So I’ve been getting all this email lately about making monster cards for D&D.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind one bit.  I rather enjoy the fact that people out there care enough to ask rather than just moving along the internet to some other site.  However, in the interest of saving everyone some trouble I’m going to give out the how and where of making monster cards for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition.  3rd edition users can follow these directions but frankly you’ll be disappointed.  I don’t know if there is a 3rd edition template out there.  If so, somebody please put the hyperlink in a comment below.

Okay, so the first thing you need to do is visit http://magicseteditor.sourceforge.net/ and download a little program called Magic Set Editor.  This program is 100% free and has been around for quite some time.  It is a beautiful and nifty little application that can be used to make all kinds of cards for just about anything you can think of.

Next download DDM RPG Stats Side template.

The set editor requires that you have templates installed for all of the various cards that you want to make.  Again the template is free.

Now just go to town making the monsters that you want.  If you are like me then you won’t have any pretty pictures to put on your cards.  You may have noticed that I don’t publish art on the cards on this site.  There is a reason for this.  That art belongs to somebody and in general artists like to get money when people use it.  I have very little of this money and use it mostly to buy food and clothes for my children, so my cards end up with art.

But I’m sure that if you were to print cards and use them only at your table that nobody would no the difference if you downloaded some nifty artwork and printed them on your cards.  If however you started distributing those cards across the internet and trying to sell them to make millions (good luck with that), then somebody will get pissed off and toss a lawyer your way (and don’t think the DMG will help you out of that mess).

Really that is just about all there is to it.  If you are looking for support or help about using the set editor then frankly I’m about the worst person you could ask.  I will simply direct you back to the link above and say look it up on their message board which is pretty popular and full of answers to just about every question you could invent.

In case you are wondering you can poke around the internet (might I recommend Enworld) and find templates for making magic item cards and power cards as well.  However, since the new Character Builder from wizards prints these automatically and calculates all of the values you need automatically I honestly have to suggest using their software unless you have some serious compunction against supporting the company that brought us the game.

If I get enough interest I will hook up a post with some links to the different magic item templates and other useful accessories for Magic Set Editor as they pertain to D&D.  Otherwise ’nuff said.

Welcome back to Dungeons and Dragons Corner.

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What is a stock NPC?  Put simply it is that guy that shows up in nearly every town, village, bar or other place the players visit often.

The judicious use of stock NPC’s can make many elements of your D&D campaign run much more smoothly, especially if you are running a campaign that involves a lot of city or town travel and is a bit lighter on the dungeons.

The monster manual, handily enough, provides us with a number of stock NPC’s ready for use, i.e. the various “monster” versions of the races in the Player’s Handbook.  These are very useful and should not be overlooked.  If you expect to use a new town or village in the next session it may be a good idea to keep the stat cards around for the humans at the very least, but you may want to consider having a few elves or tieflings as well, depending on your setting.

These statistics are useful for when the party decides to do the totally unexpected such as rob the local merchants of their winter grain storage or recruit the farmer’s daughter into the party.  Having the stats handy (rather than buried somewhere in a book) makes it a lot easier to say “yes” to the crazy ideas.

Combine the stat cards with a name generator and you are set.  If you can find a name generator that does many names at once then just print a list of 20 or 30 names and you are set.

The key to remember when using stock NPC’s is that the players will remember how you play the character rather than where he was found or what her name was.  The stats on the card are there only for reference should anything involving rules come up.  The rest of it is up to how you decide to play that particular character and what sort of feel you want to bring to the session.

Until next time have fun!

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Ok, if you’ve read my information on making encounter cards, and have read my information on making monster cards, and have followed it, then this is really the easiest way to run any campaign. In fact, it means you don’t have to do ANY other preparation work whatsoever and can still have a great time. And the best part is: the players will never know the difference.

So, you went out and spent 40 bucks on the latest zero to thirty level pre-made campaign. You have a couple of great dungeons. You’ve started the PC’s off in a cool town and dropped all the hints you could. You even gave them a map to the dungeon AND told them about the treasure on level two. But those jerks decide to go wandering in the hills for the next thirteen sessions “looking for something to do.”

Enter encounter swapping.

I assume at this point that sitting at your side is a pile of encounter cards, all dutifully prepared from the premade campaign (though really once you get the hang of it you can do it yourself in less time). Each of them represents a block of XP and treasure, as well as some interesting NPC’s. All you have to do is hit the party with these encounters, adjusting names as necessary and dropping hints that the party really should go to the dungeon.

If you think of those goblins in room one not as the servants of Borath the Butt-Ugly, but as 125 XP and 25 GP the party need, this becomes much simpler. During the first day of travel the party will run into the cousins of Borath the Butt-Ugly delivering a message to him. Simply remove encounter 1 from the dungeon.

Down the road a few miles they will run into Borath’s other cousins. If they keep it up they will eventually run into Borath’s twin brother Dorath the Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Eventually, of course, you will run out of encounters from that dungeon. What do you do? Move on to the next dungeon, of course. What if the PC’s go back to that dungeon later? You have a couple of options here.

1. Play the dungeon as is (always makes for a good dose of déjà-vu)
2. Remove the dungeon entirely. Oh no, an earthquake ate it.
3. Continue the swapping madness. Now instead of goblins there are orcs there.

Just be sure to have your handy pile of encounters at your side and you’ll never have to worry where the PC’s go or what they do. Their balanced level progression is guaranteed. Which is seriously important. One of the quickest ways for a party to get completely un-balanced in game terms is for a DM to start throwing ad-hoc encounters together. Many players know this and will exploit it. So do a little prep work and save yourself the headaches later.

As always, enjoy the game.

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I’ve recently uploaded a bunch of images of Monster Cards.  You can get them on the downloads page.

Here are a few tips on using them as well as explanations.

First of all, these cards are not meant to replace the Monster Manual.  The Monster Manual has all of the detailed description about the monsters, including flavor text, group behavior etc.  These cards are designed to dimply act as a reference while you are running the game so that you don’t have to have the Monster Manual at the table.  If you are like me then anything that reduces clutter at the game table is a big help.

So, how do you use them? 

When you make an Encounter Card print copies of the monster cards for that encounter and paperclip them all together with the Encounter Card on top.  (Click here for more information about making and using Encounter Cards).

When you go to run the game, have the encounter cards to one side, prepared for when the PC’s find the encounters.  I like to keep a generic set of minis (ok, I often use generic looking tokens) that I use for all my minions and a couple of more interesting minis for the more interesting monsters.

During “chat” time, when the players are doing whatever they are doing, I will often pre-roll initiatives for the monsters and note those initiatives on the monster cards.  If there are two or three of the same monster I will draw a quick column in pencil for each initiative.

As the encounter progresses, I use the cards to keep track of Hit Points, effects, and so forth.  This is particularly useful for longer encounters where I have to keep track of monsters will large amounts of Hit Points.

As the monsters die I simply flip their cards over and set them to the side.

When used in conjunction with good Encounter Cards, they essentially make it so that you can run all of your games without the need for books of any kind.

I hope this helps, and HAVE FUN!

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