Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 05

The party had just arrived to the Caravan Gate of Tyr and the ex-templar in the group, Abbadon (Ranger) spotted among the Templars scouring the people entering an old rival, Cubda. She was a merciless templar who, many believe, have murdered, bribed, robbed and done everything she could to climb higher on the hierarchy of Tyrin templars. The ranger, then, decided he was going to hide among the people they were rescuing in a attempt to hide from Cubda.

When their time to be inspected came, Cubda thought they were trying to get in Tyr with slaves, since there were a lot of people cramped inside a small wagon and was about to threaten the group and ask for a bribe when she saw Abbadon inside the wagon and realised that he would be a slave then. She was happy with that and just asked the group to treat him badly. They were all relieved.

Homemade Monsters - Scorpions and Bats

I am currently running a campaign in Athas (Dark Sun world) and I sometimes want the adventurers to face some specific monsters that would fit the situation. And, to my surprise, even with three Monster Manuals, two Monster Vaults, and other books with monsters, I don't find everything that I need.

Usually I just make some minor adjustments and re-skinning of some monster and that fits just well into the game. But other times I have to mix and design new abilities and attacks that I imagine the creature having. And that is the case of the monster and NPCs I will post on these articles I shall name "Homemade Monsters".

The first two creatures I will be presenting are the "Giant Desert Scorpion" and the "Blood Bat Swarm". They were both made for an adventure I ran on my Dark Sun campaign.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 04

The dark sun of Athas was set, and the chill of the night winds were sharp as blades. The group of adventurers had to chose between trying to cross the stony barrens with twenty or so ex-slaves that were wounded and terrified or to find shelter for the night and help the fragile to recover. They decided it was best to wait the morning to venture out of the ruined temple.

Errich, the halfling monk, made an improvised tomb for his fallen companion, Thalai, the half-giant barbarian. And went inside the temple with the rest of the group. The ritual that Szur performed had damage the structure of the temple and some of its parts were in risk of collapsing, but the ranger, ex-templar, managed to identify a safe passage and room for them to spend the night.

At this point the group decided to split and do different things. Eben, the battlemind, Arbitria, the shaman bard, and Abbadon, the ranger, decided to look further into the temple to make sure nothing would attack them during the night, while Errich, the monk and an ex-slave named Rain, a shifter ranger, stayed back to take care of the ex-slaves, treating their wounds and raising their spirit.

Chatacter Names - Some Thoughts

A few weeks ago a read an article on Big Ball of No Fun about PC naming. It was about why a player get to choose his character name if they, themselves, could not choose their own names. No one gets to choose his own name, why should the player's choose their character names? Although this does make a lot of sense, the characters are their creation, and as creators, they choose the creature's name.

But let's think about it a little more. Actors play characters in ways that they are creators themselves and they do not get to pick their character's names. They create a unique way the character act, talk and express themselves but are still stuck with the name someone else gave them. Does that make their experience less valuable? I do not think so.

Why am I saying this, you ask. Am I against the the player's choosing their character's names? Well, yes and no. Let me explain what I mean with this.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 03

After chasing two slavers into the ancient temple, the adventures found out that it still had some working traps. They managed to avoid them but the shaman's spirit companion wasn't so lucky.

The group was still hearing sounds of people talking loudly ahead and decided to go forward instead of checking the door on the right side of the room they were in. The corridor ahead was in total darkness so the battlemind and the shaman picked up a torch each and started moving.

They soon reached a small room with four pillars in the center and saw what seemed to be a corpse on the far side of the room behind a pillar. The battlemind decided to look a little closer and saw that the man behind the pillar was still alive, but paralyzed, his eyes still moving and looking at them with terror. At this moment giant scorpions plunged at the group. The battle was fierce, the scorpions had a venom that could immobilize and deal ongoing poison damage, and once bloodied they would deal acid damage to every creature adjacent to them. It was a fun combat. One of the largest scorpions ran away into a passage to the right when his companion and all of his hatchlings were killed.

