Escalation

Had a great time DMing last night. However, there was one frustrating encounter where the players were surprised by a Remhorhaz. The wizard's response was hold monster, and that was pretty much the end of the encounter. The monster was not proficient in any saving throws whatsoever, meaning it needed a natural 18 or higher in the die to break free. My challenging battle had become a game of teeball. What was the real problem here? Was it that the monster had no proficient saves? Or was the real problem spellcasting itself?

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A New World

Recently, my Glorious Bastards campaign wrapped up and now I’m preparing for the next one with many lessons learned. First lesson, don’t invite players until the campaign is completely prepared. In ‘Bastards, the city was fleshed out as were a few locations outside the city. I intended for the campaign to take almost entirely in the city. The one thing I never saw coming was when one of the players made an interesting character choice. Whenever his character had a bad experience somewhere, he vowed to never set foot in that place again, and the rest of the group usually followed suit.

The rest of the campaign was spent trying to find ways to use lost material as the party would have one close call and book it from whatever adventure they were in. Towards the tail end I even had to railroad them (very very gently). Nearly every NPC they met or revisited starting pointing them towards the material I had left to use. Many sessions were spent winging it, which I can pull off but prefer not to do. If nothing else, I gained experience at improvisation and learned about a new problem to prepare for. My mistake was having too much empty space on the map. In retrospect, it would have been better to frame their choices as staying in the frying pan or going into the fire. Meaning leaving one encounter has the PCs running into another. I guess one of my weaknesses is being surprised.

For this next campaign I want to try an Open Game Table set in a squarecrawl. The Alexandrian wrote a bunch of great essays on this topic and I plan to utilize them all. Turning to Ray Winninger’s old essays, a new campaign needs a well defined home base. Ludus Ludorum has some great articles about Medieval villages, towns, and cities. Between these three sources there’s plenty of gristle for the idea mill.

I love the Fall from Heaven setting. If I were to utilize FfH again, this time instead of the game taking place a couple of hundred years into the Age of Rebirth, I’d start with the very end of the Age of Ice. Mulcarn has been slain. The endless winter is just giving way to spring for the first time in several hundred years. Communities of survivors are slowly realizing it’s safe to resettle the surface as most have spent the Age of Ice hiding deep underground.

Already I’ve been tossing around ideas to develop a lonely medieval village called Gondaga, which has only been around for twenty years or so. The melting tundra is fraught with roving bands of marauders, barbarians, and dangerous wildlife. The peasantry of Gondaga eke out an existence on the surface to reclaim their rightful place on Erebus, yet survival is still a struggle. They farm, fish, and shepherd. However, all swear allegiance to the lord of the manor who has sworn to protect the village in exchange for their labor.

Perhaps early myths tell of a pale skinned man named Cassiel, larger than life, who found the villagers stumbling about in the wilderness, and re-taught them how to farm and build. His quest is to bring civilization back to mankind, one village at a time. He said there were others, but no one in the village has met or found any other civilized folk. His last words to them were, “The gods are dead.” Cassiel told them, “Live for yourselves, not the gods.” Meanwhile, the villagers are ever vigilant to safeguard themselves from the barbarians. An order was formed by the lord of the manor to explore the countryside and find other survivors, as people are far more valuable a resource than land.

The idea of an advanced being coming to edify mankind has lots of roots harkening to ancient mythology across many cultures. For instance, Prometheus bringing fire to man, the Grigori teaching mankind technology, the white bearded men bring civilization to the Mayans (some Mayan gods were described to have white skin and long beards), or Ioannes and the Sumerians.

Whenever I find myself worldbuilding, I like to mirror the themes of from mythology. There’s so much depth to find below the surface. Honestly, pick a myth, any myth, and you’ll find themes just begging to be explored. One of the reasons I’m such a fan of FfH is that it’s writer, Derek “Kael” Paxton, imported so many of these myths from differing cultures into a seamless universe. Maybe this time I’ll venture out and create my own.

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Journey's Quest II

After obtaining some additional information about the temple and what was there, the crew set out into the desert to find the Celestial Compass that was in the hands of the Yuan-ti. A full day of travel later the crew reached their destination. Andargo rushed ahead (as usual) and was quickly attacked by the snakes warriors guarding the entrance. With a swift victory, the crew ventured inside. The entrance was, surprise, more warriors, but one escaped and raised the alarm. Further inwards tougher Yuan-Ti with pet snakes greeted the heroes. It was tough fight. However, the crew were able to defeat their foes and toss the leader of the pack, a Yuan-Ti Abomination, into a pit at the center of the room. Cleared of all danger, the crew faced a choice. Which door would lead to the Celestial Compass?

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Journey's Quest

Last session Journey, a player in my Pirates of the Aegean campaign, wrapped up his quest. It gave me a nice break to recharge from all the Dungeon Mastering I’ve been doing this year. It was a ton of fun to see him take the reigns and deliver up an epic tale. I also got a little munchkining out of my system by playing a Tiefling Weretiger. Here’s how it went.

