Role Playing Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-26-2022

When you’re creating a character for your Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game, you want to choose the best powers, feats, skills, and gear for your character’s race and class. This Cheat Sheet provides tips for making wise power, feat, skill, and gear choices when you’re creating a new Dungeons & Dragons character. Once you get started, use the printable battle grids for roleplaying encounters.

Article / Updated 02-28-2020

Take your Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition character on an adventure using these battle grids. One battle grid is blank, so you can customize it to your particular adventure, or just use it as a large, open area to practice combat against monsters. The other battle grid is divided into several rooms, which you can use as the basis for a small dungeon. Ideally, each square on a battle grid should be one inch square. By that standard, the following battle grids are 14 inches wide and 9 inches tall — including the nonplayer character (NPC) squares that you can cut out and place on the map. To use these battle grids, you must either shrink them down to fit the size of your paper, or print them on larger paper (11 x 17, for example). Click here to download and print the blank battle grid. Click here to download and print a battle grid with some walls already added.

Article / Updated 02-28-2020

D&D is a cooperative game, not a competitive one. In other words, you don't compete against the other players and you don't win by beating them. Instead, there are a lot of different ways to "win" the game. The common denominator in every victory condition is "fun." If you and the other players have fun, everyone wins a game of D&D. Storytelling One way to "win" a D&D game is to help the group tell a fun and exciting story. Whether you successfully complete your adventure or fail miserably, if everyone has a good time and you contribute to creating a story that everyone is going to remember, the group wins. Adventure goals Every adventure contains its own set of victory conditions. Sometimes it's as simple as surviving the dungeon and escaping, or defeating the boss villain at the heart of the fortress of evil. Other times, you might have a specific goal to accomplish (take the evil ring and toss it in the volcano) or a specific monster to beat (stop the werewolf before it rampages through the town again). If you achieve the objective of the adventure, the group wins. Character victories When you begin playing D&D, your character starts out at 1st level — the lowest experience level. Your character wins each time he or she defeats monsters and gains experience points and treasure. With each new level your character gains, he or she increases in power and reputation. Each increase in wealth, power, and equipment is a win for your character. One game rule to rule them all The Dungeons & Dragons game is built around a core mechanic. This core mechanic is used to resolve all actions in the game, keeping play fast and intuitive. The Core Game Mechanic: Whenever your character attempts an action that has a chance of failure associated with it, roll a twenty-sided die (d20). The higher the roll, the better the character's chances of succeeding in that action. Character actions boil down to three basic types: Attack rolls: A roll to determine if your character succeeds at attacking a monster or other opponent. Using a longsword against a monster, for example, requires an attack roll. Skill checks: A roll to determine if your character uses a skill successfully. Using the Climb skill to scale a wall, for example, requires a skill check. Ability checks: A roll to determine if your character succeeds at attempting to do something to which no specific skill really applies. Attempting to bash open a dungeon door, for example, requires a Strength ability check. To determine if any of these actions are successful, follow these steps: 1. Roll a d20. 2. Add any relevant modifiers. 3. Compare the result to a target number. If the result equals or exceeds the target number, the action succeeds. A result less than the target number indicates that the action fails. Target numbers, also called the Difficulty Class (or DC) for a particular task or action, come from a variety of places. Some are set by the action itself and are defined in the rules, while other times, the target numbers are determined by the Dungeon Master.

Article / Updated 02-28-2020

A Dungeons & Dragons player character lives in an ancient time, in a world much like ours was in medieval times, when knights and castles filled the land. Imagine this place, where magic really works and dragons roam in the dark beyond the firelight. Your character might be a strong fighter or a nimble rogue, a wise cleric or a charismatic sorcerer. Every day, with the help of the dungeon master, your character explores the unknown places of the world, seeking monsters to slay and treasure to win. Every adventure that your character survives makes him or her a little more powerful, a little more famous, and a little richer. D&D is a game, and so you need some way to express and describe your character in the context of the game world. Your fighter, for example, might be "extremely strong but not too bright," and those characteristics need to be translated into game terms. The following sections provide an overview of the things you'll find on your character sheet, a record of your character's game statistics. Name Every great character has a great name. You may have a name all picked out from the moment you conceive your character, or you may figure it out after you've determined all of your character's game statistics. Great names are evocative. They fit the mood of the story and world in which the character adventures. John Savage is a great name for a character in a spy thriller set in the modern world, but it doesn't work so well for a character in a D&D fantasy world. Race In the fantasy world of D&D, humans aren't the only intelligent race walking around. Other intelligent races share their adventures, and your character can belong to any of these. Here are a few of the possible races you could choose from. The D&D Player's Handbook has additional races that make great player characters. These races are drawn from myth and legend, and they are similar to the imaginary races that populate many popular fantasy worlds. For D&D, the races we begin with are humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. Here's a quick rundown on the benefits of each: Humans: These are people just like you and us. They are adaptable, flexible, and extremely ambitious. Compared to the other races, humans are relatively short-lived. In game terms, humans get an extra feat and four extra skill points to reflect their natural tendencies. Dwarves: The members of this race are hearty and steadfast, standing about 4-1/2 feet tall but powerfully built and extremely broad. They have a strong connection to mountains and rocky