Okay, so the debate has waxed hot around the internet, so I’m going to add my grease to the fire in the next series of posts.  Try not to take me too seriously because, as with everything else I do this exercise is about finding the fun.

Sample the first:  character creation.

Basic D&D

Roll 3d6 six times.  Put your lowest score into Charisma.  Put your highest score into your class’s prime requisite.  Copy down your saving throws and attack numbers.  Roll starting gold.  Buy equipment.  Ten minutes later you are in the dungeon.

1st/2nd Edition AD&D

Roll 4d6 six times.  Put your lowest score into Charisma.  Put your highest score into your class’s prime requisite.  If you wanted to play a paladin or ranger then screw around with your stats until you had something that worked.  If your DM allowed it, reroll until you got a decent character.  Have the DM THAC0.  Make racial modifiers to your ability scores.  Have the DM re-explain THAC0.  Copy down saving throws and to hit numbers.  Have the DM re-explain THAC0.  Fifteen minutes later you are in the dungeon.

3.x edition

Roll 4d6 six times.  Compare your results to a point-buy character.  Haggle with the DM until he gives you more points to spend.  Re-read the pre-requisites for every prestige class available.  Re-read the level progression for each base class available.  Calculate out the feats you will need for the first prestige class.  Min/Max based on feat entry requirements.  Put just enough points into INT/WIS/CHA to cover the highest level of spells you plan on learning (unless you are munchkining a spell caster or bard), dump most everything else into strength.  Re-calculate.  Decide you to go a different route.  Email your DM and ask about tweaking a feat.  When he says no, email your DM asking about an obscure feat found in a hard to find splat book.  Keep tweaking until you have +12 to whatever key action you want to use at first level.  Two days later you enter your data onto a character sheet.  Fifteen minutes later you are in the dungeon.

4th edition
Choose a pre-generated ability score array from the PHB.  Curse silently because there is no tweaking going on.  Re-read the list of powers, silently cursing because nothing seems to stack and it doesn’t feel like there is room to wiggle.  Choose your powers.  Re-read the list of feats, looking for a loophole.  Choose a feat.  Buy some equipment.  Copy some numbers onto your character sheet.  Copy some numbers onto your power cards.  Half an hour later you enter the dungeon, still feeling like you got ripped off because you weren’t able to tweak anything and didn’t get to ask the DM once about an obscure feat.

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Looking for another collection of campaign ideas?  Need a storyline?  Got something you want to share but you don’t want to start yet another D&D site that is just going to die out in 2 weeks?  Maybe you should try legendarygate.com.

Legendary Gate is a new online tool designed to help collect and distribute campaign ideas, adventures, campaigns, and all that good stuff.

Legendary Gate will, of course, not solve all of your problems and it may not be the tool for you, but like so many other things in the DM toolbox, there is a time and a place for everything.

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There are a lot of roles out there that are very fun to play.  Most of us prefer to play the action oriented damage dealing sorts.  I was not surprised when we put together our first 4th edition party everyone (and I do mean everyone) chose a strike role for their first character.  I was also likewise not surprised when they all decided this was a bad idea and started mixing it up a bit.

One of the main problems was nobody wanted to be the healer.  Being the healer isn’t always very glamorous.  You don’t generally get to dish out tons of damage.  You aren’t always in the thick of things.  In short it isn’t a role that appeals to everyone.

Playing a fun healer means having fun with your role.  The role of a healer has more to do with the other players than any other role.  By definition you must interact with the other players.  This means that from the start you should be planning those interactions more than the ones with the NPC’s.  If your focus is on destroying the enemy you will always come in second to a well honed striker of some other class.

As far as builds go you have a couple of choices, but two main ones.  Are you going to be good at healing or are you going to be awesome at healing.  Either way doesn’t much matter because like I said before it has more to do with how you plan to interact with the other players to determine the amount of fun you have.  I would recommend being as good at healing as you possibly can because it will make your in-game actions more significant most often.

