Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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DM Resources Player Resources

The Honor System

What do mafia hit men, Wild West gunslingers, Japanese samurai and the Knights of the Round Table have in common? They all work under a code of honor. Despite the danger, brutality and violent nature of their jobs, each of these examples has a strict code that helps them define what actions they are willing (and not willing) to do to get the job done.

Aside from alignment, most PCs don’t have any strict code that dictates their actions; although in previous editions of D&D the Paladin did have this restriction. Now it comes down to the player running the character. The only honor your character has is that which you instil in him. Honor, however, is certainly subjective. Two players who play their PC with an honor code are likely to have some differing opinions on what is allowed and what is not.

A common aspect in the code of honor is that women, children and innocent bystanders are usually exempt from any part of an ongoing conflict. If you’ve got a beef with a local merchant you won’t kidnap or harm his family as leverage. His business might be fair game, but his son or grandfather is not to be harmed. Assassins generally have a similar code; remember Leon’s motto in the movie the Professional: “No women, no kids.”

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Class Discussions

D&D Tactica: Enter the Offender

As both a player and Dungeon Master, I’ve seen 4e D&D grow and mature since it was first released. It started out locked hard into its mold of a four role, five player party, with its very linear progression and development. There were some parts of it that worked, and some parts that did not. In the years that have passed, 4e D&D has changed significantly, and there is a wealth of options for any given character at this point. Not all options are even, but that is a given when dealing with any robust and mature game.

Today the Dungeon’s Master team welcomes our newest contributor, Sndwurks (David Buresh). Sndwurks started playing Dungeons & Dragons nearly 20 years ago, and took up the mantle of Dungeon Master one year into the hobby. He is an avid gamer and enjoying gaming across all its various mediums. He is also an author of horror and historical fiction, and a semi-professional storyteller. We welcome him to the team and hope you enjoy his first contribution. – Ameron

Within the four role mold, there are simply some characters who do not fit. Some are classes being played across role, such as a defender being built as a controller, or a controller who hands out party buffs more than enemy debuffs. Others are more complex, and are managing to exist in a nebulous place between two roles, fulfilling each without sacrificing the other. One of these types of characters is the role referred to in my gaming circle as the Offender.

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D&D Encounters DM Resources

8 Things I Learned at D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters began in March 2010. Since then, I’ve ventured down to my FLGS every Wednesday night after work to play D&D. I started in season 1 as just a player. Through seasons 2-3 I still played but I was ready to jump in and DM if needed. When season 4 began I decided to become the primary DM. Now, five weeks into season 6, I’m still the DM and still have a blast every week at D&D Encounters.

Before D&D Encounter started up I had experience with public play D&D but it was limited to LFR and D&D Game Days. Both presented excellent opportunities to play D&D but these were very different experiences than what I see weekly at D&D Encounters. D&D Encounters is designed as a gateway for new players to try out D&D for the first time. However, it also serves as a pick-up game that many experienced players can fall back on if they don’t have a regular game of their own. This leads to a variety of players with ranging levels of D&D and even gaming experience.

Over the past year and a half I’ve seen a lot of stuff while participating in D&D Encounters – some of it good, some of it bad. I’d like to think that in the end everything I’ve absorbed has made me a more savvy DM and that I’ve developed a pretty good idea of exactly what needs to be done to keep the adventure great every single week.

Today I’m going to share a few of the things I’ve learned during my run at D&D Encounters. Many of the points in my list are common sense things that most DMs are likely already doing. However, for the newer DMs out there a list like this can be a good reminder of the kind of things to keep in mind when running your weekly game.

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DM Resources

Naked Combat

When was the last time you participated in an encounter without your weapons or armor? I’m not talking about characters like Monks that are designed for unarmed combat; I’m talking about characters like Paladins, Rangers, Wizards and Warlords that find themselves in situations where they have to fight monsters without the gear that they normally have equipped on their character sheet. It doesn’t happen very often.

Since we became dependent upon character builder and started printing out character sheets rather than writing them out by hand, any scenario that requires numbers to change becomes a lot more difficult to run on the fly than it ever was in previous editions of D&D. But that shouldn’t mean that such encounters are eliminated from the game all together. There are a ways to make combat without equipment work, and today we present four options.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 5)

After wrapping up the battle with the bandits at the Wall last week the PCs had a brief interaction with a Half-Elf NPC named Seldra who directed them to the House of a Thousand Faces in the Blacklake district if they wanted to find out more about the Lost Heir. We picked things up this week with the heroes walking the few miles from the Wall to the Winged Wyvern bridge where they intended to cross over into the Blacklake District.

