Leonine Roar

It’s not just about the mechanics!  

In this week’s Legends and Lore article, Mike Mearls talks about and even lists out the Core of D&D, and it inspired an immediate thought in me, which I promptly posted as feedback in the comments section:

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The encounter status check between combat rounds is more than just a great place to see if parlay or retreat is a smart option for either side, it’s also an excellent place to include all of an encounter’s story and environmental triggers, all in one convenient, easier-to-remember and more smoothly executable place.

Running and resolving global components between rounds is more advantageous than forcing all those rules per turn, which tends to slow all turns down.  

Instead, have everyone make an acrobatics check on their turn to avoid falling down and go sliding ten feet across a storm-tossed ship deck on their turn.  Otherwise, resolving this effect on each turn means further complicating and extending turns and all the decisions a player already has to make.  Handle that event globally instead, as if the storm had its own initiative, at the start of each round. 

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Poison – a classic debilitator and killer, found throughout all editions of Dungeons & Dragons.  Seventeen colorful and insidious poisons dot the D&D 4e landscape, with all but one – the truly vicious Pit Toxin – found throughout heroic and paragon level play. 

However, in 4e, the there are only brief rules and advice in the DMG on how to best include poisons in your games, whether actively as a player or as part of encounters or adventures as the DM. 

Looking for some ideas?  Here are some considerations for poison use in your very next game – from attacks and encounters to entire adventures.

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In reading and eating up Popcorn, I’ve done what D&D ‘DM to the Stars’ Chris Perkins does on the fly before, to make an encounter more challenging and “cool,” though I also knew it wasn’t “by-the-book” either at the time.  I have to say, I often feel a bit conflicted when I do this, even though the encounter definitely becomes more engaging for everyone, DM included.

Thing is, especially with the overlong 60 minute combat encounter average time in D&D, you may end up having little room for multiple combats –  never mind anything else core to D&D like exploration and roleplay opportunities – in a fairly typical 3-4 hour D&D session.  And so it’s usually a good idea to get in at least one engaging and challenging combat in the session at some point. 

So if a fight starts going south fast into “Easy and Boring Land” – for both players and the DM – why shouldn’t the DM make a few tweaks on the fly?

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Wish lists are new to D&D in 4th edition, representing a bridge between player or character (or both) tastes or desires and DM prep and magic item inclusion.  Keep in mind there are alternatives to how you use and communicate your wish lists with pros and cons for each approach. 

And whatever approach you use for your wish lists, do your part to promote the classic wonder of magic items – flesh them out to make them look, sound and feel truly magical!

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Memorial Day weekend essentially means summer is here, and after all your delicious BBQs, drinks of choice, lawn games and whatever crazy dancing you may or may not throw in, it’s also a great time of year to try some new things, including new games or returning to some gaming passions you’ve taken a break from.

Now that D&D 4th edition has been out a few years, if you have some friends you’d like to introduce to D&D 4e or want to start a new playgroup of your own or simply get everybody together again and relaunch one, it can be a little daunting or unclear as far as how to start, what to buy, and where to buy it. 

Want some help?  Here’s a few quick and simple lists:

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Retreat, fleeing  and withdrawing from combat could use more clarification or guidance as a standard part of the D&D 4e game rules. So could other encounter strategies like parlay and surrender.

Sure, lots if not most creatures will flee, to live and fight again, or just to live.  Many are willing to or are compelled to talk – for a variety of noble and practical reasons.  And some will even surrender, expecting their lives be spared per an arrangement or the unwritten rules of battle and war.

However, while all these alternatives to combat are quick and dirty to execute in many forms of cinema or literary works… doing so smoothly in D&D is hit or miss.

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Your characters’ social or interaction skills are flexible tools and creative weapons against the monsters and opposition you face throughout your adventures. 

It’s important to remember that you can and should flex your reputation, physical presence and silver tongue to influence not only complex situations and help make critical greater-scope decisions, but to apply those same ideas in influencing the starting conditions or makeup of encounters. 

Armed with Bluff, Insight, Diplomacy and Intimidate, you can directly affect the odds and victory conditions of the encounters that stand between you and victory, glory or even simple survival – before an encounter begins or combat even breaks out.

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