places. They can live to be more than 400 years old. In game terms, dwarves receive a +2 to Constitution and a –2 to Charisma. They also receive bonuses against poison, spells, and magical effects. Dwarves also have darkvision, the ability to see up to 60 feet in the dark. Elves: Elves have a strong connection to the natural world, especially woodlands. They can live to be more than 700 years old. Known for being artists of both song and magic, elves have an affinity for spellcasting and lore. They stand about 5-1/2 feet tall, appearing graceful and frail. Elves receive a +2 to Dexterity and a –2 to Constitution. They are immune to sleep effects and receive a bonus against enchantment spells. Elves have low-light vision and a racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. Halflings: The members of this race are clever and capable — much more so than their small size might indicate. Standing about 3 feet tall, with slim, muscular builds, halflings are athletic and outgoing. Curious to a fault and usually with a daring to match, halflings love to explore. They tend to live well past 100. Halflings receive a +2 Dexterity and a –2 Strength to reflect their small statures. They also receive bonuses to Climb, Jump, Listen, and Move Silently checks, as well as a bonus to all saving throws due to their fearlessness and ability to avoid damage. Class In addition to your character's name and race, your character is most easily identified by his or her class. A class is kind of like a profession or vocation. It determines what role the character plays in the adventuring party. Here are four of the most popular D&D classes for your use. More can be found in the D&D Player's Handbook: Fighters: These characters are warriors with exceptional combat capabilities and weapon skills. Nobody kills monsters and stands at the front of an adventuring party as well as the fighter. Rogues: Members of this class rely on tricks, cunning, and stealth to get through a dungeon and save the day. Rogues are great at getting past locked doors, scouting, spying, and attacking from the shadows. Sorcerers: These are spellcasters, calling on powerful magic spells to fight monsters and protect their teammates. Sorcerers need to stay out of direct combat, but the power they bring to the adventure makes them worthy members of any party. Clerics: These characters focus the might of divine magic to cast healing and protective spells. A good second-line warrior as well, a cleric might be one of the most versatile members of an adventuring party. So, your character might be Regdar the human fighter, for example. Level and XP Level is a description of your character's relative degree of power. A 10th-level character is more powerful and able to take on tougher challenges than a 5th-level character. With each new level your character attains, he or she becomes more powerful and capable. Your character begins play at 1st level. Experience points (XP) are the numerical measure of your character's personal achievements. Your character earns experience points by defeating opponents and overcoming challenges. When your character's XP total reaches various milestones, he or she gains new levels. At 0 XP, for example, your character is 1st level. At 1,000 XP, your character attains 2nd level. Ability scores The primary expression of your character in game terms starts with his or her ability scores. Every D&D character is defined by six abilities — Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability gets a score, a number that determines how good your character will be at different tasks in the game. The average score for everyday people in a D&D world is 10 or 11. Player characters are heroes, and so they are better than everyday folk. The average ability score for a player character is 12 or 13. During character creation, you can generate numbers between 3 (a terrible score) and 18 (an excellent score). Special abilities If it hasn't been made clear yet, your player character is special. He or she stands above the normal people and becomes a hero in the world. As such, your character has special abilities. These might be based on your character's class or race, or tied to certain feats you have selected. For example, Regdar the fighter has taken the Power Attack feat. This provides him with the special ability to reduce the effectiveness of his attack roll in order to increase the damage he deals on a successful hit. Another example of a special ability is Wellyn the sorcerer's ability to cast arcane spells. Key statistics Your character has a number of key statistics that you'll refer to over and over through the course of play. Here's a quick rundown on these statistics: Initiative modifier: This modifier is used to determine who goes first in a combat round. Speed: This value shows how far your character can move (measured in feet) in a round. Attack and damage modifiers: These numbers are associated with your character's weapons of choice, show what you must roll to attack opponents, and how much damage your character does if the attack succeeds. Armor Class (or AC): This value is what opponents need to roll to hit your character during combat. Hit points (or hp): This number defines how much damage your character can withstand before being defeated in combat. When your character runs out of hit points, he or she is defeated. Feats Feats provide special bonuses or capabilities for your character. Sometimes a feat provides a totally new power for your character. Other feats improve powers your character already has. Skills Skills represent the training and education your character has beyond the combat and spellcasting inherent to his or her class. Depending on your character's class, your character will have a greater or lesser amount of skills to call upon. Rogues, for example, receive a large number of points with which to buy and improve skills. Fighters, on the other hand, just don't go in much for studying, and therefore receive a much smaller number of skill points to use. Gear Every D&D player character must be well prepared for adventuring life. This is reflected not only in the class, skills, and feats the character has, but in the gear the character carries. From weapons and armor to rations, sleeping rolls and rope, torches, flint and steel, and the backpack to carry it all in, no adventurer goes naked into a dungeon. Spells Characters with a spellcasting class possess spells, such as the sorcerer and the cleric. The D&D Player's Handbook presents other spellcasting class options. A spell is a one-time magical effect. Some spells deal damage to either a single opponent or a group of opponents. Other spells heal adventuring companions who have been injured in combat. There are all kinds of spells with all kinds of different magical effects. The sorcerer casts arcane spells. Arcane spells tend to be offensive in nature. The cleric casts divine spells. Divine spells tend to be helpful and defensive in nature, providing healing or effects that improve or otherwise benefit the party.

