Encounter: A Quick One

An encounter for five 10th level adventurers
2900 xp

Q: Quickling Runner - 9 Skirmisher, 400xp
X: Quickling Rogue - 10 Elite Skirmisher, 1,000xp
R: Quickling Renegade - 10 Skirmisher, 500xp
Z: Quickling Zephyr - 14 Lurker, 1,000xp

Yellow: PC's can start in any of these squares

Green Patch: Thick bushes, quicklings get full cover if inside, can move in and out at normal speed. Players cannot move in

Green Wall: Thick brush separating the road from the encounter


Brown Statue: Tree stump, cannot be moved through, can be used as partial cover for small creatures.

Setup:
The party while traveling pass an outcropping, but don't pay attention to it until someone thinks they see something or hear something (anyone with PP over 20) this is actually a quickling who ran past them, he of course warns the others.
Weather & Illumination: Up to Dm, this is an outdoor encounter that occurred in the middle of the day with no strange weather.

Tactics:
Simple and straight forward, the quicklings will try to hide and use cover the best they can, and constantly moving & using the Quick Cuts attack. If stuck in a situation they will use their fey shift to get out of the area. The Zephyr will flee combat as soon as it becomes bloodied. The rogue will flee if bloodied and another quickling is down but he will try and use his Knockout attack whenever he can on the biggest looking player. (see Xixxit from DCI)

Treasure: Up to DM

Let me know how your party fairs against this encounter, my group was able to take it out in 4 rounds.

SoO Game Night 10.4

Out of Game

Some of the players from my normal game came out to the d&d game day festivities from Saturday and we chatted for a while about the rust monster and how horrible of a creature it is and everything else going on. One player had some issues with her southern Ontario karate tournament, sounds crappy.

After a quick chat and some Dr.pepper we started the game.

In Game

The group continued on their way through the swamplands until they came across an outcropping that rose above the rest of the swamp. In the distance the saw an old tower. Pax had heard about this tower, said to be occupied by a mad wizards. Since the trail lead this way the group decided to proceed.

Encounter 7: Draconic clan

After the group quickly dispatched the last set of dragon born they had to rush further in the cave system as more were waiting for them. Slowly they crept into room unable to see anything. The mage noticed that the walls were covered in a think fire retardant canvas (stressed by the DM to be fire retardant ). Luickily those with a high enough perception were able to tell were creatures could be hiding and combat en slewed. They faced three Dragonborn Elementalists, and four dragonborn gladiators the fight was lengthly and bloody on both sides. It was the first time the party saw this level of tactics used against them. When finally the battle was over (8 rounds later) they rescued the missing Lady Nala cousin to one of the player and Lord Patrin who has badly wounded. After a few short words the mage teleported the two back to safety.

The party knew now indeed they were facing a dragon, battle worn and tired they felt they did not have a choice but had to press on.


Treasure & XP

* 700 xp
* 1100 GP
* 2x black pearls (500 gp)
* Jagged Handaxe +3


NPC's

No new NPCs found

Quotes of the Day

"My Insides are Wet"

Player2: Is root beer actually made from a root?
Player1: Yeah
Me(DM): Yeah its actually called the Kunta Kenta root
Player2: Well aren't you just a fountain of knowledge
Me(DM): Yeah Levar Burton is pretty popular right now for root beer
Players: /blank look/
Me(DM): You know.. roots...kunta kenta... root beer.. Levar Burton
Player2: I thought you were serious!

Until next time, keep your dice on the table

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

Game Day: Monster Manual 2

Here we are the morning of the big event. I hope anyone who is local to Brantford, Ontario will come down to alternate icons for the game at Noon at 257 Marlborough Street* Brantford * Ontario * N3S 4T4 *519-720-0771*

Want your characters in advance, well here they are *
*if using the modified version be sure and check if its ok with your DM, the modified version just spent some of the money*

Althaena

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Arjhana

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Chance

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Eomer

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Uthal

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

6th Character - Dara

• DDI
• New

Game Day Preview: Althaea, level 5 Eladrin, Wizard

Althaea, level 5 Eladrin, Wizard
Arcane Implement Mastery: Wand of Accuracy

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 11, Dex 16, Int 21, Wis 12, Cha 8.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 11, Dex 13, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 8.

