Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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Month in Review

Month in Review: May 2012

May was a busy month at Dungeon’s Master. Despite our reduced publishing schedule we still showed great numbers and continue seeing upward trends. Running previews of the new D&D Encounters and Lair Assault certainly helped.

As the Dungeon’s Master home game moved into epic tier, so to does the focus of many of our articles. With the inevitable launch of D&D Next in the not-too-distant-future many of us are trying to get some epic play in before we shift to the new edition. With very few other blogs writing about playing in the epic tier we are becoming the place to visit for high level inspiration. Please let us know if there are any aspects of epic adventuring that you’d like us to focus on.

A lot of the gaming blogs are writing about D&D Next. Although we are participating in the play-testing we have decided to keep our comments and feedback on the new D&D to a minimum for now. We developed our core audience by being the place to go for 4e materials online. We intend to keep that audience happy by focusing on 4e and proving fresh new material for ongoing 4e campaigns. Many of our articles are edition-neutral and can easily be applied to whatever version of D&D you’re playing, including D&D Next, so if you’re fully engrossed in D&D Next we’re confident that you’ll still find many or our articles helpful. However, in the short-term we are staying true to our roots and focusing the majority of our effort on writing about 4e.

We’d like to thank everyone for visiting Dungeon’s Master in May. We saw a lot of new people commenting last month and we hope they continue to share their thoughts and feedback. We value your opinion and want to hear what you have to say. Remember that you can always email us (our email addresses are on the about page) if you have any questions or have an idea for an article.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 2)

In the streets of Shadowdale Drow warriors still fought the locals. The party just finished securing the Old Skull Inn and searching the bodies of the fallen Drow. The Bladesinger then felt a magical energy flash through his body and a voice speak to him alone. “This is Elminster, and I’m somewhat busy with these Drow. They no doubt want the Pendant of Ashaba. Go retrieve it from the Twisted Tower.”

This week we ran two tables at my FLGS. My table had seven players while the other had six. I’m usually reluctant to run tables with more than six players because the encounter tends to take a lot longer, but our extra player was the friend of a regular visiting from out of town so I was ok with it. The party consisted of the following PCs.

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

In order to encourage good role-playing and teamwork I let the table know that I decided to award magical treasure a little bit differently than they were used to. Rather than roll randomly for an item and the have the party fight and argue over it I would choose an outstanding player for the night and they could choose any one item of the list that was suitable for their character. If more than one player had a good night I’d have all eligible players roll off. This was my subtle way of letting the players know that if they couldn’t behave they wouldn’t get magic items. I wish I’d have thought of this idea years ago because everyone relay brought their A-game this week.

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Player Resources

Playing Drow Part 2 – Know Where You Came From

One of the toughest parts of role-playing a non-human character is to give that PC a distinct cultural identity. We often play ever character of every race as if they were born and raised in the Human world. For many races this isn’t a big deal because their societies will parallel Humans’ in many ways. However, Drow are very different from Humans and this should be reflected in the way they are played.

Although your character is an individual and you have the freedom to play him as you see fit, it’s important to consider his upbringing and how that has shaped his personality and attitudes. He might have forsaken his heritage to become an adventurer, but if he was raised in Drow society there are a lot of little details that you should keep in mind when running him. Use these differences to make your Drow stand out from the Elves and Humans in the party.

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Editorial Player Resources

When the Plus (+) No Longer Matters

When an adventurer begins his career he’s always looking for magical treasure. Even in a magic-rich setting a +1 sword is a coveted item. As the character advances he will seek more items with even higher plusses. After all why stick with a +1 sword when you can have a +2 sword? But eventually the plus no longer matters. Believe it or not there comes a time when the player realizes that the plus isn’t the most important part of a magic item. Eventually an item’s power or ability is deemed more integral to the character than one more plus.

Our home campaign recently moved into the epic tier. During a recent adventure the heroes completed a major story arc and were rewarded with treasure suitable to their level as well as a level 30, +6 bow. Although two characters in the party use bows and both currently have +4 bows neither player was interested in the item. They were content to keep their level 17 and 18 weapons respectively than trade up for a level 30 magic item. These are players that are among the greediest I’ve ever played with (and I mean that as a compliment) yet they both felt that it severed their character better to keep their current +4 bows than trade up for a +6 replacement. In both cases it was because of the importance of the power their current weapons gave them.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen (Week 1)

On March 17, 2010, Wizards of the Coast begin this little experiment called D&D Encounters with the very first Wednesday night encounter. Over two years later the program is still going strong and yesterday marked the beginning of season 9. In Web of the Spider Queen the PCs will be facing off against Lloth’s forces as the Drow invade Shadowdale. This is all part of the ongoing Rise of the Underdark campaign that will be dominating the Wizards’ product offerings throughout 2012.

