I do like to help my players get better, I encourage them to take their time, use their minds before attacking, stick together, and use teamwork. Once they get the fundamentals of the game down, then you can really start throwing stuff at them. Sometimes, however, people fail. Whenever we take risks, failure is always a possibility.

I know as a player, I have lost countless characters. The only times that I ever got angry about it was when I felt that it had nothing to do with what I did personally. I have vowed to never do this, but this does not say that PCs don’t die (again, this goes with risks and that is part of failure), I am just saying that their deaths are either because of bad choices that they made, or because we rolled the dice and they lost.

I have found that when played well, the player characters are very resilient; I know that I can be extremely tough on them, and they will bounce back, but sometimes things just happen, and the DM really needs to just let them happen.

Lets look at a case were we have a party in a 9’ long hall; they see a goblin at the end of the hall fumbling with a crossbow. The fighter tells everybody that he’s got this, and declares that he is charging the monster. He doesn’t know that this is a trick, I tell him to roll initiative, he rolls a 4, and I roll a 3, but tell him that he won and he gets to charge. Halfway down the hall, the goblin sets off the trap and the fighter has to make a save vs. breath weapon, which he fails. A pit has opened and he falls into it, falling 10’ and I roll up 6 damage. He is lying prone at the bottom of a pit, which grants me another attack on him. The goblin runs over to the edge of the pit and fires his crossbow, hitting him for max damage and the character dies.

Who killed that character? He could had let somebody else with a ranged weapon have an attack on the goblin, so it was his choice to charge. He was granted a saving throw to avoid the trap and jump to safety, and the goblin shot him fair and square. This death isn’t on the DMs hands, yes the DM wrote the trap and executed it, but we owe it to the players to keep the danger real, else there really isn’t any sense in playing the game.

Losing one character in a party during the game tells us that our challenge level is good, losing two tells us that our challenge is difficult but still possible, but if we kill more than that, then we have to evaluate what we did. Is the challenge level too high? Did you give the players a chance, or are they just playing badly? Were they too bold and unprepared to deal with this threat because of something that you did, or something that they did? Now, granted: If you told the players clearly that they are looking down a valley upon hundreds of campfires, with orcs as far as the eye can see and they attack it . . . well that is not your fault. If you put them in the same room with a monster that everybody knows can kill them in one round, and they attack it . . . again, not your fault. But, if they are in a dungeon, and although they have used sound judgment, they have the magic, and the resources to survive but they are still dropping off like flies, then chances are that you accidently set the level too high for them, which happens. Honestly, there is no real guide on how much you can throw at your PCs. Like a good chef, we are just measuring by eye. Once we realize that this is going on, it is time to change strategy.

RESET! RESET!

Unlike in videogames, there is no reset button. It is too late to correct the damage that you’ve already done; well, you could but that might mess with the integrity of the game. No, it is best to just roll with it. This will go back to creature motivations. They won’t see the players as a threat, and they may want to keep the PCs alive, if they do, then change your tactics to capture instead of kill. Don’t make surrender easy. Who knows; maybe one of the adventurers can make it out alive! Wouldn’t THAT be something? But don’t keep running an impossible scenario unless it is very very rare, and all of the players know that they probably won’t be coming back out alive so that they can pick their characters more carefully.

PC death happens, and it should happen! But as long as we are doing it fairly, the players can’t call us Killer DMs, nobody wants to be that. There is nothing worse then getting stuck at a table with one in charge, I think that any experienced player can tell you that; but the term “killer DM”, gets thrown around a lot; what exactly is a killer DM?