AC: 20 Fort: 13 Reflex: 18 Will: 17
HP: 37 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 9

TRAINED SKILLS
Stealth +10, Arcana +14, Religion +12, History +14, Nature +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +7, Bluff +3, Diplomacy +3, Dungeoneering +5, Endurance +4, Heal +5, Insight +5, Intimidate +3, Perception +5, Streetwise +3, Thievery +7, Athletics +4

FEATS
Wizard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Improved Initiative
Level 2: Armor Proficiency (Leather)
Level 4: Jack of All Trades

POWERS
Wizard at-will 1: Scorching Burst
Wizard at-will 1: Magic Missile
Wizard encounter 1: Burning Hands
Wizard daily 1: Freezing Cloud
Wizard daily 1 Spellbook: Acid Arrow
Wizard utility 2: Expeditious Retreat
Wizard utility 2 Spellbook: Shield
Wizard encounter 3: Color Spray
Wizard daily 5: Fireball
Wizard daily 5 Spellbook: Stinking Cloud

ITEMS
Spellbook, Leather Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Magic Wand +2, Implement, Wand, Bloodcut Leather Armor +1, Cape of the Mountebank +1

Saturday May 23
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Alternate Icons
257 Marlborough Street
Brantford
ON N3S 4T4‎

Game Day Preview: Chance, level 5 Tiefling, Warlord

Chance, level 5 Tiefling, Warlord
Commanding Presence: Bravura Presence

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 16, Wis 8, Cha 16.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 17, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 13.

AC: 20 Fort: 18 Reflex: 17 Will: 17
HP: 44 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 11

TRAINED SKILLS
History +10, Intimidate +10, Athletics +10, Diplomacy +10

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Arcana +5, Bluff +7, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance +2, Heal +1, Insight +1, Nature +1, Perception +1, Religion +5, Stealth +3, Streetwise +5, Thievery +1

FEATS
Level 1: Improved Bravura
Level 2: Saving Inspiration
Level 4: Sickening Finish

POWERS
Warlord at-will 1: Brash Assault
Warlord at-will 1: Wolf Pack Tactics
Warlord encounter 1: Luring Focus
Warlord daily 1: Fearless Rescue
Warlord utility 2: Heroic Effort
Warlord encounter 3: Shielding Retaliation
Warlord daily 5: Scent of Victory

ITEMS
Longsword, Light Shield, Adventurer's Kit, Sacrificial Longsword +2, Healer's Brooch +1, Darkleaf Hide Armor +1

Game Day Preview: Uthal, level 5, Goliath, Barbarian

Uthal, level 5, Goliath, Barbarian
Feral Might: Rageblood Vigor

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 21, Con 17, Dex 11, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 14, Dex 11, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8.

AC: 17 Fort: 20 Reflex: 14 Will: 14
HP: 56 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 14

TRAINED SKILLS
Nature +9, Endurance +9, Athletics +14

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Arcana +2, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +2, Heal +2, History +2, Insight +2, Intimidate +1, Perception +2, Religion +2, Stealth +1, Streetwise +1, Thievery +1

FEATS
Level 1: Weapon Expertise (Heavy Blade)
Level 2: Weapon Focus (Heavy Blade)
Level 4: Long Jumper

POWERS
Barbarian at-will 1: Recuperating Strike
Barbarian at-will 1: Howling Strike
Barbarian encounter 1: Avalanche Strike
Barbarian daily 1: Swift Panther Rage
Barbarian utility 2: Primal Vitality
Barbarian encounter 3: Blade Sweep
Barbarian daily 5: Frost Wolf Rage

ITEMS
Hide Armor, Greatsword, Adventurer's Kit, Dynamic Greatsword +2, Healer's Brooch +1, Barkskin Hide Armor +1

Game Day Preview: Arjhana, level 5 Dragonborn, Rogue

Arjhana, level 5, Dragonborn, Rogue
Rogue Tactics: Brutal Scoundrel

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 13, Dex 19, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 13, Dex 18, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8.


