Sarah Darkmagic's blog

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Burst and Blast Templates

One of the guys in my gaming group, @TheMikeKatz, bought these burst and blast templates and they are pretty useful. They help us to easily know if a particular target is within reach and we can leave the burst squares on the table to signify areas affected by lingering spells. The same company also makes condition tile sets to help track conditions but we don't own these and I'm not sure how they work in actual game play. Having the color tie to the player rather than the condition helps with the issue of remembering who exactly caused the condition and makes it easier to say things like, "Hey, it's the end of your turn, do any of these conditions go away?"

Dwarven Forge

Yes, they are expensive. But even more importantly, they are freaking awesome. The envy of many a DM, Dwarven Forge sets help answer simple questions like, are there any candles in the room, where exactly are those pits of lava, and are there any girls there? These sets aren't for everyone as some people would rather be limited by their imagination instead of the amount of money they have and whether or not the piece they want is available. But for the rest of us, we either already own them or continue to drool. Mike Shea, @SlyFlourish, has some great tips for incorporating them into your games. And if you haven't seen Gabe's post on using mirrors and lasers, you need to check it out now. We'll still be here when you get back.

Cavernous Passasge SetMedieval Building SetDen of Evil: Hellscape

Fighty

Ok, this last one isn't quite fair as it's only really available to Google Wave users, but it's still awesome and I just had to gush about it. Daniel Clery, @exedore6, created a Google Wave gadget that allows one to create a virtual battlemap. More details on Fighty are available via the Save vs. Geek blog but these sorts of hacks are exactly why I love my industry so much.

Fear the Boot (FtB) is a podcast, blog and forum site for discussing tabletop role-playing games. The podcast is released on a weekly basis and is generally about an hour to an hour and a half long. While some of the hosts vary between episodes, they all are pretty opinionated in differing ways but know how to have a civil discussion in the meantime. In addition to their podcast episodes, they have a great blog. I particularly enjoyed the post, NCIS as a model for an adventuring group.

Current Cast

• Chad Wattler
• Chris Hussey ( @TheHussman )
• Dan Repperger
• Pat Roper
• Wayne Cole

Recent Topics

• Player Focus and Proaction
• Roleplaying in Combat (167)
• The Effect of Minis on RPGs (166)
• Saving a Faltering Campaign (165)
• Mythology in Fantasy RPGs (164)
• Taking Roleplaying Games Mainstream (163)

More Information

Website: http://www.feartheboot.com
Forums: http://www.feartheboot.com/ftb/index.php/forum
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_The_Boot

The Newbie DM blog has a lot of great information, some of which I've pointed out in previous posts. The man behind the blog is also quite active on twitter, @newbiedm.

A number of other sites have picked up on the awesomeness that is his blog. Wired's GeekDad blog included this blog on its list of the five great RPG blogs. His post about creating custom tokens was republished in OPEN GAME TABLE: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1.

Some Recent Posts

• “Dragon Age: Origins” releases today!
• To Fudge or Not to Fudge, That is the Question
• NewbieDM Review: Dungeon Magazine 171
• Pre-Campaign Player Questionnaire
• NewbieDM Review: Kobold Quarterly 11
• Warstories: Player vs. Player at the table.

The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore

Current Contest

As a bonus, newbiedm.com is running a contest for a signed copy of “The Ghost King” by R.A. Salvatore. He is looking for readers to email him with their best hand-drawn sketch of Drizzt and his black panther Guenhwyvar. Microsoft Paint is also fine, but if it looks like a 3D render or something similar, it will be disqualified. The person who draws his favorite sketch will win the book. He is encouraging everyone, regardless of skill, to enter. The contest ends Friday, November 6th at 11:59 PM Eastern time and all entries may be posted on his site.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that he also started a great new DMs group on the Wizard's Community Site.

A fair number of people participated in a twitter discussion last week over public DM rolls. I happen to be one of those DMs who likes to roll on the table. There are two reasons for this. First, I only know the guys in my group so well, except for my husband that is, and I'm really concerned about the trust issue. I want to provide a real challenge to the guys, but I don't want any of them to feel personally singled out if something bad happens to their character. The second issue is that I'm a 5-foot tall woman. This provides me two distinct disadvantages when using a screen. The first is that I need to use the shorter screen if I want to be able to see and interact with the other players and, even then, I can't see the rest of the table. The second is that, well, I have less frontal clearance than a man would. This makes it really hard for me to reach over the screen to move my characters around.

Besides the issue of public rolls, I ran my first longer session that I created myself. I think it went very well although I was completely drained at the end of it. On the DM side, there was one particular incident of note. Due to how the story was set up, the players almost made a decision that made sense story-wise but could have killed them all game-wise. Basically, there was a comparatively high level oni who had taken over as leader of the local lizardfolk town. They figured if they could get her to reveal her true identity during a ceremony at the lizardfolk temple, those in town who were following her would realize their folly and dump her as a leader. So the group came out with guns blazing and were able to bloody her before she disappeared and ran for the stairs. They still had to deal with a normal level encounter and once they had dispatched the rest of the creatures, they thought they should go in quick pursuit of the oni as she was already bloodied.

I had a real dilemma on my hands here. If they don't take a short break, they don't get their encounter powers back and can't spend their healing surges. That is their decision to make, but I really didn't want a TPK. In the end, I assured them that she wouldn't use the time to heal herself (which also made sense story wise since she needed to collect her most important things and try to leave). I think some people would say that I should have just let them suffer the consequences of that decision but I didn't think that would be fun either.

Anyways, that's a bunch of what's been going on. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I understand the allure of minis. If you have an extensive collection, it really helps the players to visualize the scene. But what can one do if they are just starting out and/or don't have a lot of money to invest in them?

Option 1: Create your own tokens

Example Tokens

NewbieDM has a great post on his website on how to create your own monster tokens. His article has information on where you can get all of these items.

The requirements for his process are:

1. A copy of image editing software such as PhotoShop or Gimp.
2. A copy of the TokenTool software, a free token making utility.
3. A printer, preferably color.
4. 1-inch metal washers. 2-inch for larger creatures.
5. 1-inch hole punch. 2-inch for larger creatures.
6. Extra Strength Glue Stick.

Option 2: Glass beads

Glass Beads as Monsters
I have a number of different colored glass beads to use as monster stand ins, particularly for minions. Mine happen to be from Chessex.

Option 3: Bananagrams

Bananagrams as Monsters
I saw the Bananagrams game at my local variety store and was instantly reminded of the letters used to indicate the positions of monsters on maps. They are somewhat easier than the glass beads since there are many more options (26 letters versus however many shades of beads you can find) and it's a little easier to remember what the letters mean.

What do you like to use?