D&D Allstars

           Hey Allstars! Let’s talk about Traps! Dungeons & Dragons offers Dungeon Masters and Player Characters many different ways to wound, injure and maim. With a massive arsenal of simple, martial and exotic weapons at your disposal what more could you need? Well my friends, I’d like to explain why using traps to supplement your armory of carnage creating killing tools is a good idea. Before we get started, we have to answer the question, “What is a Trap?” In Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, a Trap is defined as “Something by which one is caught unawares,” and “a situation from which escape is difficult or impossible.” Using these two definitions, we have the most common uses of traps in Dungeons & Dragons. If we head over to page 120 of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, it also says that, “In the D&D game, unwary adventurers can fall to their deaths, be burned alive, or fall under a fusillade of poisoned darts.”

           In Dungeons & Dragons there are a few ways to lay a trap. A good trap for a beginner Dungeon Master, or even a Party of Adventurers is called an ambush. For a DM, setting up an ambush is as easy as hiding five to six goblins in the bushes around a group of Travelers setting up camp for the night. For Players, an ambush can be an effective way to lure tough enemies into a situation that would be more advantageous for the Party. Ambushes are only the tip of the iceberg in Dungeons & Dragons. Once again, we turn to page 120 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. If we continue reading from where we left off, we see that there are two types of traps. These refer to when the goblins or the Party choose to weaponize the environment, in hopes of achieving a goal that would be much more difficult without doing so. In Dungeons & Dragons these traps can be either Mechanical or Magical in nature.

A Mechanical Trap refers to using the mundane to injure, incapacitate, or even kill a target. These types of traps often rely on physics an engineering to activate them and to serve their purpose. Some mechanical traps include tripwires, caltrops, pitfalls, and anything else that would rely on physics or a mechanism to operate. Magic Traps rely on the mysterious power of magic to create and operate them. These traps are often very intuitive, very simple, and operate with deadly efficiency. The Dungeon Master’s Guide divides Magic Traps into two groups, Magic Device Traps, and Spell Traps. Magic Device Traps are similar to Mechanical traps because they require a trigger of sorts to activate and operate them. Spell Traps are spells that are used to create traps that don’t use a switch or pressure plate to operate. An empty room in a castle with an enchantment that puts all of its inhabitants into a deep sleep is a good example of a spell trap.

When you are a Player Character, traps can be useful tools for gaining an advantage in any situation. Often times Rogues and Rangers will have useful skills in building and setting traps. They can be used to find food in the wild, or separate large groups of enemies in dungeons. They can also be used to slow down powerful enemies, or used to weaken them in other ways. Swinging swords and casting spells is obviously a very fun aspect of playing the game, but a clever party member can build a pit trap as effective as any strong grapple, or hold person spell.

As a Dungeon Master, traps can be an efficient and entertaining way to keep your players engaged and on their toes. They remind your players that while there may not be any monsters in the room, they are still on a perilous Quest and should be alert at all times. Well placed traps can be used to guide adventuring parties in a preferred direction, and as always, when a Player or Party successfully overcomes or disarms a trap, it can be a very fruitful and rewarding experience.

Thanks for reading.

Welcome Back Allstars! Today let’s talk about Questing. Questing is when an adventurer or group of adventurers, called a Party, embark on a journey with a specific goal or set of goals they want to accomplish. Questing is the backbone of Dungeons & Dragons. Questing gives adventurers the opportunities they need to improve their skills, grow their wealth, and build their circle of influence. If you are a Dungeon Master it is your job to write these Quests and then make them available to the Party. As a Player Character, it is your responsibility to seek out Quests and complete them.

           When you are a Dungeon Master, coming up with Quests can be a difficult process. There are a few steps you can take to make the process a little bit easier. The First Step is to “Choose an Objective.” An objective is an action or event that, once completed, marks the successful completion of the Quest. Quests can have more than one objective, and often times having more objectives makes the Quest more challenging, and more fun for the party. Objectives can be categorized into several different groups. Search and Rescue missions usually involve finding a missing person. Seek and Destroy Missions are exactly what they sound like. For a Seek and Destroy Quest, the Party may be asked to track down a band of Raiders or Orcs, and annihilate them. Search and Retrieval Quests are similar to Search and Rescue, except that the Party is searching for an object or artifact instead of a specific person. Hunter/Gatherer missions usually involve gathering resources or rare materials. For example, a local Wizard has agreed to help the Party locate the Evil Sorcerer, but to do so he will need them to provide him with the eyes of five Adult White Dragons. Finally, Courier Quests, or Special Delivery Quests require that the Party successfully deliver a package, or a message to specified person or group.

