Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

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DM Resources Editorial

Death and Resurrection

Resurrection is a part of most fantasy games. Resurrection sits very comfortably next to fireballs and disintegration spells in the magic toolbox, but the player’s access to resurrection has a huge impact on more then the way that they die, it will have an impact on the tone of the entire game world.

Some of your fellow gamers may have had close and devastating experiences with death in their family or community. The topic of loss of life should always be discussed with respect for the fallen and for the survivors who carry their legacy. This article addresses death as it takes place in role playing games and is not intended to be a statement on the value of life.

Consider the treatment of death as the starting point for the flavor of a campaign setting. You should consider it the first decision you make about the world your PCs inhabit, even before you address issues like the number of continents or the role the gods play. Knowing and understanding the value of life in your campaign will dictate how PCs interact with their world.

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Editorial

The Best of Dungeon’s Master

The Dungeon’s Master team needs your help. Throughout the month of May we want you – the readers – to help us determine our very best articles. Since launching Dungeon’s Master back on February 1, 2009, we’ve written 365 articles (so far). Every week we continue writing more and more about 4e D&D. As our archive continues expanding we want to make sure that our best articles are being read by DMs and players who will get the most out of them. By asking you to help us choose our very best work, we get an opportunity to shine a spotlight on articles that our newer readers may have missed the first time they were published.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: April 2010

April was another solid moth here at Dungeon’s Master. We covered a wide variety of D&D-related topics, many stemming from our very own gaming table. Some articles really polarized our readers and we received a lot of fantastic comments, many from first time posters. In April we welcomed our newest contributor, Bauxtehude, to Dungeon’s Master. We look forward to his new and unique views on 4e D&D. We want to thank everyone who visited our site this month and we will keep writing great articles about 4e D&D to keep you coming back every day. If you missed any of articles we published in April, here’s your opportunity to get caught up.

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D&D Encounters Dark Sun

D&D Encounters: Dark Sun

D&D Encounters Season 2 is going to be set in Dark Sun. The adventure, Fury of the Wastewalker, runs for 15 weeks from June 9 through September 15. Players must use one of the pregenerated level 1 characters provided. Here’s the description of the adventure.

Fury of the Wastewalker

On a trade road to the city-state of Tyr, a caravan is assaulted by a deadly obsidian shardstorm, forcing the survivors to band together and navigate the wastes to safety. But the force of nature that destroyed the caravan is under the malevolent control of the being known as the Wastewalker, who will stop at nothing to see the end of those that escaped his initial wrath. Can the heroes reach the Ringing Mountains before it’s too late? This season of D&D Encounters uses pregenerated 1st-level characters specifically designed for the adventure play experience!

We’ll be sure to keep you informed as more information on D&D Encounters Season 2 becomes available.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

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DM Resources

Hey, Isn’t That My Character: Using Retired PCs As NPCs

A good NPC can make a campaign. A bad one, well bad NPCs are usually forgotten fairly quickly. With this in mind it’s in a DMs best interest to ensure that his key NPCs have detailed stories to accompany them. By providing these NPCs with quirks, strengths and weaknesses it provides the PC with more reason to interact and develop a relationship. This in turn makes it easier for the DM to move the story along, twining the PCs concerns with those of the NPC. Of course this takes a lot of work and as the PCs progress new NPCs are required, with new stories and reason to motivate the PCs.

April’s RPG Blog Carnival focus on NPCs. One way to build a very effective NPC is to use a PC that has for one reason or another retired.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters (Week 7)

“This is the best example of a level 2 solo monster I’ve ever seen.” High praise from our very experienced DM. During D&D Encounters week 7 the players discovered just how powerful and dangerous solo monsters really are.

D&D Encounters is a 12-part adventure from Wizards of the Coast and it’s played out one encounter each week over 12 weeks.

When you’re only playing one encounter a week you want every encounter to be interesting, fun and take more than a few rounds to complete. If the encounter isn’t balanced you either finish so quickly that the players feel cheated or the monster is just so powerful that the some (or all) of the PCs die trying to defeat it. When we realized that we were up against a solo monster this week I hoped we’d find some happy middle ground and I was not disappointed.

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DM Resources

How To Introduce A New PC

It happens in almost every game, a PC dies and now you have to figure out how to introduce the new character. Or a new player joins your group and you struggle to explain why they should join the party? There are a many ways to go about answering these questions. From the serious role-playing that this type of event triggers, to the inane and superficial. How you approach this aspect of death and dying in Dungeons & Dragons will come down to the play style of your own group. Different approaches to the game will result in different introductions for new PC.

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DM Resources Top 10

5 Ways To Include Rituals In Your Skill Challenge Design

Rituals are an underutilized aspect of 4e Dungeons & Dragons. One way to increase the way rituals are used in your campaign is to incorporate them into your skill challenge design. By providing opportunities for your PCs to use their abilities you increase their engagement in the campaign. They feel that they are more involved in what is occurring and are committed to seeing things through. Using rituals in your skill challenges does require a little bit of extra work, but is well worth the reward.

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DM Resources

Who Owned Your Magic Sword Before You Did?

How does loot end up in a monster’s treasure horde? The beholder wasn’t wearing the chain mail or wielding the great axe when you fought it, yet there it is in its lair among the other wonders and treasures. You probably just assume that it belonged to the last guy who attempted to defeat the beholder before you and your party came along. But do you ever wonder who the last guy was? Do you ever feel guilty claiming his possessions? Sure he’s dead and has little use for them, but that doesn’t necessarily make them yours, does it?

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Player Resources

Born To Be Wilden

Our exploration of races in 4e continues with the Wilden. The Wilden are one of the new races found in the Players Handbook 3. As a race born of the primal fury of nature, the Wilden are the ultimate defender of nature. Similar to the Shardmind, which we looked at last week, the Wilden are awakened from nature itself. A new race they are a blank slate with no preconceptions or history. With only a primal desire to defend nature in all its forms, the Wilden is a powerful and intriguing new race.

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