Back in the old days of playing D&D 3.5 I was running a campaign with 8 players (yes, 8…). Amongst the usual set of crazy logistic issues that had to be faced (pallets of snacks for example…) we also had 8 different playing styles with 8 different motivations, backgrounds, educations, etc. I love my gaming group – and running a game for 8 people is a tough challenge I wouldn’t recommend just anyone trying out… A couple of members of the group are of the engineering background and this led to its own challenges as a GM (analysing buildings and traps for structural integrity for example). This would lead to amusing situations such as the players spending 30 minutes of game time trying to explain how a door couldn’t be opened by lifting the beam instead of just pulling it to the side with the attached ropes and getting on with the game.

Continue reading Do the laws of physics have a place in fantasy role-playing games?

Not so long ago, the 4^th Edition DMGII came out. With the general high quality of 4E splatbooks so far, this looked promising: but for those out there for whom “promising” isn’t enough, this in-depth review should give you everything you need to know about the book, helping with the critical decision of whether or not to actually go out and buy it.

Continue reading 4E Dungeon Master’s Guide 2: In-Depth Review

If you are anything like us here at Dice of Doom HQ, the moment you got D&D 4E you rushed out and bought a stack of Dungeon Tiles once you realised how important (and awesome) they were. After collecting a whole box of these tiles though it can be hard designing dungeons based on what tiles you actually have in your collection. Fortunately Wizards of the Coast have you covered.

Continue reading Using the Dungeon Tile Mapper from WotC

Continuing on in our series of background music for role-playing games we look at the Norwegian Black Metal band turned increasingly electronica band Ulver.

Continue reading Music for role-playing games: Ulver

Having music play in the background of a game is a fairly divisive issue – some love it, some hate it. However, I have found that if you pick the right music it can add a real ambiance to the game that players will enjoy. Over the years I have discovered a few bands that are not particularly well known, but are great for background music whilst gaming. This week I am going to write a series of articles highlighting musicians and bands that I have found to work well in a role-playing game environment.

Zoë Keating

I discovered Zoë Keating through a random tweet by @wilw (Wil Wheaton) describing how impressed he was with her music. I thought I would check it out, and I was quite stunned by it. Zoë Keating is a cello player who uses multiple tracks and loops to build up each song. The mood can be quite dark and haunting but always beautiful.

Continue reading Music for role-playing games: Zoë Keating

Using props in a role-playing game to pass on a handwritten note or clue can really add to the atmosphere of a game. Using Adobe Photoshop it is really very easy to create the look and feel of old paper or parchment. Just follow these simple steps and you will be on your way.

Continue reading Creating old parchment and paper style handouts using Photoshop

One of the more persistent recurring jokes in any role-playing game is that games always seem to start in Taverns, Inns, Pubs, etc… While this actually makes a lot of sense considering that this is where travellers are likely to be, and where a lot of hiring/firing, etc would typically occur, when you find yourself starting the 7th or 8th campaign the same way, you probably need to expand your repertoire. What follows is ten ideas (some I have actually used…) for starting a campaign.

[Disclaimer: although the current campaign that I am running did start in a tavern, it had a twist, so that's ok... right?]

1. Friends return to their hometown for the funeral of a childhood friend

The party grew up together but then went their separate ways to pursue their chosen career paths (*cough* classes). A message is sent out to them to return back to their hometown to bury a childhood friend. This can springboard the characters into investigating the causes of their friend’s death, or returning to right a wrong, or discovering massive corruption in their hometown.

2. The characters are travelling to some distant location on a ship

The ship can then be captured by pirates, attacked by monsters, shipwrecked, etc. The party forms up on a deserted island/on shore/etc to exact revenge/survive/pirate themselves.

3. The characters meet in a refugee camp

A great plague/war/etc has caused a massive exodus from a well populated area. The group are forced to band together in order to survive and perhaps find a solution to their mutual problems.