Custom Made Character Sheets for my Dark Sun Campaign

Ok, this is more of a "show off" post than an actual helpful or insightful post. But you can probably take something good out of this, like how is it nice to invest some time into making good things to give to your players to make them more interested in your game and wanting to come back for more.

And that's not everything. On our first two sessions we were using the usual character builder sheets, and although it's complete and have everything they need to play, it's like five freaking pages long. So the player's (who are not all veteran 4th edition players) had to turn pages all around to search for things they needed to see, and the sheets had a lot of information they did not need or did not need at their level. So I decided to make one that would be smaller (just one sheet printed on both sides) with everything they needed. I made it look good too and have a Athasian feel but still look clean. They LOVED IT.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 02

After recovering from the battle against the bloodsucking plant and the Id Fiend, the party studied the map they found with Volkur and found out they could follow two different paths to get to the slaver's hideout. The first was longer, but the path was easier to follow, it went through flat sand wastes and dried river courses. The second was shorter, but it would pass through canyons and stony barrens, making it hard on the party's vigor.

After considering each one, they decided to go through the shorter but harder path. They felt they had no time to waste and they needed to be quick. Guided by Arbitria (Druid) and Abbadon (Ranger) they followed the path until the spotted two individuals on the path ahead, a half-giant carrying a huge obsidian great sword, and a halfling carrying a spear with a very roguish appearance. The group tryied to hide and observe the couple, but Eben (Battlemind) did not manage to stay silently.

This lead to a fierce discussing about who was who, and what do each group wanted, and where they were heading. In the end, both realized they were after the same guys (The slaver Szur) and they decided to join forces to go after them.

DM Aid - Combat Tracking Sheet

Last sunday I ran my first D&D game in the last two and a half years (many things lead me to focus on other things in my life for that time, but now I am back). So I was kinda of rusty in remembering some details, although I've read rules all over again, and a lot of source books.

One problems I saw me running at over and over was remembering the conditions affecting my players. I would say he was knocked prone and explain what was that in game terms but on his turn he would just act normally. I did not keep track of who was prone, who as dazed, I was hoping the player's themselves would. My mistake. So I was browsing through my stuff when I found an old combat tracking sheet I used few years I go and decided it was time to bring it back.

I redesigned it, including some new entries and took out others. I don't know if this will he it's final version, I will have to try it out on our next session, next sunday, to see if I need to add something more.

I made two versions, one colored with a parchment background and one just black and white.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 01

Last sunday, july 3rd, we gathered for our first game session. We've met before to discuss what kind of campaign we wanted, but this would be our first time actually playing. The group is composed of 7 people, me as the DM and 6 friends. For the first time I can recall my group has an equal number of female and male members.

This first session only 4 out of the 6 players showed up (one was traveling and the other was sick). The characters created were the following: Eben, a male battlemind mul, that after helping the rebellion to free Tyr of Kalak decided to set higher objectives and spread the good wherever he would go; Arbitria, a female half-elf Sentinel Druid, that, despite her relationship with the spirits of Athas, is more interested in taking advantage over those spirits to achieve her goals;  Abbadon, a male human Scout Ranger, a former Templar of Tyr that abandoned his post during the rebellion and now lives as a head-hunter and mercenary; and Althea, a female eladrin seeker, who lost her home to the defilers of Athas and now roam the world in search for vengeance and a meaning to survive. The party formed because of the circumstances in Tyr and the need to get resources to survive in the chaotic states of affair in the city.

Props and Handouts - NPC Cards

I have been thinking about making some handouts that many people could use just filling some PDF forms to enhance the game, like NPC cards to give to the players so they know who they have met; Quest cards, so the players have a more clearer reminder of their objectives; Reward cards, and so on.

On this first post of this subject I will be posting NPC cards that I have made that can be used by anyone. All that is needed to do is filling the forms on the file and printing it. Ideally you will want to print 4 of these cards in a sheet of paper (you need to adjust the print dialog for that).

Campaign Report - The Game We Want to Play

This is going to be a new series of articles on this blog. I will write about the campaign I will be DMing to my friends now that I am back to my home town. It has been 3 years since I last played D&D or any other tabletop RPG so I am kinda rusty.