After the crew of the Ever Valiant landed at the Malakim port town of Baldurham they discovered a city under siege by an army of dark elves lead by Vorn’s brother Torn. They decided to leave the city and head south towards Andargo’s home town of Bourne.

On the way they encountered a small force of Malakim soldiers preparing to engage the enemy. They were determined to take back the port town of Baldurham even if it was a suicide mission. Andargo managed to convince the general leading the soldiers to wait, and head south to Bourne where the heroes could muster an army large enough to liberate Baldurham. The general agreed, but only if the crew would complete a test of faith, to survive the desert with only what they could carry.

After completing their test, the general agreed to turn south. Capt. Dagfinn and his officers Quimby, Trystem, Vorn, and Andargo set off once again to Bourne, and encountering on the way a sprite riding a tiger. The sprite was hunting for Journey, a former member of the Captain’s crew. The sprite claimed Journey was responsible for the butchering of his clan. The Captain & Co. had their own score to settle with the mad tiefling. The crew agreed to follow the sprite to find Journey’s camp and exact revenge, while Trystrem the Lady Killer lead the Malakim soldiers the rest of the way to Bourne.

The crew followed the sprite as it rode the tiger into the desert, coming across an old man being savaged by dust devils. The crew attacked at once, but were unfortunately unable to save the old man. Before the stranger succumbed to his wounds, the crew managed to learn Journey’s last known location, a large encampment deep in the desert. Quimby took the man’s body, hoping to return him to his family.

When the crew came upon Journey’s camp, they were surprised to see not a rag-tag group barely surviving, but a large tent city. It was filled with people of all nations living alongside the Journey’s army of flesh golems. The laughter of children could be heard in the street as they played under the watchful eyes of lumbering behemoths. Quimby was able to find the man’s home, returning the body back to his granddaughter. She was glad that to recover her grandfather, comforted by the knowledge his flesh would become one of the ‘awakened,’ and travel with her to Journey’s promised land.

After some searching, the crew found Journey’s tent, the largest one in the city. Inside they were greeted by their old comrade Journey, sitting upon a throne of flesh, blood and sand.

Journey was ecstatic to see his former crewmates, reminiscing about old times while the rest of the heroes get a watchful eye on the ever present flesh golems. Despite this, the sprite’s tiger, Battle Cat leapt at Journey and mauled him. It was then that Battle Cat revealed he was actually a tiefling cursed with lycanthropy, his tribe wiped out by flesh golems. The mighty Andargo jumped forward and wrestled the weretiger to the ground. Journey sympathized with the lonely creature, despite the attack, having found his own clan slaughtered in the desert. He submitted to a magical test of truth telling. Battle Cat accepted Journey and his golems had nothing to do with the deaths of Battle Cat’s family. The weretiger then pledged himself to his fellow tiefling.

Journey was then able to explain to Captain Dagfinn why he stole the Salty Lass, and all that had happened since. He asked the captain for his forgiveness and his help in retrieving an ancient artifact from a temple deep in the desert. In return, if Dagfinn & Co returned within four days, Journey promised the captain a force of golems to use against the Svartalfar (dark elves). The captain agreed and led his officers deeper into the desert...

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Gritty Realism

Short rest = 8 hours

Long rest = 7 days

Ever since I read the passage on Gritty Realism in the Dungeon Master’s Guide I’ve wanted to try this. Imagine a game where going to sleep doesn’t heal every wound. Imagine a game where getting hit by an ogre with a greatclub matters. I think it’d be pretty cool. My players, on the other hand, had different opinions.

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Cooperative Worldbuilding

Last night hit the local gaming store with my buddies from the Pirates of the Aegean campaign - Kintaro, Journey, and OrkbossJo. My group got in a game of Elder Signs, and then Vampire: Prince of the City. Wouldn’t recommend the first; love the second. Also, ran into Wargamer Fritz who was trying out the Spanish Civil War game with Prima Lucem. I didn’t quite pay attention to the mechanics of that one, but the setting is incredibly interesting. It took place in the 30s right before WWII, and really embodied the ambiguity of the times that we today so often miss, because our point of view of WWII is that of hindsight. At the end of the night, in preparation for Kintaro’s upcoming campaign, we tried out something interesting inspired from the Dresden Files RPG.

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The Middle Muddle

Learned some lessons today. Too many plot threads leads to none of them getting resolved. Second, quest hooks need to have a specific way to be solved. Leaving it wholly up to the players to resolve things can lead to an unsatisfying experience, and players leaving the game frustrated is something I aim to avoid. There has to be a way to determine in advance how quest hooks/plot threads can be resolved without railroading the players.

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Reader Mail Bag: July

Welcome to the next installment of answering your emails. First up a light one, then a good meaty one!

From Cat:

So, my girlfriend and I are playing D&D together. We both have two characters and change turns being DM. She is new to the game and I'm trying to keep her interested without being to pushy. I'm struggling with building a game she can enjoy. So far we've been playing adventures that are all wrapped up in one session and are about to try HotDQ. I was hoping you could give some ideas on how to keep her engaged.