The Killer DM is a cheater, plain and simple. He is lazy, and he likes to have the game be all about him. He won’t use the monsters in the MM, instead he will create his own and they won’t be balanced with the system that you are playing. He may even trick you by letting you play a character that is also unbalanced, but it is just that, a trick. There is just one strategy with the Killer DM, you are expected to attack everything, and the second that you try to role-play or do something different, he just attacks you and laughs because you don’t know how to play the game; and, if you are able to beat his stupid, over-powered monsters, you still don’t win anything because his campaign is also a Monty haul. If anybody gets any glory, then it will be his DM Character. The killer DM thinks that he is a difficult Dungeon Master, when he really isn’t. He’s boring. Allowing the dice to do their job, and allowing the players to fail has nothing to do with being a Killer DM, and if your DM is playing a fair game, then it is a huge insult to suggest otherwise.

The moral of the story is, don’t be afraid to play at your best. Play your monsters up to their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. If you play hard and play for keeps, your players should still be able to win, but they won’t be handed the win, they’ve got to earn it, which will keep your players coming back!

This week I had met a milestone for this blog which is exciting for me, 100,000 hits! Now I have no idea what other web pages get, and I have a feeling that many are scoffing, but I don’t care, that is pretty amazing to me, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank everyone for still reading after all of these years, especially considering the niche subject matter that I deal with here.

It never fails to amaze me, how many people (especially in this day and age) are putting their smart phones down, and gathering around a table with friends and fellow players, just to roll some dice and play a game that involves pencils and paper . . . I don’t care what edition of whatever game that you play, that is still old-school!

I owe so much to this game, that I think that it is fair to say that I wouldn’t be who I am without it. I had a hell of a time finding people to talk to. You see, I had to hide who I was for years and years; this is before the trendy people started calling themselves nerds, and even as a child I once got the crap beat out of me by a group of boys for watching Doctor Who on PBS, nobody helped. I learned to keep my mouth shut. If people wanted to talk about cars, parties, and girls then I would talk about cars, parties, and girls; things that really didn’t interest me all that much.

 Even at home, the people who I love thought that there was something wrong with me; it was tough! I am sure that even with the popularity of NERDS, this stuff is still going on. People are quick to attack what they don’t understand, and perhaps we are just easy targets. Who knows?

I didn’t find real friends until I graduated, but I was lucky. Finding people who understand you is the greatest gift that one can find! I remember not wanting to be associated with Role-Playing games, as they still had a reputation at that point, and I had enough social problems. Eventually, I did cave in and attended a game . . . I haven’t looked back since.

This game can do something that not even a therapist is capable of; it can get us out of our shells, and help us heal. I can’t tell you the delight I get when a new player shows up; last game they said that they just wanted to watch, but I’ll make up an excuse to get them at the table with a character, and at some point I look at them and ask, “What do you want to do?” and I see it! That light shining in their eye, and I can feel what they are feeling. That uncertainty and shyness is as thin as glass now and all they have to do is break it, and I get to watch it the moment that it happens. I keep them safe, when everybody is screaming at me, I’ll tell everybody to quiet down because I want to know what the new guy thinks, and everybody at the table is with me; we’ve all been there. This is an initiation. This is important! What may look like just a group of people sitting around a table playing make-believe is going to change this person’s life forever!  This person is being drawn out, and shown respect for his thoughts and ideas; not just shown respect, but actually rewarded for what he brings to the table! This game can do more in a month for us shy people than years of professional help.

We need to remember that.

That is one of the most important things that we do. Through this game we can learn social skills, we can learn how to cope with our insecurities, and we can find strong friendships that will last us through the years. We can save each other! Is that all that this game brings to the table? Hell no! This stuff is still fun and worthwhile. While a therapist tells you that you need to work, this game does all of the work for you. . . Well, most of it.

I talk a lot about stuff, and I know that I can be bossy. I don’t mean to be; I try very hard to provide a positive place for all ages. I keep my cussing down to a minimum, and while I know that most kids will be playing current additions, I still want to keep this place as an open resource available to all ages. On the other side of the token, I come from a different era of gaming. I value direct and critical thinking. I was not born a Dungeon Master, I was groomed by a group of players who knew exactly what they wanted. We nerds are never all that good at beating around the bush, it typically doesn’t work when we try because the other person just won’t get it, and simply stating your thoughts directly, to me, is a good thing.

