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Written by Dwarmij
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Sunday, 13 June 2010 00:20 |
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This is a portion of an article I found on Roleplaying Tips for the entire article go here. I thought it was really interesting, from GMing perspective. I mean how often have you described a monster to your group to only have them go, " Oh, it's a so n so ", and then proceed to do exactly what they have to do to take it out. Even though their characters had never encountered one before.
How To Get More From Your Monsters - Part 1
By Andrew H.
Many of the following tips have been suggested before, over the years. I hope to give you a practical spin that will enable any game master to turn a single adventure into a whole campaign. I have used these techniques in my campaigns and found them to be effective.
1. It's Never An Orc
It's a Greater Georlocke to the locals, a Drop Bear to foreigners, a Kellerman's Fiend to the Duke, a Tribal Gengen to the sage, and a Thorgordrin to the nearest clan of elves. If any two players can agree on what to call it, they still won't know what it is. The aim of this approach is to keep the monster's game stats unknown to the players. This helps keep the mystery and sense of discovery in the game.
The work involved to make this worthwhile is to craft a set of descriptions, rumors, tales, and folklore to flesh out the monsters. This can be done with an extra ten minutes of design time.
The players should know only what NPCs can tell them about the monsters. It shouldn't be an orc, it should be:
"The Dark Terror of Ovens Lane that took Fred the Smith last year and was stalking Hilda last month."
"When Billy the Farm Hand was injured last summer he took longer than he should have to recover since his wounds got all infected."
Just one rumor about poison or magic will make the players approach the fiend differently than they would an orc. This is a great opportunity for both the GM and the players to roleplay.
Players will not believe there be vampires here if they are first level, as they could not be expected to fight such a powerful monster. But if they hear something more in line with their own strength, they are much more likely to believe, and act accordingly.
How This Worked For Me
Like many GMs, I invent names that sound like they belong to a particular language. Elven names are fluid, musical with softer consonants, etc. I deliberately chose a name that sounded like an elven name and used it as the local name for gnolls. Then I added some eye witness accounts of a raid on a merchant caravan. The players were convinced they were facing a new monster I had designed, and they spent time thinking about the enemy's tactics, strengths, and weaknesses. The players approached the monsters more cautiously than they would have ordinary gnolls! Players will appreciate this approach, especially if they get experience bonuses for good roleplaying based on what their characters have heard about the fiend.
Give bonuses for good ideas and preparation. If the PCs thought to bring some antidotes with them, reward them with a small experience bonus, even if the orcs don't use poison- -they are playing their role well and thinking (always encourage thinking)!
Adventure Hooks
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A sage suggests to the players that, if they could find the true name of the monster, they would find out its weaknesses and be able to defeat it. Turns out they only need to locate the lost manuscript of the sage Alvin Cork to find out.
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Two party members cannot agree on what the real name and nature of the monster is. They decide they must travel to the homeland/town of each of PC and consult their elders, sage, grandmother, or whatever, to come to the truth of the matter.
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A sage hires the party to help her write a treatise on the monster in question. Either the party has to make notes about the monsters, characteristics, combat strategy, and abilities, or worse, they have to babysit the sage as she comes along to take her own notes. Of course, they don't get paid if she doesn't come back alive.
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The deceitful Duke refuses to pay up his promised reward for ridding his lands of the fiend because it is not a Kellerman's Fiend but a Gengen. Ask any of the villagers.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 13 June 2010 00:34 |
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Written by Dwarmij
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Tuesday, 11 May 2010 05:39 |
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This is an article from Helium written by Matt Bird. It is more applicable to D&D 3.0/3.5 and Pathfinder RPG than the current version of D&D.
Your typical Dungeons and Dragons PC will run the gamut from lawful good to chaotic neutral. Most bands are composed of a mixture of good to legally-ambiguous guys and gals who want to put an end to evil in the world. These groups are probably the easiest to handle and participate in, for though the methods may be different the ends are usually the same.
But that narrow view of Dungeons and Dragons eliminates three alignments: neutral evil, lawful evil and chaotic evil. These simple choices can dramatically change how a character acts.
At its basic an evil character is easy enough to understand. They're the bad guys. They work to make everyone else miserable, thinking only of their own goals and ambitions. And, typically, they don't wind up in a group of good guys. Evil characters are on the other end of the sword. Or they would be in a black and white game. Dungeons and Dragons is seldom black and white. There are plenty of morally-ambiguous situations in which good and evil can come together to complete a common goal. And though they don't always get along together - indeed the union may result in eventual disaster - it's perfectly reasonable to expect a group with good and evil characters to eventually succeed.
That is, so long as the PCs don't act TOO evil.
Playing an evil character who's true to their nature will require some evil acts. Villains have little by way of scruples and will cheat, lie and kill to get what they want. This usually contrasts with the beliefs of good characters who, understandably, loathe harming the innocent (and even those who aren't so innocent, or at least not for a good reason).
But that doesn't mean you need to be overtly evil all the time. Think about villains in real life (or people you perceive to be villains, anyway). Do they constantly wander around killing people in the streets? Is their every last act tempered by malice? Or can they hide their temperament when they realize it's a dumb idea to be evil? Likely the latter, if they want to remain free.
