The morning brings with it a blizzard of epic proportions, but by the afternoon, the temperature has spiked well into the 90s. The group takes the time to analyze, propose, repropose, reanalyze and finally abandon all manner of plan. Eventually they cobble together a workable solution and set off on a 18 mile row to the next island. This one is ringed with mountains and statuary appears everywhere. Fearing basilisks or medusae the group proceeds with caution to the main structure on the island, the ruins of the merchant prince’s mansion.
There, they spend hours searching through the ruins.

As a category 5 hurricane starts to make landfall and some of the statuary becomes airborne, they discover a trapdoor that leads below ground. They follow and encounter traps, statuary, undead, and golems, The last encounter is the deadliest, claiming Reza’s life and sorely testing the party. The sword of golem slaying helps to turn the tide as it is passed from hand to bloodied hand buy various battered party fighters. They pause to regain breath and focus…and then they are off again.

This is Senator Throx.
He is a Rodian–that’s a Greedo to you (and to me 2 days ago before I looked up “Rodian” on Wookiepedia).

Today Dungeon’s Master takes a bold step forward into the world of social media. That’s right I’ve finally joined Twitter (@ameron_dm). Buried way at the bottom of Friday’s article in which I shared my GenCon schedule I discretely announced that I’ve joined the Twitterverse. Today I’m shouting it from the virtual rooftops: Ameron is on Twitter! That’s right, I’ve given into peer pressure and realized that if I’m going to be part of the social media world that I need to be doing more than just blogging.

To follow me on Twitter just click on the “Follow @ameron_dm” button in the right nav. The same button will now be included at the bottom of every article along with the subscribe link.

I’m a complete Twitter noob so I ask for your patience while I learn the ins and outs of what’s acceptable and what’s not. My intention with this Twitter account is to share information about D&D and gaming in general. Expect the shameless plugs whenever we post a new article on Dungeon’s Master (obviously) or when we want to draw your attention to something relevant in our archive, but also expect more than that. Dungeon’s Master may be dedicated to D&D but my Tweets will include stuff on some of my other (relevant) nerd hobbies including board games and fantasy novels.

Why now?

The reason for jumping into Twitter now is that GenCon is only 16 days away. During the con I plan to Tweet a lot, as I do my part to bring the con to you. If I run into someone interesting or famous I’ll Tweet it. When I see something amazing at the con I’ll Tweet it. When something unbelievable happens (and it will) I’ll Tweet it. I’ll Tweet the results of our tournaments so you’ll know if we win the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch or the D&D Championship as soon as we do. Following me during GenCon will be the next best thing to being there. At least that’s my plan.

Twitter beyond GenCon

I usually play D&D two or three times a week (once with the Dungeon’s Master crew and twice at D&D Encounters). You can expect a few Tweets and likely a few pics to come out of these games. Our games often generate some good quotes that only other gamers will find amusing so we’ll Tweet those too. I’ll Tweet pics when it seems appropriate; however, I’m still getting the hang of what kind of pics people will find interesting and how many are too many.

Although Dungeon’s Master is pretty much D&D exclusive, I play a lot of board games too. On board game night I’ll likely Tweet what I’m playing and my thoughts on the games themselves if they’re new or obscure. As a fierce competitor, expect some commentary on how I’m doing – I hate loosing!

Trust me

I pledge now not to waste your time with Tweets that are not specifically gamer-relevant. No Tweets that describe what I had for lunch or details from my personal life that no one but my immediate family will understand or have any interest in. This is my Dungeon’s Master Twitter account. If you read and enjoy our blog then you have a pretty good idea of the kinds of things I’ll be Tweeting if you follow me on Twitter.

I’d like to thank everyone who is already following me on Twitter and hope that many of our regular readers follow me as well. As I stated at the outset I’m still new to Twitter so if you catch me making rookie mistakes or bucking the social contract let me know. Likewise if there are relevant topics that you want me to Tweet about just let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Wish us luck as Dungeon’s Master levels up by joining the Twitterverse.

What advice do you have for me as I start swimming the Twitter seas? What would you like me to Tweet about (or not) on a regular basis? What kind of pics do you think I should include (or not) with my Tweets?

Follow @ameron_dm

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Not everything called Twilight is all sparkly. One of the things called Twilight was a never-used pitch by Alan Moore for a war-of-the-superheroes comic.

As Moore says in the proposal:

“This central idea… that of a war and all its spectacular ramifications, makes it ideal material for a role playing game… perhaps the ultimate superhero role playing game. “

Now thems sound like bloggin’ words to me.

I am not going to do up a whole thing like I did with the similarly contorted and sandboxable factional narrative in The Wire because:

1. I think it takes much more work to see how you could turn Moore’s outline/proposal into an RPG set-up than a whole TV show with a plot and all, and

2. I prefer to leave it kinda generic so that I can later lift the skeleton into another genre or campaign if necessary

3. What am I, made of time?

Though that would be cool and I’d be all made of living sand like the Time Trapper…but I digress

So what I’ve done here is:

-Made a quick visual guide to who is where in the US… (assuming the Titans are in their Bay Area Tower rather than their NYC one just to spread things out)

-outlined Moore’s plot events in order (that is: how things would go if the PCs didn’t interfere), and

-added some notes on the bottom for changing the superheroes to other settings.

