We Need The XP!

I have been in some awful skill challenges. They added nothing to the game and actively hurt the story we were playing. Is this because skill challenges suck? No. In every case I have played in a bad skill challenge the DM has actively undermined the challenge. They didn’t get the concept, or were so combat focused that they just didn’t like it. So how can skill challenges be improved so even those DMs like them? I have a couple of ideas, but first lets look at how they go wrong.

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Ok, I have been bluffing for thirty years. I am not a Dungeon ‘Master’ and you don’t need to be a ‘Master’ either to run a fun game. There are rules I don’t know, I forget to use all my powers as a DM sometimes and I don’t read every Dragon cover to cover.  I don’t pretend to know everything in the game. Dungeons and Dragons is cooperative story telling and it doesn’t require absolute mastery of all elements of the game to run good games. You do need good basic knowledge of the game’s mechanisms, but for most games a quick read through is all you need. read more »

Dicey by Fangleman on Flickr

One of the blessings of the internet is that it makes it much easier to connect with people who share your interests and there are ton of good sites on the net for finding people interested in playing roleplaying or miniatures games. If you live in an urban area there is a very good chance that there are active groups in the area already, if you live in the more thinly populated parts of the world you may have to try harder, but you may get lucky.

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Got my copy of Arcane Power, the latest Dungeons and Dragons 4e rules supplement for players, and am enjoying it so far. There are options in the book for all the current Arcane classes, the Bard, the Sorcerer, the Swordmage, the Warlock and the Wizard as well as new Paragon Paths, Epic Destinies and rules for familiars. The art is very good, I appreciate the variety of skin tones on the characters and while some art is reused from other things it is all pretty good stuff. Like all the 4e stuff I have picked up so far the book is very accessible, I can clearly understand each of the new powers and feats without a rules mentat’s help, something I really do like about 4e in general.

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Living Forgotten Realms, one of Wizards of the Coast’s biggest efforts this year hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, but is certainly bringing in players in my area. Wizards has declared it a success, they say it has drawn more players than any previous campaign, local players with long RPGA memories agree. Largely beneath the radar Wizards is releasing four adventures a month for the campaign and has been doing this since last summer giving them a large pool of dedicated adventures. The games can be played in by private groups and in game shops, with special adventures for conventions being released as well. I will be reviewing the campaign first from a players point of view, I will talk about it from a DM’s perspective in a later post. read more »

Greek Helmet by Templer1307

I like minions in 4th edition D&D but sometimes they just don’t feel right to me. A good example is when someone hits a minion and rolls a one for damage. The player knows that is a wimpy hit and somehow even a mook should shrug it off. I have used a couple of variations to beef them up a bit without overdoing it. read more »