We had enough players to run two full tables of six at my FLGS. Some of our regulars showed up, but not all of them. There were six new faces this week which is always nice. With school beginning I suspect that attendance will be sporadic for a few weeks while everyone settles back into a normal routine. My table consisted of an Eladrin Warlock, Dragonborn Warden, Deva Necromancer, Kalashtar Psion, Drow Ranger (Belgos the pre-gen) and Eladrin Cleric (Valenae the pre-gen).

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Editorial

1,000,000 Page Views

Today is my birthday. My day went from good to great when I realized that Dungeon’s Master hit the 1 million page view milestone around lunch time. Talk about icing on the cake. This is the kind of unexpected birthday present that made this day even better.

When Wimwck and I began this blog we didn’t know how things would turn out. We had high hopes and plenty of ambition. We read the other blogs that were big at the time (most of which are now defunct) and thought we had something to add to the online gaming community. So on February 1, 2009, we launched Dungeon’s Master.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Even a Regular Item Can Become an Adventure Hook

Sometimes the most interesting and memorable part of a D&D adventure is the stuff that happens between the structured encounters. These are often instances when the players do something unexpected and the DM is forced to fly by the seat of his pants. If the DM pulls it off successfully the result can be a scenario that is talked about for a long time. If only there was a way to scrip this kind of strange happenstance?

Spontaneity cannot be scripted by its very nature; however there are ways to still get the effect you’re looking for by giving the PCs a nudge in the right direction. And you don’t have to look any further than their equipment list. When it comes to inventory on a character sheet, most players are really only concerned with magical items and money. The other regular stuff is usually added to the list as an afterthought. So why not have so fun with the regular stuff.

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? The Results Are In!

Two months ago we began this rollercoaster ride by asking the simple question “What are the best feats in 4e D&D?”. Today we end the speculation and share the results that you helped us collect. We are ready to announce the findings and provide our commentary on the results.

The poll is now closed. We had 353 people cast 1151 votes. Although this is clearly just a small sampling of gamers, I think we can safely say that the trending we saw was indicative of many, if not most gamers.

Let’s begin with the results. For the past month our active poll asked our readers to choose the top four feats from a list of 10 provided. Here are the results.

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Technology

Heroes Of Neverwinter D&D Facebook Game Beta Code Giveaway

Dungeon’s Master has 100 beta codes to giveaway for the Heroes of Neverwinter D&D Facebook game.

Getting a code couldn’t be easier, simply comment on this article telling us in 2 or 3 sentences what makes 4e Dungeons & Dragons a great game. Please keep your response to 2 or 3 sentences.

Only the first 100 responses will receive a code. Only one (1) code will be provided per person, please don’t waste my time by commenting twice. Instructions on how to activate the code will be included in the Email you receive with your code.

Beta codes will be Emailed between Sunday and Monday, so please be patient.

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DM Resources

Giving Character Backgrounds And Themes Teeth

Da Vinci - Man in CircleCharacter backgrounds and themes are a great way to flesh out your character. They provide players with additional motivation to create a compelling back story for their character. This motivation appears in the form of additional class skills, bonuses to those skills and in the case of themes, encounter powers. From a meta-game perspective there isn’t a good reason not to take advantage of these optional elements that are presented during character creation.

By opting in you give your character an edge, simply put you have a more powerful character at your disposal. Beyond the mechanics your character background and theme gives you a role-playing edge. Your choice at character creation reinforces the vision you have for your character. The choice of background and theme gives your back story additional credibility.

In fact you can use the background and theme to either assist you in creating your back story. Playing a Rogue who you envision is down on his luck and from the lower class? The Guttersnipe theme might fit in with your concept and provide you with some additional ideas on how to play your character. Of course backgrounds and themes can assist in supporting a back story you have already created. A character I created a few years ago was inspired by the Beijing Olympics. I was up late at night with my newborn and was watching a lot of gymnastics. I decided I would make a Rogue who aspired not to being an adventurer, but an athlete. In this case the Athlete background is a perfect fit for my character concept.

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