The Order of the Shooting Star: Part 2

This is a series of Dungeons and Dragons recaps. I have taken story liberties in order to tell an engaging tale.

The room was filled with rat carcasses and broken items. Several gold pieces were left behind as well as a couple of spell scrolls. Whatever was done here there wasn't any evidence of it anymore.

In the corner was a hidden trapdoor which lead down to a natural cave. Proceeding down the tunnels the party came across a group of goblins in a makeshift lair. Combat ensued with the heroes being victorious. Looting the corpses they found cheap weapons and more gold pieces.

Searching the section revealed a heavy shelf hiding a hastily assembled door. Listening at the door revealed the sounds of a humanoid snoring. Entering the area the party finds a halfling tied up in a corner on a straw bed. This passage appeared to be his prison cell. Another door is seen with another heavy shelf blocking the door from the outside. Listening at the door reveals more goblins talking amongst themselves.

The party decides to have some fun. They push the door and bookcase into the tunnel and crush two goblins beneath its weight. Another battle plays out with the party being victorious. Traveling into the next tunnel reveals the entrance to the cave and solves the mystery of how the rats were entering the inn's cellar.

Richard made the decision to seal the cave's entrance and persuaded the rest of the group to agree. He argued that he didn't trust the innkeeper or the elf named John so he wanted to ensure that neither would accidentally discover the passages. Connor worked the wall from the outside to make it blend in with the rest of the cave's wall. Once finished Connor traveled back to town after disguising himself to look like a monk to throw off the innkeeper while Richard and Ets returned through the tunnels and investigated the halfling further.

He appeared to have been attacked with a blunt weapon and suffering the effects of some poison. Thinking quickly, Richard attempted to cure the halfling of his ailment. Following that the party proceeded to return to the inn.

Climbing into the cellar Richard proceeded to conceal the trapdoor into the cellar floor before returning to the inn proper.

Connor passed behind the inn to peer into the kitchen's window looking for the party. Richard saw a strange monk standing outside and called to the innkeeper which caused the monk to run away.

When the innkeeper returned to his position behind the counter the monk reemerged and dropped the disguise. Connor's disguise had fooled Richard.

The party explained that the rats were entering through a hole in the cellar which was expertly plugged and now asked for payment. The innkeeper admitted that he couldn't offer gold but he could offer his merchant's discount for the local shops and a week's stay at the inn free of charge.

Mission accomplished but questions remain: Why did that elf want the inn so badly? What did the wizard do to the innkeeper? What else did the wizard do?

The Guide to Dungeon Mastering: Get Rid of Those Grids!

Welcome to an informal chat about DM basics. I'll be giving tips and tricks that I've learned over the years.

I began my adventures in tabletop gaming playing exclusively using theater-of-the-mind. I say this because everything went weird when we started using grids.

Now it started out fine, we had a means to visually track character locations and ranges but something just felt off about the entire thing. At the time I was never able to figure it out but that is the magic of looking backward; hindsight is 20/20 after all.

I figured out that the problem was the grids. Gridded lines on a play surface are a good abstraction but everyone instinctually places their figures inside the lines. This is not how things would normally operate as grids do not appear in nature. Nothing is nicely organized by neat 5-foot squares!

It's not an issue for everyone but I've found that it can be immersion breaking which is why I have removed grids from my game. I have not removed miniatures but that is a separate issue.

This is the point I am making:
You can use miniatures without a grid!

So, how do we make this work? The biggest thing to worry about is scale, most editions follow a simple setup (1-inch = 5-feet) but you are free to use any scale you want. The trick is to make it consistent and base it around a 1 inch rule.

Why 1-inch? Because that is the default size of a standard mini base. Make something relevant to that size and your system will be applicable to all minis.

The next thing to worry about is movement speed. Thankfully most editions give this stat in feet as opposed to grids (major exception being 4e) so the best method I have found is to make something to measure movement.

For example: I use the standard system (1-inch = 5-feet) and the standard movement speed of a medium sized character is 30-feet. I do some simple math and that equates to 6-inches, so I cut a length of string or measure a stick and use that as a base. Repeat as necessary.

That method also works when measuring range for attacks and other things. All told a very small amount of work is required to make this work. It just needs the players to get on board and that is the easy part.

In short, getting rid of the grids will make your games far more immersive.

Next time: I'll be talking about increasing that immersion for your group!

DM Story Time: Why I don't like 4e

Stories from the years gone by that helped shape who I am as a player and dungeon master.

It was summer of 2008 when I began hearing about the new DnD version. I didn't have a computer or reliable internet access at this time so I couldn't look up the information myself, but what I heard intrigued me. A brand new edition that I can get into on the ground floor? I'll buy it.

