&D-themed webcomics by Matt based on situations that come out of our weekly D&D game. Help us convince Matt to become a regular contributor at Dungeon’s Master by singing his praises in the comments below.

Be sure to check out Matt’s other webcomic, Cinema Bums, a comic about movies and the folks who love ‘em. If you enjoy his stuff be sure to leave him a comment and like his page.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 5)

“The Drow know we’re coming,” Tharinel said coldly as last weeks session ended. The heroes fought a very difficult battle against Drow warriors and their Lolthbound Goblin slaves. When the encounter ended the heroes were the only ones left standing and the Spider Gates had been thrown open. Now they must venture onward despite the heavy toll they’ve paid fighting the Drow so far.

This week one of the regulars at my table was absent, which actually worked out nicely as a player we hadn’t seen since last season arrive ready to play. This is how our party shaped up with current healing surges noted.

  • Drow Fighter [6/14]
  • Drow Rogue #1 [0/6]
  • Drow Druid [5/9]
  • Drow Cleric [2/9]
  • Drow Rogue #2 [3/9]
  • Kobold Druid (Sentinel) [9/9]
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Editorial

Ameron’s D&D Bucket List

Last week John Arcadian over at Gnome Stew posted the article Bucket Lists For Players and Characters. The article encourages players to create a bucket lists for their character in order to help define their motivation. This in turn can help the DM come up with cool and interesting adventures that will really excite the players around the gaming table. He also suggests that players themselves should have gaming-related bucket lists as well for pretty much the same reason. This is a fantastic idea and one that I’m jealous I didn’t think of myself.

Although I didn’t think of this idea I’m still going to run with it (after giving credit where credit is due). Today I’m going to share my bucket list. These are all the things that I’ve always wanted to do as a player under the D&D umbrella. My list doesn’t have anything specific to one character or another (because that would be boring for readers who don’t know my specific characters). Instead these are general things that could be accomplished by just about any character.

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Adventures

When PCs Fight Each Other – Fourthcore Team Deathmatch

Have you ever looked around the gaming table and tried to imagine what it would be like to have your character face off against the other characters rather than more monsters? I’ll admit that I do it all the time. I don’t necessarily think that I’d do very well one-on-one unless a number of random factors fell my way (winning initiative, having cover or higher ground, facing off against an opponent whose attacks deal damage of the same type as my best resistance, etc.), but as I look to the other PCs in my party I’ve often thought that as a team we could take any other team of PCs. Fourthcore Team Deathmatch turns this random musing into reality. It’s a forum where we can finally and definitively find out whose best at D&D and crown a winner.

I discovered Fourthcore Team Deathmatch by accident when I was registering for events for this summer’s GenCon. The description sounded exciting and after a quick visit to their website to get more details I was sold.

The Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (FTDM) is a contest of skill, wits, and luck. FTDM is about winning D&D. Small teams of dungeoneers are pitted against each other in a no-holds-barred frenzy of carnage in a team-based, player-vs-player competition.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 4)

After the heroes defeated the Drow Totemist, her Archer companions and the Skeletons from last week they took a hard-earned short rest to tend to their wounds and catch their breath. Without warning a flash of light filled the room and two figures appeared from out of nowhere.

The PCs recognized one of them as Khara Sulwood (whom they’d met at the Old Skull Inn a few hours earlier). The other figure, a male Elf, turned to Khara and upon seeing her discomfort after materializing said smugly, “Never teleported before?”

Khara took a deep breath before replying “No. Elminster could have at least warned us he was going to do that.” She looked around and upon recognizing the PCs said, “Wait. I recognize you. You were at the inn. Are you the other one following Elminster’s call?”

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DM Resources

Be a Good DM: Show Me, Don’t Tell Me

“Show me, don’t tell me.” It’s some of the best advice I ever received when I was taking creative writing courses. This is a way of letting the reader draw their own conclusion about what’s happening rather than the storyteller hitting them over the head with blunt and direct descriptive terms. It’s good advice for writers and it’s good advice for DMs.