If, at any time I come across as a “My way or the highway” kind of guy, or that I encourage this line of thinking, I don’t. I make lots of suggestions about how to go about doing things, and often they may not look to be suggestions at all, but they are. I’ve play tested these things unless I state otherwise; every table is always a work in progress. If what you do is the exact opposite of what I do, and it works for your table, then keep doing it!

I’ve also heard folks complain about us bloggers being to gamey. To that complaint I second it, however one has to understand DMing or GMing. The game master has to be aware of mechanics at all times; and then on game day, it is his job to hide them in the back ground. We are illusionists!

I guess that what I am trying to say is that your comments are welcome here. I do ask that you refrain from cursing, but all matter of critical thinking is helpful. I think that it is important to debate and add to an idea, or point out how something doesn’t work. Elitism is not helpful to anybody, and just because somebody owns a blog doesn’t imply that we know what we are talking about. This blog is here to help, and it has been helping for years now, even when I wasn’t manning it personally.

I would also like to thank you again for coming here and reading my drivel. I am out of practice with my blogging skills, but rest assured that I am working on them. If you want to help make this place better, then I welcome it. I am just a guy with a ton of books and a really old computer.

We’ll get back to work again here pretty soon, but for now; Thanks for reading :)

Regardless of where they are or what we choose to do with them, we want our NPCs to seem real and unique; and it is okay for the minions to follow the descriptions in the Monstrous Manual, but even if we just add a quark to a few of them which doesn’t effect there stats, we can make our encounters more memorable to the players.

Besides having the illusion of personality, we want to really study and develop how the monsters will perceive the players prior to the encounter, as well as during it; noting what we think might change. Unlike 0 INT monsters and animals (or PCs), intelligent monsters will never willingly attack an unknown enemy. This shows us the first factors that we can modify to make this encounter unique: High INT creatures will be able to accurately judge what they are dealing with in less time than Low INT creatures. A low INT monster will take a moment to assess the situation prior to engaging in combat; are they going to be able to figure out that a cleric is present? What will they think about an unarmored PC? From asking ourselves these questions, we can start to develop a basic strategy: Is our monster the kind of creature that will focus on characters that they see as vulnerable first, or are they more likely to start with the largest threat? Chances are, the largest threat to them will be the fighter, but this might change once one of them sees the wizard cast a spell.

We can also factor in motivations: Do the monsters just want to clear their lair, or do they see these invaders as something different? A mind-flayer may want them as slaves; a lich may want to turn this into an experiment, while a dragon may see them as a brief source of mild entertainment and news before eating them.

Not all encounters have to end in total annihilation, if a monster believes that he can surrender, he may attempt to do so. If there is a mix of creatures living in the dungeon, part of the group may see surrender as a political move to be rid of evil oppressors, giving information in exchange for their lives. Others may make some strange demands that the party won’t be able to fulfill, such as letting them have the hobbit to eat, in exchange for them letting the players go.

Some Dungeon Masters get hung up on alignment, stating that chaotic monsters can’t work together as a team, but this really isn’t true. Teamwork is a basic survival skill, and while the lawful creatures will be able to form tighter lines and use more advanced tactics, the chaotic will be able to stay in their battle station; they may think that they are the best soldier in the army and everybody else is incompetent, but they will be able to work as a team.  Think about it more along the lines of trust, a lawful company trusts each other, while a chaotic company probably doesn’t, but both has to work together in order to survive.

AMBUSHES

Every creature knows that an enemy is weakest when it is traveling, and being able to pick the battlefield should have great advantages. The more time a monster has to design an ambush, the more deadly an encounter becomes. A dedicated ambush spot which is designed to capture supplies from merchants will have a booby trapped, and easily defensible path to a lair which is a death trap once entered.

