Tag: Dungeon’s Master Resources

Reputation (Part 2)

As a PC, your reputation is in your own hands. The choices you make during your adventuring career will have a direct impact on your PC’s reputation. The jobs you accept, the method you employ and even the company you keep all factor in to the bigger picture, which defines your reputation.

This is the second of three articles examining reputation. Reputation (part 1) appeared on The Core Mechanic a few days ago. It was aimed at the DM and provided him with direction for using reputation as a campaign tool. Reputation (part 2) and Reputation (part 3) are aimed at the players and provides insight on how PCs can shape their own reputation and gain the most benefit from doing so.

Tags 4e, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, heroes, heroic, Player Resources, point of light, reputation

Editorial

Taking the Dungeon Out of Dungeons and Dragons

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date April 7, 2009
23 Comments on Taking the Dungeon Out of Dungeons and Dragons

Throughout the life-cycle of Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons have been evolving. Recent discussion around the RPG Bloggers Network has revolved around the Mega-Dungeon. The nostalgia brought up from this discussion is fantastic and brings to mind memories of exploring vast labyrinths. For that matter, it reminds me of playing The Bard’s Tale on my Commodore, but I digress.

Recently, Ameron has written about dungeons. He’s covered the topic through a skill challenge and as a DM aide on pacing the adventure. His articles got me thinking about dungeons and the place they hold in the game. First and foremost I’m not advocating that dungeons be removed from our great game and that we rename it Dragons. I do think there is a case to be made towards handling dungeons in a different manner and the mechanics of 4e lend themselves to it.

Tags 4e, D&D, dungeon crawl, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, megadungeon, Skill Challenge, Wizards of the Coast

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Geography

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date April 3, 2009
3 Comments on Campaign Design: Geography

All the world is a stage and you get to design it. Creating the geography for your gaming world is more than just placing mountains, streams and forest. Every decision you make during this stage of the game will effect future gaming sessions and expansions to your campaign setting. The geographic elements you work into your game world form the natural boundaries that are used to define the kingdoms and territories of your world. It’s important to get it right from the start.

Tags 4e, campaign design, D&D, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon Master Resources, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Eberron, geography, resource, RPG, Wizards of the Coast

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Prevalence of Magic & Cosmology

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date March 6, 2009
1 Comment on Campaign Design: Prevalence of Magic & Cosmology

What would a fantasy setting be without magic and divine beings fighting their celestial wars? At this point you have decided which historical and fictional elements to use in defining your campaign world. You are now ready to start fleshing the world out in greater detail.

Tags 4e, arcane, campaign design, D&D, deities, divine, DM, DM Resources, dungeon master, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Magic, magic systems, pantheon, religion

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Historical and Fictional References

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date February 28, 2009
6 Comments on Campaign Design: Historical and Fictional References

In the last article we dealt with the Next Steps in campaign design, today we’ll discuss various campaign settings, historical periods, novels and talk about the themes that exist within the fantasy genre. This is my favourite part of design as it’s where you get to really dream about the different possibilities. Make sure you have your notebook handy and any of the Resources that you’ve collected to help you along the way. You’re bound to have more than a few flash insights at moments that you aren’t actively working on your campaign world and you’ll want to jot them down for future use.

Tags 4e, a song of ice and fire, Beowulf, campaign design, D&D, DM, DM Resources, dungeon master, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, george rr mart, Glen cook, JRR Tolkien, resource, RPG, the black company, Wizards of the Coast

Class Discussions

Necromancer Paragon Path

black-mage-colour With the launch of Open Grave, Wizards of the Coast have begun to release powers and rituals geared towards Necromancers. They have also announced that the Arcane Powers source book will have a Necromancer Paragon Path. While I’m glad that this is upcoming, I still believe they provided a disservice by not having any specialists in the first PHB.

Building on the Necromancer: Heroic Tier we published a few weeks ago, we now present the Necromancer: Paragon Path, an option for you to play until the official version is released. If you are interested in the Necromancer at the Epic Tier, visit our article about that.

We see the Necromancer as an individual who fights for good but is often mistaken as evil. Just like the early practitioners of medicine in our own world, who dug up graves to study anatomy. A practice that was deemed unethical and morally wrong at the time. The Necromancer is an individual who walks the dividing line of ethical behaviour.

Tags 4e, D&D, DM, dungeon master, Dungeon Master Resources, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, Necromancer, PC, player, resource, RPG, undead, Wizard, Wizards of the Coast, wotc

DM Resources

Campaign Design: Next Steps

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date February 20, 2009
1 Comment on Campaign Design: Next Steps

You have decided to design your own Campaign World and you have the necessary resources in place. Now you’re wondering what are the next steps? It’s time to consider how you’re going to approach game design. There are a number of different ways to begin working on your campaign and there are still a few questions you need to consider before you begin. We’ll take a look at several of them.

Tags 4e, campaign design, D&D, DM, DM Resources, dragons, dungeon master, Dungeon Master Resource, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon’s Master, resource, RPG

DM Resources

Campaign Design: An Introduction

Post author By Wimwick (Neil Ellis)
Post date February 6, 2009
2 Comments on Campaign Design: An Introduction

photo credit: Aaron Escobar

Welcome to the Dungeon’s Master series on Campaign Design. This series will be available on a weekly basis to help new and experienced Dungeon Masters to design their own Campaign Settings. Throughout this series we’ll look at the various challenges and complexities associated with creating your campaign world.

Tags 4e, campaign design, D&D, Dungeon's Master, Dungeon's Master Resources, Dungeons and Dragons, resource