Article / Updated 04-26-2016

Everyone knows Hollywood's take on the vampire myth, and how to go about destroying one of the undead. Confront her with a crucifix or garlic. Immerse her in running water. Cut off her head. Stake her in the heart. All these techniques derive from real myth, but not all of these myths actually work in the World of Darkness, or at least there's only a kernel of truth to some of them. The following are some of the best ways to defeat and destroy a vampire, assuming she hasn't taken precautions against one or all of them, and she doesn't wake up right before a hunter's hammer blow. Home, sweet home A vampire's daylight slumber makes her most vulnerable. If would-be killers can find her haven, she's in jeopardy. Most vampires set up defenses, however. Ghouls may stand watch. Booby traps might spring. Alarms might go off that call the police to what superficially seems like an ordinary home or office. And then there's the threat of the vampire rising during the day, in the dark recesses of her hiding place, forcing herself up to kill whomever dares to threaten her. Stake in the heart In the World of Darkness, staking a vampire in the heart only paralyzes her. It doesn't destroy her once and for all. If someone pulls the stake out or it rots away, she rises again and no doubt remembers who assaulted her... or knows the surname of her assailant's descendents. Assuming no other means of destruction is available, a staked vampire can be immersed in concrete or bricked up behind a wall. That way, if she ever is revived, she still has to escape her physical tomb. Weak links A vampire is immune to the effects of poison, but her ghouls, herd, and other mortal minions are not. Undermine her support system. Drive off or kill her agents and servants and her means of survival is taken away. Sure, she's tipped off that someone is after her, but without backup, her weapons may be narrowed to fangs and claws. Those are still deadly, but at least they can be anticipated to some degree. Getting medieval Hacking and chopping. Believe it or not, the simplest methods still work on vampires. A Kindred can take a lot of punishment from blows, blades, and bullets, but inflict enough damage and even a vampire is pulverized to the point of Final Death. The problem is surviving the attacks she inflicts while you manage to cause her all that harm. Lots of automatic weapons fire by multiple shooters is a good start, followed by judicious use of an axe once she's down. Old school Not all weapons that can be turned on vampires are physical or even mystical. Some are completely mundane. A vampire with influence over mortals can get the favors and services she needs to insulate herself. But those very layers and institutions can be turned against her. Maybe the old building she calls home can be condemned and torn down. Maybe the stocks in which she is heavily invested can be ruined on the market. Maybe the police are tipped off to the gambling rings she supports. Denied her comforts and layers of protection in the mundane world, a vampire's supernatural existence is threatened. Angry mob As a rule, the Kindred seek to keep their existence secret from mortals. If vampires were discovered, the human masses would overwhelm the undead. Disgruntled employees While most ghouls are enthralled by their masters, not all are dedicated to vampire regnants. If you can ally with a rogue ghoul, he might have information about the nature of the undead or a particular vampire that you do not. He might also be willing to help capture her as a source of blood for himself. Such a partner is helpful for his knowledge and experience, but is also treacherous. He was or is addicted to vampire blood and might just as easily betray you to a targeted vampire as help you defeat her. Fire bad A perennial favorite for rooting out and destroying vampires is fire. It's easily accessible, and vampires are always vulnerable to it. Fire can be counteracted, though. Sprinkler systems work for the undead as they do for the living. Immersion in water or earth also puts fire out. If you resort to this tool to destroy a vampire, and she survives, your own life is certainly forfeit. Rays of dawn Sunlight is not so easily portable as fire is, but it can't be doused. At best, a vampire can hide from it, and if she's forced to hide from it without a pre-planned escape route or back door, she's caught like a rat in a trap. Sunlight also buys hunters time to recover, plan, and heal, assuming that they're not Kindred as well, and assuming that a vampire's mortal agents don't hunt her hunters. Vampires are terrified of both fire and sunlight and can fly into panicked frenzies when exposed to them. Fire might seem to be the intended killer, but when a vampire is flushed out and survives a burning haven, she might not be prepared for machine-gun–toting hunters who await her emergence. Cannibalism If one is a vampire who hunts other vampires, the best way to do away with a quarry once and for all is diablerie, the act of drinking the last of a victim's blood, and mystically consuming her soul in the act. One of the greatest crimes among the Kindred, diablerie is empowering. The blood of the devourer becomes more potent. He manifests some of his victim's Disciplines and becomes stronger for his "crime." The trick is getting another vampire in a position where she can't resist utter destruction and cannibalization. No small feat when one's quarry is herself a supernatural predator.