AC: 19 Fort: 16 Reflex: 19 Will: 13
HP: 50 Surges: 7 Surge Value: 13

TRAINED SKILLS
Stealth +11, Thievery +11, Insight +7, Perception +7, Acrobatics +11, Athletics +10

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +2, Bluff +2, Diplomacy +2, Dungeoneering +2, Endurance +3, Heal +2, History +4, Intimidate +4, Nature +2, Religion +2, Streetwise +2

FEATS
Level 1: Weapon Focus (Light Blade)
Level 2: Toughness
Level 4: Backstabber

POWERS
Rogue at-will 1: Piercing Strike
Rogue at-will 1: Riposte Strike
Rogue encounter 1: Guarded Attack
Rogue daily 1: Easy Target
Rogue utility 2: Tumble
Rogue encounter 3: Nasty Backswing
Rogue daily 5: Deep Cut

ITEMS
Sacrificial Dagger +2, Shared Suffering Leather Armor +1, Cloak of Distortion +1, Dagger (2), Adventurer's Kit, Leather Armor

Saturday May 23
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Alternate Icons
257 Marlborough Street
Brantford
ON N3S 4T4‎

Game Day Preview: Eomer, level 5 Dwarf, Paladin

Eomer, level 5 Dwarf, Paladin

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 15, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 17.

AC: 23 Fort: 17 Reflex: 16 Will: 18
HP: 57 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 14

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +6, Intimidate +11, Heal +9, Diplomacy +11

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -2, Arcana +1, Bluff +6, Dungeoneering +6, Endurance +1, History +1, Insight +4, Nature +4, Perception +4, Stealth -2, Streetwise +6, Thievery -2, Athletics +1

FEATS
Level 1: Healing Hands
Level 2: Toughness
Level 4: Dwarven Weapon Training

POWERS
Paladin at-will 1: Bolstering Strike
Paladin at-will 1: Enfeebling Strike
Paladin encounter 1: Fearsome Smite
Paladin daily 1: Paladin's Judgment
Paladin utility 2: Sacred Circle
Paladin encounter 3: Righteous Smite
Paladin daily 5: Hallowed Circle

ITEMS
Longsword, Heavy Shield, Adventurer's Kit, Crossbow, Crossbow Bolts (20), Dynamic Craghammer +2, Plate Armor of Sacrifice +1, Cloak of the Walking Wounded +1

D&D Week End Review - May 15th

Well this week i got to have short breaks and venture into the d&d world for just a bit. During the week i received my world wide d&d game day kit which was pretty exciting. We are going to be playing at alternate icons here in Brantford Ontario next Saturday. If you around the area come on down and join the fun.

I also managed to get some time to build out the next two encounter for my group on Sunday. It should be fun some interesting encounters, one based in a mountainous area, and one in a semi open clearing each with its own tactics. I'll share them for the next few encounters.

My Site
Shadow of Orcus, Chapter 10, session2
ME: This was a fun night, but kind of dragged on, we lost track of time, but everyone had fun.

Encounter, Undead Trolls
ME: This is an encounter i build for my players, they really enjoyed it the map is based off of WotC and all rights are reserved to them.

Unboxing the world wide d&d game day material
ME: crappy pictures and not much text but i do give some idea.

Adventure Ideas

A Debt Which None Dares to Collect | GamesTopica.Net - Topics in Game Creation
ME: GamesTopica has released a wonderful little idea here, i seriously think you can get a 1-2 part adventure off in this, or easily turn it into a dungeon crawl. If your building an adventure off of this, please let me know i would be interested in seeing it. It also gave me the idea for a short campaign that is based on characters needing to take a loan to become adventures in the first place.

Wizards

Most likely one of the biggest thing talked about from wizards this week was the release of the monk play test class. Another item of noteworthiness is the iphone wallpapers. i myself do not own one, i think they are pointless. (that's just the excuse i use because i can't justify the cost here in Canada) However the iphone wallpapers still worked on my nokia 8086 poc.

Next week, i am looking forward to the world wide d&d game day [#dndgd on twitter], and of course the MM2. If you noticed on the 22nd they are releasing a play test of MM3. Is it just me or do you think they should wait a bit.

DM Tips

How to handle airborne minis on the battlemat | Campaign Mastery
ME: must read DM tips on having elevated combat, i myself like using the d6 method to show how many squares up a mini is.