None of this will make sense if you haven’t read Moore’s original thing, but if you have and want to lift the set-up, this stuff might help you keep it all straight in your head.

Click on the pic to enlarge…

That little purple arrow is a note that Sinestro is on the moon with the Green Lanterns but my computer screwed it up. It’s just a note so I figure no biggie.

Events (in order):

First two hooks:

1. Superboy to marry Mary Marvel (people worry)
2. Locked-door mystery in the ghetto

Contingent on event 1:

3. House of Titans and House of Justice and House of Secrets consider alliance
4. Blackhawk recruiting more Blackhawks for apocalyptic scheme
5. Constantine contacting every faction
6. Constantine pulls the lighter trick with Manhunter/Marvel

(Somewhere around here: Constantine acquires Moebius chair & melts down Gold)
7. Houses of Titans, Justice & Secrets attack Steel & Thunder at wedding

Contingent on event 7:

8. Aliens invade
9. Capt Marvel revealed to be Manhunter (Contingent on events in game)
10. Constantine arrives w/humans in gold armor
11. Constantine tells aliens the weaponers of Qward are showing up on the aliens’ home planets

GenCon 2012, the best four days in gaming begins on August 16. That’s only 19 days from today. This year I’ll be making the 9 hour road trip from Toronto to Indianapolis with Marc Talbot (aka Alton from 20ft Radius). This will be my fifth consecutive year at GenCon but it’s his first. I’m expecting this year to be my best GenCon yet and I’ve got a wide variety of events scheduled. Of course some of the best parts of any con are the things that aren’t scheduled ahead of time so I’ve made sure to leave plenty of gaps in my itinerary.

Dungeons & Dragons

Many people feel that when they go to a gaming convention they should avoid playing anything that they can just as easily play at home. There is certainly logic to this rationale, but I like to think that if you really enjoy playing one particular game (in my case D&D) then you should try to get at least a few games in while at GenCon. After all this is my vacation and I want to have fun. It’s also important to note that gaming is not just about the game itself. Meeting other people who enjoy the same games you do is a big part of the con.

This year I’ve got a lot of D&D in my schedule (shocking, I know), but most of it is not something I could just play at home. I’ve got two LFR convention specials lined up, the D&D Open Tournament, Fourthcore Team Deathmatch, and the Drow adventure West Wall.

As this is the Year of the Drow for Wizards of the Coast I’m expecting that all the new adventures will feature Drow in one way or another. As anyone who reads Dungeon’s Master regularly knows I’m a huge fan of all things Drow so this is going to be a good con for me.

Living Forgotten Realms

Every year I’ve been to GenCon I’ve played LFR. The character I created at my very first GenCon has made appearances at every GenCon since. He’s high paragon now so I don’t know if I’ll have the opportunity to play him again this year. Last year there were almost no other players running PCs above level 14 which made playing my level 18 character impossible. As he’s level 20 now he’ll only get to see action if a few other hard-core LFR players bring their highest paragon level PCs. Here’s hoping.

Last year there was a very poor showing for the LFR games I played in. I don’t know if people were bored with LFR, bored with 4e, or just had better things to do. I suspect that this will be the last year we’ll have LFR in its current incarnation at GenCon so I really want to get in a few more good games with the characters I’ve worked so hard to develop. Here are the LFR adventures I’ve signed up for this year.

Thursday, August 16
8:00 a.m.
RPGA1235194
SPEC4-5 – Rising Darkness (level 1-10)

Friday, August 17
7:00 p.m.
RPGA1235209
SPEC4-6 – Raging Darkness (level 11-20)

Saturday, August 18
7:00 p.m.
RPGA1235166
WATE4-3 – The Devil’s Denouement (level 1-10)

Although I have a ticket for this slot I fully expect to blow this one-off. It conflicts with the finals of the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (my first priority) and the Ticket to Ride finals (my second priority). It also falls on the final night of GenCon which is often the best night to socialize and get rip-roaring drunk. If all of that falls through I have this ticket in reserve, just in case. I like to be prepared.

West Wall, Drow Adventure

I’m assuming that this adventure will be run much like the convention delves of previous cons. Regardless I’m really looking forward to playing in this 2-hour adventure where you get to play the evil Drow attacking the good heroes. If it’s set up like delves from previous years then there is value in playing it more than once, often with different adventure objective, new maps, and a chance to develop and advance your character. With this in mind I’ve signed up to play this four times over the course of the con. If I enjoy it I’ll try to play all four slots, if not I’m sure I can find something else to do during those times (like play board games)

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (FTDM)

Saturday, August 18
10:00 a.m.
RPG1232043
Fourthcore Team Deathmatch, Entry Round

I must admit that the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch is one of the events I’m most looking forward to this year. I had the good fortune to play in two practice tournaments this summer and I’ve run a couple of the maps with my home group. If you’re not familiar with FTDM then I encourage you to check out the article I wrote after my first tournament, When PCs Fight Each Other – Fourthcore Team Deathmatch.