Now, when you perform an action, most of the time it will be performed on another player.  Not always, of course, but certainly more often than not.  So the question of “fun” becomes one of how, why, and when you perform those actions.  In general it is “fun” to save someone from the brink of death.  It is also fun to boost your friend just enough so that he can deal the final blow and save the party.  So play to maximize your chances of doing these fun things.

I also find it fun to talk and interact with the other players.  Role playing makes this fun.  Pretending to be a devote priestess might mean making it clear that you will not heal those who perform evil acts without penance.  So that rogue who kept a bit more than his share might need to show some sorrow (and give the money back) before you waste your goddess’ precious power on him.  This could be as simple as choosing to heal a different ally each round before finally consenting to save his life or it could be much more blatant and extreme.  Or maybe your character really is neutral and dispenses healing equally to enemies who surrender without questioning their motives.

The PHB does not allow for rules regarding much more mercenary healers who use their powers only for wages.  It is assumed that a healer will perform these actions as a natural course of adventure in return for her share of the loot, but it is not impossible to imagine a situation where a healer holds a party for ransom at a particularly dangerous stage, refusing to use a powerful spell until an additional share of the treasure is agreed upon.

Whatever you decide to do, mold your healer to the characters around you and you won’t be disappointed.  Just being the guy who hangs in the back and says you regain X HP once in a while probably won’t be as much fun.  Being the character in the party that everyone wants to please because his powers are unique and useful tends to be more fun.

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One of the things that can be frustrating to players is that they simply get stuff that they don’t need or want for their characters.  Either the magic items simply aren’t useful or they don’t have the right potions or they simply prefer using an axe to a magic sword.  By the same token as a DM it can be really frustrating when the players just don’t have what they need to perform well in the dungeon that you have spent forever planning.

Putting some time into the shops in your world can go a long way towards solving these problems, depending on your players.  If you play with the kind of folks who will kill anything they see that has anything of value then you can more or less ignore this entire article because the players will more than likely just try to steal everything rather than trade for it.

But, assuming that your players are willing to trade - you can add a shop just about anywhere in your game.  This can be as simply as a merchant who has stopped in town for a day to a halfling caravan along the road to an old man found in the woods who happens to have a solution to fire resistance but could really use a healing potion in exchange.

If you’ve been listening to the players’ gripes then you should have a pretty good idea what they want and what they have that they don’t want.  Often they will end up with gear that they don’t want but which they hesitate to sell at PHB prices because of the expense.  Allowing them to trade (sometimes) for an item of equal or lesser value can go a long way towards helping them get the equipment they need and want.

But this sort of thing has to have boundaries or it will get out of hand very fast.

1 - the items available must be specific.  You can’t have a merchant out there traveling around with all magic items levels 6 thru 10.  If there is that much variety available then use the standard pricing system and have the players trade in gold, and it should probably be an established shop with all the regular guards and precautions.

2 - limit the quantities.  Just like the selection the total number of items avaiable should be limited to one or two.  If a wandering druid just happens to have the eight items that the party wants it will seem strange at the very least and most likely the druid will be robbed and/or stabbed in his sleep.

3 - limit the amount of time the items are avaiable in the game.  Once that druid has moved out of sight of the party he should vanish from the game.  This keeps him safe from those characters who will want to circle back and slaughter him for the little gold he still has as well as make him avaialbe for future use.

Finally, I suggest re-using the same “shops” from time to time.  This will make it obvious to the players what you are trying to do without screwing with the suspension of disbelief too much.  If there is a clear signal of “trade with this guy” then the players will be more likely to trade and less likely to do anything else.

If you do include regular magic shops with a large selection of items, allowing the occaisional one for one trade without penalty can also be useful, but the same rules apply.  This should be for specific items in limited quantities and for a limited time.  The shop may be in dire need of a bag of holding and willing to trade that super special sword for it, but only just this once and only because they haven’t been able to sell that sword anyway.  If the players come back tomorrow they may just discover that someone else sold them a bag of holding and they don’t really need theirs so badly so the trade deal is off.