My response:

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Winging It in a Sandbox

It's been a busy month. Work, write, work, convention, work, etc. When it came time to run the next quest in my Glorious Bastards campaign, I was exhausted. There was nothing special I threw together for that night's prep, but something special happened. Here's how it went.

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Injecting Emotion into Your Game

A murderhobo romp can become quite forgettable as every group of bad guys become little more than a target number of hit points to kill. Social interactions with NPCs can be reduced to mere receptacles for quest hook without emotional attachment. These problems started to coalesce in my mind when I needed to come up with an NPC on the fly, and while stumbling for a different name than I’ve used before one of the players said something to help me.

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Multi-Square Megadungeon

Let’s make a Megadungeon! Add hype here! As I do before any major undertaking, I want to remind myself of the criteria for creating this: 1) Does the content provide an interesting choice giving the players agency? 2) Am I following the rules of dungeoncraft? 3) Does it show the uniqueness of the campaign world?

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How to Piss Off Your Dungeon Master

Sometimes people do things that simply make no sense. As a dungeon master I put in a lot of work into my games to try and create a great experience for my players. After putting so much work into a campaign, and each quest, encounter and NPC, every now and then a player comes along that makes you want to tear your hair out. I've had some experiences at the table lately that have really clarified my thoughts on this matter. If you are a player and you want to completely piss off your dungeon master, here's how to do it.

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Thoughts on the D&D Economy

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Breaking the Game III: Deviating from Established Lore

At the start of my Pirates of the Aegean campaign, one of the players came to me with the concept of a Tiefling Druid. The problem was that there were no such things as Tieflings in the Fall from Heaven setting. My options looked like I could either tell the player there are no Tieflings in my Special Snowflake Setting so go make another character, or work it in. What was I to do? I dug into the lore of the setting and with a little elbow grease found a nice niche for tieflings.

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Heroic Journey II: Rising Action

The next stage in the heroic journey is often called Tests, Allies, & Enemies. As it relates to Dungeons and Dragons, it's that time after the hero leaves the ordinary world for the extraordinary. The bulk of a hero’s adventures occur in this stage. On his travels he meets new people, making friends and enemies all the while facing challenges which not only test his skills but his perseverance to achieve his ultimate goal.

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City Squares IV: The Sixth Rule of Dungeoncraft

Today I’m gonna go through making a lead and how I use it to provide my players with clues pointing towards a secret. These are going into my game. Feel free to use them for yours or as examples for making your own. We’ll connect the leads and determine which of those treasure-boxes-disguised-as-NPCs-filled-with-info (which is the treasure) is the most interesting. After finding the best ones that simply scream, “Investigate me!” we’ll drop the Sixth Rule of Dungeoncraft on it to make the lead not only a PC magnet but something that will immediately propel the players to adventure.

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Breaking the Game II: The Secret Player

This is a really fun way to trick the rest of the party (while still maintaining player agency), and will instantly turn your next adventure into a thing of legend. Start by getting in touch with one of your players and ask them verbatim, “I got something cool planned for next adventure and want to know if you’re up for a role-playing challenge?” I’d be surprised to hear if this ever gets a negative response. Then let the player in on the secret you’re about to unleash.

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It's NOT Better to Burn Out!

Today I want to talk about how NOT to burn out as a Dungeon Master. This won’t be your typical trite 10 tips to avoid burnout garbage. I want to tell you how I am constantly inspired to create and run a campaign so you can do the same. It’s not something that comes naturally but takes effort, although not hard effort. Maybe effort is the wrong word. What I’m trying to say is it merely takes Action. I think I’m going to channel Yoda here: Do or do not. For the sake of argument let’s choose Do.

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City Squares III: The Fourth Rule of Dungeoncraft

On my second attempt at making a city square I now have some experience to refer to. Got some ideas where the gameplay worked well and where things got clunky. The layers worked alright. What needs to be polished is the investigate action. For some reason my players aren't taking to the idea of investigating to explore a city like they do when moving on the battlemap to explore a dungeon. It might be because they see the city as a treasure exchange of items for gold. I’m also unclear on the specifics of where exactly skill checks should come in to play. Let's explore these thoughts and see where they go.

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Breaking the Game: A Player's Guide to Slaying Dungeon Master's

You know what every Dungeon Master is afraid of? Killing the players. There’s a lot to that. When a player makes a character it’s often something they spend a lot of time on. It could take hours combing through the Player’s Handbook to find the right combination of feats, spells, and class abilities to not only be effective in combat but to fulfill their fantasy of “cool.” When a DM kills a player’s character, all those hours spent planning and playing are gone. The character isn’t getting played again or if there’s the opportunity for resurrection the PC takes a significant hit to his experience and abilities. You might be thinking however much time a player puts into making his character the Dungeon Master puts in ten times that amount. You wouldn’t be wrong. On the other hand the campaign can’t be killed. All that work never gets scrapped.

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