           The next step to creating a Quest is to “Pick a Setting”. When you create a Quest for your Party, you want to have an idea of where each leg of the Quest will take place. Will the Party be Traveling a short distance? Or will they be gone for a long time? If they are traveling, what kind of terrain will they be going through? Where will the climax of the Quest take place? Your Setting will help your players decide what strategies they choose to adopt, and will help you determine what kind of obstacles the Party will face. The Setting helps you determine what kind of weather the party encounters, what kind of NPC’s, or Non-Player Characters they will interact with, and what kinds of creatures the party may face in the wild.

           After you’ve chosen your Objectives and your Setting, next you must “Create Danger.” Creating danger means that you, as the Dungeon Master, present a certain level of risk that the party must take in order to complete their objectives. In most cases involving combat, such as Seek and Destroy quests, the Party is agreeing to risk their lives to complete their Quest. What if the Quest doesn’t involve combat? Well there are other kinds of danger that the players can face. Some other possible consequences could include incarceration, having to pay fines, losing their equipment, having their property taken from them, or having their reputations tarnished.

           For the Final step of Creating a Quest, you must “Promise Reward.” Questing is hard work, and no one works for free. Just like each Quest will have some measure of risk involved, there will also be something that the Party can gain from completing each Quest. While the most popular reward in Dungeons & Dragons is gold and other valuable items, some Adventurers seek other kinds of treasure. Knowledge, Experience, Power, and Influence are all valuable rewards that a Party member can gain from completing a Quest. To a Wizard, Knowledge and Power may be worth more than all of the gold in the land. A Bard might jump at the chance to witness first hand, any event that could change the course of history. As a Dungeon Master, it is your responsibility to identify what rewards your Players seek, and then use those rewards to motivate them.

Thanks for Reading!

               Hello again Allstars! Let’s talk about Magic! What is Magic? Also known as Arcana, Mana, Magicka, or Devine Power, Magic is a mysterious force that allows the most gifted and most disciplined users to manipulate reality. Magic is a mythical source of power that has been apart of human history for thousands of years, and it’s no surprise that it would become a major part of the Dungeons & Dragons Franchise. Throughout history some of the most powerful rulers, and leaders have been believed to have some sort of Magical abilities. In the world of Dungeons & Dragons, these abilities can be manifested in awesome and wonderous ways. Whether you are a Player who has just rolled their first wizard, playing a Fighter who has just encountered his first Vampire, or a Dungeon Master looking for new and creative ways to challenge your party, Magic can play a huge roll in each session that you play.

               For many players, the idea of using magic to solve problems, and end conflicts is an attractive part of D&D. Magic is often times used as a tool by classes known as spellcasters to achieve certain goals. There are may types of spellcasters, some gain their power through careful study and years of practice. Other Casters are born with natural abilities to manipulate reality. Still other Casters are gifted their powers by powerful Gods, or ancient primordial beings. Where ever you draw your power from, you can be sure that the possibilities will be limitless. Of course, you can use your magic to hurl a firebolt at a goblin raider, or to splash corrosive acid on a brutish highwayman, but damage dealing spells are only the tip of the iceberg. Magic can also be used to manipulate the thoughts and decisions of weaker minded NPC’s. Some spells can be used to create water in a desert wasteland, or walk straight up a cliff face as if it were nothing more than a bumpy road. Still other spells can be used to slow down assailants, or even completely immobilize a fleeing target. The most powerful Spellcasters even have abilities that allow them to summon powerful allies to their side, or even grant wishes!

               While playing as a Spellcaster is most definitely a blast, they can prove to be deadly foes in combat. Servings as hired thugs, advisors to lords and ladies, or even commanding henchmen of their own, Spellcasters can be as deadly and efficient as any Barbarian, Ranger or Rogue. As a Player, if you encounter a Spellcasting adversary it is important to give them the proper respect on the battlefield, or else you may find yourself separated from your team, trapped behind a wall of ice, battling with an ancient demon.