And so when it launched I bought the box-set with all three core rulebooks and a DM screen. I poured over those books and itched to try out the new combat powers. I wouldn't get the chance for several months because I went to boot camp shortly after the launch.

Fast-forward to my days of being bored in the barracks during A-School. I talked with some friends of mine about how I used to play DnD on a weekly basis and stirred up some interest. I then had my mother ship me my 4e books and I began preparing an adventure. I walked the players through character creation and we decided to have a go at it.

Even though I had started things off as a roleplay heavy session we found ourselves bogged down in combat. The combat rules flowed easily enough but everything dragged at a snail's pace; I understand that this was because of the inexperience of the players but I didn't have much to go on to make it any faster.

I began to realize that I hadn't prepared enough for the game. 4e rules were so focused on combat that a play surface and miniatures (things I did not have access to) were practically a requirement. This blew my mind, I played 2e prior and we never used miniatures or even a grid. We operated purely on theater-of-the-mind, but this version would not easily let me facilitate that. I began to feel buyer's remorse.

After the session I began looking through the rulebooks again and realized that I only focused on the cool additions to the game. I never looked at what they changed for the worse.

• Alignments were practically non-existent.
• Skills were simplified to insulting levels.
• Wizards had no spells.

The alignment chart existed to abstract what the character should do if the player is unsure. This chart existed for years with two differing scales (lawful to chaotic; good to evil) to determine overall character standing. 4e reduced the nine options to five on a single sliding scale (lawful good, good, neutral, evil, chaotic evil). Looking at it with fresh eyes I realized that it was simplified because WotC didn't feel like new players would understand it. I started to feel insulted.

The skill list was reduced. I had no problem with this. What would previously require a thief to roll to Hide and then Move Silently was replaced with Stealth. That was a good change, but why would you get rid of skill points? Allocating skill points was that great moment when a player would say Do I want to maximize Diplomacy? Admittedly, this was a minor concern as I understand why they did it; however, when you couple it with the fact that I was already feeling insulted this did nothing to help.

I should rephrase this: Every class is a Wizard. Encounter powers, Daily powers, At-Will powers; everyone is practically a spellcaster in this game. This was done to level the playing field but it had the added effect of making it pointless to play a Wizard. Let me go into further depth here, Wizards did have spells but they were practically identical to each other and the only differences were elemental flavor text and properties. They were still used in the power line-up seen previously.

Years have passed since those days and I'm still not fond of 4e, but I would play it again. This time I wouldn't attempt to take it seriously. Combat worked in this game and I don't mind that but the unfortunate thing is that WotC may have destroyed any hope for this edition with the release of 5e.

5e performs combat just as well as 4e but with the added benefit of feeling faster. Everything flows faster and feels more urgent; also I do not feel that I need to map out every encounter on a grid. Wizards feel like Wizards again. Skill points still do not exist but I have moved beyond my initial reaction to that. I realized that I never needed skill points in an RPG; I just needed to feel progress.

5e is what 4e should have been.

John's Journal: Sell Me the Inn!

John is an NPC in my current group's adventure. He has his own spin on how events transpire.

I've been looking at the inn for several days now. It's in good condition but barely noticeable. I could elevate it to something worth talking about.

I already have the signs made up The Dragon's Breath Inn complete with an image of a friendly dragon holding his own foaming mug. It will draw people in and they'll have to stay the night once they see the furnishings.

But that stubborn innkeeper. He refuses to sell it to me! He doesn't realize the value this establish holds!

I offered him triple the market value and still he declines. Tells me the place is infested with vermin. You want to play that game, fine. I hired some patrons who looked like they could handle themselves to take care of the problem. If they succeed then I'll have the inn with no further issues.

If they fail, well I guess I'll just have to build another inn in town and put that man out of business. I won't let this opportunity pass me by.

I will have that inn.

The Guide to Dungeon Mastering: Picking an Edition

Welcome to an informal chat about DM basics. I'll be giving tips and tricks that I've learned over the years.

This is a topic for new players more so than anyone else. But let's start with my experiences:

I was introduced to DnD via 3e and 3.5e then joined a group playing a modified version of 2e. Later, I bought into the hype that was 4e and through a multitude of reasons I determined that I didn't like it. I currently run a game with modified 3.5e rules and join in on D&D Encounters so I can experience 5e.

In short, I have played every major version of the game that has been popular in the last 20 years.

Some people might argue that I am qualified to say which version is the best; to which I claim that there is no best version now shut up silly voice in my head. The question comes down to what do you want the rulebooks to do for you and this is because every version of the game does at least one thing well, but remember that the rules are never written in stone. In fact I think that deserves a bullet point.

• Rulebooks are to used as a guide only.