All ambushes should be designed to function as they need to, and for a purpose higher then just giving your buddies XP. If you want to focus on players needs, instead, focus on creating a great challenge and allow it to flow as it was designed to.  It is best to write exactly what should happen, how the monsters will attempt to control the movements of their victims, and designs which will kill or injure others with the least amount of energy spent as possible. Each ambush should also reflect the strengths of the monster that uses it, and minimize their weaknesses. Don’t worry about how the players will get themselves out of the mess; that is their problem, not yours. Try to kill them! Having to fight for each victory will provide more then just telling a group story.

TRAPS

For reasons of fairness, traps should factor in to how you balance the encounter. This should be a considered a free attack on the party that may or may not be avoidable, and be cohesive with your main plan of attack. A monster that triggers a trap will automatically succeed, and force the player to make a saving throw to avoid full or half of the damage, but with monster triggered traps, it must be decided if a monster will get an attack of opportunity on the intended victim or victims, and, of course, follow up with this plan on game day; you aren’t doing anybody any favors by coddling them.

Much like the ambush, these traps must be thought out, and serve a purpose. If a trap is set off by intruders, then it should alert the monsters who set it; or, if they don’t want to be bothered, why? What is the trap designed to capture? Do they have a problem with bears? If they want meat from the traps, they don’t want the meat going bad; if it is designed to capture slaves, it won’t injure them in anyway unless the monster has some way to heal them. Traps should be designed with intent, and when they are, it makes the encounter more thrilling to the players to see how the creatures that made them think.

RELATIONSHIPS

Many modules assume that you understand why a creature is there, however I have found that many DMs honestly don’t think about it, and they should. Sure, everybody recognizes a slave/master relationship, but there can be other kinds of relationships in play.

ANIMALS

There are trained animals, and untrained animals. Monsters that live in the wildness won’t have any problem in getting animals, and there should be at least one of two monsters who know how to train them. Even an untrained animal will be dangerous to a PC, as a simple dog won’t be obsessed with digging a booger out of its nose, nor get distracted by the boredom of looking down an empty hall all day long. All it has to do is bark and something should go see what it is going on.

A trained animal fights along side of its master, at the same time; they know each other and can always work well together, granting the owner of the animal additional attacks and making the player decide how to spend their own attacks. In cases were a goblin has a wolf or two, the wolves are stronger then the goblin is, but is still subservient to it. This is the preferred relationship for a weaker monster, a much stronger monster that doesn’t boss it around; it just doesn’t get any better then that!

MONSTERS

Some relationships are forced upon the owner of the lair or there isn’t anything that the monster can do about it being there, so they factor it into their plans. A really powerful monster that doesn’t care about leadership may only see the goblins as a snack to catch, and while it might eat a few now and then, the defensive bonus of the creature unwittingly being there can be awesome! Orcs can feint a running retreat to encourage the invaders to chase them right into a ropers lair, and then close all of the exits. Since orcs like to add insult to injury, they’ll probably keep peppering everyone with arrows from the safety of a murder hole.

Some monsters, can be contained in a cage or a pit, but can never be controlled or trained, such as a Bulette. Smart monsters could clear an area once the players are inside of it, and then release the creature.

Think about all of the relationships in a specific area. How do they benefit each other, and who considers themselves to be in charge? Is there a weakness to the relationship that a smart player might be able to exploit?

WORD GETS AROUND

 

Finally, we have to consider communication between everyone in the struggle. If it takes place inside of a lair, do they have a method of sharing learned information between them? How advanced is this coded communication? They can probably tell each other how many intruders there are, as well as what part of the lair that they are currently in, and where the monsters want them to go. If a wizard casts a spell, there probably is a code sound for others to know. The DM should understand that his monsters can only know what they see or what they are told.

Nothing should be placed in a lair without intent on the DMs part. When we designed things, they should always tell an engaging story that is open to the interpretation of the players experiencing them, and encourages them to seek deeper into what it is that you are doing. I always find it more thrilling to discover what the story is, than I do just being told; why not trust them to discover that for themselves?

