Leonine Roar

It was a couple of days before the recent and lovely Hit Points, Our Old Friend article hit the D&D site.  I had actually been experimenting in my 30th level D&D tribal campaign with hit points and morale, blending them together like a fine, time-saving… erm… wine?  Cheese?  Taco?

Whatever!  I’m actually a little suprised that Mike Mearls’ definition of hit points in that article didn’t include morale.  It includes just about everything else – all good stuff, too.  What gives?  Morale seems obvious to me.  It should be there!

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We’ve seen a lot of class and race tidbits, and DM options when it comes to setting our D&D Next complexity slider right where we want it. 

Modular D&D is on its way so we can play whatever style or complexity level of D&D that suits our playgroups best for any particular game or campaign – and that’s a great thing!

And yet there’s one other important thing when it comes to complexity that’s really ramped up in 4e: magic items are very much styled like powers, and like powers, have a large range of complexity as well. 

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The end of days in near.  The heroes have literally commandeered a storm giant king’s sky fortress, a castle riding upon an electrified expanse of roiling storm clouds. 

The destination?  The Frozen Death.  A place so cold, so dark, that only one thing could survive there – a primordial. 

The heroes have learned that the lava, magma and heat of the world has been not only drained, but stolen into the depths of the Frozen Death itself.  Why?  The Storm King has a primordial to thaw and unleash upon the world!

So much for the simple tribal life for our heroes, right?

World destruction is wonderful campaign theme, perfect for wrapping up the epic tier of play.  It’s one of my favorites and once we hit 30th level – it shouldn’t be just the world that’s in trouble.  Epic scope – go!

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Ever wish creatures and characters’ injuries actually mattered?  Hit points are an abstraction of wounds, physical toughness, weariness and even morale. 

Yet a specific injury system has always been difficult to implement without slowing the game down or creating an administrative nightmare. 

So what works andwhat doesn’t work?  Initially inspired by the Dragon Age video game’s injury system and now by Dragon Age II’s more streamlined version, here’s how you can adapt some easy-to-use injury rules to your D&D game.

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Recurring villains are great in our favorite stories, books, movies or TV series.  What separates recurring villainy in those mediums from tabletop RPGs is that it’s easier to execute villain escapes.  The writers take some creative license and weave at least a mildly believable story or tactical reason for a villain’s escape.  And that’s it – we’re not chasing them ourselves, so we don’t get that upset.  (Well, maybe a little!)

In D&D, however, it’s just not that easy.  Recurring villains don’t get to graduate to “Level 2: Recurring” often.  Why?  During first contact with the party, they’re usually pin downed and killed well before you can say “You’ll pay for this!”  With the amount of truly debilitating effects that D&D 4e powers and attacks are capable of, it’s only become a bigger issue.

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One of the most enjoyable storytelling tools you can put to use is to show a radically different perspective and scene in your campaign’s ongoing story.

Even better, one of the most engaging things you can do is play out that scene with your players still being the stars of the scene or encounter. 

A monstrous vignette is also a great opportunity to unveil a few secrets of the story and world as well as an opportunity for your players to play a refreshingly different character – or monster!

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