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Fundamentally all table top games are about interacting with other people.  It doesn’t matter if you are playing Monopoly, Magic The Gathering or Dungeons and Dragons.  Being able to understand what other people at the table are thinking is an invaluable skill in any game but can be especially useful in Dungeons and Dragons where player interaction has far fewer restrictions than most other games.

If you are running the game, being able to pull of a lie at a table full of savvy players can be really difficult but at the same time very important in order to maintain suspense.  When you know all the secrets it can be difficult to keep them hidden until just the right moment (or to encourage the players in just the right way to find them).

Here are some basics to keeping abreast of what is really going on at the table.

First, watch for moods.  If you have been playing with the same group for a while, then you will know that when Eddy is in a grumpy mood he will be thinking about smashing face a lot more than usual.  When Cindy is happy she gets creative and devious and may try to mess with the other players.  A general rule of thumb is that happier people do more while those who are feeling glum will do less.

Keep an eye on the time and the amount of caffeine consumed.  As players get tired their style of play generally changes.  If you have just found what you think is going to be a very tough fight but all of your party members are out of Mountain Dew and half asleep you may want to consider suggesting they tackle it another time.  A tactical error because someone is too tired to hold up their dice may not be a good idea, unless of course you are looking to sabotage the party, in which case this would be a good time to make your move.

Pay attention to sudden changes in behavior as well.  A player who is whispering to the guy next to him is up to something, but so is the guy who suddenly starts dancing on the tavern tables.  This could be a signal of a surprise attack or just that the player is bored.  Either way keep your eyes open and adjust your plans accordingly.

Learning to pass off a lie is extremely difficult, but perhaps the best tool is distraction.  Whether you are playing a devious NPC or just trying to keep a portion of the loot for yourself, getting the players to focus on something else is a good start.  Using out of game stuff like food, drink, their dice or what happened last week can all be useful.  Most of us can’t think about more than a few things at once and when we’re tired focusing on one thing can be a challenge.

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So this is for all those of you out there not interested in paying the Wizards of the Coast Use tax in order to use their character builder/managment software.

MWMDragon over at www.dungeonsdragons.selfip.com has created a new database specifically for storing your 4th edition character information, which of course can be useful for a variety of different applications.  Personally (if I weren’t paying the WOTC tax) I would use it because I keep all of my data electronically and it would be a convenient way of storing said data w/o worrying if my hard drive is going to crash.

MWMDragon said that “It is meant to aid in online pnp gaming, by making a safe storage place for everyone’s character sheets during and after play.”  If that sounds like something useful to you then go ahead and check out the online character database.

Please note that it isn’t the most glamorous looking piece of software ever invented.  There is a help button but it just brings up a shot of the character sheet instructions from the PHB.  Of course since all you are doing is filling in data from your character sheet I don’t see that anyone smart enough to read the PHB and the internet will need any help using the database.

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Typically I don’t bother with the myriad of online stores out there selling everything from panake syrup to re-usable diapers, but Shopwiki caught my attention.  Not only because they don’t necessarily sell everything that you can find on their site or even make money when you buy it but because when I did a search for Dungeons and Dragons I found very quickly links to some good vintage D&D books, books that I couldn’t find on Amazon or after a lot of searching elsewhere.  So I’m passing it along to the rest of you.

Shopwiki is basically a wiki for shoppers so of course they have stuff for video games, consoles, and all that other jazz, but they don’t just cram the crap down your throat either.  They have some pretty useful information with regards to what you are buying hence the wiki part of it.

They have buying guides for just about everything as well from games to controllers.  Like everything else online you have to be a bit careful and do some poking around to verify.

What caught my eye was the fact that it was so easy to find links to vintage D&D stuff that I really had a hard time finding elsewhere.  Without that I don’t know that I would have bothered to write anything at all.

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One lesson I’ve learned the hard way is to be careful what I say as a Dungeon Master.  Believe it or not the players listen.

Sometimes when describing a scene I will add a sentence or two of flavor just to make the scene stick a little bit.  The players take this added flavor text to heart and before long they are so focused on the color of the princess’ dress that they are completely overlooking the half burned letter from the evil overlord that she was attempting to destroy when they walked in.  Suddenly the color green is an omen for death at every step and they want to go out confiscating every bundle of green cloth in the country.