               As a Dungeon Master it is important to address some very important details when introducing magic into your world. When you build your campaign, you should consider some of the following questions. How often is magic encountered in this world? Is it a rare occurrence, only witnessed by the most experienced adventurers? Or is magic so commonplace that even peasants can use certain low-level spells? After deciding how common or rare magic is, you should also consider how it is harnessed. Is there a source of all Magic or is it simply another part of the natural world, as factual and permanent as gravity? Using Magic as a DM can be fun and often times convenient. It is important to remember that magic is a very powerful tool and if not used correctly it can totally decimate a party of adventurers. The same goes for using magic to benefit your players. Giving your players Magical items too early or too often can make the game so easy that it is no longer fun. It is important to maintain balance when using magic. Instead of giving the players a bag of holding when they discover the monster’s treasure horde, let them come up with their own creative solution to transport the treasure.

As always, Thanks for Reading!

Afternoon Allstars! Today I want to talk about alignments. Character alignments play a major role in determining how your character reacts to different situations. Depending on your characters alignment, you may want to adopt a “Shoot First, Ask Later” mentality, or you may want to adopt a more peaceful approach to finding a solution. Not only does your alignment affect how you will play the game, it also affects how other characters, NPC’s and creatures will react to your choices. Like most things in Dungeons & Dragons, there are two sides to this coin.

               So how do alignments work? The answer is quite simple, and also quite interesting. There are nine total alignments, each comprised of two halves the first half determines your characters attitude towards life. simply put, the first half of your alignment describes how your character chooses to approach problems. There are three choices when determining your alignment. You can choose to be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. The Second half of your alignment determines your characters moral preferences. In most situations each action that you perform can be sorted into three categories, Good, Neutral or Evil. Some questions you can ask yourself are, “Is my goal Clearly Good or Evil?” “Does my character hope to achieve any secondary goals when they achieve the main goal?” and finally, “Are any of my secondary goals clearly defined as Good or Evil?”

               Once you have chosen your alignment, it is your responsibility to play the character to match that alignment. For example, if you’ve chosen to play a Lawful Good character, page 122 of the D&D 5th Edition Players Handbook states that a Lawful Good Character “Can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society.” This means that a Lawful Good Paladin would most likely not be found stealing from merchants, murdering innocents, or destroying property. On the other hand, a Neutral Evil Rogue would be happy to commit all of these crimes and more as long as they thought they could get away with it. Remember playing your alignment is only one side of the spectrum.

               If you are a Dungeon Master, it is important to remember what your Players alignments are, and how your world is going to react to them because of it. If you have a party of four Good aligned Characters, spending time in a peaceful, human village or city, they will most likely be greeted with warm welcomes, affordable lodgings and supplies, and it will most likely be a peaceful and pleasant experience for the party and the NPC’s. But what if the Lord presiding over that village is a Lawful Evil Aristocrat, who is robbing the people through excessive taxation? Suddenly a village of good people may not seem so pleasant or peaceful. It is also important to take careful consideration of any player who chooses to play an evil aligned character. Perhaps three members of your party are playing Good aligned characters, but the fourth has chosen to play a Neutral Evil Rogue. This character may choose to commit crimes and atrocities while they accompany the other party members. People may start to notice that when the seemingly nice and helpful strangers arrived, many items started coming up missing. Or perhaps the village people begin reporting back alley muggings to the local authorities placing the party under heavy scrutiny. Overall, it is important to remember that the alignment of one Player Character, or even just one Non-Player Character can have a major impact of the world you’ve created.

               Thanks for Reading!

               Good evening Allstars! Tonight, I want to go over a very serious topic. Dungeons & Dragons provides players with a variety of ways to have fun. The game involves something for everyone, whether it’s combat and experience gaining, role-playing, treasure, character building or even world building and story writing, D&D has a little bit of everything. Although Dungeons & Dragons provides players an opportunity to work on their communication skills, math skills and form lasting friendships, some players choose to entertain themselves through more devious means. Griefing, also known as Trolling is something that every gamer has experienced at some point in their gaming career. If you have ever played an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online game) or if you’ve ever played a Player versus Player First Person Shooter you have probably encountered one Griefer or another. Griefing is when a player deliberately and purposefully pursues a goal or set of goals that are intended to upset another player. Griefers often times find it entertaining or humorous to go out of their way to make playing a game more difficult for another player. In online games this often takes the form of higher-level Player Characters harassing lower level PC’s in any way that they can.

