D&D Week End Review - May 23rd

Well the talk of the online town as it were this week was the price increase for DDI memberships (who really cares) and the d&d game day. We had a chance to play it here in Brantford and had 6 players show up. Three of my normal players and three new players how have not played 4e yet. Everyone had a good time and we finished within the time i set aside (noon to 6pm) I gave one of the table kits away to the three other guys because they wanted to get their normal group into 4e. Everyone walked away satisfied, unlike last game day.

There was some power card calculations that were wrong due to how thing were equipped but besides that everyone had a fun time.

There was also a few items of note on the net this week.

Adventure Ideas

Cave of wonders
this idea i got while watching Aladdin with my daughter. Its a short adventure, the goal is to find a hidden treasure in a hidden cave. the only way to get to the cave is find the two half's of a jeweled scarab and put them together. each half is its own skill challenge. it ends in a fight, success of the skill challenge means the party did not tip off the owner, failure means the owner was ready and waiting for a fight. Once the two pieces are found a 3rd skill challenge occurs to try and keep up with the scarab. failure means they keep up but are down two healing surge values each. Then the cave you keep pretty simple with the treasure at the end. few monsters, just a quick one. and there you go

The Deep Shaft
ME: Nice encounter from wizards

Sacrifice, Interrupted
ME: Great encounter from WotC includes a map and everything

DM Tips

SlyFlourish: #dnd tip: Want to get your warped D&D miniatures straightened? Put them in boiling water, straighten them, and put them in bowl of ice water
ME: I have gotten a few minis that were bent

SlyFlourish #dnd tip: A cut up black t-shirt can make a great fog of war for your dwarven forge layout.
ME: I think i will try this; this weekend, simple but effective

SlyFlourish: #dnd tip: Game going long? Distribute loot and exp in email between games. Add some good background or flavor text too.
ME: I often find myself doing this, great way to make NPC names official as well.

Skill Challenges

new idea from me, skill challenge in a dungeon. the mission is to retrieve an item from a dungeon. which happens to be massive. the dungeon is not overpopulated with mass amounts of monsters. so enter the skill challenge, each success gets the party closer to their goal, each failure loads up a combat encounter. Failing the skill challenge means they were unable to find said item

Skill Challenges of War
ME: How to run a war as a skill challenge

Skill Challenge: Skinning the Beast
Me: No comment, just a good skill challenge

Skillforge
ME: have trouble building skill challenges, go ahead and take one from here.

Other

Robertson Games » Blog Archive » Shields as Weapons in D&D
ME: REVREND!

Easier PDF reading on laptops and netbooks
ME: Its good and all, but tend to read the books or read while planning.

Bribe your players with bonus tokens.
ME: Basically its just either a +1 bonus or a +2 bonus tokens you hand out to your players for use whenever. neat idea in theory, but I've always found players hate having more stuff to keep track of. with 7 people i would just award an action point every encounter.

One time at D&D camp…
ME: Ok so apparently there was once a D&D came, seems cool.

City of the Dead is almost here: and Rosemary Jones is giving away a free book
ME: I've always been a fan of the Waterdeep setting, it had everything for me

Diabolical Devices: the frictionless room
ME: Taken from White Plume Mountain, one of my most favorite adventures to run as a DM ever. I like this trap, thought it always caused arguments.

That's it for me for this week, tomorrow night i should have our Sunday night adventure posted. For some reason the players think they are going up against a dragon. hahaha.

Until next time keep your dice on the table.
a peice of mikes mind