Okay, maybe a bit of exaggeration, but not a whole lot.  Usually it is something more like the quality of a chair or the sturdiness of a table or the location of a fur rug.  The players expect that there is something special about it.  Why?  Because I’m the DM and I wouldn’t be saying anything if it weren’t important.

The lesson is that I should keep my mouth shut unless I want the players to interact with it.  If it isn’t something that I as a DM really want to deal with then I should probably skip it.  Players will ask all sorts of questions and try all sorts of things without being handed a bag full of dead ends.

On the reverse side you can always add your own false leads here by putting a different inflection on your voice and adding emphasis perhaps where you shouldn’t.  But I recommend that you do this only sparingly because frankly it can lead to frustrated (or worse, bored) players.

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Okay, so you have an idea for a nifty new campaign that you want to run but you really don’t have the time to put it all together.  What do you do?

This can be a huge problem for a lot of dungeon masters, particularly those with a creative bent who aren’t thrilled with using someone else’s work.  All too often these folks turn into the guy (or gal) who is constantly “working on it” but who never actually ends up running a game because they never actually finish.

Here are some ideas:

1 – Create only what needs to be created for the campaign.  Don’t flesh out an entire world rolling up dozens of NPC’s if they will never be used.  Leave that kind of nonsense to the professionals they get paid to make up fluff you don’t.
2 – Set a deadline.  Write down the date that you will have it finished.  Mark it on your calendar and tell someone else.  That way they can chew you out if you don’t finish.
3 – Set aside a specific time of day when you will work on it.  Hint: the earlier in the day the more likely you will actually do it.  Stick to your time just as if you were attending an important class or going to work.
4 – Use random name generators.  There are tons of free ones on the web.  Save yourself time where you can.
5 – Make pre-made home-made.  Borrow from whatever sources you can, particularly maps.  Drawing out awesome maps is very, very time consuming and many of the maps in a campaign (particularly outdoor maps) end up being tossed aside very quickly.  Spend time only on the maps that the players really need.

I hope these tips help and enjoy your game!

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Okay, for those of you who don’t allow videos to play automatically or who have them blocked entirely, the youtube link is below.  The creator of this video sent me the link and I thought I would pass it on to all of you.  It is a kooky little video that captures the flavor of going out and finding the myriad of monsters available in the game.

Anyone willing to put this much effort must really share the passion for the game.  Props to Dan Meth and company.

Monster Manual Music Video

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4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons has made a fairly strong move away from randomness at the gaming table.  From the point buy system becoming the character creation standard to a leveling system which defies random encounters the dice have become a less necessary tool.

For those who really do enjoy rolling the dice more than necessary, are there ways of injecting randomness into the game without breaking it?  Of course there are.

Here are some ideas.

•  Roll random characters.  Roll a die to determine your race.  Roll a die to determine your class.  Roll dice to determine your ability scores.  Roll dice to determine your powers, skills, background and even equipment.  This can lead to some extremely wacky combinations that can turn out to be very fun.
•  Make up a random encounter deck per the instructions in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.  Or just make up a list of monsters of the appropriate level and then roll dice instead of drawing cards.
•  Roll random NPC reactions.  Not just favorable or unfavorable, but a nifty chart like:

Friendly Reactions
1-3 Tells a knock-knock joke
4-5 Invites PC’s to dinner
6-8 Offers healing
9-10 Offers most valuable possession
11-12 Shares childhood secret

•  Roll a d8 instead of choosing the direction your character moves during combat.  Not the best strategically but definitely fun for chaotic minded types.
•  Roll to determine which power to use.

Naturally there are many other ways of injecting some random fun into your game, but these are some ideas to get you started!

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Creating a world from scratch is a daunting task.  Personally I don’t recommend it unless you know that you are going to be playing a long campaign and that everyone is behind the idea.

However, sooner or later most of us decide to at least make a drawing of the fantasy world we have imagined.  Here are some tips to make the job a bit easier and to get a more coherent end result.