Joining me on Team Moose Hockey Maple Syrup Eh? are Marc (my GenCon travelling companion) and Dan. Dan is friends with the guys who are running the event and has played in a few other FTDM sessions himself, so we certainly have experience on our side. The three of us even played as a team in one of the practice tournaments and have been fine-tuning our line-up based on what worked and what didn’t. Rumour has it we’re the favourites. We’re still looking to fill the fourth seat on our team so if you’re free for this slot and want to participate email me and we’ll see what we can do.

2012 D&D Championship

At my first GenCon I played in this tournament and went all the way to the finals. I haven’t made it back since, but it’s certainly not for lack of trying. This year each party will consist of five 22nd-level pre-generated characters in a race against the clock in the Drow city Undrek’Thoz. Wizards promises to provide more details on their website, including characters, approximately two weeks before the event.

Thursday, August 16
7:00 p.m.
RPGA1235296
D&D Championship: Trial by Shadow

True Dungeon

Every year I hear about how great True Dungeon is from everyone who does it. I finally broke down and bought tickets this year. I’m not a fan of LARPing but I hold out hope that this is worth the price of admission. I know Marc is really looking forward to this so I agreed to do it since this is his first GenCon.

Friday, August 17
2:37 p.m.
TDA1235866
True Dungeon: Draco-Lich Undone

Board Games

My love of board games has increased tenfold over the past few years. In addition to having regular RPG nights I’ve finally managed to convince my wife and social peers that we should have a regular board game night. It’s been a tremendous success and has fueled my love of board games even more. That being said I’ve left plenty of open space on my GenCon schedule to play games in the board game hall. I do have a couple of scheduled events (see below) but I’m most looking forward to just trying out a bunch of new games, especially the new Starr Trek Settlers of Catan (yes, I’m that big of a nerd).

Thursday, August 16
2:00 p.m.
BGM1230419
Ticket to Ride: USA, Tournament Qualifier

Friday, August 17
5:00 p.m.
BGM1231094
Zombiegeddon

Seminars

Every year I sit in on a few seminars and let me tell you they’re usually pretty awesome. This year I’ve only signed up for two so far but I’m sure I’ll drop in on a few more. If you’ve got any recommendations please leave me a comment below.

Saturday, August 18
1:00 p.m.
SEM1233074
D&D Next: Creating the Core

3:00 p.m.
SEM1233075
The Future Look of D&D

This is the famous preview seminar where the folks at Wizards unveil their plans for the following year. The expectation is that they’ll announce the official release of D&D Next for GenCon 2013, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone. I’m actually more interested in hearing what else is one tap, specifically regarding the public play programs like D&D Encounters and Lair Assault. This is the first time in the past three years that Wizards has not had a separate public play seminar so I hope they’re not pulling the plug when they switch over to D&D Next. We’ll see in a few short weeks.

I should also mention that although seminar tickets are free and they don’t even bother asking to collect your tickets at most seminars, this one is so popular that they’re always booked to capacity and then some. Last year a lot of people were pretty ticked off when they asked everyone without tickets to leave while those with tickets funneled into the auditorium. I learned my lesson and actually got a hard ticket this year (my first time ever) to ensure I get in and get a good seat.

The Future of Dungeons & Dragons Keynote Address

Wizards of the Coast announced that they would host the first-ever GenCon keynote address on Thursday, August 16 at 7:00 p.m. They promise an unprecedented look into the future of Dungeons & Dragons, including the evolution of the game, the re-birth of a fantasy setting and the next generation of art. As much as I’d love to attend this I’ve already got another event scheduled for that time slot, and unfortunately it’s not something that I can easily change. It’s too bad this was announced so far after event registration began (like months after).

A part of me suspects that this keynote address was added to the con as a way to push the D&D Next play-testing. I’m speculating here, and I admit that I might be WAY off base but hear me out. What if there Wizards looked at the advanced registration for their D&D Next events and realized that there was less enthusiasm than they expected? Perhaps in response they decided to bring out the cheerleaders and hype the next new thing and encourage people to go and play while at GenCon. After all how embarrassing would it be if they have a whole room dedicated to D&D Next and it was never full? What do you think; am I crazy or does this sound plausible?

For the record I’m not bashing D&D Next or Wizards, I’m just a bit annoyed at the late addition of what’s being touted as such an important address. What I’ve seen so far of D&D Next has excited me and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. However, I’m not planning to do any D&D Next events while I’m at GenCon because I’m doing plenty of play-testing at home. I’m just saying.

Social Media

I have finally joined the 21st century and bought a Smartphone. I’m planning to provide regular updates, including pictures, throughout GenCon so be sure to follow me on Twitter (@ameron_dm). I just opened the account so bear with me as I struggle to get the hang of it between now and GenCon.