As we’ve done from the outset of D&D Encounters we will continue providing weekly recaps every Thursday. This is our way to provide an ongoing synopsis of the story as well as share the highs and lows of our specific campaign. We will also continue recording the sessions and sharing the podcasts on a weekly basis. So get ready to fight some Drow as the Web of the Spider Queen beings.

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Adventure Hooks

Adventure Hooks: The Legendary Sword Masters (Part 2)

You’re never too old to learn something new. Adventurers need to remember this. No matter how powerful they become there’s always someone who’s more powerful, or more skilled than they are.

In Adventure Hooks: The Legendary Sword Masters (Part 1) we suggested that at some point in your campaign the heroes may need to learn a special fighting technique from a legendary sword master. When such circumstances arise they’ll first need to find the legendary master and then convince him to train them. As he’ll likely become and integral part of the story arc, it’s important that he be interesting and memorable. Today we provide six more examples of legendary sword masters that you can use in your campaign.

It’s important to note that although we use male pronouns and refer to the PCs as masculine, the example masters listed below will certainly work if they are portrayed as female. Just look at the picture at the top of this article. She clearly looks like she can handle that massive blade like a pro. Many gamers (including the majority of the ones I play with) will hear “sword master” and assume it’s a man they’re looking for. Making the legendary sword master a woman can add an interesting aspect to the role-playing.

Regardless of the master’s sex, the character needs to be well developed and have a distinct personality. We’ve provided enough details to get you started but DMs should feel free to tweak these masters as they see fit. With the exception of the Dwarven Master none of them specify race so it’s entirely possible that they could be a race the PCs least suspect. Throwing conventional wisdom and preconceptions out the window is a good way to make any NPC more interesting.

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Spiderkiller

You’ve braved the Forge, retrieved the Talon and slain the Tyrantclaw, now it’s time to stick it to the Drow! On June 1 Rise of the Underdark continues with Lair Assault: Spiderkiller. Season 4 has the PCs facing off against a small but powerful band of Drow that are up to no good in the Undermountain.

Lair Assault is the Top Gun of D&D. It’s for the best of the best. Normally you don’t win at D&D, but Lair Assault changes that. You create the most optimized character possible (within the confines of the challenge parameters) and try your best to accomplish the goal. It’s not easy and Wizard expects 80% of parties to suffer a TPK during their first attempt to complete the challenge. So if you think you’re a D&D Top Gun than Lair Assault is the adventure series for you.

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D&D Encounters Editorial

D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye – Report Card

We’ve completed another season of D&D Encounters. That’s 8 for those keeping track. Before we jump into season 9 and do battle with the Drow let’s take a look back at the season that was and discus what worked and what didn’t, what we’d like to have seen and what we might have done differently.

Good Introduction to D&D

I think that many of the D&D Encounters regulars forget that the program is designed as an introduction to D&D. It’s intent is to entice new players to try the game, one encounter at a time, and see if they like it enough to buy the materials and play it at home with their friends. From that perspective I think this season did a fantastic job.

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DM Resources

Epic Level Encounter Design – Part 2: Developing Challenges Appropriate for Epic Level Characters

At the epic level the PCs are capable of acts that can change the path of history forever. The aim of this article is to help you embrace the capacity of the party and set a stage appropriately large for their abilities. This article is about spectacles that are just as big as PCs who can come back from the dead every day.

Enter: The Renascence Man, Woman or Child

In order to challenge the PC you need to respect their capability. By level 21 the party has a bag of tricks so deep that attempting to anticipate them is a fool’s errand. There are things that the PCs had to tackle at low levels that are, by now, tasks that are beneath them. The PCs at this point should not have to make Diplomacy checks to convince people that their task is important. Epic level characters shouldn’t have to make knowledge checks to recall simple details, their experience and access to information is so vast that such checks are just a waste of time and any attempt to withhold such information won’t add difficulty or strife, but will just annoy. The only time an epic level PC should be forced to make such checks is to demonstrate how far above such tasks they are.

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DM Resources Editorial Skill Challenges

Intimidate is Not the Torture Skill

How often does a player at your table want to do something – in character – that is morally apprehensible and blatantly evil? It doesn’t happen often in my games, but it does seem to come up every once in a while. When it does and the action is questioned by the DM or the other players, the player whose character is taking the action usually says something like, “I would never do this, but my character has no issue with it.” I realize that fantasy RPGs provide an escape from reality and you can play any kind of character you want, but I think it’s important to know where to draw the line.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that there are some things that are deemed acceptable in the context of D&D even thought most players would never condone or support such actions in real life. For example, slavery in the context of D&D isn’t usually seen as a big issue. Killing is also given tremendous latitude if the creature or person on the other end of the sword is evil. Theft is perfectly acceptable and is essentially what the majority of adventurers do to earn their loot. I guess it really comes down to the context of the situation and the justification for these actions. If killing an entire tribe of Orcs will make the nearby city safer for “civilized people” then the act of genocide is seen as acceptable and even heroic.

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