Icosahedrophilia » Laying (terrain) tiles: storage solutions
ME: If your like me and enjoy collecting the WotC tiles, then this is a good read for some storage tip. Next week i hope to offer a hobo solution.

Icosahedrophilia » Nanotechnology: storing D&D Miniatures
ME: Also from icoahedrophilia, its a post on storage D&D miniatures. He offers a good solution for medium or smaller creatures beacuse you can just get those containers at the dollar store, but larger miniatures are a bit more tricky to store.

Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Playing With Fire — Dungeon's Master
ME: DungeonsMaster has done it again, he continues to release excellent skill challenges that every DM should read. The more skill challenges you do the better you get at them.

Other

Monster Manual 2 - In Depth #1 | Critical Hits
ME: Critical Hits offers a review of some of the critters from MM2, i think these are the ones that just was all over the internet the last two weeks.

Points of Light: Monk Playtest
ME: Points of Light has a review on the monk class already, talk about getting some game time in.

RPG dumping ground: The Lucky Penny

ME: what a great idea for a magic item, i think i will use something like this. maybe a encounter power of flip the coin, heads nothing, tails you get a +2 bonus to your next skill challenge

Hello, My Name is Barbie: Girls are the Natural-Born Gamers « Dice Monkey
ME: Being a father of a two and a half year old daughter, i really enjoyed reading this post. I want my kid to enjoy the same kind of fun i had in d&d, but i can't be upset if she chose not to, its her choice. That being said i think we won't refer to Sunday night's as guys nights anymore, instead game night works better.

Encounter: Undead Trolls

Encounter Level Difficulty: Standard (3000 XP)
5 PCs Party Level 10

Setup
Illumination: The trolls having darkvision tend to live in the dark and do not have any light sources in here.
Rubble: The rubble (blue dots) is considered difficult terrain
Stalactites/mites: These can be used as cover form the war troll
Bridge: the bridge is covered in water, and extremely slippery. Any PC moving over the bridge requires a DC 22 Acrobatics check. If the PC fails by 4 or less they fall into the underground river and are swept away.
Underground River: PCs can attempt to jump the underground river, failing by 4 or more causes them to fall in. PCs have a forced movement of 6 squares a round. And need to make swim checks DC 18 to stay where they are.
Treasure: The vampire has 1 black pearl (500 gp)

This encounter includes the following:
(T) 3 Boneshard Troll Skeleton – Level 11 Brute, 600xp ea
(S) 1 War Troll Vampire Lord – Level 11 Elite Soldier, 1200xp

Tactics
The WTVL will stay on top of the rock and fire arrows and use dominating gaze for the first round or two using his combat advantage. He is standing on a pillar. He waits until a PC decided to pick on him, or is singled out. When he moves towards the target, the BTS put themselves in-between the WTVL to make it harder for the party to get to their companion.

SoO Game Night 10.2

Out of Game

This week we got to play at my house again, for two key reasons. One Deryk wasn't coming out and second my wife wasn't going to be home. It was good to have home field advantage again. everyone showed up on time, and was looking forward to play.

In Game

The group left the tribe of the black dragons in search of the two lovestruck dragonborn and after some time discovered their cabin. Upon careful investigation it was revealed to the party that a tree was launched into the window, the building was cut up with a blade and the hand of lord Patrin was cut off clean. the hand was left behind.

The party reviewed what they knew about trolls (nature 35) and relied that this did not seem like trolls. In any case they continued tracking to the entrance of a cave system that eventually led them into a cavern with a strong stream running through it.

The party was devided from the start, they wanted to stop what appeared to be some cross between a troll and a vampire. Party members were attacking each other, and after a lengthy exhausting battle the vampiric troll turned to mist and escaped out of cracks in the ceiling of the cave.

The group then decided to speak with dead (trying the troll bones) and found out that the two missing dragonborn are being taken to Nightshade. Nightshade is in his lair, and they have some help finding their way (+2)

Continuing through the cave system they came across an area that seemed to busted into a previously worked area. Trolls lie in waiting begun their attacks as soon as someone peaked their heads around.

After what seemed like an eternity of the party being seperate again they managed to hold hostage the troll witch.