Don’t forget that meeting new people is one of the most important parts of any con, so be sure to introduce yourself to as many fellow gamers as possible. If you can find me, be sure to say hello. I’ll be handing out Dungeon’s Master business cards to everyone so that should make it easier to separate me from the crowd.

What are your plans for GenCon? Do we have any games together? Would you like to join my FTDM or D&D Championship team? What new games or seminars would you recommend?

Looking for instant updates? Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master feed!

Last week the heroes managed to get through the gates of Zadzifeirryn. They ended last week’s session when they found a safe place to hide and took an extended rest. This week they awoke refreshed and leveled up.

This week’s encounter is another unusual one for D&D Encounters. It’s possible that this week could end up as just role-playing and skill checks, which is how it played out at my table. In order to keep my group interested I had to make a few changes on the fly but all in all things worked out ok. The encounter still took about 90 minutes (without any combat) and it certainly allowed for some interesting character development and NPC interactions.

The numbers at our FLGS continue dwindling as we were down to only seven this week, two DMs and five players. The other DM decided to take the week off and my table ran business as usual with our regular five.

• Drow Druid
• Drow Cleric
• Drow Rogue #1
• Drow Rogue #2
• Drow Wizard (Bladesinger)

D&D Encounter being what it is has a few public play house rules that are not typical of normal D&D adventures. One is the way they handle character death and another is in regards to purchasing equipment. At the beginning of each chapter of D&D Encounters the DM is supposed to let the PCs spend any gp they’ve acquired until this point in the adventure. There doesn’t have to be a shop or other structured, in-game locale where the PCs can spend the coins for them to make these purchases. New chapter means it’s time to spend (see Web of the Spider Queen, page 3, Treasure, “When to Gear Up”). I decided to work this into the narrative since I realized this was going to be an unusual encounter anyway.

During the adventure recap (which none of my group really needed anyway since they’ve all been present for every session) I reminded them of last week’s encounter at the gates. I explained that Zadzifeirryn was once a great Drow city but has been relatively empty for a long time. Only recently has its population started to grow again under Valan’s leadership. This explained why there were so few Drow guards at the gates and how the PCs could so easily find an abandoned structure to rest in.

Past the gates was a series of interconnected, crisscrossing, maze-like tunnels. This obviously was another measure of defense to protect the city proper. The heroes gauged that it could take upwards of an hour to successfully navigate the maze. When patrols or merchants entered through the gates they might find it necessary to rest before tackling the maze. This is how I justified the presence of a few structures inside the gate that showed signs of upkeep and recent use: a tavern, an inn, and a general store.

Learning from past successes, the PCs decided to all dress in the cloaks and insignias of the Drow guards and soldiers they defeated over the previous few encounters. As the PCs were all Drow they felt this should give them a passable disguise to any casual onlookers.

First stop was the general store. They found an old, half-blind Drow with a long white beard behind the counter. His facial hair indicated some Human blood in his lineage. He was direct but polite asking if the PCs were buying or selling. Both they replied.

The Druid decided to sell the Totem of Trailblazing +1 that he acquired during week 3. After some haggling and a few Diplomacy checks Scruffy (the merchant) agreed to give him 30% of cost in credit. The Druid then purchased a level 2 Staff +1 with his gains, gold and a small loan from another PC.

Rogue #2 wanted a magical dagger. Scruffy produced a Dagger +1. Rogue #2 realized that the style and workmanship of the dagger were clearly of “surface” origin. It was certainly magical, but not Drow craftsmanship. When he asked for something more suitable Scruffy told him that was in keeping with his other gear. It seemed that the “blind” merchant was aware that this party was not typical underworld Drow.

Everyone wanted healing potions which Scruffy gladly sold them for 55 gp each. As the party was getting ready to leave, Scruffy mentioned that he had a customer who was looking for the head of an Elf. If the head was fresh (not dead for more than a couple of hours) Scruffy would pay them a bounty. At first the party didn’t really pay this comment much mind, but Scruffy’s offer was top of mind later when they ran into an already injured Tharinel.

Next the PCs went into the tavern where two members of the Drow patrol, a seasoned female warrior and a younger male rookie were having a few drinks first thing in the morning. Since the party was disguised as officers the two Drow showed them fear and respect. The players ran it perfectly with just the right balance of Diplomacy and Intimidate. I provided them will all the information Tharinel would provide if they found him. This made finding the lost Elf less important to the story and gave the PCs less reason to keep him alive if they did.

With the information dump over they proceeded through the maze. The high passive Perceptions made finding the blood trail easy enough. They followed it to Tharinel who was entangled in a giant spider web. As the PCs were all Drow and used no lights Tharinel was terrified when they approached and tried to flee when they cut him down. Eventually they lit a torch and talked to him.

