Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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Player Resources

11 Articles Everyone Should Read

After a long and busy week, Friday is finally here. What better way to relax than putting together a D&D list. It started simply enough, just a list of tips for players. That’s when I realized that buried within the 600+ articles we have at Dungeon’s Master are more than enough tips for any D&D player.

Presented below are 11 articles that I enjoyed re-reading and think you will too. When I put together this list together my only criteria was to find interesting article that would appeal to a wide gaming audience. I wasn’t looking for our greatest hits (although a couple included below have already earned that distinction). These articles are a great place to begin a conversation about various aspects of the great game we call Dungeons & Dragons.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 7)

Inverness was burning! After Brother Splintershield’s unfortunate death last week, the ritual that protected the town disappeared. As soon as that happened a coordinated attack immediately struck the town. The heroes could see signs of the blazing town, most notably the smoke clouds, off in the distance. If the heroes had any hope of helping their friends and saving the town from whatever plight it now faced they had to act quickly.

Unwilling to leave Splintershield’s body unburied, the PCs quickly made a crude sled with which they could easily bring his remains along with them. A few Nature checks later and they were off. After an hour of swift travel through the brush they arrived at the forest edge and got their first look at the devastation happening in the town.

Ghost soldiers were ransacking and bringing Inverness. Most buildings were ablaze already. Ghostly archers shot flaming arrows at all structures. It was clear that their purpose was destruction. Salazar Vladistone was true to his word. He returned with the Phantom Brigade and they were reclaiming Inverness as their own.

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Class Discussions

Avenger – Worst Striker Ever

Strikers are without a doubt my favourite role in 4e D&D. In a balanced party someone needs to be responsible for excessive damage output and that’s usually me. I’ve played the Rogue, Ranger, Warlock, Sorcerer, Monk and Barbarian classes and enjoyed all of them. Although I’ve never played an Assassin, one of the players at my gaming table ran one for months the last time I was the DM so I’m well aware of their prowess (and look forward to playing one soon). Each striker class has its own pros and cons, and every one of them is rewarding and a lot of fun to play. Except the Avenger.

I’ve played the Avenger during dungeon delves and more recently I’ve been playing one in Living Forgotten Realms (LFR). After giving the Avenger a thorough shake-down I’ve come to realize that Avengers suck. They are the worst, most underpowered class in the striker family. I’d go so far as to say that the Avenger is quite possibly the worst classes in 4e D&D.

The striker’s purpose is to dish out damage. What makes the striker special is that when he hits it should hurt… a lot. All strikers get a little something extra to enhance their damage output. Admittedly in many cases the extra damage is circumstantial and if the appropriate criterion isn’t met then they don’t get the extra damage. The Avenger is the only Striker class that gets nothing extra.

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DM Resources

How To Make Your Players Feel Heroic

I’ve realized of late that I enjoy designing tough encounters. Encounters where perhaps the forces border on overwhelming. Where encounter after encounter my players are being pushed to the brink. It’s almost like a test of endurance, can they take just one more encounter? Will they prevail or will I have finally pushed them too far?

Much of my motivation for designing encounters this way comes from taking too many extended rests with daily powers unused and healing surges remaining. These extended rests haven’t been taken because we though we needed them or could get away with them. No, they came about because we had completed the adventure. In short as a player in 4e there have been few encounters that I feel have truly pushed myself and other players to the edge.

Of course what I have also realized is that making every encounter a slug fest, where at the end of the final encounter the party is completely out of resources is also boring. Furthermore, my players are beginning to wonder if I’m out to kill their characters. When the time for an extended rest rolls up they have a look of relief on their faces. Instead of a feeling of satisfaction or euphoria at completing the encounters, they are just glad it’s over.

I realize that while I’m challenging the players, I’m not creating moments for them to feel truly heroic. As a result I’ve developed a series of guidelines to assist me in my adventure design.

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Editorial

The Importance of Trust and Honesty in D&D

I think that the vast majority of people who play D&D take for granted just how important trust and honesty are to the game. In order for everything to work we have to assume that everyone playing is honest and trustworthy. Of course, we don’t come right out and ask this of the other players; you merely accept it as fact. If players cheat or abuse the trust we’ve given them in good faith, then the system won’t work and the gaming experience will be tarnished.

Just this past weekend I was playing a Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) adventure at my FLGS and something happened that really highlighted the importance of trust in D&D. It was an unusual situation, and the more I thought about it the more I realized that perhaps it’s time to discuss just how vital trust and honesty are in D&D.

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DM Resources

How To Use Prophecy And Divination To Tell The Story

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

With these lines a quest was born unlike any known before or since.

