Tag: Wizards of the Coast

Categories
Month in Review

Month in Review: February 2012

February 1st marked our third anniversary here at Dungeon’s Master. It certainly doesn’t seem like three years have passed to us, but when we look through our archives there’s no denying the abundance of articles (this article is number 866). Wimwick shared some of our stats in the State Of The Dungeon – Year 3 and from everyone here at Dungeon’s Master we again thank you, the readers, for making all of this possible. It’s because of your support and comments that we keep on doing what we’re doing and providing 4e D&D articles every weekday.

After three years we decided it was finally time to reveal The New Dungeon’s Master Banner. Thanks to Winston Lew for designing something so awesome. I think it breathes new life into our site and adds an additional level of professionalism that our previous banner lacked.

February was a big month for public play as we completed another D&D Encounters season. With that came our report card followed by a preview of the new season the begins tonight. We also shared a first look at the new Lair Assault.

In addition to additional public play resources we also provided new adventure hooks, a contribution to the RPG Blog Carnival, a new skill challenge (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) and an interesting look at the Super Bowl with a D&D spin. If you missed any of the great articles from the past month this is your opportunity to get caught up.

Thanks to everyone who continues to visit Dungeon’s Master regularly. If you haven’t commented before please do, we want to hear from you. If you’re not a subscriber, then we have to ask: what are you waiting for? Subscribe today. We make it easy by providing a subscribe link at the bottom of every article (866 and counting).

Continue reading “Month in Review: February 2012”
Categories
D&D Encounters Player Resources

It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw

If you think battling an Orc riding Triceratops or firing a ballista at a Pterodactyl sound like the making of an excellent D&D adventure then you’re going to love the new Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw. It’s a good old-fashioned hack and slash encounter designed to challenge the most tactical power-gaming D&D players out there.

For the uninitiated, Lair Assault is a special public-play series that Wizards of the Coast released to challenge the most hard-core D&D players. This is one of the few times when it’s truly the DM vs. the players. Lair Assault adventures are intentionally harder than anything you’ve played before and Wizards expects over 80% of parties to get slaughtered and fail their first time though. With the gauntlet thrown down it’s time for you to decide if you’re willing to pick it up accept the challenge.

The new season of Lair Assault runs from March 1 – May 31. Below I share some of the high-level details, but don’t worry I won’t spoil anything. After all I’m one of those DMs trying to kill the PCs so I don’t want to give any players an unfair advantage.

Continue reading “It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw”
Categories
D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 13)

This is it – the final week of D&D Encounter: Beyond the Crystal Cave. The heroes just defeated the devil Kalbon and ascend the watery staircase to the upper level of Soryth’s fortress. When they reached the top of the staircase they spotted a beautiful Fey woman before them wandering among the statues in the garden. To the left the PCs saw Juliana, unconscious on a mound in the nearby garden.

The woman, clearly the Hag Soryth, turned towards the party and spoke to them. “No longer have we cause for conflict. I have what I desire, and forgive your trespasses. Serve me, and I shall grant your fondest wishes.”

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 13)”
Categories
D&D Encounters Editorial

D&D Encounters: DM Compensation

With another season of D&D Encounters coming to an end this week we’ve been having some discussions at my FLGS about who’s going to take over the reigns as the DM for the next season. I continue to volunteer my services as the primary DM at two FLGS in my community, but in both cases we have sufficient numbers to need additional DMs pretty much every week. During the discussion about who will step up to DM more than one prospective DM asked about compensation. They wanted to know what they got if they agreeing to DM. At first I was a bit surprised that they’d even ask, but as I gave the question more consideration I realized that it’s not an altogether unreasonable question.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: DM Compensation”
Categories
D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 11)

After navigating the hedge maze and fighting the thieving Boggles, the PCs took a short rest before using their four plant keys to activate the magical sundial gate. The maze around them began to spin until the hedge maze disappeared and the PCs found themselves in a garden just outside the Palace of Spires.