The best DMs I’ve played with are masters of “show me, don’t tell me” even if they don’t realize that they’re doing it. The key is in the details. When you’re trying to convey emotion don’t just say “The man was sad,” describe the character and the body language and let the players draw their own determination of the NPC’s mood. “Although most people think the man at the next table is passed out, you can just make out the sounds of soft whimpering and sniffing as tears no doubt rolled down his hidden face.”

Describing the scene in this way requires a lot of little details. It takes longer to write and longer to read. You need to decided when it’s worth slowing things down to add these details and when it’s better to just tell it like it is. There’s no hard and fast rule, it’s something that comes with practice and experience.

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Player Resources

Taking a TPK Like a Man

It doesn’t happen often, but when it happens it really sucks – a Total Party Kill or TPK. In 4e it’s incredibly hard for DMs to kill just one character in a party. I’ve seen plenty of PCs fall unconscious but usually the leader has them back in action before they even need to make a death save or an adjacent ally makes a Heal check and triggers their second wind. Worse case scenario they stay down until the encounter is over and then they get the benefits of a short rest. Before you know it they’re on their feet and ready to face more monsters. The only way to guarantee that characters die is for the DM to wipe out everyone with a TPK. After all, if no one’s left to face the remaining monsters once the last guy falls unconscious it stands to reason that those same monsters will take necessary steps to ensure you don’t get back up… ever.

Because the TPK is (or should be) a rarity in D&D it’s understandable that many players are not really sure what do to when they see the writing on the wall. I realized this when we were face-to-face with an inevitable TPK just this week during D&D Encounters. Players can react very different to this situation so I felt it was a good idea to document so ground rules and suggested behaviours that all players should be mindful of when their PC falls unconscious, or worse yet, is just one of the dominos falling in the impending TPK.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 3)

After taking a pretty severe beating from the Drow last week, the party took a short rest to lick their wounds. Once they were healed up they quickly searched the Twisted Tower for any signs of the Pendent of Ashaba. All evidence suggested that the Drow came, stole the item, and then left through the cellar door with it. The PCs immediately began their pursuit.

Our numbers at my FLGS continue to hold steady at 14; two DMs with six players are each table. My group was back down to the original six. The party was badly wounded after last week’s ugliness and most were dangerously low on healing surges. Here’s the party breakdown along with their current number of healing surges.

  • Drow Wizard (Bladesinger) [3/8]
  • Drow Rogue #1 [4/7 ]
  • Drow Fighter [12/14]
  • Drow Druid [6/9]
  • Drow Rogue #2 [4/6]
  • Drow Cleric [4/9]
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DM Resources

Staying Alive: 8 Ways to Keep Wounded PCs in the Game

One of my biggest issues with D&D is the five-minute work day. This is when PCs expend all their best powers and burn through their healing surges so quickly that they’re useless unless they take an extended rest. The game is designed for PCs to have four or more encounters before they should need to take an extended rest but I suspect that many DMs rarely push through more than four encounters before calling it a day. However, there will be times when this just isn’t possible – either because it doesn’t make sense given how the story is progressing or the printed adventure doesn’t allow it. In these cases the DM may need to get creative to keep the PCs alive until the end of the day.

Assuming the PCs can still take short rests then output isn’t usually a big deal if the party continues on past four encounters. Sure they may not have those awesome daily powers at their disposal into the fifth encounter but they will have all their cool encounter powers. It’s healing surges that usually become the biggest problem.

Strikers generally have the fewest surges to begin with, and unless the player has a reasonable Constitution score or the Durability feat they’ll run out of surges quickly. What makes the problem worse is that as soon as monsters (intelligent monsters anyway) see a striker mowing through their ranks they’ll target the biggest threat (the striker). Unless you’ve got advantageous tactics or a decent defender at your side, strikers end up taking damage every fight.

So what’s a DM to do when this kind of thing happens? How do you keep a wounded party in the game and convince the players to push those PCs forward? It may just be a game, but players get emotionally attached to their PCs quickly and no one wants to enter a combat encounter knowing that their PC is likely to die. It’s a delicate situation that requires some careful manipulation. The key is not to do so in such a way that it insults the players or belittles the game mechanic. Players want to do well but they don’t want the DM to just give them an easy, unearned victory. It’s a real balancing act and here are 8 suggested ways to pull it off.

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