1 – Start with a  coast-line.  Draw out the continents first.  The major land masses will help define cultures as well as other major geographic features.

2 – Decide where the mountains go.  Mountains, if your world follows real-world plate tectonics will be somewhere near the coastal regions where continents collide.  This is not strictly necessary because a fantasy world is a fantasy world, but players will find it familiar.  Mountains also define where water is and which way it will flow.  Rivers flow downhill (assuming gravity is the same on your world as in ours).  This means that rivers will not cross mountains or flow up into them.  Rather they will flow down from the mountains towards the coastal regions.

3 – Decide on the major civilizations as well as major volcanoes and deserts.  These features further help define the world and the interactions between the intelligent races.  Most races will naturally avoid wastelands, volcanoes and deserts.  These features naturally tend to destroy major cities and civilizations.  Likewise they make trade difficult.  Civilizations will tend to start near sources of resources as well as easy means of transporting them i.e. rivers.

4 – Finally add other geographic features like forests, plains, small swamps and other geography that will not have a major (i.e. global) impact on the civilizations.  These kinds of features will dominate life locally but do not generally define where or how civilizations are built.  Also many of these features will naturally define themselves, such as swamps forming around river deltas as they empty in the sea.

Until next time have fun drawing your worlds.

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Finding and abusing game exploits is an important ability for pretty much anyone who plans to play a game for the long term.  I’m going to talk about some skills that can be applied in generic terms to just about any game out there, including Dungeons and Dragons.

Look for the infinite combo.  In other words, anything that adds a bonus but which doesn’t cost a resource, or which costs a resource which can be replenished.  In D&D the primary combat resource is actions.  There are only so many things that a character can do on his turn.  Once those actions are gone he has to end his turn.  Anything that allows more of the most crucial resource, or which bypasses that crucial resource can probably be abused.

Which brings us to the next point.  Identify the critical resource.  If you ask a newbie to D&D what the most important number on the character sheet is, a lot of them will look at one of two things, either hit points or damage.  The truth is that neither of these is really the critical resource when it comes to combat.  There are ways for each class to deal massive amounts of damage, and hit points only matter if you get hit.  How you play the game will overshadow both of these.  What then is the critical resource?  There are several, but the most important in my opinion would be the number actions a character can take and the character’s base ability scores.  Anything that modifies these resources is asking for trouble.

Now look for ways to modify the critical resource. Anything that adds to or takes away from the critical resource is powerful.  Potentially these things can be abused and badly.  In 3rd edition, for example, there were ways to raise base ability scores far beyond their intended levels.  This meant that characters could do ridiculous things far before they reached epic levels and after that it just got stupid.

Look for the rule-breakers and special circumstances.  A lot of D&D is about combat.  This means that taking a look at the areas of the game that “don’t have to do with combat” can often be the most devastating ways of breaking combat. One example from basic D&D would be the spell Phantasmal Force.  A basic second level spell that could quite literally end any encounter against any level of opponent in one round.  But a lot of people I played with didn’t figure it out until they saw me play a magic user, at which point the DM would ban the spell.  A lot of people would read the spell and see that it “never causes any real damage” and simply gloss it over, thinking it could only be used in marginal situations or for role-playing purposes.  Not realizing that if you put an army of orcs to sleep for 1d4 turns that you had won the fight.

Hope these tips help, and have fun breaking your game!

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There are power gamers and then there are really, really annoying power gamers.  You know who you are (or at least the people who play with you know who you are).  You are the kind of person who has to squeeze every last advantage out of every single die roll. The person who has figured out the exact best strategy for each and every situation and then berates the rest of the party into doing it your way.

So how can you make power gaming fun?  Is it possible to create a powerful character that doesn’t give the DM a headache?  Can you maximize your efforts without overshadowing the rest of the party and making the game generally un-fun for everyone?

The key to being a fun power gamer is to understand two concepts: limits and differences.

