Category: D&D

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D&D GM tips: How to save the PCs from Certain Death

Perhaps you have accidentally put your Player Characters against an enemy that’s too big a challenge for them, the dice are just trying to kill them, or your players are making very dumb decisions. Fear not: The odds may be against them but you, the GM, is (secretly) on their side. Remember you can do anything… you just need to make it believable.

Keep a cool demeanor and pretend everything is going as expected, even if it has totally fallen apart. Pretend you’d love to kill all their characters (even if it’s your worst nightmare); it will keep them on their toes. When you save them from certain death they will feel like heroes who just beat the odds. They will never realise that you are actually the hero (but that is as it should be).

Here are a few suggestions on how to save the PCs from certain death:

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Blog D&D Gaming

D&D Tips: Role-Playing Your ‘Dump’ STAT

When you roll a low stat, if possible, you dump it in a skill your character hardly ever uses and should those skill checks come up let more capable party members make those rolls. But, that’s you, the PLAYER, thinking that way. Is your character going to think the same way? That’s part of their life and character, not some STAT.

I’m talking about Role Play, of course, and how to make your character more fleshed out and memorable. Personally I’m rather perverse and have been known to lower stats because I had a strong character concept.

D&D tips roleplaying your dump stat

A ‘perfect’ character who is good at everything is actually quite boring. Characters are often more memorable for character flaws. Think about the tales you tell around the gaming table. It’s usually about the Epic Fails isn’t it? So the occasional klutz is no bad thing, and the game is balanced for it so it should never be necessary to power-game your way though.

Continue reading “D&D Tips: Role-Playing Your ‘Dump’ STAT”

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Blog D&D Gaming

D&D Tips: Role-Playing Your ‘Dump’ STAT

When you roll a low stat, if possible, you dump it in a skill your character hardly ever uses and should those skill checks come up let more capable party members make those rolls. But, that’s you, the PLAYER, thinking that way. Is your character going to think the same way? That’s part of their life and character, not some STAT.

I’m talking about Role Play, of course, and how to make your character more fleshed out and memorable. Personally I’m rather perverse and have been known to lower stats because I had a strong character concept.

D&D tips roleplaying your dump stat

A ‘perfect’ character who is good at everything is actually quite boring. Characters are often more memorable for character flaws. Think about the tales you tell around the gaming table. It’s usually about the Epic Fails isn’t it? So the occasional klutz is no bad thing, and the game is balanced for it so it should never be necessary to power-game your way though.

Continue reading “D&D Tips: Role-Playing Your ‘Dump’ STAT”

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Blog D&D Movie Reviews Movies/Film

Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness Movie Review

Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness is the D&D Players Movie.  The movie producers no longer cared about pleasing the masses and focused on their core audience. After all, after the failure first & second movies who else was there to appeal too? This movie is not in any way connected to it’s predecessors (aside from the number). And that is something to celebrate, the fact that someone must have said “It’s Dungeon’s and Dragons! Just make the movie like the game.” And it is. So if you play D&D you’ll probably be super into it Book of Vile Darkness.  However, those who don’t are less likely to appreciate the fan service and more likely to notice the low budget!

Book of Vile Darkness review (1)

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Blog D&D Funny/Cool

Siri runs a Dungeons & Dragons game

Okay this is hilarious and I had to share it. What happens when Siri runs a D&D game? It turns out Siri is the worst GM ever!

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Blog D&D

Banners & Battlemaps – BannersontheCheap.com Review

Vinyl BannersI’ve hit the Big Time! Companies are sending me Free Stuff in return for my phenomenal influence in the blogosphere! Well… one company anyway. BannersontheCheap.com

You see BannersontheCheap.com are trying to get into a rather niche market: printing custom battle maps for gamers. I’ve been using a basic grid-printed vinyl battlemap for years in my role-play games. In addition to this I’ve also got quite a collection of paper maps which can be quite flimsy – they wear and rip particularly along the folds. Vinyl is much studier so could be handy for maps which you refer to again and again, not to mention you can make non-permanent notes on them with wet-wipe pens. Basically this seemed like a really good idea.

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Blog D&D Funny/Cool

Top Ten Alternative uses for a D20

The D20 is no longer just a die used to generate random numbers, it has became a symbol to gamers everywhere, a symbol that we are proud to be gamers. To flant one is a kind of status symbol, a kind of geek chic. Many crafty geeks have been inspired by the D20, turning it to a variety of functions. I felt it was time for a top-ten list of alternative uses for the D20. This list is in order of creativity and unusualness.

So, when is a D20 not a D20? When it’s a…

 

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Blog D&D

Ultimate GM Screen of Win

I was kinda browsing and saw the ULTIMATE GM SCREEN which I thought was the coolest thing ever! (Sorry for the CAPS-shouting, but I thought it deserved it). Okay so it’s kinda a cut-out and put together yourself, but I’m crafty and that sort of thing appeals to me. What you get is a Castle Wall that sits in front of the GM with two Dice Towers (basically you drop the dice in the top and they roll out at the bottom).

It’s very solid so it won’t fall over (a common problem with GMs screens) not to mention it looks absolutely fantastic! The idea of Dice Towers is new to me but I kinda like them; it adds a drama to rolling the dice plus makes it less likely for players to cheat by hiding/fudging their rolls. There’s also space on the back for the GM to stick all the gaming tables and handy info s/he needs to run the game. And there are little shelves for figures! How cute! And they can stand on top of the turrets! Overall I think it is very deserving of it’s title as the ULTIMATE GMs screen.

I’ve stuck a video below which really shows the GMs Screen in all its glory. You may want to skip to half way as that’s when you start getting a really good look at it. And it is reduced by 25% this week as part of the GMs Day Sale! Click here to go to a list of all the reduced items at DriveThruRPG.


In case the video is not showing up here’s a link to it.

Happy GMs Day! …week.

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Blog D&D

GM’s Day Sale

GAH! I am such a doofus! I totally missed that March the 4th was GMs Day, the Anniversary of Gary Gygax’s death (he’s rolling 20’s in heaven). Yep, I should probably hand in my geek credentials, but maybe I can earn them back. You see DriveThruRPG is holding a GMs Day sale BUT it lasts all week!

Man I would have felt bad if it had just been the one day and I missed it because DriveThru sell some really great RPG books and resources. I think 90% of their products are PDFs but that’s awfully handy for storage space, plus most of my Players are looking through RPG PDFs on their iPads during gaming sessions now. Our GM needs about 8 books to run a game and they’re awfully heavy if you have to carry them to the gaming venue. I still love books but I have to admit to being a bit seduced by PDFs particularly when it comes to gaming, largely due to the portability factor. Also they’re cheaper and arrive straight away!

DriveThruRPG apparently have THOUSANDS of things reduced by 25% as part of the GMs Day Sale – which is a lot! So take a look and stock up your gaming table. Click here to go to a list of all the reduced items at DriveThruRPG.

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Blog D&D Funny/Cool

New Baldur’s Gate Sequel? Raise Dead!

There has been a great deal of excitement on the rumor-mill concerning a new Baldur’s Gate Website that has popped up at www.baldursgate.com and whether this heralds the release of a new Baldur’s Gate game. At the moment the website shows a ‘teaser’ with the Baldur’s Gate Skull emblem, character portraits tiling the background and the Baldur’s Gate theme playing in the background making our geeky hearts swell with nostalgia. Aside from this there is only the quote:

“The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny, chaos will be sown by their passage.”

So sayeth the wise Alaundo.

The tiled character portraits fairly standard layout which gaming companies use as teasers for sequels – harking back to the games past. So should we get excited yet?

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