And you should act similarly if you want to play an evil character. By all means, kill people if you're evil. Steal. Cheat. Lie. Slander. But don't parade around committing evil acts all the time. Don't get your party in trouble just because you're 'playing in character'. In short, don't be an idiot about being evil. Be sly, be opportunistic and, above all, be discrete. Carrying out vile acts behind the backs of your allies will ultimately be more fun than turning into a ravenous axe murderer, especially if you want to survive more than one session.
One last practical tip: if you want to go evil, you may want to avoid chaotic evil. Chaotic evil characters tend to act on their impulses on a whim, doing as they please when they please. There's a reason most monsters are chaotic evil. Go with neutral or lawful evil and you can create a much more sociable, balanced character who can interact with goody-goodies while remaining true to your vile nature. |
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Written by Dwarmij
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Tuesday, 01 June 2010 03:10 |
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This was posted on RPGbomb by Ogre, who found it himself on DND CORNER.
I saw this on the net and wanted to post it here for easy access for myself and my friends.
September 4, 2008 admin Dungeon Masters, Props, Tokens, Cards and Maps
Making fun, interesting dungeons from scratch can be difficult. Bringing them to life at the game table can be really tough unless you are spend a lot of money buying pre-printed dungeon tiles on a 1″ grid. So how do you get your newly created dungeon onto a 1″ battle grid?
Enter Microsoft Excel.
Ok, Microsoft has a lot of bad press, but this is a trick that will save you time.
Convert your map to an electronic image. If you don’t have a scanner, visit a friend who does. If you are downloading free maps from Wizards of the Coast or another site then you will already have an image to use. The sweet thing here is that it doesn’t matter the format or size of the image, though I recommend using jpg because the file size is smallest, which works well if you plan to email the finished product around.
Now open a blank workbook in Excel.
- Change your print margins to .5″ all around (1/2″ border all around). You can go smaller if you like.
- Click Insert | Picture | From File.
- Browse to the image that you saved on your computer. Select it an click insert.
- The picture should appear in your workbook.
- Move the picture to the top leftmost area of your workbook, so that the top left corner of the map is covering cell A1.
- Click on your zoom, and change it to approximately 40%. This will show you how many pages the map will cover when printed.
- If you don’t get the dotted lines for the pages click print preview and then go back.
- However, you’ll want to go into print preview anyway, so open it now and count the number of squares of your dungeon that appear on the page. Assuming that you are using standard 8 ½” x 11″ paper and printed portrait then you will want 7 squares to appear on the page so that you get nice 1″ squares when you print.
- If there are more than 7 then cancel print preview and adjust your image size by dragging the bottom right corner diagonally down and to the right.
- Go back to print preview and count the squares. If the squares are too big, then go back and make the image smaller.
- When you have the right size of squares, print the pages.
- Generally speaking you will end up with several pages. After they print, lay them all out on the table, or the floor if you have a very large map.
- Cut the bottom ½” border off the top row of pages. This will allow you to tape or glue (I prefer clear tape applied to both sides) the second row to the top row.
- Cut the right ½” border off the left most pages. This will allow you to glue or tape the next row of pages together.
- The idea here is to end up with a ½” border all around your nice map but still have plenty of room for assembly.
You can do up an entire dungeon level in one evening and save yourself a ton of time explaining and drawing maps for players. Personally I like to let my players keep the maps of the areas they have cleared.
Hope this helps and have fun!
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 June 2010 04:38 |
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Written by Dwarmij
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Wednesday, 28 April 2010 17:49 |
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Replacing subterfuge and trickery with guile and bravado, the Venturer is a versatile swashbuckler who steps out of the shadows, trading subtlety for martial prowess.
Class Features Modifications
Lose: Rogue Talents, Sneak Attack
Rogues with the Venturer variant gain the following class features:
Bonus Feats: At 1st level, and at every even level thereafter, a venturer gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement (meaning that the venturer gains a feat at every level). These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as Combat Feats, sometimes also called “fighter bonus feats.”
Upon reaching 4th level, and every four levels thereafter (8th, 12th, and so on), a venturer can choose to learn a new bonus feat in place of a bonus feat he has already learned. In effect, the venturer loses the bonus feat in exchange for the new one. The old feat cannot be one that was used as a prerequisite for another feat, prestige class, or other ability. A venturer can only change one feat at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the feat at the time he gains a new bonus feat for the level.
A venturer's class levels do not count as fighter levels for the purposes of qualifying for fighter-only bonus feats.
Surprise Attack (Ex): If a venturer can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from his attack, he can strike suddenly for a sure hit.
The venturer gains an insight bonus on his attack roll anytime his target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the venturer flanks his target. This insight bonus is +1 at 1st level, and increases by +1 every two venturer levels thereafter. Ranged attacks can count as surprise attacks only if the target is within 30 feet.
A venturer cannot surprise attack while striking a creature with concealment.
Author's Note: This is an expanded version of the "feat rogue" variant from Unearthed Arcana, which gave up sneak attacks for fighter bonus feats. Surprise Attack doesn't give a damage bonus like Sneak Attack does, but hiting more often (and using it on crit-immune enemies) makes up for the loss (mathematically, total damage output is nearly identical). This class variant is for roguish, self-sufficient adventurers who have many skills but rely on real combat skill rather than dirty fighting and blatant trickery - think an Indiana Jones type.
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