A shallow pool was in the middle of the garden, with flowerbeds on either side. On the opposite side were silvery double doors that led into the magnificent white palace. Two burly humans dressed in leather armor and wielding greataxes approached the PCs, their intent clearly hostile. Three Xivorts and a Boggle also present in the garden cheered encouragement at the two axemen as they approached the PCs.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Week 11)”
Categories
Editorial

State Of The Dungeon – Year 3

Today Dungeon’s Master celebrates its third birthday. Three years ago Ameron and I launched the blog with the intention of talking about 4e Dungeons & Dragons. Our goal was to share our experiences of the game and to provide a resource for both DMs and players. Although 4e was still relatively new at the time, we both felt (and still feel) that there was an opportunity for input from the community about this great game.

Since February 1, 2009, we have published new articles every day (excluding weekend and holidays). This State of the Dungeons is our 846 post here at Dungeon’s Master. The best part is that we’ve had a great time with Dungeon’s Master and enjoy being a part of the D&D blogging community.

Continue reading “State Of The Dungeon – Year 3”
Categories
Editorial

The Next Iteration of D&D

By now everyone in the D&D gaming community has heard the big news: Wizards is developing the next iteration of D&D, and is looking to the legions of D&D fans to help shape the future of the game along with them. I don’t think this really came as a surprise to anyone, especially those who follow the weekly Legends & Lore column. I think the big news was the level to which Wizards is asking for player input.

In December Wizard flew me out to Seattle to visit their head office and participate in a D&D conference. One of the things discussed was the development of this new iteration of D&D. However, I have been (and still am) bound by an NDA and sworn to secrecy. There are a few things that I can now comment on because Wizards has made some details public; however, there are a lot of other things I cannot talk about. This makes things tricky when it comes to writing about any changes that might be forthcoming, but here’s what I can say.

Continue reading “The Next Iteration of D&D”
Categories
Month in Review

Month in Review: November 2011

November was another great moth at Dungeon’s Master. There was an unintentionally heavy focus on player resources and D&D public play this month, not that there’s anything wrong with the way that worked out. There were still articles for the DM including three articles featuring new adventure hooks.

Our readers really like getting to know the Dungeons’ Master team a little bit better in November when they got to see inside Ameron’s Game room and heard Ameron, Wimwick, Bauxtehude, Suddry and Skallawag take on Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan. And our newest ongoing series where we ask you to Make the Call and weigh in on the rules was a lot more popular and positive than we expected so watch for another installment in the near future.

We’d like to thank all of our readers for visiting Dungeon’s Master in November. We encourage everyone to leave us comments and let us know what you think about our material, good or bad. If you have ideas for future articles or are interested in writing a guest post for us, please email us or comment at the bottom of this article.

In case you missed any of the great articles we ran in November, this is your chance to get caught up. If your one of those loyal readers who visits every day it might be worth checking out some of the articles again to see what other people said in the comments.

Continue reading “Month in Review: November 2011”
Categories
D&D Encounters Player Resources

D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave – Preview

Season 7 of D&D Encounters begins on Wednesday, November 16. The adventure is called Beyond the Crystal Cave and was inspired by the classic AD&D adventure,UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave. It’s no coincidence that it coincides with Wizards of the Coast’s latest product offering, Heroes of the Feywild which hits shelves on November 15.

In August we shared the few details we knew about season 7 based on what Wizards announced at GenCon. Now that I’ve actually received the DM’s kit I’m can provide a much more in-depth preview which I will be sure to keep as spoiler-free as possible.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Beyond the Crystal Cave – Preview”
Categories
D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 13)

Last week the party faced two mini-encounters back-to-back without a short rest. By the time they’d faced off against the Ooze and Hounds, and then against the Plaguechanged Maniacs the PCs desperately need to take a short rest before venturing on.

While catching their breath, the citizens of Neverwinter emerged from their barricaded homes to thank the PCs for defeating the Plaguechanged attackers. They told the PCs everything they witnessed, including a description of the Lost Heir which the PCs realized was in fact Seldra, the Half-elf they’d encountered previously and until now they believed was on their side. Before the PCs finished their 5-minute rest, General Sabine arrived on the scene and asked them to continue following the Lost Heir and stop her once and for all.

This week I had six players at my table which made things very manageable. The party consisted of a Human Wizard (Enchanter), Goliath Fighter (Battlerager), Warforged Druid, Human Cleric, Gnome Bladesinger and Tiefling Battlemind. This group was relatively new to D&D, many of the players discovering the game through the D&D Encounters program. As such they are usually more interested in combat than role-playing as was the case this week.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter (Week 13)”