4. The characters are press-ganged into service for the local ruler

This is a way of introducing them and sending the party on missions/quests quite easily. The party can either accept their lot and work their way up the command chain taking on more and more difficult missions, or they can conspire to escape to freedom.

5. Have one of the characters actually own the tavern in question, and have them seek bouncers/support staff

We have used this in the past, and it was actually a hell of a lot of fun. I know it’s ‘kind-of’ cheating, but hey, it worked well when we used it last. This form of start is extremely good in big urban settings as it allows the group to form a base of operations, and gives the GM a continual hook for adventures (a gang tries to offer ‘protection’, local thieves move in, competition gets physical, local city watch suspect them of protecting thieves guild members…)

6. The characters are travelling in the same convey/caravan

The characters team up with merchants or settlers heading off to a dangerous location. Many travellers did this in antiquity as a way of protecting yourself (settling the West) or providing entertainment on long journeys (Canterbury Tales). What happens on the actual journey to throw the group together is largely up to you…

7. The party are individually captured and sold as gladiators

The party are captured and sold to a local thief lord who runs a labyrinth like form of entertainment for his local cronies/followers. Think Deathtrap Dungeon, or that *cough* D&D movie…  The ultimate goal is freedom and riches, but the party may wish to find a way to exact revenge or at least leave with a large portion of the thief lord’s treasure. This works best with characters who are starting with a few levels under their belt…

8. The party each have dreams of a local clearing in the forest that is well known to the locals (of which they belong)

The party each have dreams of a local landmark set at a specific time (full moon, sunset, etc). The character feel very strongly that they must be there at that specific time. Once there they are met by a ghostly figure who tells them that they have been selected for a specific task. What the task is, is up to you…

This is just a few ideas, and most people would be able to suggest plenty more (so please do…). And finally thanks and apologies to my friend Jrronimo for allowing his heavily edited photo to appear in this post. For those interested, it was taken in The St Leonards Tavern, Sydney a few years back…

One of my pet annoyances with doing everything on Dungeon Tiles is the complete and utter unrealistic nature of the scale when you are not in a bare dungeon fighting monsters. Recently this was brought home when we used our new Dungeon Tile A2 sheet to play a scene out in a rather large inn. What become immediately apparent was that Dungeon Tiles, and the whole five foot square thing, are completely out of scale.

As I drew out tables and chairs, rooms, staircases and everything else in the building, we realised that if we were going to fit our characters in there with their own square for every model, the tables were going to be about 30 to 40 feet long. That’s probably a bit big. And chairs immediately have a seat that is 5 feet by 5 feet. Very uncomfortable I’d imagine.

And then I noticed that the same 8 players (who’s characters were in the inn…) where sitting around a table that was only 6 foot long in my small living room.

After a quick think (we were in the middle of An Encounter), we came up with the following idea. We’d use tokens in situations like these – a different colour for each person. We’d identify who’s token was who’s by placing a token next to their model on the side of the sheet.

This worked so well, I am considering using it for a lot more of our gaming situations. It restores the sense of scale and reality to the map and keeps the utility of using the system intact. For those of you that might need tokens, Chessex has a great range of colours, and they are pretty damn cheap too…

[You will notice that there is one white token in the private rooms at the back of the inn. That's our resident Halfling mischief maker. He has a Charisma of 20, so I don't need to tell you what he was doing...]

Update: Click here for instructions on how to create your own Dungeon Tiles using Photoshop.

One of the big changes in Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition (D&D 4e) is the almost mandatory use of dungeon tiles and models for every combat encounter. While this had been a big push in D&D 3.x, it had never had the feeling of being absolutely necessary to run the game. This of course presents a bit of a challenge to a lot of gaming groups as they move across to the new system.

Wizards of the Coast of course have endeavoured to make some money facilitate groups in making the change by releasing their series of Dungeon Tiles. I have to admit, including these in adventure kits is absolutely awesome, but overall they haven’t proven to be that useful to our gaming group. I’ll save my complete comments for a review which I will one day get around to writing, but suffice it to say, there is a lack of variety and depth to the tile sets to make for interesting dungeons (or outdoor areas…).