Article / Updated 04-26-2016

Where does Vampire's mythology diverge from popular belief? Where do the conceits ring true? The following statements outline real-world legends of the undead, clarifying their truth or falsity in the World of Darkness. Vampires must sustain themselves on the blood of the living: Fact. For the Kindred, the act of feeding is highly sensual. The vessel feels ecstatic when it happens, and the feeding vampire undergoes a heady rush. Certain vampires sustain their undeath by drinking the blood of animals, but rarely for long, as either their tastes or the needs of their cursed bodies force them to seek human blood. Vampires are immortal: Myth and fact. Although vampires do not appear to age, and some survive for centuries, the Kindred use the word undead rather than immortal. Vampirism is a curse, not a blessing. It does carry with it great power, but the state of being a vampire also brings with it numerous detriments, not the least of which include the internalized rage of the Beast and feeding on human blood. A vampire's prey automatically becomes a vampire: Myth. You do not necessarily become a vampire if you're bitten or killed by a vampire. It takes a conscious act of will, known as the Embrace, to create a new vampire. Indeed, a vampire leaves little to mark her passing if she is careful. All a vampire must do to hide the wound left by her feeding is to lick it when she's done. Vampires have every manner of supernatural power, such as turning into animals, flying, and wielding the strength of a dozen men: Fact. While these powers are not universal, vampires have unique abilities, known as Disciplines, that can grant individual undead capabilities such as these and more. Vampires can have sex: Fact. While the act of feeding replaces all physical urges, vampires can still indulge in sex and even take pleasure from it. Curiously, however, the emotional aspect of sex vanishes after the Embrace. A vampire might enjoy the physical sensation of sex, but no more than she enjoys a particularly savory smell or the touch of a luxurious fabric. A wooden stake destroys vampires: Myth. Vampires aren't destroyed upon being staked; they're held in stasis. A vampire's body slowly withers while trapped in this state, becoming ever more corpselike. Vampires don't show up like normal people on camera or in mirrors: Fact. Vampires show up with their features obscured in photographic media (including video footage) and in mirrors. They can temporarily counteract this effect, but by "default," their features are obscured. The same is not true for voice recordings; vampires' voices are captured normally on voice recorders. Sunlight burns vampires: Fact. As part of their curse, vampires recoil at the touch of the sun, its vital rays scorching their undead flesh. Vampires typically spend the daylight hours in the cold sleep of undeath, and only the most resolute can shake off the weight of the day's forced slumber for even a short time. Garlic and running water repel vampires: Myth. Such notions are nothing more than old wives' tales, cultural biases, or perhaps the banes of certain bloodlines of Kindred. Vampires are repulsed by crosses and other holy symbols: Myth — almost. While such is not generally the case, the devout sometimes do affect the Kindred with miraculous aspects of their faith. Vampires' souls are as dead as their bodies: Myth and fact. A vampire may believe that he feels an emotion, but what he actually feels is the echo of mortal emotions that the remnants of his soul apply to his current experience. That is, a vampire who feels angry might indeed be angry at the subject of his ire, but the resonance of the emotion actually comes from some situation the vampire dealt with in life. This condition results in many strange situations. A vampire who has never experienced a given emotion before becoming Kindred might become confused, while a vampiric artist might create a work of art that is awkwardly devoid of any true emotional insight.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

As in any social experience, a Dungeons and Dragons game benefits from common courtesies and ground rules that are followed by players and DMs alike. The following provides some of the unwritten ground rules of a game session, now written down for everyone to use. Being ready to run the game The DM needs to be prepared to run the game session. If you aren't ready, the game session isn't going to turn out well. Review the rules, particularly any special rules that might come up in the adventure. Know your adventure. If you're familiar with the plot and pacing of the adventure, it will run that much more smoothly. Plus, your knowledge of the adventure allows you to deal with the unexpected actions of the player characters — and the players will do things that you don't expect. That's part of the fun of the game. Being ready also means being organized. Have your adventure materials and notes set up before the game session begins. Gather the miniatures you want to use ahead of time. Use sticky notes or bookmarks so you can easily find the sections of the rulebooks you know you'll need to refer to, especially the pages in the Monster Manual you might need to turn to for likely encounters. The players expect you to be ready, so it's only a common courtesy that you don't disappoint them. If you're ready, that's one thing that can take care of itself and you can focus on running a great game session. Hosting chores You need a place to play. Providing a place to play isn't the responsibility of the DM, though you might host the game session. Discuss this with the entire gaming group. Determine who has the space and the desire to host the game. Find out which of the possible locations are most convenient for the majority of the gaming group. You might decide to rotate your regular game among a number of locations, sharing the responsibilities. You might discover that one location is going to work out best all the time and the host is fine with that. A lot of what goes into this decision involves where you want to play. You have two options: You can play in a public place, such as a library or game store or coffee shop. This assumes that the staff and management of the place is okay with you playing there, you follow any rules the place sets up, and you keep the noise down so as not to disturb others using the public place. You can play in a private place, such as the home of one of the members of the gaming group. Certain rules and common courtesies do go along with playing in a friend's house. Follow them, and the host will continue to make space available. Break the rules or show disrespect