It is possible to go completely out of the realm of the books and oftentimes the game improves when this occurs. With so much freedom, how do players find the right edition? The good news is that I've got a system for that:

1. Get a group together.
2. Determine the DM.
3. Edition is based on DM's experience and availability of books.

Getting a group together is often the hard part (especially if your friends are not interested in RPGs) but there are resources out there. Roll20 serves as a virtual tabletop so that groups can play over the internet and they also have a Looking For Group (LFG) service. There exists a Subreddit known as r/lfg which serves the purpose of getting groups together online or offline. Otherwise, go old-school and put an ad in a local game or comic shop as that tends to reliably work out.

Once you have your group you can determine which among you should be the DM. Alternatively, you could volunteer for the job in your ad but only do so if you truly desire the job. The DM (or GM, I'm a DnD guy after all) should want to do it and should be at least familiar with the game. Beyond that I can attest to the merits of learning on the job but don't be afraid to offer help to your DM.

Finally, I feel that the edition should be the DM's call. The reason for this is simple: The DM is running the damn game! If the DM has 3.5e books and wants to run that game then let him run that game. Just ask to borrow the Player's Handbook so you can create a character.

Here is where it starts getting complicated.

Earlier I mentioned that rulebooks are to be used as a guide only. Well, now I'm going to say that they are important; kind of...

Think of the rulebooks as a reference for a report. They serve as a guide for how accurate things are but this is only good if you have the ability to reference them. So, you need books. In DnD there are three books that are required for play: Player's Handbook (PH), Monster Manual (MM), and the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). Players only need access to a PH in order to play; but anyone who wants to be a DM needs all three books (on the other hand Pathfinder is a system that is very similar to DnD but condenses itself to a single book).

So far it sounds like the answer to which edition should I get? is best answered by which edition am I most familiar with? That much is true; however, what if you are brand new and trying to figure this out for yourself? Those books I mentioned are not cheap and a newcomer cannot be expected to buy every book for every edition ever made. How does a newcomer choose?

See step one.

Decide based on what your group wants to play. If you are all brand new then I have a great solution. Choose 5e, it is the most recent version and will be supported by Wizards of the Coast for years to come. Also, it was created with new players in mind. 5e is the edition that is the easiest to get into and I will gladly run this edition in the future.

I've said a lot in this post but now I'm about to say the most important thing of all.

• Forget my rules and pick an edition dammit.

You see, we can argue about the proper protocol behind picking an edition to play but the short answer is that it's not really all that important. A good DM can make any edition work and good players will help make that DM's job easier. While there may be some differences to make note of between the editions that doesn't change a simple fact: No one is going to understand the game until they start playing.

This brings about the biggest point that I can make: It is impossible to find the "best" edition without first trying everything that is available to you. Why do I like 3.5e? Because the rules offer enough freedom for the players to do literally anything with just the core rulebooks. Why did I like 2e? Because I had fun with my friends who were playing it.

So stop arguing about the editions and just take a vote already. I'll play 4e again even though I don't like it.

The Guide to Dungeon Mastering: Making an Adventure the Players Love

Welcome to an informal chat about DM basics. I'll be giving tips and tricks that I've learned over the years.

I got into role-playing games in the early 2000's due to the friends I had in my Boy Scout troop (426 FTW). We had plenty of activities organized for our camping trips but the informal activities were our favorites. Most of us played Magic and we would have tournaments between our scheduled hikes, but we had the most fun at summer camp. This was when we would have all the time to organize something bigger.

That was the first time that I saw those books bearing the name Dungeons and Dragons but I was hooked. We played every night for that week long camp and we loved every minute of it. We didn't have any real motivation beyond what craziness we could come up with. In short, we loved the freedom that the game mechanics offered us.

Unfortunately, we understood that we wouldn't be able to continue playing after the week was over so we decided to go out with a bang. That culminated in a Friday afternoon session comprised entirely of the DM trying to achieve a fair total-party-kill. He threw everything at us but we overcame; the dice loved us and wanted the game to continue. Finally, he threw a titan our way that almost decimated us, until the ranger decided to use his remaining wish to explode the titan's heart.

The DM destroyed the world in the blast. Out with a bang indeed.

It wasn't until a couple years later that I found another group to play DnD with. This was when I figured out some differences: my first experience was with the third edition (3e) but this group was using the second edition (2e). Also, the first group stayed within the bounds of the rulebooks (despite how freeing the game was) while the second group hardly ever looked at the books. That was when I learned just how much the rules didn't matter anymore.

But enough backstory let's get to the point.

My first time as a DM came with that second group that I played with. I had been the party's rogue for several months and I noticed a change in myself. At the beginning of my RPG career I didn't care about story (shocking!), I wanted loot and craziness. After a while I craved continuity and complicated plots and (for whatever reason) the rest of the group obliged. Then I ran a couple of games for them and everyone had a good time. We all had fun with my short plot-based adventure.