This lead me to thinking about creating our own dungeon tiles for use in our games. My first plan was to use photoshop and start creating my own sheets which I would then print and use in our games. The problem with this was that it took a VERY long time to create a single room (I learnt a new respect for graphic artists…), and it still didn’t suit my GM’ing style.

Previous to our switching to 4e, I would draw all the maps out in fine detail as the characters explored. The maps would be filled with little details, but were drawn to a scale where an entire building could fit inside a 5 inch square. Not very useful when using models.

I then decided to go in a different direction. I would print out large, table sized grids, laminate them and use a blackboard marker to draw out the maps. This really appealed to me as it would allow me to make changes on the night and I could effectively draw quite large maps for everyone to play on.

I used Incompetech’s site to create the grids. These guys have built tools that let you create all kinds of documents and then save the pdf’s in almost any size. For my project I created an A1 Square Grid (for inside buildings and dungeons) and an A1 Square Crosses Grid (for outdoor areas). I also added A2 sizes of the grids for when I might need a smaller section or sub section. These I got printed and laminated for $50 (AUD).

These have worked out absolutely great for our group, and I can highly recommend the approach. I am including a link at the bottom for pre-made hex grids, square grids and square cross grids in sizes A1, A2, A3 and A4. These should also print just fine on the ANSI size equivalents as well (there is a bit of a margin around each – although the hex grid might be a bit tight – let me know how it goes if there is trouble…). If there are any other sheets that you might use, check out the incompetech’s site as they have great resources for gamer’s.

• Tabletop Grid Package (60KB zip file)
• Incompetech’s Graph Paper Generator

If you, like many GM’s, work full-time, you may have trouble preparing a game to be ready each week. Tools to generate random maps and gaming resources for the GM are still, in my opinion, in their infancy, and are unfortunately likely to stay there due to the lack of popularity pen and paper games in general. Many of these services are funded solely by the developer’s passion for the game and ad links only, and as such, do not get updated often, or disappear when the developer loses interest/time/money. There are, however, some great examples of what can be achieved in this area. What follows is a brief guide to a few that I have used in the past.

Gozzy’s.com Home

This website has probably one of the best random dungeon creators out there at the moment. Not only can you choose variables such as room density, map randomness and size, but you can also choose the type of stone used, the background image (great for handouts, etc) and the type of dungeon (wandering line or room based). The map to the left is sandstone tiles on a vellum background.

The website also includes a random generator for caves and wilderness maps (the latter of which is quite stunning to be honest) as well as pre-drawn town and kingdom maps.

Downloadable Maps

In another category all together, but also quite useful, are the pre-generated and drawn maps. These are nearly always in a another class all by themselves. Random maps, by their nature, are simple and often lack a lot of detail. Pre-generated maps on the other hand often have too much. It is not always appropriate to your campaign to use the names that the other artist has chosen to give places, or towns don’t always have cathedrals, castles, markets, etc. Having said all of that – these are the most common sorts of maps available.

D&D map of the week

Now only in an archived state, these maps are of an extremely high standard and often come with descriptive text and details. They are also usually designed to be part of an extended campaign, so there are levels, details and features that are not often available on other maps. The other great advantage to these maps over others, is that they offer them in high resolution too for printing purposes.

Also included here – Dungeon Tiles (more of which later…).

Dungeon Artist

Professional artist Jeremy Simmons releases his maps for free non-commercial use on his website. These are quite beautiful, but fall in the ‘you have to use my names’ category.

Fantasy Map Maker

A blog featuring gaming maps. These are high quality and useful.

There were plenty more sites that I have used in the past – some of which were fantastic – but many have not survived the test of time (I got a lot of server time-outs and 404’s…). If you have a site that you use, please leave a link in the comments below.