for the location, and you'll probably need to find a new location for future game sessions. Prior to the game, the host should make sure the play space is clean and that distractions are kept to a minimum. (Keeping pets and young children away from the gaming area is probably a good idea.) After the game, the entire gaming group should pitch in to clean up by throwing trash away, putting away dice and other gaming accouterments, storing any remaining snacks, and so on. Setting a time limit Set a time limit for the game session. This allows the other players to plan accordingly and gives you an idea of how much material you need to have prepared for the game. Bear in mind that the time limit is only a guideline. If you and the other players want to keep playing, you can adjust the time limit to everyone's satisfaction. Bringing or chipping in for refreshments The gaming group should reach a consensus before the game about how to handle food and drink. Will people eat lunch or dinner before coming to the game, or will a meal be part of the event? If the meal is part of the event, will everyone chip in for take-out or will everyone bring a dish to share? D&D is a group activity, so it shouldn't be the responsibility of a single group member (including the host or the DM) to take on the entire burden of feeding the group. Everyone chips in and one person buys for the group, everyone brings something to share, or everyone is expected to fend for themselves. Any choice is fine as long as the group knows what to expect at the game. Make sure that the group agrees to food choices that work for everyone, or at least have options for all of the players. Some people don't like certain things, and others have special dietary needs or allergies. Try to take all of that into account as the group comes up with a refreshment plan. And for long game sessions, the DM should plan breaks for food and drink so as not to disrupt the adventure. Come up with a system that works best for your group and spreads the responsibility around. Then be courteous and live up to your end of the bargain. Eliminating outside distractions At the start of the game session, the DM needs to provide time for the players to socialize. Players like to catch up, discuss the news of the day, talk about favorite TV shows and movies, and generally shoot the breeze. D&D is as much about social interaction as slaying monsters, so this kind of activity is encouraged — as long as it's kept in its place. Fifteen minutes to a half hour of this, before the game starts, is fine, or perhaps over a meal (if one is part of your game session). When the DM calls for the game to begin, however, courtesy demands that all players turn their attention to the game. The host can help by making sure that other distractions aren't easily accessible. The TV shouldn't be on when you're playing D&D. If the majority of the players want to watch the big game of the sport of their choice, maybe you should reschedule the game session. Likewise, keep the computer and console games out of sight, put the pets away, and send the younger children to their rooms to play their own games. (Better yet, hire a babysitter.) Sometimes, a player just isn't in the mood for D&D. He or she might have had a rough day at the office, might not be feeling well, might have a ton of homework, or maybe there's something else he or she would rather be doing. Don't try to strong-arm a player into showing up and playing. If a player doesn't think he or she will have fun, encourage the player to take the night off from the game. The player can always jump back into things for your next game session. Distractions are going to occur. Someone is going to tell a joke, relate a story, or otherwise disrupt the flow of the adventure. A little of that is okay and even fun. But stifle any distractions that derail the adventure and make it hard for the other players to enjoy the game. Etiquette and courtesy demand that players and DMs get their heads in the game for the game session so that everyone can have a good time. Making sure everyone understands the in-game rules of conduct These rules of conduct aren't revolutionary, but it's good to review them with your gaming group so that everyone knows what's expected of them when they come to play D&D: It's the DM's show. Players need to be kind to the DM and accept the DM's authority over the game. Likewise, when the DM makes a mistake (and it will happen), he or she should be willing to change a decision if that decision had negative repercussions for a player character. Play fair. Players shouldn't cheat, even to save their characters' lives. There are ways to deal with bad rolls (even ones that will result in a character's death) that don't force a player to stoop so low as to cheat. Accentuate the positive. Players should compliment the DM on a good game. Likewise, DMs should praise players when they have their characters do something especially clever or heroic or just plain fun. Let the players play. The DM needs to be kind to the players, treating them fairly and letting them make their own decisions. The DM shouldn't force the player characters to follow a specific path through the adventure, shouldn't punish them for being clever, and shouldn't intentionally and maliciously try to kill them. It's the players' game, too. The DM needs to treat players with respect and should ask them for their opinions on difficult rules interpretations. Eliminate the negative. The DM and the players should leave the real world behind when they play D&D, including any disagreements or lingering bad feelings that might otherwise color the way they play for a particular session. The DM and players should avoid distractions that make it hard for everyone to enjoy the game. And most importantly, have fun!