Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 1)

This week we began D&D Encounters season 4, March of the Phantom Brigade. At my FLGS we saw a swelling in our overall number as we had enough players to run two full tables of six this week. The last time we had enough players to run two tables was during chapter one of D&D Encounters Dar Sun. I think the idea of a 20-week commitment for season three scared a lot of players away. In any case we began this week with a full house.

My table had four brand new players, none of whom had ever played 4e D&D before. We ended up using five of the six pre-generated characters. The party consisted of Belgos the Drow Ranger, Brandis the Human Cavalier, Fargrim the Dwarf Slayer, Jarren the Human Wizard, Valenae the Eladrin Cleric and a Battlemind. As it turned out this was a perfect balance.

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Editorial

M.I.A. – The Tarrasque

Orcus. Demogorgon. Lolth. All three are extremely powerful foes. They graces the covers of Monster Manual 1, 2 and 3 respectively. These are the elite, showcase monsters of 4e D&D. They are among the toughest that 4e D&D has to offer. Few other creatures are as powerful or dangerous as these three. Defeating any one of them demonstrates that your party truly is the best ever.

And don’t forget about dragons. They too deserve inclusion on any list of the most powerful creatures in D&D. A level 30+ dragon is certainly a suitable foe for the climax of any epic tier adventure.

And then there is the Tarrasque. As I was browsing through the Monster Manual (as I’m wanton to do from time to time) I stumbled across the entry for the Tarrasque completely by accident. As soon as I saw it, I read over its stat block and I realized that Tarrasque has been overshadowed in 4e D&D by the monsters I described above. The creature once agreeably the most powerful monster in any Monster Manual is suddenly a forgotten footnote.

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DM Resources

5 Tips To Increase Role-Playing At Your Game Table

Role-playing has featured prominently in several 4e blogs over the past few weeks. The topics and approaches to the subject have varied widely, from how to speed up combat to allow for more time to role-play to introducing new mechanics to encourage role-playing. Our own post on the 4th action is one of the later articles. The subject of role-playing in 4e has been of great debate since its release with many debating how much role-playing the edition allows.

Some have argued that skill challenges are the mechanic in 4e that facilitates role-playing. While skill challenges can certainly accomplish this task, to state that they are the only way to role-play in 4e is rather naive. I strongly believe that if your gaming group wants to role-play it will. I also believe that some players are more willing to embrace role-playing than others.

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DM Resources

The Groundhog Day Effect in 4e D&D

In the 1993 director Harold Ramis brought us the Bill Murray comedy classic Groundhog Day. For those unfamiliar with this movie, Bill Murray’s character awakens every morning to discover that he’s reliving the same day, February 2, over and over again. After watching the movie again last week I started thinking about how to use the Groundhog Day effect in an upcoming D&D adventure.

I saw this playing out in two possible ways.

  1. The PCs would find themselves in a situation similar to that of Murray’s character in the movie where they actually had to relive the previous day over again.
  2. The PCs had to face the same encounters a second time after defeating them once before.

Both scenarios allow the players to learn from their previous mistakes. How often have you used a daily power in the first encounter and then realized that it would have been more effective against the creatures in the second? How often have you held onto a daily power and then regretted not using it? The same thing goes for actions points.

The Groundhog Day effect, in essence, gives the PCs a do over. Once they realize that they’re facing the same encounter again they can choose to alter their original course of action.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands – Report Card

Now that D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands is finished its time to look back on this season and provide some honest feedback.

The Name Game

When I first heard that season 3 was going to be called Keep on the Borderlands I was immediately excited. The classic adventure of the same name is one of my all time favourite D&D modules. Borrowing the familiar name was a good way to get some old-school gamers excited about D&D Encounters.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 20)

This was it, the final culmination of everything we’d worked for over the past 19 weeks. The heroes helped defend the keep over the past three weeks while Benwick and his allies, the black dragon and the lizardman army, attempted to take control. This week the heroes had their final showdown with Benwick. There were only two possible outcomes: The death of Benwick or the death of the PCs. Let the showdown begin.

Knowing this was the final week of D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands we had a great turnout. We had a party of eight including Berrian, Eldeth, Hagen, Quinn, Sola, a Cavalier, a Rogue and a Runepriest. The extra party members meant the DM had to balance the encounter by adding more monsters. Add to the mix three soldier minions, the priestess Chendera and a friendly bailiff named Kendon and the battle was a very busy and crowded scene.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: January 2011

We began January with what turned turned out to be one of our most inflammatory articles to date. It created a lot of comments (the most we’ve ever received on any article) and polarized the online gaming community. We also covered a wide variety of other topics in January including the latest DM app for your iPad, action points, henchmen, conflict resolution strategies,adventure hooks, skill challenges, LFR and D&D Encounters (season 3 and season 4).

If you missed any of the excitment throughout January this is you chance to get caught up. Below is a recap of everything we ran during the last month. We encourage you to read any of the articles you might have missed or to revisit some of your favourites.

We want to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s Master throughout the month of January, with a special shout out to everyone who left us comments. We measure our success largely based on what you, the readers, have to say. We welcome your feedback and encourage continued debate and discussion on every article we write.

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Player Resources

D&D Encounters: D&D Fortune Cards

Included in the D&D Encounters season 4: March of the Phantom Brigade DMs kit was information about the new D&D Fortune Cards. Here’s what Wizards of the Coast provided along with instructions on how to distribute the free cards earned when players accumulate enough Renown Points.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Secret Identity

As the PCs become more powerful and earn a reputation they’re going to become better known across the land. However, there are going to be times when this fame and notoriety will actually be a hindrance. So when one of those situations arises why not throw a skill challenge into the background of the story in order to remind the PCs that if they want to keep their identities a secret it’s going to require a little bit of work.

I want to stress that this kind of skill challenge should be going on in the background and not be a full-on skill challenge in the traditional sense. By the time the PCs have earned enough experience to be recognized, a skill challenge to hide their true identities will seem beneath their level. When I say recognized, I mean to the extent that they can no longer walk among the common folk without drawing crowds and onlookers.

However, by making this a skill challenge with real consequences and XP, the players will realize that it needs to be taken seriously. It also gives the players additional motivation to really get into the role-playing.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 19)

The Keep continued to be overrun by Liazrdfolk. As the PCs ran towards the Inner Keep to fortify their defensive position they caught glimpses of the Black Dragon, Yulbraxis breathing acid on Lord Drysdale’s men in the square. They immediately rushed to aid these brave men. These heroes had already slain one Black Dragon, it was time to kill another one.

For the first time in weeks our party was down to only six players and what a difference it made. I’m not suggesting that anyone get turned away from a D&D game, especially D&D Encounters, but with the numbers back to normal the game ran a lot smoother and a lot faster. I think it’s fair to say that this was also at least in part because after 19 weeks most of us have come to know our characters so well we could run them with our eyes closed.

For week 19 our party consisted of Berrian, Quinn, Sola, a Cavalier, a Rogue and a Runepriest. No new players and no new characters this week. Just six PCs that we’d come to know and love.

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