Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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Player Resources

Players Need to Be More Creative

One significant improvement that 4e D&D has over previous editions is the “say yes” mantra. DMs are actively instructed to let things happen. No matter what comes up at the gaming table the DM is now encouraged to say yes and find a way to make it work. That’s not to say that the DM should let the players get away with anything and everything, but if a player comes up with a creative idea the DM is encouraged to find a way to make it work and say yes.

In my experience the majority of DMs took this idea to heart. At the beginning, when 4e was still relatively new, players were trying all kinds of interesting things because they knew that the DM would likely say yes. However, over the past year or so I’ve realized that most players are content to player squarely within the rules. They are unwilling to take chances and propose ideas that are outside of the normal rule-set. This is especially evident in public-play situations like D&D Encounters. I think it’s time that the DMs make a point of reminding the players it’s ok to use your imagination. Being creative is a big part of what makes D&D fun.

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave – Preview

Season 7 of D&D Encounters begins on Wednesday, November 16. The adventure is called Beyond the Crystal Cave and was inspired by the classic AD&D adventure,UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave. It’s no coincidence that it coincides with Wizards of the Coast’s latest product offering, Heroes of the Feywild which hits shelves on November 15.

In August we shared the few details we knew about season 7 based on what Wizards announced at GenCon. Now that I’ve actually received the DM’s kit I’m can provide a much more in-depth preview which I will be sure to keep as spoiler-free as possible.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 13)

Last week the party faced two mini-encounters back-to-back without a short rest. By the time they’d faced off against the Ooze and Hounds, and then against the Plaguechanged Maniacs the PCs desperately need to take a short rest before venturing on.

While catching their breath, the citizens of Neverwinter emerged from their barricaded homes to thank the PCs for defeating the Plaguechanged attackers. They told the PCs everything they witnessed, including a description of the Lost Heir which the PCs realized was in fact Seldra, the Half-elf they’d encountered previously and until now they believed was on their side. Before the PCs finished their 5-minute rest, General Sabine arrived on the scene and asked them to continue following the Lost Heir and stop her once and for all.

This week I had six players at my table which made things very manageable. The party consisted of a Human Wizard (Enchanter), Goliath Fighter (Battlerager), Warforged Druid, Human Cleric, Gnome Bladesinger and Tiefling Battlemind. This group was relatively new to D&D, many of the players discovering the game through the D&D Encounters program. As such they are usually more interested in combat than role-playing as was the case this week.

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DM Resources

Bonus Action Points for the Party

Action points are designed to give every PC a chance to be truly heroic and do something extra when it’s needed most. The very name “action point” brings to mind the potential for something truly remarkable. Unfortunately this has not been the case in my experience.

I’ve found that at my gaming table actions points are generally used in one of the three following ways:

  1. Make another attack after missing with the first one (essentially a re-roll).
  2. Use your second wind.
  3. Take a move action after standing from prone.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all perfectly acceptable actions all well within the rules as written, but honesty, these are all pretty boring ways to spend (waste) and action point. Action points should be used to keep the action going. There should be excitement when a player declares he’s using an action point. These three examples are all sort of blasé.

The problem is that you only get one action point every two encounters. If they were more abundant in the game then using one in the ways I’ve listed above wouldn’t seem so bad. After all, you’re not going to be knocked prone during every encounter. So the question becomes how to let PCs use more action points more often without breaking D&D.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: October 2011

Our October articles covered a wide variety of topics for players and DMs. Chances are that throughout October there was at least one or two articles that appealed to you no matter what kind of gamer you are, no matter if you’re a DM or player.

We looked at magic items beginning with magic item identification, adventure hooks where the loot is part of the plot, and then whether or not monsters should use the magic items against the PCs. There was emphasis on cooperative play including an in-depth look at assisting, the benefits of playing someone else’s character and encounter design tips that reward cooperative play.

Throw in a deep discussion on death, a look at the silly aspects of fantasy gaming, D&D Encounters field reports and, of course, an article about zombies and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the eclectic mix of topics we covered in October. If you missed any of the great articles from October then this is your change to get caught up.