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Many Dungeon Masters choose to create their own adventures and campaigns out of nothing more than their imaginations. If you're one of those DMs, good for you! Devising exciting adventures and crafting a fantastic world for your D&D game are some of the most rewarding parts of being a Dungeon Master. However, even the most creative DM can use a helping hand every now and then. For some people, it's a matter of time; depending on the amount of detail and contingency planning you deem necessary in preparing adventures for the players, designing a big dungeon might take up your hobby time for weeks and weeks. Other DMs have the time but find it hard to come up with original ideas on demand. When your creation well runs dry, try some of the options in the following sections. The real world The first place you can look for ideas is right in front of you. Between the Earth's astonishing variety of terrain and climate and the similarly broad canvas of human societies in different places and times, you can find zillions of ideas for interesting adventures. If you need a floor plan for a castle, why not base your map sketch on the plan of a real castle? You can find plenty of books about castles at your local library or bookstore, or you might do well to hop online and use your favorite search engine to see whether anybody's ever posted that sort of information to the Web. Naturally, books on medieval life, history, or castles in general are useful to many D&D games. Encyclopedias often have interesting articles on a variety of these topics. In addition to references on medieval Europe, keep your eyes open for books or articles pertaining to other times — the Dark Ages or the Renaissance, for instance — and other cultures, such as the medieval Arabic, Byzantine, Malinese, or even Chinese or Japanese Empires. Even modern-day examples of exotic places and cultures might prove inspirational. National Geographic is a treasure trove of ideas for a D&D game. By checking out the interesting locales, maps, and portraits of societies and customs from all over the world, you'll find something in every issue. Fantasy fiction Over the years, thousands of authors have created tens of thousands of fantasy stories. There's no reason you can't quietly borrow elements of a couple from your own favorites for use in your D&D game. As long as you don't create an adventure that's all about taking the Sole Ring of Ultimate Might to Mount Woe in order to destroy it in the volcanic fires where it was forged, the players might not even notice that your adventure was inspired by a book you read. If you want to use your favorite fantasy story as inspiration for your game, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind: Short stories are better than novels; a short story can easily inspire a single adventure. Stories with lots of action make for better games than stories that are driven by the relationships of the characters. The more obscure, the better; try to avoid stories the players are intimately familiar with. Fantastic it up — most fantasy fiction is less fantastic than D&D, so consider changing human kingdoms or characters into creatures of a more fantastic nature. File off the serial numbers. Make sure you change names of places and characters enough so that the players won't recognize them. Robert E. Howard's Conan stories or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales are good examples of the sort of fiction that lends itself to conversion into D&D adventures. You could do worse than to model an adventure after Howard's The Devil in Iron or Leiber's Swords of Lankhmar. Movies and TV Imagine this scenario: An honest lawman is hired to clean up a rough-and-tumble mining town, but when he does his job too well, the corrupt mayor calls in the hired guns to kill the lawman and stop him from setting things right. It's a plot from a Western, right? Not exactly — this is from the Sean Connery movie Outland, which was really just a Western story with a science fiction setting. If the formula works for Hollywood, it can work for you, too. There's no reason you can't borrow the basic plot structure of almost any action movie, replace some of the thugs and villains with monsters, and present it as a D&D adventure for the players. TV shows also have some lessons for a DM in search of creativity. Unlike a movie, which usually ends with the biggest and most satisfying resolution possible for the hero, a TV show is a serial. A single episode can't resolve every problem the hero faces, because if it does, the viewers have no reason to tune in next week. Your D&D game is more like a TV show than a movie; at the end of the adventure, you need plenty of reasons for the players to come back and see what happens next. A well-written TV show commonly introduces an immediate problem that can be resolved with reasonable satisfaction in the single episode you're watching, but also throws in elements of long-term plots and developments that might never be resolved. Think of The X-Files: In every episode, Mulder and Scully discover, investigate, and then deal with (or just survive) some immediate threat, but in the background several important storylines and recurring figures keep the series-spanning meta-plot moving forward with appearances by characters, such as Cigarette-Smoking Man and Deep Throat. It's hard to imagine a better example of a serial adventure format for a D&D game. Replace Mulder and Scully with the player characters, the immediate problem of the episode with the dungeon they're currently exploring, and the meta-plot characters with long-term patrons or master villains appropriate to your campaign, and you've got the ingredients of a great campaign.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You need three distinct components to play a Dungeons & Dragons game: Players: You need players, usually two to six of them, to take on the roles of adventurers in the fantasy world. The adventurers controlled by the players are also called heroes or player characters (PCs, for short). A Dungeon Master: The Dungeon Master (DM) controls all of the nonplayer characters (NPCs) — the monsters, villains, and other incidental characters that inhabit the fantasy world. The DM sets the pace of the story and referees the action as the adventure unfolds. An adventure: An adventure is the activity that the player characters participate in. An adventure usually consists of a basic plot and a number of encounters. As the players (through their characters) interact with the plot and resolve the encounters, they help the DM tell a story. The cool thing is that every action the player characters perform affects the twists and turns of the plot, so that the outcome of the adventure winds up surprising everyone. The following sections give more details about all the various parts of the D&D experience. Players and characters Like the protagonists of a novel or the heroes of a movie, the action revolves around the characters in a D&D game. Each player creates a character (or selects a ready-to-play character), a heroic adventurer who is part of a team that regularly delves into dungeons and battles monsters. These characters include mighty fighters, brave clerics, cunning rogues, and powerful sorcerers. You, as a player, play the game while your character takes all the risks. Playing a D&D character is kind of like acting, except everything happens around the gaming table. You don't have to deliver lines or perform stunts. Just