Now it is time to ask her more questions


Treasure & XP

• Encounter 1
• 1x Black Pearl (500 gp)
• 750xp each
• Encounter 2
• 300gp
• 1x Black Pearl (500 gp)
• 600xp each

NPC's

No new NPCs found

Quotes of the Day

"Hot, Cold, he's uncomfortably warm"

Happy Mothers Day 09

Happy Mothers day

D&D Week End Review - May 8th

Well another week of D&D has gone buy and I realized that most people still do not know what kind of player i am.

I am a player who plays once a week, and once a month. I don't dump lots of money into the books because I'm 29 and a father of a two year old. In a few months, there will be a second kid.

I work from home as a IT outsourcing consultant in Brantford Ontario Canada. I have played with the same group of people once week for the last 10 years and is no way that sad. For some of us we are so busy with our lives that this is the only time we can really hang out. We are friends before we are d&d players.

Anyway thats enough about that, here is what was worth reading this week.

My Site
TMNT & Comic Book Day
Game Day Announcement
Star Trek Preview

Adventure Idea

Random plot hook of the day: An abandoned tower a day’s journey from town has started emmiting some arcane lights in the middle of the night. These lights can be seen for miles around, and since last week people have been mysteriously waking up in the middle of the night and walking toward the tower. The tower had an arcane lock protecting it when the town guards went to investigate, and they were too scared to break in. Adventurers are needed… help!

Me: I love it, i think its a great idea

Wizards
Wants people to fill out a survey

DM Tips
Slyflourish

Download glyphs and runes and sigils from the net as signatures for evil-doer letters and journals

ME: a better idea would be to use the symbols to create your own tiles.

Use large 1″ graph paper sheets to pre-draw your battle maps. Great for transportation and quick play on detailed maps.

ME: not exactly enviromentaly friendly, besides where do you get 1" graph paper big enough, it would waste too much time to tape a bunch together to get the size you need. I would rather spend that time on tiles.

Don’t have all your players? Run a one-shot adventure that shows some history or lore or off-screen action. D&D;’s show, don’t tell.

Me: In my experience making new characters takes forever. What i do recomend is just ignoring the fact that someone is missing.

Did a player’s character die or become incapacitated? Let the player play one of the monsters and take out their anger on the party.

Me: This is a bad idea, beacuse its obviously a bad idea. the player can cheat and let his team win, or his team can hold it against him.

Store Dungeon Tiles by set in 1 gallon zip-lock bags with the little plastic zippers in a cardboard “bankers” box from Staples.

Me: Well this sounds familar, oh yeah thats beacuse i did it before. Bankers boxes are a great idea if not expensive.

Build a castle based off of a real castle map
ME: i think its a solid idea, but find castles are to 'boring' for fantasy rpg

Adventure Prep: The City Adventure
ME: great tips for running an adventure in a city

5 Tips for Managing DM Prep Time | DnD Corner
ME: pretty solid, only thing i would add is make al istof names, and put a * next to them as you use em.

Skill Challenges
Questing GM; A Borneon Gamer: {Quest Log} Rewarding Success and Failures in Skill Challenges
ME: another great skill challenge blog

Running Memorable Skill Challenges (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master
ME: tips on skill challenges are always great

Other
RetroRoleplaying: The Blog: "Alignment Map" of Gaming Style
ME: Old school aligment map converted to game play types, funny but true

Creating character portraits with “Hero Machine” « www. Newbie DM .com
ME: Make your character portraitswith the new hero machine, apparently it has changed in the last 10 years

4E Dungeons and Dragons “Mark” Solution – Magnetic Markers from Alea Tools
ME: good review, makes me want to try these

Chicago Dungeons & Dragons Examiner: The horror and paranormal in D&D and RPGs
ME: worth a read, very good article

Losing My 4ginity | UncleBear
ME: decent review on a DM starting 4th edition, i can understand where he comes from

Until next time, keep your dice on the table.

DM Tips: Encounter Information

As you learned from Monday's (actually Tuesday) crafts i use the D&D tiles in every encounter. They are pretty generic and don't provide much information.