We’d like to thank all of our readers for continuing to visit Dungeon’s Master every day. We value your opinion and encourage you to keep providing your feedback in the comments section. We want to hear what you have to say and enjoy the discussion that your comments generate. Even if you disagree with our stance on an issue or topic, the discussion gets people talking which is always our goal.

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DM Resources Player Resources

7 Halloween-Themed Articles

"Zombies Playing D&D" by Mandi Tremblay
"Zombies Playing D&D" by Mandi Tremblay

Every year around this time DMs are inspired by Halloween and PCs find themselves facing off against skeletons, zombies, vampires and werewolves. Campaigns become darker as the DM taps into the fear associated with Halloween. But creating something original can be more challenging than many DMs realize. In order to help, we’ve combed through our archives and found 7 articles that we think will help DMs add that Halloween flavour to their campaign without just rehashing the same things you’ve done year in and year out.

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DM Resources

Let Monsters Use the Treasure

DM – With that final blow the evil Warlord falls. You’ve defeated him and saved the village from his ruthlessness and cruelty. Well done.

Player – I search his body. Does he have anything good on him?

DM – As a matter of fact he does. Let’s see… he has a few potions, some gp and a +3 flaming weapon.

Player – Really? He has a flaming weapon? I wonder why he didn’t use it when he fought us.

How often have you found yourself in a situation similar to this one? You fight a bunch of monsters, search their treasure horde after the battle’s over, and find a bunch of stuff that the monsters could have – but didn’t – use in the fight against the party. Regrettably I find this happens way too often.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 12)

This week’s encounter was different than any we’ve had before in the D&D Encounters program. Rather than having just one combat encounter level-appropriate for the PCs, there were two smaller combat encounters without a short rest in between. I think this kind of surprise is good for the players and reminds them that things aren’t going to follow the same formula every single time they sit down to play D&D. In my home game we actually do this a lot and we find it makes both combat encounters more exciting.

The number of players showing up at my FLGS keeps fluctuating between eight and 12. The last few weeks we’ve had enough people to run two tables, but this week we were back in that awkward zone where it was too few for two tables but too many for one. We ended up running one table with seven PCs. On the plus side we did have one brand new player who’d read about D&D Encounters online and decided to come out and give D&D a try for the very first time.

The party consisted of a Human Wizard (Enchanter), Warforged Druid, Human Cleric, Tiefling Battlemind, Gnome Bladesinger, Goliath Fighter (Battlerager), Drow Ranger (Belgos pre-gen).

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DM Resources

Breaking Away From Procedural Story-Telling

When you watch an episode of CSI, Law & Order, or NCIS you know that by the end of the show all the loose ends will be tied up. The villain will be captured, the conflict resolved and the story wrapped up nicely. This formula for procedural story-telling is gratifying because you know that it’s going to be self-contained. There’s rarely an expectation that you’ll need any more than a rudimentary knowledge of the story coming in and that when it’s done you can walk away satisfied that no questions were left unanswered.

D&D adventures usually follow a similar procedural approach. The DM sets the stage, introduces the conflict and the villains, and after a few encounters everything is resolved. The exception is a long-term home campaign where the DM creates a much larger story arc, but even when this is the case the stops along the way are almost always resolved as quickly as they happen.

This is not to say that procedural story-telling is a bad thing. If it’s what everyone expects and it makes all the participants happy then by all means keep doing it. But if this is the way your game has run for as long as you can remember then perhaps it’s time to leave some details unresolved. After all, real life isn’t usually anything like the procedural shows we see on TV. There are always loose ends and things left unresolved.

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DM Resources Humour

Embracing the Silly Aspects of Fantasy Gaming

Sometimes we focus so much on the serious aspects of D&D that we forget the importance of the humorous and ludicrous. This is a fantasy game in which magic is commonplace. So with that kind of framework doesn’t it seem right that there should be some outrageously silly things that are just accepted as a part of the fantastic world?

That’s not to say that things shouldn’t make sense. There needs to be some explanation for the unbelievable and the unexpected within the established framework, but the players don’t always have to take it so seriously. By throwing in a few humorous things every once and a while the players come to realize that just because they think something seems bizarre and out of place doesn’t mean that their characters feel the same way.

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