He was concerned for Khara’s safety but was terrified by the Torture Theater and refused to proceed deeper into Zadzifeirryn. Some of the PCs wanted to bring him back to the gates safely while others wanted to proceed. While they debated on next steps they heard a patrol approaching. The combined efforts of the Bladesinger’s Prestidigitation (Arcana check), the Druid’s Air Spirit (Nature check) and two Stealth checks from the Rogues sent the patrol running down a different passage while the PCs fled.

The debate over what to do with Tharinel continued. When it became clear that he was going to be a liability and cause the party more grief than he was worth Rogue #2 decided to back stab him. The damage more than killed him. Two PCs were keen to collect the reward, two were indifferent and the Bladesinger was in shock that Rogue #2 killed him. This lead to some great in-character debating and fighting that ended with the Bladesinger leaving the party.

The remaining four beheaded the corpse and collected their reward before heading onward. As they left the shop the Bladesinger met up with them again and they managed to convince him to stay with the group as it was most mutually beneficial for now. He vowed to kill the Rogue when it wouldn’t hurt the party (oh, how I love Drow politics).

The PCs came across another Drow patrol and this time decided to talk their way past them. The combination of their stolen uniforms, exceptional Bluff and Diplomacy checks, and the fact that they were all Drow, resulted in a successful confrontation without combat. A little further on thy heard another patrol coming but this time decided to just run away. Good Athletics, Endurance and Dungeoneering checks let the party get away cleanly.

Throughout the party’s travels they constantly got ambushed by giant spiders. The Druid used his Senses of the Wild to detect them which meant that only one spider ever managed to get the drop on the party at a time. By the end of their journey everyone was attacked two or three times, with most PCs only getting hit once (my dice were ice cold). Being Drow they only took 5 instead of 10 poison damage so the spiders ended up being more of an inconvenience than anything else.

Eventually they heard the sounds of cries and screams echoing from the passages ahead. This must be the Torture Theater. They decided to take a short rest, heal up and let the Cleric recharge before proceeding.

Afterthoughts

This encounter certainly had its challenges. For starters it seemed unnecessarily complicated. I liked the attempt to create a mechanic that stressed role-playing and skill checks over combat, but the arbitrary way the author decided to have the PCs expend resources was not balanced at all.

I’m a big fan of saying “This is what happened and two PCs need to expend a surge to represent the combat that would have occurred.” I do this all the time in my home games and it works really well. But having the PCs roll for the size of the patrol and the number of surges each PC expended seemed excessive and almost punitive. And speaking of punitive what’s with the all the spiders? Having them drop down every five minutes seemed a bit much. I decided that each swarm was one 5×5 square (as swarms usually are) so it would only catch one PC at a time. I didn’t bother tracking 5-minute intervals and just decided when it seemed right based on the role-playing.

My group was exceptionally fortunate to be all Drow this week. It let me add details that would not otherwise have worked for a party made up of the typical hodge-podge of PC races. When they encountered the Drow patrol there is no way they could have bluffed their way passed if they were not Drow.

D&D Encounters is supposed to be an introductory system designed to bring in new players and new DMs. An inexperienced DM who tried to just run this as printed was likely to be overwhelmed and likly to have a TPK on his hands. The encounter could work, but it really rested on the shoulders of each DM to tweak it accordingly.

The good news is that next week’s encounter is a pretty much a straight forward hack and slash affair. It has the potential to be one of the most memorable encounters of the adventure. I know I’ll be adding a few unique tweaks to the encounter to keep the relatively unscathed PCs on their toes.

Did your table run the combat encounter this week? Did your party help Tharinel or kill him? Did anyone suffer a TPK from all the spider poison damage? Is anyone out of surges after fending off all the Drow patrols? How many other DMs made significant changes to make it more appropriate for their group as I did? What did you do?

Looking Ahead to Season 10

I heard a rumour that the next season of D&D Encounters will give players the option to continue running the PC they used this season. That means some groups will begin at level 1 while other “advanced” groups may have the chance to begin at level 4. Can anyone substantiate this rumour or is it just wish fulfillment at this point? I think a lot of players who left D&D Encounter might return next season if they can start with more experienced characters. I’m looking for any facts to back this up.

Reward Summary Sheets

The summary sheets detail the XP, gp and magic items found during each encounter. The Chapter 3 summary sheet includes the XP and loot up to week 11. I encourage DMs to print copies of the summary sheets ahead of time so that they can hand them out to their players the following week.

• Chapter 3 Reward Summary
• Chapter 2 Reward Summary
• Chapter 1 Reward Summary

Podcasts

Each week I join Alton from 20ft Radius as we discuss the week’s encounter. We summarize our experiences and provide our thoughts on what worked, what didn’t, and what we’d do differently.

We continue to record our D&D Encounters sessions and make them available to you for download every week. These recordings are made in a loud, crowded game store so at times it may be difficult to hear everyone.

• Week in Review Podcast (Week 10) at 20ft Radius
• Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 10)

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

Looking for instant updates? Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master feed!

…that’s Connie’s analysis of this illustration from Goodman’s Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

Last week the heroes managed to get through the gates of Zadzifeirryn. They ended last week’s session when they found a safe place to hide and took an extended rest. This week they awoke refreshed and leveled up.