On the other hand, I never read so much about DMing and creating a nice campaign and interesting adventures, so I do not feel so unprepared. One of the things I read about (in the Dungeon Master Guide 2) was Colaborative Campaign creation. So I decided to give it a first try with my group.

Monstrous Plots - Orcs

In the first Mounstrous Plots post we talked a little bit about kobolds and presented some situations involving those creatures to help create adventures. Now it's time we take a look at one of the most iconic monsters of every fantasy setting, the orcs.

Orcs are usually portrayed as savage, brutish and cruel humanoids with a taste for destruction. They tend to be primitive savages who value strength above all things. They survive on raiding other humanoids and other orc tribes, and they relish for violence. But not all orcs have to be this way.

Some scenarios describe orcs as a primitive folks with shamanistic traditions and a brutish but honorous code of conduct. Those orcs still value strength, but together with wisdom, elders, spirits and honor. Sometimes, orcs are presented as mindless berserkers and other times as highly militaristic warriors. They can be as varied as humans, but some common traits usually appear in all characterizations, their barbaric traditions and value of strength.

Following there are a few situation ideas to get adventures started. They were also based on the situations I talked about in the article I wrote about adventure building. They were also based on varied concepts about orcs that appear in fantasy such as orc's horde, their rivalry with dwarves, the wars they have between their tribes, their sense of honor.

Adventure Building (Part III): Cast

On the previous post I wrote a few things about elements of an adventure such as Plot and Location. Today we will talk a bit about the Cast of an adventure, another main element of any interesting story.

The player's characters are obviously the main characters of the adventure, but any story needs its supporting cast and, of course, a antagonist. About the antagonist, every cool adventure needs a villain, a character the players hate and want to defeat it, that makes the adventure goes forward.

Adventure Building (Part II): Location

On our last post we talked about the elements of a good adventure. Three of those I consider the main elements, which are the plot, the location and the cast. We already talked about the plot and suggested a few themes and some questions for you to think about on each one. Today we will talk about the location element.

The location element is where the adventure takes place, where the main acts of the story happen, where the final epic battle get fought. Those places have a significant influence on the adventure, and can make the story much more interesting and alive. It's one thing to battle kobolds on a bare dungeon room, but it's entirely different to battle them in an ancient temple dedicated to Tiamat built beneath an dragonborn's city ruin. The possibilities and images that come to your mind on the second scene are almost endless compared to the first one.

When you think about the place where the events will unfold you have to ask yourself what is different about that place that makes it special? Is there something that makes that particular location different from the others? Is there something magical, fantastic, terrible there? Those kind of questions help you think about where the adventure takes place. Sometimes the location can even be the adventure it self, like when the party needs to escape a dangerous maze-like dungeon. So when you plan your adventure, try to give the location a personality, interesting characteristics and an unique story. This will help you bring the story to life.

Adventure Building (Part I): Plot

I am about to DM an adventure for some people that never played D&D before. So I wanted to create a small, fast and exciting adventure so they would be hooked into D&D for now on. But how can I do that? By creating an adventure that makes them believe in it, an adventure they could not forget easily, an adventure with compelling elements.

So, what are those elements? Well there are numerous elements in an adventure, but the most important are the plot, the location, and the cast. Those three are the main elements that are the core of the adventure and define everything else like encounters, skill challenges, puzzles, atmosphere and others.

In order to make a memorable adventure, those elements should be worked very well by the Dungeon Master. Because of that I decided to make a helping sheet to make me think about those important elements. This post we will look at the plot element.

Monstrous Plots - Kobolds

This post is the first one of a series I am going to make about adventures plots involving creatures from Dungeons and Dragons. It will work something like this: I will choose a creature from the D&D universe and try to write a few adventures plots that include them either as enemies, allies, patrons or whatever trying to vary as much as I can. Also, in those plots, I will try to put the creatures in different situations, trying to avoid the cliché ones they are used associated with, but I can’t promise I will be successful in doing that all the time.