The limits I am talking about are primarily limits that apply to things outside of the rule books.  The rules are the rules.  Yes there is some room for discussion on certain points, but by and large the rules are defined.  However there are limits that are not written and often also unspoken.  For example as new splat books are published you may be tempted to run out and get all of the latest books in hopes of finding obscure feats that enhance your play style so that your planned character can maximize some combat action such as doing massive amounts of damage.  While the rules allow you to do this, your DM or playgroup may frown upon it.

Is it unfair for the DM to restrict your game?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  Fairness is more than just doing what is written in the book.  Fairness is also making sure that everyone at the table has fun.  If the DM does not have time, energy or money to get all the latest books and review all of the information then it can become un-fun for him or her and they may simply apply a restriction in order to save themselves time.  If you have used obscure rules in the past to gain an unexpected advantage, don’t be surprised when the DM decides on this course of action.

What about limits with the other players?  Combat strategy is one way in which a power gamer can get a true advantage over the other players.  It is possible to go through an entire combat without taking any damage.  It is possible to go through an entire campaign without taking any damage.  In fact it is possible for the entire party to escape completely unscathed from combats that appear on paper to be overwhelming.  Not every player understands this.  Most players aren’t even interested in figuring out how to do it.  Most of them are happy to wade in and slug it out knowing (or hoping) that the encounter is balanced and they will survive.

The power gamer (and different kinds of power gamers) will find himself at conflict at this point.  Yes the combat may go better if the stupid Halfling would get into flanking position and just wait for one stupid turn so they can get in that extra damage.  On the other hand if you tell Joe one more time what to do with his character he may just punch you in the nose.  There are no rules (except house rules) governing these types of situations.  Learning the limits, especially the unspoken limits that other players expect from you will help everyone have more fun.  More than once I have watched players purposely undermine the power gamer’s efforts just because he pushed his min/maxing so far that it detracted from their role-playing experience.

Now differences.

There are many ways to play the game, and power can be defined in many terms.  Is power defined by combat ability?  Is it the ability to overcome encounters (no, not the same thing)?  Is it defined by treasure?  Ability to deal damage without magic items?  Being able to do maximum healing?

When a pair (or more) of players put a definition of power on their character and then play to maximize that power at the expense of everything else they will inevitable come into conflict.  Understanding that these differences exist and that they are irrelevant until they start affecting the level of fun is crucial to avoiding the kinds of conflict that can lead to players actively undermining each other.  Differences in character builds, combat strategies, gear choices, negotiating styles and many other areas can all be equally powerful in terms of having a successful game experience.  If the goal is to have an enjoyable game session there are many ways to achieve this goal and each are as different as the people who play the game.

Until next time, have fun!

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When GM’ing a Dungeons and Dragons or RPG Game session nothing can bog down a campaign or the evening more than when a player who knows the rules to the letter better than the DM keeps trying to force the system and point out any errors the DM may make. One of the best things about a D20 system is its flexibility and a DM should vary from the rules to keep the game interesting and entertaining as long as the decisions made are fair and can be reproduced by everyone (players and DM alike).

When a DM varies from a rule in the player’s handbook or other guide, they DM should ask the player’s not to interrupt the campaign and argue about it, but all issues or concerns can be shelved for after the game. The DM can choose to permanently use the new rule or option that he introduced or if he agrees with the player, maybe some experience can be awarded for being so actively interested in keeping alignment with the structure of the rules.

When I used to DM I had a rules lawyer constantly challenge my variations early on, I made it clear that although my gaming was based on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition at the time, that I had taken the liberty of adapting some custom rules for my campaign. I had a clear published list of the various rules, and differences in my campaign, such as how I handled the healing and herbalism skills were very different than the core rulebook handles them.

I also did not hesitate to fudge a few die rolls for the effect of a story line, mostly these were in a players favor, I didn’t want a player killed by the enemy rolling a critical hit on the first round of combat, or I told a player that a saving throw was successful when the player really would have been a toasted marshmallow from the enemy wizards fireball.

All of this is to keep the game entertaining, interesting and keep your players coming back for more. In the end, the rules aren’t as important as keeping players and the game master happy and entertained for the few hours per week that they meet to game.

This guest post brought to you by Dragon Blogger.

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