This week’s encounter is another unusual one for D&D Encounters. It’s possible that this week could end up as just role-playing and skill checks, which is how it played out at my table. In order to keep my group interested I had to make a few changes on the fly but all in all things worked out ok. The encounter still took about 90 minutes (without any combat) and it certainly allowed for some interesting character development and NPC interactions.

The numbers at our FLGS continue dwindling as we were down to only seven this week, two DMs and five players. The other DM decided to take the week off and my table ran business as usual with our regular five.

• Drow Druid
• Drow Cleric
• Drow Rogue #1
• Drow Rogue #2
• Drow Wizard (Bladesinger)

D&D Encounter being what it is has a few public play house rules that are not typical of normal D&D adventures. One is the way they handle character death and another is in regards to purchasing equipment. At the beginning of each chapter of D&D Encounters the DM is supposed to let the PCs spend any gp they’ve acquired until this point in the adventure. There doesn’t have to be a shop or other structured, in-game locale where the PCs can spend the coins for them to make these purchases. New chapter means it’s time to spend (see Web of the Spider Queen, page 3, Treasure, “When to Gear Up”). I decided to work this into the narrative since I realized this was going to be an unusual encounter anyway.

During the adventure recap (which none of my group really needed anyway since they’ve all been present for every session) I reminded them of last week’s encounter at the gates. I explained that Zadzifeirryn was once a great Drow city but has been relatively empty for a long time. Only recently has its population started to grow again under Valan’s leadership. This explained why there were so few Drow guards at the gates and how the PCs could so easily find an abandoned structure to rest in.

Past the gates was a series of interconnected, crisscrossing, maze-like tunnels. This obviously was another measure of defense to protect the city proper. The heroes gauged that it could take upwards of an hour to successfully navigate the maze. When patrols or merchants entered through the gates they might find it necessary to rest before tackling the maze. This is how I justified the presence of a few structures inside the gate that showed signs of upkeep and recent use: a tavern, an inn, and a general store.

Learning from past successes, the PCs decided to all dress in the cloaks and insignias of the Drow guards and soldiers they defeated over the previous few encounters. As the PCs were all Drow they felt this should give them a passable disguise to any casual onlookers.

First stop was the general store. They found an old, half-blind Drow with a long white beard behind the counter. His facial hair indicated some Human blood in his lineage. He was direct but polite asking if the PCs were buying or selling. Both they replied.

The Druid decided to sell the Totem of Trailblazing +1 that he acquired during week 3. After some haggling and a few Diplomacy checks Scruffy (the merchant) agreed to give him 30% of cost in credit. The Druid then purchased a level 2 Staff +1 with his gains, gold and a small loan from another PC.

Rogue #2 wanted a magical dagger. Scruffy produced a Dagger +1. Rogue #2 realized that the style and workmanship of the dagger were clearly of “surface” origin. It was certainly magical, but not Drow craftsmanship. When he asked for something more suitable Scruffy told him that was in keeping with his other gear. It seemed that the “blind” merchant was aware that this party was not typical underworld Drow.

Everyone wanted healing potions which Scruffy gladly sold them for 55 gp each. As the party was getting ready to leave, Scruffy mentioned that he had a customer who was looking for the head of an Elf. If the head was fresh (not dead for more than a couple of hours) Scruffy would pay them a bounty. At first the party didn’t really pay this comment much mind, but Scruffy’s offer was top of mind later when they ran into an already injured Tharinel.

Next the PCs went into the tavern where two members of the Drow patrol, a seasoned female warrior and a younger male rookie were having a few drinks first thing in the morning. Since the party was disguised as officers the two Drow showed them fear and respect. The players ran it perfectly with just the right balance of Diplomacy and Intimidate. I provided them will all the information Tharinel would provide if they found him. This made finding the lost Elf less important to the story and gave the PCs less reason to keep him alive if they did.

With the information dump over they proceeded through the maze. The high passive Perceptions made finding the blood trail easy enough. They followed it to Tharinel who was entangled in a giant spider web. As the PCs were all Drow and used no lights Tharinel was terrified when they approached and tried to flee when they cut him down. Eventually they lit a torch and talked to him.

He was concerned for Khara’s safety but was terrified by the Torture Theater and refused to proceed deeper into Zadzifeirryn. Some of the PCs wanted to bring him back to the gates safely while others wanted to proceed. While they debated on next steps they heard a patrol approaching. The combined efforts of the Bladesinger’s Prestidigitation (Arcana check), the Druid’s Air Spirit (Nature check) and two Stealth checks from the Rogues sent the patrol running down a different passage while the PCs fled.

The debate over what to do with Tharinel continued. When it became clear that he was going to be a liability and cause the party more grief than he was worth Rogue #2 decided to back stab him. The damage more than killed him. Two PCs were keen to collect the reward, two were indifferent and the Bladesinger was in shock that Rogue #2 killed him. This lead to some great in-character debating and fighting that ended with the Bladesinger leaving the party.