So today's tip is about encounter information. When building your encounter its important to list details about the encounter, is it day or is it night, what is the illumination like, is there difficult terrain in the encounter and where is it. Are there areas of concern, that could deal damage.

Every encounter you build should include the following
Illumination: Consider time of day, weather, and put in any negatives you need to apply to perception checks
Traps/Damage: Identify any areas that are traps or create damage. Example what if one square has a campfire.
Treasure: List any treasure that can be found in the encounter

This is where you can make your encounter unique and give your players additional challenges. Its a great way to increase the challenge of an encounter without affecting the monsters or XP. Check out the Dungeon Delve for great ideas on tweaking up your encounter.

So you have your encounter built, and your using tiles, how do you convey this information to the player?

Answer: Overhead projector sheets, cost about $12 for a pack of 20. Seems a bit pricey but when you use whiteboard markers you never realy need more.

Its hard to see in the picture to the left beacuse the material is so clear but thats the beauty of it, it allows you to mix well with your tiles, and still draw directly on the encounter. I highly recomend drawing walls, and if something in the encounter causes something to change, you can show it live, its even great for drawing in the wizards wall of fire.

One of the things i do in my encounters is orange squares, every encounter has 1.5 times the amount of orange squares than players. (5 players 7-8 squares) my players know that when the sceen starts (i will explain the diffrence between a sceen and a encounter next week) that they can chose where they want to be as long as its in a orange square.

It gives them some flexibility in the encounter that makes sence, brings back the old marching order question, and gives you control when setting up your encounter.

Sticky Tack, i used it monday and i am using it again today. This is a amazing tool for any DM. I use it to stick the tiles to the mat, and when creating multiple levels it helps to hold the blocks in place (muilty level encounter is going to be the topic in two weeks time) i've also used it to create a beholder (a zombie behodler).

In this case were going to create small peices of sticky tack and stick the film on the tiles. Five peices should work just fine, one in each corner and one in the middle.

Remember you can draw anything you want on the tiles, in this example here you can see i used it to draw an underground river. Sure its placed on top of a stair set, but it works, the rest of the area is a cave set tile system.

So this DM tip is half crafts and half tip, in either case i hope you enjoy it and find new ways to use the overhead projector sheets. I don't recommend cutting them up because it makes them harder to reuse, but having a bunch that are 8"x 8" will work out in your favor.

Until next time, keep your dice on the table.

Game Anouncement for May 2009

So every month (Saturday, May 23 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm)I will be running a public game here in good old Brantford, Ontario.

Dan from Alternate Icons has been gracious enough to all us to host the games there. These games will have enough room for around 15 players total, three tables of five. Shoot me a email and grab a spot today, meet some of the gang from my Shadows of Orcus campaign and have fun playing D&D.

This month we of course will be running the World Wide D&D Game Day event for Monster Manual 2.

Saturday, May 23 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Here is some brief notes on the game day adventure

“The Silver Caves are a complex of numerous caverns connected by the streams and channels of a great river. A silver dragon named Erithon ruled over this region with an iron claw before dying years ago. Its lair was said to be somewhere deep in the Silver Caves, but powerful magic and evil creatures guard the river and the caverns alike.”

Journey Through the Silver Caves – A kobold wyrmpriest has stolen an ancient book of prophecy from the people of Albura, a fortress on the borderlands. The kobold has a dark plan for the book – and only you can stop him in time! An adventure for 5 pre-generated 5th-level characters.

As mentioned earlier the Game Day in Brantford will be held at Alternate Icons
View Larger Map
257 Marlborough Street, Brantford, ON N3S 4T4‎

Saturday, May 23 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm

What to chose from (3 tables)

• Dwarf Paladin
• Dragonborn Rogue
• Goliath Barbarian
• Tiefling Warlord
• Eladrin Wizard

Official Alternate Icons Link

Crafts: Tile Mat

This weeks late entry is about create a surface area for you tiles. I myself love the tile sets WotC puts out, our group rather enjoys them and we chip in on each set at least once.

Since 4e, we have continued to try and find a way to properly setup the encounters so were not bumping the tiles around, and as a DM i was looking for a way where i can build my encounters in advance and then go with the flow on game night.

This project has had many version, and this final version is the one that works.