Developing a prophecy or using divination to assist in the story telling of your campaign can be as simple as two lines or as complex as you want it to be. Of course you’ll need an overarching quest to tie everything to, the prophecy simply provides motivation or guidance to your players. The prophecy can be a detailed guide to the adventure or a mysterious code that provides occasional direction.

This week at Dungeon’s Master we’ve been discussing aid from divine and otherworldly sources in detail. Ameron started the discussion off with Divinations – Is Some Magic Just Too Powerful for PCs and then continued with a piece on Divine Intervention.  The discussion was continued by Callin and his post at Big Ball of No Fun – How to Handle Divinations.  In other words there has been no shortage or articles about divination in the 4e blog community this week. I would also encourage people to read Prophecy Points as a Reward for Roleplaying from The Big Red Box Blog.

I felt it was only appropriate that we cap the week off with an article not about reacting to the use of divinations in game by players, but to the active use of divination and prophecy by the DM as a storytelling tool.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 6)

When the encounter’s called “The Death of Aldus Splintershield” it’s a safe bet that the party is in for one hell of a fight. After defeating the infected foresters last week, Brother Splintershield allowed for only a short rest before the party continued deeper into the woods to discover the source of the strange plague infecting the men and animals.

A good DM learns from his mistakes. I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes as a DM. This week I had the opportunity to learn from one I made just a few weeks ago at D&D Encounters. During Week 3the party explored the ruins of Castle Inverness. Unfortunately the only 1-inch scale battle map provided was for the corner of the keep where the monsters were hiding. As soon as the players saw this, they knew that nothing “important” was likely to happen anywhere else.

Last week I tried to emphasize that just because there’s a map doesn’t mean that there’s certainly going to be combat or that there’s even any threats present. The result of my craftiness regrettably ended with Belgos the Dragonborn murdering Steve… poor guy.

This week I tried to learn from my Week 3 mistake. I didn’t produce the 1-inch scale battle map until it was actually time for combat. I found a copy of the Harken Forest online in the Wizards forums. I printed a colour copy on an 11 x 17 page and presented this to the players. Without a clear indication of where the battle would take place, they were extremely cautious when exploring.

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Class Discussions DM Resources

Divine Intervention

I’ve always had a fondness for divine characters. The idea that these classes actually receive divine power directly from their deity everyday in the form of prayer spells has always blown my mind. Unlike the Wizard who need to study and learn their spells, the power of a divine character is based largely in the strength of his faith.

Even though I’m not a particularly devote person in real life, playing a pious character is a role I have very little trouble getting into. This character actually receives confirmation every day that his deity not only exists but allows the PCs to act in his name. I just don’t see how your faith can waiver after you’ve felt the touch of your patron.

As the DM I’ve tried to emphasize this connection between divine characters and their deity at my gaming table. The DM (acting in his role as the patron deity) provides the divine PC with something useful for the upcoming adventure. Usually this is just information that would otherwise be unknown to the PC, but often I granted power boons as well. However, I’ve found this to be a more difficult undertaking with 4e D&D then it ever was in previous editions.

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DM Resources

How Much Input Should Players Have On The Campaign?

Different DMs embrace different ideas about how much input their players have on the campaign where some DMs run a sandbox campaign, other than major NPCs everything that happens in the game is left to the whim of the players. Others have a more restrictive idea about how much input players should have. Some do not allow player input at all, preferring to run modules or use adventures published through LFR.

The level of player involvement is usually determined before the campaign begins. The DM gives a rough idea of what the players can expect of the campaign. My normal practice is to provide my players with an overview of the start of the campaign and the central theme. This allows them to create characters that are appropriate. It doesn’t make too much sense for a player to create an urban Ranger for a game that is going to take place 90% of the time in the Underdark.

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Class Discussions

Divinations – Is Some Magic Just Too Powerful for PCs?

No power is greater than the ability to see the future. Whether it’s the ability to determine if turning right or left will lead to a better outcome or foreseeing the death of friends and family, knowing what lies ahead often tips the scales of power heavily towards the diviner.

In fantasy literature divinations are often vague and described as prophecy. Rarely does any character get a clear picture of exactly how things are going to unfold. After all everyone has free will and actions can be unpredictable. Divination magic assumes that people will continue along the paths that they’re most likely to take.

The advantage that authors of fantasy literature have when they’re creating stories with divinations is that the author controls all aspects of the story. This is certainly not the case in D&D (or any RPG for that matter). The DM may design and set the framework for the story, but with up to six players making decisions on how things are going to play out it becomes next to impossible for the DM to predict what’s going to happen next with any certainty.

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