Fast-forward about two years when I was in the military. Fourth edition (4e) launched a couple of months prior and I was itching to try it out. I convinced some of my buddies from basic to play in the barracks and I went about attempting to write a plot-based adventure like my previous group enjoyed.

It fell apart. No one was interested in the world or the hooks. They wanted to throw dice and kill things while amassing as much loot as they could carry. I was thrown for a loop and I couldn't figure out what to do. I was also discovering that I didn't like 4e as much as the hype had lead me to believe I would. After a couple of sessions we dissolved the group and I proceeded to look for the same experience in video games.

So, I made a mistake with that last group. I assumed that the players would loved what I loved about the game, but I forgot that they were brand new to this type of game. I should have looked back at my first sessions and thought about what kept me coming back week after week. It was the thrill of combat and rolling dice on the table. I grew to love the plots but I wanted to kill baddies at first. I was just like that third group.

The lesson I can give to DMs of all experience levels is this: Find out what your players want out of the game. They might enjoy a conspiracy filled campaign where no one is as they appear or they might just want to delve into a dungeon and kill things.

The Order of the Shooting Star

This will be the first of a series of Dungeons and Dragons recaps. I have taken story liberties in order to tell the tale in an engaging way. In actuality there was far more laughter and pop-culture references that wouldn't make sense in the context of a fantasy role-playing game.

Night was falling.

Richard, a Marshall, had gotten lost and his companion was annoyed. He called her Ets because he felt it was better than what everyone else called her: Experimental Test Subject 9-7, or E.T.S. 9-7 as the reports had been written.

Not much was known about her except that she was the product of magical experimentation. A hybrid cat/humanoid was the result and she was found by the Order when all was done. She was paired with Richard because he could speak to Catfolk.

Richard was a member of the Order of the Shooting Star, an Order dedicated to the proper uses of magic, and he could get lost in a barren hallway. He could never navigate and relied heavily on others to guide him. Richard and Ets were lost because he was leading the way and she vowed not to let that happen again.

The duo arrived in Bryn well after nightfall and longing for beds they proceeded to the town's inn. Their mission from the Order to meet with a mage contact and investigate rumors of magical disturbances. Searching the town proper could wait until morning, for now the inn called and maybe the innkeeper knew something.

Procuring a room was easy and the innkeeper let on that he might know some details, but he wasn't willing to talk about that yet. The duo decided that they could question him later. Instead they began talking to another patron at the inn; a man calling himself Connor.

Connor was a local resident who knew some facts. The current innkeeper was an apprentice to the previous owner. That owner had left town a week prior in a hurry. Talking had made Ets bored and she sought her rest in the comfort of her room.

A Sun Elf soon entered the inn. After greeting the innkeeper he decided to talk to the individuals sitting at a table to discern if they knew anything about the Order. Richard revealed himself as a member of the Order of the Shooting Star and the elf, introducing himself as Sahhel, revealed himself as his contact. Sahhel was a member of the Order's mage guild. They exchanged what little information they had gathered and began planning out their next steps.

Suddenly a wood elf enters the inn and begins negotiating with the innkeeper about a business deal. Listening in the party discovers that the elf is a businessman who wants to buy the inn and he is willing to pay exorbitantly for it. The innkeeper makes excuses that the inn cannot be sold. He settles on claiming the inn is infested with vermin; to which the elf offers to pay for the extermination fees.

Thinking this odd Richard calls the elf over to talk. He discovers that the elf is hiding something but is unwilling to talk about it just yet. The elf drops a bag filled with gold coins on the table and offers a second identical bag if the party can take care of the inn's vermin problem. With that he tells the party to find him in Trade Winds before revealing his name to be John.

Richard sends a message to wake Ets and join the rest of the group.

The party then confronts the innkeeper about the job. He claims it to be nothing more than a ruse to get the elf out of there. Unfortunately for him, a rat decided to make its presence known by running across the bar at that moment; the innkeeper seemed annoyed as he beheaded the rat with a cleaver.

The innkeeper then tells the truth. The previous owner was doing some magical experiments and did something to the current innkeeper; something which caused the rats to come to him. They were drawn to him and only him. He claims that he can take care of the rats and demonstrates this by slaying another rat. He offers the party a related job to find how the rats are getting in so that he can plug the hole. The group agrees and heads into the cellar.

The cellar first appears to be smaller than originally anticipated and several rats scurry out of sight behind a set of shelving. Intrigued by the odd behavior the party moves the shelves to notice that the wall behind appears to be newer than the surrounding surfaces. Closer inspection reveals a small hole next to the floor. The next logical step taken by Connor was to push the wall. The wall moved a little against his weight so Connor and Richard pushed against the wall with their combined body weight to make it open.

The wall fell into a hidden room filled with rats. The rats began to swarm...

Thus concludes the first session.