find a comfortable seat, explain what your character is doing, and roll some dice. The scene plays out in your imagination and in the imaginations of the other players. The Dungeon Master One player has a special role in a D&D game. This player, the Dungeon Master (or DM), controls the pace of the story and referees the action along the way. Every D&D game needs a Dungeon Master — you can't play the game without one. The cool thing about Dungeon Masters is that they allow the game to be totally interactive and open-ended. Players can have their characters attempt anything they can imagine because there's a real, live person sitting in the DM's chair, coordinating the action and determining how every event adds to the story. The game rules and the dice help, but the DM must use his or her imagination to make the world unfold. The player who decides to take on the role of the Dungeon Master becomes a member of a select group. Not everyone has the dedication and creativity to be a DM, but those that do have a great outlet in the D&D game. The DM defines the game his or her group is going to play, and a good DM results in a great game of D&D. Some groups use multiple DMs, so that everyone gets to run a player character at some point, and everyone who wants to try their hands at DMing gets the opportunity. Other groups go for years with the same player serving as DM for every game session. It all depends on the desires of the group and the personalities involved. The adventure The player characters are the stars of your D&D game, just like the heroes in books or movies. They are adventurers, and adventurers need adventures. A D&D adventure features action, combat, mystery, challenges, and lots and lots of monsters. Adventures come in three forms: full-length adventures published specifically for D&D, adventure hooks in published products that DMs can turn into full-length adventures, and adventures that DMs create for themselves. Adventures can be as simple as a basic dungeon crawl or as complex as a murder mystery. An adventure can last for a single game session or stretch out over a number of sessions of play. One adventure might take place in a haunted castle, another in a crime-ridden village, a third in the catacombs beneath an ancient graveyard. What makes D&D different from your typical board game is that each adventure is just a single tale in the continuing saga of your player characters. Adventures provide the stage upon which your player characters perform heroic deeds and resolve legendary quests. Anything is possible in a D&D game, and it is through adventures that the possibilities come alive. Supplies you need Players and characters, a Dungeon Master, and an adventure — these are the basic components of any Dungeons & Dragons game. However, you need a few supplies to get the most out of the experience. These things include: The D&D game itself Special dice Character sheets Miniatures and battle grids Pencils and paper — lots of it The D&D game Beginners should pick up the D&D Basic Game, which includes the basic rules, dice, and many of the other components discussed in this section, all in one convenient box. If you want to progress beyond the basics, you'll need the three core books, all published by Wizards of the Coast, that comprise the full D&D game: Player's Handbook: Presents the rules of the game from the player's point of view and provides details on creating characters, outfitting adventurers, and playing the game. Dungeon Master's Guide: Presents the rules of the game from the Dungeon Master's point of view and provides detailed advice on running games, creating adventures, sustaining campaigns, and awarding experience to player characters. It also contains a selection of magic items and a fold-out battle grid to enhance play. Monster Manual:Presents hundreds of creatures to use in any D&D game. From low-level to high-level, friendly to hostile, each creature has an illustration, game tactics, and statistics for ease of use. The DM needs all three books, but players can usually get by with just a copy of the Player's Handbook. Dice Dice are used to determine the outcome of actions in the game. If you want your character to try something — such as attack the ogre, disarm the trap, or search for clues — the dice are used whenever the result isn't a sure thing. The D&D game uses dice of different shapes. Each player should have his or her own set of dice with which to play the game. Players get possessive and protective of their dice, and having your own set means you can customize it (dice come in all kinds of styles and colors). Game play also proceeds more smoothly when you don't have to pass the dice around when sharing among players. A set of dice for the D&D game includes at least the following: One four-sided die (referred to as a d4) Four six-sided dice (d6) One eight-sided die (d8) Two ten-sided dice (d10) When these two dice are rolled together, they can produce any digit between 01 and 100. For this reason, these two dice are often called percentile dice (d%). Some dice sets include a d90 (a die that has sides expressed in tens — 10, 20, 30, and so on) to make rolling percentile dice easier. One twelve-sided die (d12) One twenty-sided die (d20) The d20 determines character success at any given action, while the other dice determine what happens if an action succeeds. Character sheets Your D&D character is defined by a series of key statistics, as well as by the background story you create for the character. These statistics and other key information are contained on a character sheet. As your character participates in adventures, these statistics change. Miniatures and a battle grid While most of the action of D&D occurs in the imaginations of the participants, it is often very helpful to display certain information where everyone can see it. Combat situations, for example, work better when the players and DM know where all the participants are (characters and monsters) in relation to one another. D&D uses a one-inch grid, called the battle grid, to represent where the action takes place. To represent the characters and monsters, the players and DM place miniatures or other markers on the battle grid. Other play surfaces can be found in the Dungeon Master's Guide and the D&D Basic Game. Official prepainted plastic D&D miniatures can be found in the D&D Basic Game, as well as in D&D Miniatures booster packs, available wherever fine hobby games are sold. Pencils, paper, and graph paper You'll want a means for keeping notes and recording important information during game play, so have a lot of pencils, scrap paper, and graph paper available. Use the scrap paper for notes about the adventure (write down the names of NPCs and places, any treasure your character acquires, and any other details that you might forget or think may be important later). One player might take the role of note keeper, or each player may want to take his or her own notes. Use the graph paper to sketch a map of the area the PCs are exploring — players want to map the dungeon as they explore it, while the DM uses graph paper to design the whole dungeon before the adventurers enter it.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