In Dungeons & Dragons Griefing can be taken to an even more frustrating and potentially dangerous level. Many players find that one of the most appealing characteristics of D&D is the fact that they are not limited by the same rules that are imposed upon them in many video games. This gives many PC’s the ability to really let their imaginations go wild. Sometimes, this level of freedom can get out of hand. Another attractive aspect of Dungeons & Dragons is that many groups play in person around a table, with miniatures, and maps and pencil and paper. This means that when a player chooses to Troll another player, the victim is often times face to face with their aggressor. Situations where one player chooses to pursue a personal vendetta against a fellow party member, with no real in-game motivator, can escalate very quickly. In a situation like this it is likely that the victim will become defensive or even confrontational towards the Griefer. In some cases, like when the harassment has persisted over several sessions, the victim may even become aggressive, and the situation could easily teeter into violence if the activity is allowed to continue.

Now we all want to have fun when we play games, that’s the point of playing right? However, our fun should not come at the expense of another player. It is one thing for the Rouge to pickpocket a few coins from the purses of the other party members when they aren’t looking, it is another, completely inappropriate thing to purposefully target one member of the party with the intention of making the game less fun for them. If you are a Dungeon Master, and you notice one of your players is harassing one or more of their party members it is your responsibility to put an end to the behavior. You should pull the aggressor aside either after the session or before the next session and have a private conversation with them about their behavior. It is possible that the Griefer in the party just isn’t having fun, and is searching for other ways to enjoy themselves. Whatever their reason, it is not appropriate to purposefully agitate another player for personal enjoyment. If the behavior continues, then the Griefer may be asked to leave the group.

Party Members have a responsibility to step in as well. If you notice one of your party members harassing another PC, call them out on it at the table. If you prefer a less direct approach, talk to your DM after the session and tell them about what you’ve observed. We are all responsible for our own ability to have fun, but we should all be considerate of one another and play together as a group. As always, thank you for reading.

Hey Allstars! Just a couple of days ago you read my posts “What Is Dungeons & Dragons” and “Who is the Dungeon Master Anyway?” tonight I’d like to talk to you about who your players are. As we all know by now the Dungeon Master is the creative force behind each D&D Story. If the Dungeon Master is the story writer, then the Players are the main characters. First and foremost, it is every players responsibility to have fun while playing Dungeons & Dragons, but what do the Players do? To answer that we will have to go over a few different key elements. Firstly, a Player must first create a Character. To do so each player must work with their Dungeon Master to determine their ability scores, their character race, and their character class. This is arguably one of the most fun experiences in Dungeons & Dragons. This is because during character creation you get to decide who you want to be. You get to create a whole new personality for yourself. Do you want to be a Barbaric Half-Orc, who is in search of new and stronger opponents to defeat in battle? Or do you want to be a devout Dwarven Cleric, who has dedicated his life to protecting the weak and spreading the word of his Almighty Lord?

Now that you’ve built your character and given them a name, the next step is to meet your Party. Your Party is the group of players that you will be adventuring and role-playing with. Like you these players have spent time with their Dungeon Master developing their character. Like any multiplayer game, these characters need to meet each other “in-game” as I like to say. Meeting your Party is an awesome chance to role-play your new Half-Orc Barbarian. Who knows, you might find out that there is a Fighter, or even a Monk in the party who revels in hand to hand fighting and would gladly meet your challenge to spar! Or maybe you discover that there is a mysterious sorcerer in your ranks, capable of conjuring terrible and frightening things, seemingly out of nothing! And remember, with a diverse party there is more room for creativity.

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for. You have built your character and met your fellow adventurers. Now it’s time to head to the adventurer’s guild and pick up your first quest! Or maybe your group is approached by a shadowy, cloaked figure who invites you to partake in riches and glory! No matter how your Party starts their Journey, you can be sure it will be one filled with treasures and traps and monsters and more! If it is the Dungeon Master’s job to write the story, then it is the Players job to enjoy that story to its fullest potential.

Thanks for reading!

Hey Allstars! Today I’m coming at you with possibly the most important question any Player or DM could ask you. What is Dungeons and Dragons? There may be a wide variety of answers depending on who you ask. Some may say that it is a table top adventure game. Others may tell you it is a role-playing game. Still others may say that it is a bunch of dice, math, and rules. All of these answers are true, but there is so much more to the world of D&D.

