Tag: Player Resources

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DM Resources Player Resources

7 Halloween-Themed Articles

"Zombies Playing D&D" by Mandi Tremblay
"Zombies Playing D&D" by Mandi Tremblay

Every year around this time DMs are inspired by Halloween and PCs find themselves facing off against skeletons, zombies, vampires and werewolves. Campaigns become darker as the DM taps into the fear associated with Halloween. But creating something original can be more challenging than many DMs realize. In order to help, we’ve combed through our archives and found 7 articles that we think will help DMs add that Halloween flavour to their campaign without just rehashing the same things you’ve done year in and year out.

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Editorial

Death’s Impact in D&D

Is the fact that characters can come back from the dead a good or bad thing for the game of D&D? From a player perspective nothing sucks more than spending countless hours building up and developing a character only to have him get killed permanently. The creators of the game understand that the fun ends when the PC dies so they introduced mechanics to bring dead characters back to life.

Sometimes these mechanics are as simple as the DM waving his magic wands and the character is suddenly back in the game (which is pretty much how it works in most public-play scenarios like D&D Encounters and LFR). Sometimes the mechanic is a little bit more difficult, but not out of reach. In these cases the PCs spend the appropriate resources to have the dead character returned to life, and depending on the power-level of the campaign the PCs may even have the power to do this without any outside assistance. And then there’s the situation when an entire campaign arc revolves around getting a fallen hero resurrected. It might be a quest to get the necessary material components for a ritual or the search for an item or artifact capable of such powerful magic. The point is that death is rarely final in D&D.

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Player Resources

Hurry Up and Wait – A Look a Delaying and Readying Actions

Pay attention players, your spot in the initiative order is not set in stone. Players get so excited when it’s their turn all they want to do is attack. Many players forget, or don’t even know, that they can wait and hold their action whenever they want to. There’s nothing in the rules that says you must go when your turn in the initiative comes up. If more players took this to heart, combat encounters could be a lot more exciting and in some cases a lot faster.

Once combat is in full swing players should talk to each other in-character (assuming that PCs can actually hear one and other and don’t care if they’re overheard). As the battle unfolds situations will arise where some PCs will see an opportunity to shine. It might be a chance to inflict a lot of damage, it might be a chance to push an opponent off a cliff or it might be a chance for the defender to mark everyone with a close burst attack. As soon as you see this golden opportunity let everyone know. By announcing what you want to do the other players can act accordingly and delay as necessary. Remember that the party is a team, not a bunch of individuals all trying to steal the spotlight. By defeating the monsters quickly and efficiently the battle ends faster which is a win for everyone.

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DM Resources Player Resources

Let the Players Roll More Dice

Players love to roll dice. This is one of the reasons that strikers are so popular in 4e D&D. Strikers attack more often and always seem to roll more damage dice than classes in the other roles. I must admit that I fall squarely in the “love to roll dice” camp. It’s part of what I find appealing about D&D or any board game for that matter. Quite simply, it’s fun. But for some players rolling dice is where their interest stops.

I’ve had a lot of issues lately with players who don’t pay attention to what’s going on when it’s not their turn. I’ve tried a lot of different things to keep them engaged from rewards to punishment but many simply zone out. I see this a lot during public play like D&D Encounters and LFR. I’d pretty much given up and come to accept that some players are simply there to roll dice and don’t care about what else is going on if it doesn’t directly affect their character. And then I finally came up with a way to solve this problem and the solution involved rolling more dice.

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Player Resources

Use Teamwork, Aid Another

Most players assume, incorrectly, that the only way to aid another is when they’re trying to make a skill check, most often during a skill challenge. They don’t know or don’t remember that there are other options when it comes to aiding another PC. In Monte Cook’s October 11th Legends & Lore article, Live Together, Die Alone, he talks about the importance of teamwork in D&D. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to highlight some of the benefits of using aid another for players and DMs.

For some readers this article will serve as a refresher. Although I’ll provide some creative ideas and situations in which aiding another can be useful, for the most part I’ll be highlighting a lot of the rules that are already out there. However, for many others I know that a lot of what I’m about to cover will be new to them.