The remaining four beheaded the corpse and collected their reward before heading onward. As they left the shop the Bladesinger met up with them again and they managed to convince him to stay with the group as it was most mutually beneficial for now. He vowed to kill the Rogue when it wouldn’t hurt the party (oh, how I love Drow politics).

The PCs came across another Drow patrol and this time decided to talk their way past them. The combination of their stolen uniforms, exceptional Bluff and Diplomacy checks, and the fact that they were all Drow, resulted in a successful confrontation without combat. A little further on thy heard another patrol coming but this time decided to just run away. Good Athletics, Endurance and Dungeoneering checks let the party get away cleanly.

Throughout the party’s travels they constantly got ambushed by giant spiders. The Druid used his Senses of the Wild to detect them which meant that only one spider ever managed to get the drop on the party at a time. By the end of their journey everyone was attacked two or three times, with most PCs only getting hit once (my dice were ice cold). Being Drow they only took 5 instead of 10 poison damage so the spiders ended up being more of an inconvenience than anything else.

Eventually they heard the sounds of cries and screams echoing from the passages ahead. This must be the Torture Theater. They decided to take a short rest, heal up and let the Cleric recharge before proceeding.

Afterthoughts

This encounter certainly had its challenges. For starters it seemed unnecessarily complicated. I liked the attempt to create a mechanic that stressed role-playing and skill checks over combat, but the arbitrary way the author decided to have the PCs expend resources was not balanced at all.

I’m a big fan of saying “This is what happened and two PCs need to expend a surge to represent the combat that would have occurred.” I do this all the time in my home games and it works really well. But having the PCs roll for the size of the patrol and the number of surges each PC expended seemed excessive and almost punitive. And speaking of punitive what’s with the all the spiders? Having them drop down every five minutes seemed a bit much. I decided that each swarm was one 5×5 square (as swarms usually are) so it would only catch one PC at a time. I didn’t bother tracking 5-minute intervals and just decided when it seemed right based on the role-playing.

My group was exceptionally fortunate to be all Drow this week. It let me add details that would not otherwise have worked for a party made up of the typical hodge-podge of PC races. When they encountered the Drow patrol there is no way they could have bluffed their way passed if they were not Drow.

D&D Encounters is supposed to be an introductory system designed to bring in new players and new DMs. An inexperienced DM who tried to just run this as printed was likely to be overwhelmed and likly to have a TPK on his hands. The encounter could work, but it really rested on the shoulders of each DM to tweak it accordingly.

The good news is that next week’s encounter is a pretty much a straight forward hack and slash affair. It has the potential to be one of the most memorable encounters of the adventure. I know I’ll be adding a few unique tweaks to the encounter to keep the relatively unscathed PCs on their toes.

Did your table run the combat encounter this week? Did your party help Tharinel or kill him? Did anyone suffer a TPK from all the spider poison damage? Is anyone out of surges after fending off all the Drow patrols? How many other DMs made significant changes to make it more appropriate for their group as I did? What did you do?

Looking Ahead to Season 10

I heard a rumour that the next season of D&D Encounters will give players the option to continue running the PC they used this season. That means some groups will begin at level 1 while other “advanced” groups may have the chance to begin at level 4. Can anyone substantiate this rumour or is it just wish fulfillment at this point? I think a lot of players who left D&D Encounter might return next season if they can start with more experienced characters. I’m looking for any facts to back this up.

Reward Summary Sheets

The summary sheets detail the XP, gp and magic items found during each encounter. The Chapter 3 summary sheet includes the XP and loot up to week 11. I encourage DMs to print copies of the summary sheets ahead of time so that they can hand them out to their players the following week.

• Chapter 3 Reward Summary
• Chapter 2 Reward Summary
• Chapter 1 Reward Summary

Podcasts

Each week I join Alton from 20ft Radius as we discuss the week’s encounter. We summarize our experiences and provide our thoughts on what worked, what didn’t, and what we’d do differently.

We continue to record our D&D Encounters sessions and make them available to you for download every week. These recordings are made in a loud, crowded game store so at times it may be difficult to hear everyone.

• Week in Review Podcast (Week 10) at 20ft Radius
• Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 10)

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

Looking for instant updates? Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master feed!

Back in one of my earliest Architect DM posts I said that structure was one of the most overlooked elements of dungeon design. These days most of the published dungeon maps that I see are not bad with regards to structure, but from what I’ve heard this is still something that a lot of people would like to learn about for their personal, hand drawn dungeon designs.

In the first post I did about this topic (The Architect DM: Give It Some Structure) I started with the classic 10 foot by 10 foot room and expanded from there. Today, I’m going to start with the other classic element of D&D dungeon design – the corridor. Just as I expanded to a 20 x 20 room with 10 foot corridors in my previous example, I’m going to use 10 foot wide corridors for my illustrations because I believe it makes them easier to read. I’m fine with this because all of the design elements I’m going to discuss should be easily applicable no matter what width corridors you’re using.