The first creature to appear in our Monstrous Plots series is the Kobold. Kobolds are small reptilian creatures usually known to be cowards and cruel murderers at the same time. They live in barrows with mazelike tunnels filled with deadly traps they make to avoid intruders to find them and prisoners to flee. Know to be a race of surprisingly excellent miners, Kobolds are fond of gems and shinning objects, which some says that they received that from their dragons ancestors. Kobolds revere dragons as if they were gods, although most of these “gods” ignore them or simply eat them. Many towns have ignored kobolds for too long considering them just as an occasional annoyance to one day see their community overrun by these creatures, even being known by their cowardice kobolds can be surprisingly bold if they have a proper reason.

Enough with the chitty chat, right? Let’s check those plots I talked about!

Pterrans Character's Options

Reviewing the design I made for the pterran race for D&D 4e, I realised that there was space for quite a few feats that would make the race more interesting to play and would give some story elements for a character.

In addition I decided to create a paragon path for pterran characters. This paragon path would reflect the premise that the pterrans prophets are seeing that the race will play an important role on the events that are about to occur in the Tyr Region. Even if you don’t have a pterran character in your group this could be an nice adventure seed where the heroes have to help a pterran adventurer to fulfill his destiny.

At the bottom, you can find a PDF with all the information on this post and a little something extra. Check it out.

Pterrans of the Hinterlands

As I said before, I never played Dark Sun before the 4^th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I just knew about the campaign settings through pictures and few friends that actually played it. But since I read the Dark Sun Campaign Setting book for D&D 4^th I became fascinated with the setting. I read both the original campaign setting and the expanded one. I also read a couple of supplements, and I am planning on reading all of them as soon as I can.

One of the things that I missed about the newest edition of the Dark Sun setting was a particular character race which has a strong connection with the setting in my opinion. The pterrans are a race of spiritual people with strong ties to the spirits of Athas. They are reptilian humanoids that revere the Earth Mother and follow paths to protect the world and the living creatures. Just recently they have made contact with the people from the Tyr Region, and they believe they will have an important role in future events regarding the destiny of Athas.

The following adaptation was made based in diverse sources including official and unofficial materials about the Pterrans. Feel free to give any suggestions and ideas to make this adaptation better. You can download a PDF version at the end of the post.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate...

I never really had a chance to play with psionic classes over the last editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Mainly because I didn’t have the supplements that presented psionics and because I’ve always heard the rules were complicated and psionic powers were unbalanced.

In fact, I did bought the Expanded Psionics Handbook for 3.5 but by the time I got it fourth edition was released in a couple of months. I read it, I liked it, but I never played with psionic classes until recently.

With the release of the Player’s Handbook 3, Psionic Power was introduced to D&D fourth edition. Not that there weren’t psionic monsters and effects, but this book presented psionic classes, four of them. The Psion, classic psionicist who developed his powers through hard study and discipline; the Battlemind, which powers were honed with a combination of physical and mind training in battle; the Monk, who is the embodiment of the perfect balance between mind and body through hard discipline and martial arts; and, one of the most interesting classes in my opinion, the Ardent.

The Ardent is a psionicist that developed his psionic powers through emotions. He feels the mood around him and can absorb it to empower himself or he can do just the opposite. He can spread the feelings he has to those around him. Some Ardents are disciplined and keep their emotions very tightly controlled not to be overwhelmed by them. Others embrace them freely and let them have control of their actions. This class really reminds me of characters of a movie I really like. If you said Jedis, you’re right.

Colaborative Campaign Building

I read the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 a couple of weeks ago and realized something about my campaigns. I always made them thinking about myself, what I wanted it to be like, who I wanted the players to fight against, where I wanted to adventures to happen and so forth. By doing this I may have created good adventures, but with the help of my players I could have built greater ones that would relate to them more easily and they would remember it for years.

The book suggests that you should get input from your players about what they want in the campaign. What kind of campaign they you like to play? What enemies they want to face? Do they prefer combat encounters or interaction encounters?