A Dungeon Master is one of the players in a Dungeons & Dragons game group. The other players each create a single character and use that character to interact with the imaginary world depicted in the game, but the DM plays a pivotal role that goes beyond that of the other players. In short, the Dungeon Master runs the game. You can get along without a fighter or a rogue or a cleric character, at least for a game session or two, but you can't play a game of D&D without a DM. Because the D&D game is as wide open as the imaginations of the players, the presence of a DM to act as a moderator, story designer, and narrator is essential. The players interact with each other and the imaginary environment through the actions of their characters, and the DM describes each scene, directs the action, and plays the roles of the monsters, villains, and all the other people (the butcher, the baker, and the innkeeper, for example) that the characters meet on every adventure. As the DM, you aren't competing against the players. You set up interesting, exciting, even challenging situations, and then use the game rules to fairly and impartially allow events to play out. You don't know how things are going to turn out, and neither do the players. That's one of the elements that makes the Dungeons & Dragons game so much fun. When you and the players get together to play out a compelling group story, everybody wins! What the Dungeon Master Masters The Dungeon Master (or DM) plays a special role in the D&D game. The DM controls the pace of the story and referees the action as it unfolds. The power of creating worlds and controlling dragons resides in the hands of the DM. As DM, you are the master of the game. The rules, the setting, the action, and ultimately the fun all radiate from you. Sounds like something you just have to do? Well, being the DM involves having a great deal of power. Use that power wisely and with great responsibility so that you and the other players have a fun experience. The role of DM doesn't have to mean a lot of work and hardship. The fun, excitement, creativity, and decision making of running a game session are in your hands. Although Dungeon Mastering can sometimes be as easy as showing up to the game (just like the other players), more often than not the DM has to do a little bit of upfront preparation so that the game session unfolds smoothly. What Do You Need for Playing? The Dungeons & Dragons game has few requirements but lots of options. In addition to players, a Dungeon Master, and an adventure, you need (to a greater or lesser extent) the following items to play the game: The game itself: D&D is a unique type of game, a roleplaying game, that's presented in three core books — Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. There's also a Basic Game that comes in a box for people new to the hobby. Dice: The D&D game uses a unique collection of dice, each with a different number of sides. Dice add a random element to the game, and in fact, turn D&D into a game (as opposed to merely an improvisational activity). A set of D&D dice includes the following: Number of Dice Type of Dice Abbreviation 1 Four-sided dice D4 4 Six-sided dice D6 1 Eight-sided dice D8 2 Ten-sided dice D10 1 Twelve-sided dice D12 1 Twenty-sided dice D20 In addition to the basic set of dice, it pays to have extras of certain types of dice. For example, you might find it handy to have several extra d4s or d8s when rolling damage for spells such as magic missile or searing light. The players ought to have several sets of dice (one set per player is best), so that they don't have to waste time collecting the dice they need from all over the table. Character sheets: Every player needs a character sheet that details the character he or she is playing. You can photocopy a character sheet out of the Player's Handbook or purchase a pack of deluxe character sheets. Players should use a pencil to fill out their character sheets because the game stats change as the character gains experience and picks up loot. Some Web sites also provide PDF versions of the character sheet that you can download and print for personal use. DM screen: As DM, you need a DM screen. It provides useful charts and tables you need in the game and helps you hide your maps and notes and other accouterments so that the players can't peek at what's to come. Miniatures and a battle grid: The Dungeon Master's Guide provides a ready-to-use battle grid, a play surface where your miniatures can represent tactical situations (such as combat encounters). Other play surfaces are available wherever fine hobby games are sold. Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures booster packs contain a variety of cool monsters and hero figures that you can use to represent characters in tactical situations. Although miniatures and a battle grid aren't technically necessary, they do speed up play and help players better visualize the fantastic situations you put their characters in. (They're also pretty cool and fun to collect, and you can play a more competitive version of the game with them, if you're into that.) Pencils and paper: D&D players need a way to keep notes, track their progress through a dungeon, write down what kind of treasure they find, and otherwise record important game information. For this reason, it pays to have a lot of pencils (with good erasers), paper, and graph paper handy during a game session. The goal of dungeon mastering What's the goal of being the DM? Why do you do it? A number of goals exist, but it boils down to this: to have fun. The DM gets to have fun by running the game, crafting the adventures, and narrating the story of the player characters. When the DM and the players both have a fun and satisfying experience, the game of D&D really shines as a social experience. Whether you like moderating the rules, narrating the story, or creating the adventure — or taking on any of the other expressions of DMing — the reason to be the DM, the only reason, is because you enjoy it. When you have fun, the whole group has fun, and that's what games such as D&D are all about.