Bland & Reliable

Your classic dungeon corridor (excluding caves, if you’d like to hear about those too please let me know) keeps going and going until it meets another corridor or dead ends in one of the gloriously deadly rooms you’ve designed. I’m calling these corridors bland and reliable because their lack of features makes them predictable in addition to boring, and there’s nothing worse than foreseeing your own boredom. Sure, you can throw in some oddly angled corridors, some secret doors, and a pit trap to make it less predictable but then you’re taking the design from reliable to completely random. If we’re assuming someone has created this dungeon (which we are, no caves, remember?) then very few elements are going to be truly random. Even pit traps, which you want to be completely unpredictable, as a trap should be placed in the best strategic location which in turn makes them more predictable to the wary trap-savvy rogue.

Now let’s look at some ways of making the classic dungeon corridor more interesting and more believable at the same time. If you’re underground, then the first basic concern is what’s holding the roof over your head. In most cases the walls are sufficient to hold up the roof of a corridor, but what if the corridor started to collapse at some point and has since been reinforced? Adding in regular, unobtrusive columns attacked to the walls at a regular interval helps break up the progress through the corridor and establishes a rhythm that you can then use to help in your dungeon design. This also adds another layer of “character” to your dungeon that tells the players this corridor may not be entirely stable as it’s already started to collapse and had to be reinforced once before. Perhaps my favorite result of adding something like this to your dungeon, much like adding columns into larger rooms, is that my players almost always consider if they can collapse part of the roof in by damaging the structure in a dire situation.

Whether or not the corridor is structurally sound, you don’t need a solid reason to add column elements along a corridor. Ancient civilizations loved carving things into stone, and it makes perfect sense that there would be a series of decorative columns placed along the walls of a dungeon hallway.

Design by Rhythm

One more great aspect of creating a rhythm in your dungeon is that this makes your job of designing the dungeon much easier. Once you’ve established a size module for the dungeon, it becomes easier to place things within it. If you go back and look at the featureless corridor above, then imagine it stretching the length of your dungeon design and think about where you would place a door or connect a hallway. The odds are you either picked randomly or chose a specific proportion (middle of the corridor, 1/4 of the way up the corridor) to place these elements. Now look at this corridor and think about where you might put a door/hallway coming off of it.

You may not have made the same decision as me, but I’d be willing to bet you aren’t that surprised by where I put the connecting hallway:

In fact, this kind of design element helps alleviate one of my biggest pet peeves in classic dungeons – the secret door. My experiences have been that in any given situation D&D players either don’t worry about searching for secret doors, obsess over searching for them at the expense of everything else, or pick up on some hint from the DM / location description and then search. I’ve run many published dungeons where several secret doors were passed by and wondered to myself what the purpose of having them in the design is.

Do they reward the party that searches every single inch of a dungeon? It’s almost a given that they will find the secret door if they’re taking that much time, and I don’t find much satisfaction in a sure thing. Do they reward the absolutely whimsical, random impulse searching? No matter what the real intent is, I enjoy this kind of design because it provides very clear delineations that players may pick up on and start to think, “Hey, this looks like a place a door might be…”

 The Better to Break It

By this point I’m sure some of you are thinking, “But I don’t want to make my dungeon so regular, so predictable, or have a rhythm to it.” My response is that adding these elements and creating a rhythm in your dungeon is still very helpful with these design goals. Adding a rhythm makes it much easier, clearer, and in my opinion overall better when you want to add elements that break that rhythm. If you want your dungeon to be unpredictable or more random, add a regular element to a corridor and then purposefully at some point take it away. The players will most likely notice, and you’ve added a small dungeon-centric mystery for them to investigate. Not to mention that doing this is ready-made adventure planning for you as you have to figure out why the design changed and what it means for the dungeon and for the adventuring party that’s exploring this location.

Here’s a bit of a disconnected but still very relevant example. Think about the early exploration scenes in the movie Aliens and not only how the characters’ experiences change but also the viewer’s experience changes. The marines go from a very rigid, industrial environment as they’re exploring the terraform reactor to the biological, unpredictable, and very fluid environment of the alien hive. The great thing about this shift in environment is that at first there are no aliens even present, it’s simply a change in the “dungeon” environment that evokes all kinds of feelings in the characters and viewers. You can achieve some of the same effects by setting up a rhythm in your dungeons and then breaking that rhythm in fun and interesting ways.

Further Down the Corridor

Obviously this post has only addressed corridors/hallways, and even then just a small selection of ideas for improving on them. My goal is to keep talking about structure in RPG dungeons until I cover everything I can think of to cover it. Here’s where you can help! Do you have questions after reading this post? Do you have other ideas of how to do things, or elements of your own dungeons you’d like help with? Please get your questions, concerns, and ideas to me either in a comment here, on twitter (@Bartoneus), or e-mail me at the address in my signature below this post. I want to hear from you, but more importantly I want to know what you need help with when you design your own dungeons!

Click here for the rest of the Architect DM Series.