GenCon is less than two weeks away and we want to do our part to help make your con experience great. We’ve searched through the Dungeon’s Master archives to find articles that provide tips for players and DMs that are specifically related to conventions and public play. Of course these tips are often just as valid in your home games so even if you’re not going to GenCon we think you’ll find these tips applicable. You’ll likely see some trending throughout these articles because some tips are relevant regardless of context. In the end, we hope you find something in one of these articles that you can use to make your game and your con experience better.
Tag: Dungeons and Dragons
Last week’s session ended after the PCs successfully navigated the maze of caverns inside the gates of Zadzifeirryn and found the Torture Theater. After a short rest the PCs moved quietly in the directions of the screams and cheers.
The passage ahead opened into a huge chamber, its lower level a cavernous pit heaped with corpses. Erie red light filled the area cast from glowing fonts full of blood. Two Drow Torturers stood on a platform above the PCs, the walls of the chamber around them lined with stone steps filled with Drow spectators.
A Torturer swung a heavy blade beheading a human captive; the crowd roared with delight. The Drow kicked the lifeless body into the pit and pointed towards a group of chained human captives, “Time for a new victim!”
The two Rogues in the party tried to sneak up to the edge where two Humans were chained. Rogue #2 made an amazing Stealth check, Rogue #1 rolled a 1. One of the Torturers spotted the party and challenged their presence, “Who are you and what are you doing with those bodies?” she demanded. The four Drow PCs, still dressed in House Jaelre uniforms, tried to Bluff their way out of the escalating mess.
“We wanted to have the best seats in the house,” said the Druid. “We didn’t want to pay to get in,” said one of the Rogues. The Torturer paused briefly to consider the plausibility of this explanation but quickly realized that something was amiss. She placed her hand in the adjacent blood font and began chanting as she started a summoning ritual.
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Month in Review: July 2012
It was another strong month here at Dungeon’s Master. We covered a wide variety of topics including sex and drugs in D&D, Wheaton’s Law, social media, essential RPG books and of course D&D Encounters. If you missed any of our articles from July than now is the time to get caught up. We’ve provided links below to everything we posted in July along with a brief description of each.
Our readership increased in July thanks to a couple of controversial articles and some amazing Star Wars pre-gens for D&D Encounters. We want to thank everyone who visited our site last month, especially those of you who comment regularly. Your feedback lets us know if we’re doing a good job and the overwhelming majority of comments are usually quite positive. Please keep reading and please keep providing your comments and questions.
Today Dungeon’s Master takes a bold step forward into the world of social media. That’s right I’ve finally joined Twitter (@ameron_dm). Buried way at the bottom of Friday’s article in which I shared my GenCon schedule I discretely announced that I’ve joined the Twitterverse. Today I’m shouting it from the virtual rooftops: Ameron is on Twitter! That’s right, I’ve given into peer pressure and realized that if I’m going to be part of the social media world that I need to be doing more than just blogging.
To follow me on Twitter just click on the “Follow @ameron_dm” button in the right nav. The same button will now be included at the bottom of every article along with the subscribe link.
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Ameron’s 2012 GenCon Schedule
GenCon 2012, the best four days in gaming begins on August 16. That’s only 19 days from today. This year I’ll be making the 9 hour road trip from Toronto to Indianapolis with Marc Talbot (aka Alton from 20ft Radius). This will be my fifth consecutive year at GenCon but it’s his first. I’m expecting this year to be my best GenCon yet and I’ve got a wide variety of events scheduled. Of course some of the best parts of any con are the things that aren’t scheduled ahead of time so I’ve made sure to leave plenty of gaps in my itinerary.
Last week the heroes managed to get through the gates of Zadzifeirryn. They ended last week’s session when they found a safe place to hide and took an extended rest. This week they awoke refreshed and leveled up.
This week’s encounter is another unusual one for D&D Encounters. It’s possible that this week could end up as just role-playing and skill checks, which is how it played out at my table. In order to keep my group interested I had to make a few changes on the fly but all in all things worked out ok. The encounter still took about 90 minutes (without any combat) and it certainly allowed for some interesting character development and NPC interactions.
The numbers at our FLGS continue dwindling as we were down to only seven this week, two DMs and five players. The other DM decided to take the week off and my table ran business as usual with our regular five.
- Drow Druid
- Drow Cleric
- Drow Rogue #1
- Drow Rogue #2
- Drow Wizard (Bladesinger)
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Only Ten – Ameron’s List
“If you could only keep ten of your printed RPG books, which would you pick?”
This is the question Brendan from the gaming blog Untimately asked on Monday. He then proceeded to share his ten. Many of his readers shared their list in the comments section of the original post and I’ve seen more than a few bloggers post their essential ten list around the blogosphere. Today it’s my turn to join in this show and tell exercise and share my list.
Yesterday I looked around my gaming room to try to narrow it down to just ten books. After giving it some consideration I finally narrowed it down to just ten (which was a lot harder than I thought it would be). I’ve actually cheated in a few instances and grouped a few books together as one entry, but the reasons will be apparent as you read through my list.
You’ll notice the absence of any PHB, DMG and MM from my list. This was a deliberate choice. In my opinion some iteration of these books should be on everyone’s list; after all they’re called core books for a reason. I approached this task with the assumption that the core books were a given and these were the next ten I’d choose after those.
Rather than struggle with ranking, I decided instead to list the books alphabetically. I want you to see my list as a collection. Theses all made my list and that’s all that should matter, not which one is more important or useful that the next.
Back by popular demand, Matthew Domville has created another Master of the Dungeon, D&D-themed webcomic based on situations that came out of our weekly D&D game. I guess all the kind words for his first Master of the Dungeon contribution, Epic Combat, Round 1, convinced him to keep dong these comics for us. If you want to see more comics, let us know in the comments section below.
Be sure to check out Matt’s other webcomic, Cinema Bums, a comic about movies and the folks who love ‘em. If you enjoy his stuff be sure to leave him a comment and like his page.
Worst encounter of the adventure. Yeah, I said it. I felt that this week’s encounter was poorly designed and completely unnecessary. I always try to find the positive side of things when I share these weekly field reports, and there were a few bright spots this week, but overall I did not like this encounter and really felt it was the low point of the adventure. Read on and find out why.
Last session the heroes defeated Drow slavers, and fought some Goblins, a Bugbear, and a Giant Spider in the stalactite fortress called the Demonspur. They continued across the rope bridge and headed towards the gates of Zadzifeirryn. This week’s encounter began when the party arrived at the gates. Two portcullises blocked a walkway passing between the massive walls of Zadzifeirryn. Close to the gate a winch was bolted into the rock and an Ogre was chained to the wall beside it.
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Never Leave a Man Behind
Pop quiz: Your ally just took massive damage and fell unconscious, what do you do? If you’re the leader this is an easy one; use one of your healing powers and revive your fallen comrade. If you’re any other role your answer had better not be leave him for the leader. When a PC falls during combat it’s everyone’s responsibility to bring him back into the fight – not just the leader. Admittedly the leader is usually the one that can revive unconscious PCs easiest and fastest, but you’re part of a party, a team, and everyone should look out for one another. Don’t shrug your obligation to your teammates and let a dying ally make death save after death save while you keep fighting.
Now I know there will be times when it might make more sense for the striker to keep attacking or for the defender to just keep the bad guy locked down, especially if either of them has an incredibly low Heal check, but these should be the exceptions. Regardless of circumstance unconscious PCs should not be forgotten or ignored. Dismissing your dying ally is the same as leaving him behind.