What you'll need

• Tiles
• Sticky Tack
• Grip, no Slip shelve mats
• Large strong cardboard at least 30"x30"
• Hot Glue Gun

Roll out the mat on the cardboard, using the hot glue gun, glue the mat to the cardboard around the outside. Make sure you put your glue down in a zig zag pattern coming back on yourself, and only do a small length at a time.

Each time you press down, pat the mat quickly with your hand. Be careful the glue has not hardened yet, in fact this will hurt as glue particles ill pull up from the cardboard, through the mat and stick on your hand.

Why would you want to do this? well this will force the glue up through the mat and creates a better hold.

When your done, you have one encounter mat all setup. I have two because at most our group has gone through 2 encounters a night, that's all i need.

Now you take the silly putty and make small gob that you stick to the corners of the underside of the tile you want.



Then place it down on the mat and push it down with some force

Continue doing this until your encounter is finished. This creates a bond strong enough that you can tuck this away behind furniture all week and it will stay put. And with a flick of the wrist you can pull the tile off, reuse the sticky tack and nothing is damaged.

SoO Game Night 10.1

Out of Game

We took a few months off to play a 4e OA game, and now the party is back at it again, fighting the evil armies of Orcus

to recap, the group was last at the dwarven lands and had discovered that a secret weapon lies with alexandar that will help the group in the fight against Orcus and prevent him from returning to this land.

We were playing over at Deryk & Korey's due to the possibility Deryk had H1N1, my wife did not want the game at our house. So TJ brought over some deer steak, and Dave & Helen brought over some sausages & potatoes and we had a blast. We had little room and a young pup (Pan) but over all was good to be back in the DM seat.

In game

the group traveled onward to the Dragonborn kingdoms, the home of Pax. Upon returning home Pax had discovered his cousin Nala has gone missing. Nala is the daughter of the tribal leader, Lord Kriv. Pax's father the captain of the guard has tasked Pax to find out what has happened, and suggested they go to a neighboring town who have had rivals with in the past.

After the party discovered much about Pax's past, and seen many etching on items in the keep that bare his name; they left in the morning to the tribe of the Black Dragon.

The day was wrought with dark skies and heavy rains, halfway during their journey the sky became as black as night just as the party came across an old set of ruins.

A battle ensued against undead. At the end of the fight [dave's character] spoke with dead on the wizard they dispatched to find out that he is here on behalf of orcus to start a war.

When the fight was over the sky cleared up, and it was day again. The group continued along their way.

They arrived at the Black Dragon tribe and was created by Balasar who recognized the heroes from tale and Pax from their childhood. A minor disagreement came about but, Balasar soon realized that Pax was indeed looking for Lady Nala, and knew nothing about Lord Patrin.

A meeting was organized between the group, and Captian Torrin and Lord Rhogar. It was discovered that Lady Nala and Lord Patrin have secretly been seeing eachother for a few months now and had a hide out in the troll infested swamps. Lord Rhogar apologized to Pax and asked for his help in finding his son.

Tomorrow the party shall leave to find the two wayward soles.

Treasure & XP

• 1x black pearl (500 gp)
• 500xp each

NPC's

• Lord of Bronze Dragon tribe: Lord Kriv
• Missing Girl: Lady Nala
• Lord of Black Dragon tribe: Lord Rhogar
• Missing Boy: Lord Patrin
• Captain of the Guard Bronze Dragon: Captain Medrash
• Captain of the Guard Black Dragon: Captain Torinn
• Son of Captain Torinn: Balasar

Quotes of the Day

• "Helen, your the but plug of d&d"
• "Everyone hates a bloody throng"
• "I eyebite him right in his brown eye."