To start off, there are two types of players in D&D. there is the Dungeon Master, who is the coordinator of the game and the story writer. In addition, the DM also controls the actions of the in-game NPC’s, or Non-Player Characters. The other type of player is called the PC or Player Character. Player Characters are responsible for making decision for their own personal character that takes part in adventures assigned to them by the Dungeon Master. For each game there is usually only one DM, while there can be many Player Characters. If you read any of the Dungeons & Dragons Player Handbooks or Dungeon Master’s Guides, they will recommend playing with one DM and up to four PC’s. This is because when you are a DM, managing a party of five or more players can be quite stressful.

Some of you may be asking, well what is the objective? Simply put, the objective is to have fun. Dungeons & Dragons offers players a unique style of gaming that isn’t restricted by the limits of a traditional board game or card game. Instead, players are only limited by their imaginations. Dungeons and Dragons is a Table Top Role-Playing game that relies on rolling dice to determine the effectiveness of a character’s actions. To put it plainly, you declare what it is you want to do, then you roll your dice, and if you roll high enough, your character succeeds in performing whatever feat you wanted them to do.

There are two halves to every D&D Campaign, and those are adventuring, and role-playing. During each session, the party decides on what course of action they would like to take, either as individuals or as a group. When the party decides to travel to a distant land in search of an ancient artifact guarded by an Ancient Red Dragon and his army of kobolds, that is adventuring. Adventuring usually focuses on the glory of combat and the riches gained thereafter. Role-Playing on the other hand can take place anywhere, anytime, and allows players an opportunity to step into the shoes of their character and to adopt a whole new persona. In the D&D-verse, role-playing opportunities are everywhere. Whether you’re in a shop, bargaining for lower prices on the best magical items or in the royal court trying to persuade the mad king not to attack the neighboring nation, role-playing is a fun and engaging opportunity to become someone new.

Hello Allstars! Before we get started with our topic, I want to direct you to page 4 of the Dungeons & Dragons, 5E (5th edition) Dungeon Master’s Guide. Under the section titled, “The Dungeon Master” the first sentence says, “The Dungeon Master (DM) is the creative force behind a D&D game.” The very next sentence states, “The DM creates a world for the other players to explore, and also creates and runs adventures that drive the story.” Today I want to talk to you about a very important detail that is easily overlooked by new Players and New DM’s alike. This may come as a shock to many of you who are new to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, but the DM is not the bad guy! In fact, for many players, the Dungeon Master can be their greatest ally. Obviously, the DM is in charge of controlling many aspects of the game, including the bandits, thugs, corrupt lords and otherwise all-around nasty villains, but they do so for the entertainment of their players and themselves. Notice that I used the word “and.” That is because a good Dungeon Master is going to tailor the game to fit everybody’s interest, including their own. Whether you are playing a heavily combat oriented game, or sitting down with a few friends for some intense political role-play, it is important to remember that the Dungeon Master is less like a villain and more like a referee. This is because the Dungeon Master is responsible for describing the cause and affect of each die roll.

Ideally, each interaction, whether it be physical combat, or just a short conversation in the marketplace should be governed by one or more die rolls. When the game is played this way, the Dungeon Master is able to fairly gauge how well or how poor a PC (Player Character) or NPC (Non-Player Character) Performed. In most cases, a higher value die roll results in a more favorable outcome for the person performing the action, whereas lower value die rolls will usually yield results that are not so favorable. In any case, the Dungeon Master is responsible for making sure that you and your fellow PC’s are fairly rewarded for your efforts based on your die rolls.

If you ever feel like your character is not performing as well as they should be there are a few things you should look at. Firstly, what kind of numbers are you rolling on your dice? Are they high numbers? Or are they low? It is not unheard of for one player or another to have one bad session where they just couldn’t get a good die roll to save their lives. In any case, if you come to the conclusion that it isn’t your die rolls, then maybe you should look at the kind of actions you are trying to perform. Obviously, a Wizard with a low strength score is not going to be able to scale even a small cliff unassisted. Finally, if you’ve scrutinized every detail about your game play and still feel like you aren’t getting the outcome you deserve, have a conversation with your DM about it. Often times, when a player voices their concerns in a civil manner, the Dungeon Master is more than happy to help you adjust your character, play style, or even their own tactics to make the game more fun for everyone.

Thank you for reading!

The advice doesn’t stop there! This page will also provide helpful inspiration for building your D&D world geographically, socially, and even historically! The goal of D&D Allstars is to help you have as much fun while playing the iconic game of Dungeons and Dragons as possible! Happy Adventuring!