Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

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DM Resources

What Constitutes Difficult Terrain: A Look At Tactical Maps

If you are looking for inspiration when designing encounter maps may I make a recommendation?

Take a hike.

That’s right, get out into nature. Go to the source and see what things really look like. Then decide if it makes sense for a square to be difficult terrain or not? Does light foliage really grant concealment? If you really want an answer to these and other questions, take a walk through your local forest. Your eyes will be opened to a new set of possibilities and you might discover a new past time.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters (Week 2)

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

When D&D Encounters (Week 1) began last week I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had a great time playing, but as with any new campaign it took me a while to get to know my new character and it took time to get to know the rest of the party.

This week D&D Encounters (Week 2) was a very different experience. We managed to keep the same party and that made things a lot easier. Now that we’d completed one encounter we were better prepared to move forward. Or so we thought.

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Player Resources

Improve Your Defenses With Energy Resistance (Paragon)

There are going to be times when no matter how high your defenses are you’re still going to take a few hits. Whether you’re the nimble striker who opts for mobility over heavy armor or the defender who marks opponents to intentionally draw attacks away from others, all PCs eventually get hit hard. Luckily there is a relatively easy way to reduce the damage from some of the hardest hits that deal the most damage – energy resistance.

A disproportionate number of powerful monsters deal more than just straight-up, every day, normal damage. Many deal energy specific damage. So when you’ve done everything you can to raise your defenses and you still find yourself getting hit and taking an obscene amount of damage, it’s time to find magic that provides energy resistance.

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Player Resources

Make Your Character More Than Just Numbers

Some players are happy to play characters who are just numbers. Characters defined by their exceptional ability scores, high defenses, big weapons and awesome damage potential. I’ll admit I’ve played a few of these characters myself. This type of PC is alright in the short-term, but for long-term campaigns you’re likely to want more. Put some thought into who your character is, beyond just the numbers.

This extra level of detail is certainly not mandatory, but does pay dividends over time. The enjoyment you get out of playing any character is directly related to the amount of work you put into creating and defining him. If you’re not interested in doing any more than the minimum requirements necessary to get your PC created and into the game, then that’s your call. But if you are interested in really trying to make your PC a unique individual, then we’ve got some resources to help you flesh out your PC.

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DM Resources

I Took The Railroad To The Sandbox And Told A Great Story

At its core Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game. When you put aside all the mechanics, character classes and dice rolling the game is about the story. The story is usually narrated by the DM who explains what transpires. The DM is literally responsible for everything the PCs experience. The DM is also responsible for shaping the direction of the story. From planning encounters, designing skill challenges and writing the adventures the DM fills some pretty big shoes.

One of the most important decisions a DM makes is choosing which mode of storytelling they want to adopt for a particular campaign. Do you use existing adventures from Dungeon magazine or Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) modules? Do you create your own adventures and storyline. How much choice will you allow the PCs to have? Will you railroad the PCs down the path you want the adventure to progress in or will you allow the PCs any choice they wish and run a sandbox campaign? Why not a little bit of both?

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Player Resources

The Party That Prepares Survives

It is said that no plan survives contact with the enemy and that might be true. However, without a plan your party won’t likely survive contact with the enemy. The party that plans ahead, very often comes out ahead.

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a great place to find pearls of wisdom regarding warfare. His wisdom has been used by both military and business leaders. Let’s take a look at a few of his quotes and see how they can apply in a gaming context to allow your party to not only survive, but thrive during combat.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters (Week 1)

“D&D Encounters is an exciting, weekly campaign that plays out one epic encounter at a time.” I played the first encounter last night and I had a blast. It took about two hours to complete the first encounter and it was more fun than most full LFR adventures I’ve played.

D&D Encounters is a 12-part adventure from Wizards of the Coast and it’s played out one encounter each week over the next 12 weeks. It’s takes the best elements from RPGA Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) and the Ultimate Dungeon Delve (UDD) and mashes them together. All PCs begin at level 1 and can earn enough XP to reach level 2 after completing six encounters. The challenge is surviving that long since there isn’t an opportunity to take an extended rest until the end of encounter six.

After playing the first encounter here are my initial thoughts and observations.

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Player Resources

Improve Your Defenses With Energy Resistance (Heroic)

More often than not, the PC who poses the greatest threat on the battlefield isn’t the heavily armored Fighter swinging a greatsword but the dagger-wielding Rogue in leather armor. Strikers are designed to inflict a lot of damage. The trade off is that these classes sacrifice high defenses. In general, strikers are soft. This becomes painfully apparent when the guy with the lowest defenses is singled out and starts taking attacks from everyone not marked by a defender (and even a few of them too).

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DM Resources

Effective Use Of Weather

I was cleaning out my dice bag the other day when I came across an old gem, the weather die. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, and probably over a decade since I’ve used it in a game. These days the only random element to the game I enjoy are when the PCs take a right turn when I was expecting a left. To me, and I know others will disagree, random encounter detract from the central story that is being told. Random weather is well, random and pointless.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Lie To Me

Training in Insight does not make you a human lie detector. Too often in D&D a PC rolls Insight and on a successful check knows immediately if a person is lying. This shouldn’t always be the case. Sometimes you need to work at it. If you’ve never met this person before how do you know that they’re lying. Everybody lies to some extent. Figuring out if the lie they just told you impacts your current line of questioning or not requires work.

For situations where more than one simple roll is required, a structured skill challenge may be more suitable. This is not to say that every attempt to detect a falsehood requires anything this complex, but it might be a good idea to remind the PCs that sifting through an intricate web of lies often takes time and many skill checks.

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