Week End Review - May 1st

Another week down the drain, and all i have to show for it is seven newly built servers, and some d&d news. This week was a weird week for me, for one there was constant fights and bickering with my wife over the H1N1 flu, see one of my buddy's a player to our d&d game just got back from a trip from Mexico. needless to say were not playing d&d at my place this week, were playing at his...
...i have to shower when i get back...(lets not talk about this any further)

Anyway to add to the weirdness this week, anyone who had a blog about d&d blogged about the free adventure giveaway from WotC, it was all over the internet news (well d&d related anyway).

check it out here

My biggest pet peeve of the week is the complaints about how there is no role playing in 4th edition. Newbie for DM poses the question, however i think my post sums it up. NewbieDM however does have a great tip that i may just have to steal for my next craft article. He show you can create your own tokens using a printer, glue, and some washers. thought i think i will use TokenTools

Speaking of mapping, Michael Shorten has a good article over at the examiner on maps and mapping tools for free, Stargazer blogs about how to create old-school maps in GIMP the downside is you need a forum account to download the needed files. Also Jonathan from The Core Mechanic lists six RPG map making solutions that pretty much cover everything you need.

There was a fair amount of DM tips this week that i found extremely useful. over at Slyflourish he has a collection of tweets, and one i really like is

"Good use for minions: Aid Another (PHB pg 287). Standard action: basic atk vs AC10; on hit, +2 to allies next attack vs. this target. #dnd"

The RPG Athenaeum talks about creating knowledge sheets, listing what players automatically know. i really like this idea, and think i will be using the journal function in the DDI:CC program.

Also dungeonmaster.com has a pretty sweet skill challenge example, i like it a lot

stick around, next week i will be posting an encounter around Monday.

Dungeon Master Tips: Organizing your Adventure

This week i am going to discuss how you can organize your adventure. All adventures in my opinion require a bit of planing. For every hour you intend to play an adventure you should spend the same amount of time planing.

I personally break up all of my adventures into 8 encounters, i mix and match the kind of encounters i want to do but for me a single adventure takes players from one level to another in 8 encounters. At our speed that's 4 weeks of game play.

Tools

There are various tools at your disposal but for me my main ones are the Dungeon Master Guide , MS Word, MS Viso, DDI Compendium, and DDI encounter builder.

MS Visio

The key to a good adventure is not wanting to railroad your players. So i create a start of my adventure, and a end, where i want my players to end up. I'll add a few boxes to the Viso showing possible pieces of information they can find. As i figure out the general storyline i then plot everything out into the Viso. the key is to make it fit on one page

Don't have MS Visio? Try LucidChart

Dungeon Master Guide

Great for references, nuff said.

MS Word

I build my encounters in MS, The first page contains the adventure name and details, the second page is blank. The third and fourth page is a the basic story line and my RP notes, while the 5th page contains the Visio drawing from earlier.

Now i break up the encounters so that the basic encounter information is on the left hand side, and the map (which honestly I've taken from dragon and customized for my own needs) on the right hand side. The next few pages contains monsters information taken from the DDI Compendium so i have everything i need in one place.

I repeat the encounters in the exact same method adding blank pages where i need to.

Don't have MS Word, try OpenOffice

DDI Encounter Builder & DDI Compendium

The DDI Compendium has two tasks for me, one is finding monsters and creatures that fit my story, level, and encounter so nothing seems out of place. The second is to copy & past into word so i have all my information during game play. I recommend for monster pages to be two columns, and formatting the text a bit. i can fit large monsters in 1 full column, and usually two minions per column.

The encounter build i use after i have a list of creatures in mind, and just use it to figure out what creatures are going to be in each encounter.

Don't have a DDI Account, try Monster Lister & Encounter Planner

Binding

Once i have everything checked over and it looks the way i want it to look, i save it off as a PDF (plenty of PDF printers out there) and upload it to staples. I will get it printed on both sides in black & white (so when your doing your map use circles with letters in them to identify monsters (A)). And i pick a cheap binding. the hole process costs me around $4.50 for a 30 page document.

Additions

Another great addition to add after the fact is the 'PrintableDM' sheets i mentioned before hand, I'll send them to staples at the same time for printing and usually get 8 done at a time. if your lucky they will accidentally bend the corners on them and you don't have to pay. good thing i was folding them in half anyway :)

So there you have it, you spent 8 hours designing your adventure, and saving all the information and you have a nice hard copy to show for it. Some of you are thinking, 8 hours that's a full days work for me. Well sometimes being a DM is, but when you have everything organized and know where your game is going, you can spend a hour a night on it after the kids have gone to bed. Before you know it your two adventures ahead of the game

That's all for this week's DM's tips, remember its us vs. them!