Aid another is one of the most underused and under appreciated elements of 4e D&D. Few players are willing to give up a standard action to do anything that isn’t an attack or a second move. But in many cases there are better options and if you’re willing to work together as a team and not feel the absolute need to be the star of the show then aiding another can sometimes be the action that makes the biggest difference during combat.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: September 2011

September was a great months at Dungeon’s Master. We started the month by hitting the very significant milestone of 1,000,000 Page Views. During September we welcomed two new contributors, we brought you weekly write-ups of D&D Encounters and shared our first attempt at Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan, and we also shared 100 Beta codes to the new Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter. The month in review is your chance to get caught up if you missed any of the articles we ran in September.

We want to thank all the readers who visit Dungeon’s Master day after day and month after month. It’s because of your continued support and your comments that our website continues to flourish. As always, we welcome your feedback and comments so keep them coming. You can always email Wimwick or me if you have one-off questions or ideas for articles.

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Class Discussions

D&D Tactica: Enter the Offender

As both a player and Dungeon Master, I’ve seen 4e D&D grow and mature since it was first released. It started out locked hard into its mold of a four role, five player party, with its very linear progression and development. There were some parts of it that worked, and some parts that did not. In the years that have passed, 4e D&D has changed significantly, and there is a wealth of options for any given character at this point. Not all options are even, but that is a given when dealing with any robust and mature game.

Today the Dungeon’s Master team welcomes our newest contributor, Sndwurks (David Buresh). Sndwurks started playing Dungeons & Dragons nearly 20 years ago, and took up the mantle of Dungeon Master one year into the hobby. He is an avid gamer and enjoying gaming across all its various mediums. He is also an author of horror and historical fiction, and a semi-professional storyteller. We welcome him to the team and hope you enjoy his first contribution. – Ameron

Within the four role mold, there are simply some characters who do not fit. Some are classes being played across role, such as a defender being built as a controller, or a controller who hands out party buffs more than enemy debuffs. Others are more complex, and are managing to exist in a nebulous place between two roles, fulfilling each without sacrificing the other. One of these types of characters is the role referred to in my gaming circle as the Offender.

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? The Results Are In!

Two months ago we began this rollercoaster ride by asking the simple question “What are the best feats in 4e D&D?”. Today we end the speculation and share the results that you helped us collect. We are ready to announce the findings and provide our commentary on the results.

The poll is now closed. We had 353 people cast 1151 votes. Although this is clearly just a small sampling of gamers, I think we can safely say that the trending we saw was indicative of many, if not most gamers.

Let’s begin with the results. For the past month our active poll asked our readers to choose the top four feats from a list of 10 provided. Here are the results.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: August 2011

August was a great moth for gamers and for us here at Dungeon’s Master. The month began with another fantastic GenCon. Following the Con we shared some of the things we saw (good and bad) including previews of D&D Encounters, Lair Assault and the D&D Open Championship. We also received a shout out from Bart Carroll on the Wizard of the Coast website in his August 17 article A Look Back at Gen Con.

In August we continued narrowing the list of best feats in 4e (voting is still open), we looked at playing in a party where everyone is the same race, and we shared more of the antics from D&D camp. Our critique of 4e D&D and our speculation of what might be in store for 5e D&D also generated a lot of excellent discussion. August we saw the conclusion of D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard and the beginning of D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter.

If you missed any of the great articles from August, this is your change to get caught up. We want to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s master in August and hope that you continue to visit our website everyday in September. We always welcome your comments and feedback so don’t be shy.

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Class Discussions Player Resources

Band of Brothers: Adventuring Parties of the Same Race

In the upcoming Lair Assault public play adventure series Wizards is introducing “Glory,” a new achievement system where players earn points for accomplishing different goals. However, not all Glory is earned for defeating the monsters. In order to encourage repeat play they’re awarding Glory for trying things you might not normally consider trying – one such scenario is playing a party where everyone is the same race.

Have you ever played in a party where everyone was the same race? Normally, when you’re creating a character you can choose from any race or class that interests you; the sky’s the limit. What this usually means is that the party ends up with five PCs each representing different races and classes, and that’s ok. In fact it’s practically expected. A party where everyone’s the same race is an anomaly in D&D. But after hearing that Wizards would reward players with special Glory for trying this unusual party make-up I started considering just what such a party might look like. The more I thought about it the more excited I got about where this might lead.

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