While a Dungeon Master knows that they shouldn’t set up overly imbalanced scenarios designed only for the purpose of murdering the party, many DMs go to the opposite direction and make their encounters too easy, which is just as much of an abuse to players as Killer DMing is. It isn’t that they intend to create them that way, typically they are following the rules, but what they aren’t doing is running the monsters to their full potential.

The DM is expected to be an impassive witness to the game; unfortunately, when a DM doesn’t understand that he is also expected to actually role-play his monsters, then he isn’t bringing his best to the table, nor the best out of his players. Some DMs assume that players are running through encounters because they are so good at it, and choose to over-compensate by throwing more power monsters at the players, which they don’t role-play either.

Your intent while running the encounter should be to keep your monsters alive and to kill all of the players while still following the rules. We aren’t telling stories, we are running an encounter, and if we do a good job running it, then the players will see a story in it. We want to make each and every encounter as dangerous as we possibly can with the tools that we have. This applies for both Module adventures as well as the encounters which we create ourselves. If we stick to the rules of creating balanced encounters, we can really bring a lot of danger to each one.

ROLE-PLAYING MONSTERS EFFECTIVELY

Intelligence is clearly listed in the Monstrous Manual, and we need to observe it. Naturally a 0 INT character is going to be a machine: A zombie does not care if it is going to get hurt, an Iron Golem is going to work only as it was designed to, and a deadly pudding is going to satisfy its hunger. 0 INT creatures will never stop until they are dead.  

Creatures with INT of 1-2 are animals. If they are untrained, they may or may not try to run away once they realize that their lives are in danger. We can run this randomly by applying Morale checks every round. Animals should act like animals.

Creatures with normal Intelligence are far more dangerous then you might be giving them credit for. They won’t just feed themselves to a meat grinder, they need to be role-played and they should hatch plots and value things that they enjoy.  Thinking of motivations for them should be fun for the DM, though it would be a waste of time to figure out specific motivations for each and every creature living in a lair, we can assign a group motivation and have one or two that have alternative motives, typically having something to do with personal ambitions.

The boss of an area should be more thought out; he is the most dangerous thing in the lair because of his mind. He is leading a small army, and he should have a personal goal assigned to him, in particularly keeping his army alive and his personal power intact.

KEY IS THE KEY

Many modules tell the DM what the monsters are doing, this in no way implies that they won’t investigate noises unless the key specifically says that they won't. The key takes for granted that the party isn’t standing around arguing about which direction to go, or who has the right to take the magical item, and all of the other stuff that players like to complain about. Once the alarm is tripped, things shouldn’t go so good for the players; all of those monsters should be free to start roaming the dungeon.

You and your monsters need a solid plan. Prior to play you should really study your map, and pick out good ambush spots where you can surround the players, or sneak up behind them. Once an intruder is detected, word should spread around really fast, and all monsters should report to their battle stations.. A patrol will be sent out to locate the invaders, and try to identify the nature of the party; instead of attacking, they’ll do their best to report this information to their allies.

MONSTER TACTICS

The MM holds clues about tactics of each monster, but it is up to the DM to really bring them to life and keep them as safe as possible. Survival is key! The lower the monsters HD, the less likely they’ll engage in direct combat. Instead, they’ll prefer ranged combat and the use of traps, only entering direct combat if they have no other options. These are complex creatures and the encounters with them starts with the planning stage. They will use their lairs to their advantage, setting up traps that they’ll trigger themselves, else know how to avoid. What they won’t do is all go rushing out of their lair to defend it. The lair itself is their preferred weapon and it is defensively superior to any melee weapons that they have.

Same goes for wilderness encounters; they will set up traps and do their best to catch their intended victims, namely merchants. If a caravan looks too dangerous they’ll probably let it go unless they are really in need of supplies, then they will become braver, and this is when they are most likely to encounter PCs. They should have plans set in place to favor them, and keep them from having to engage in direct combat. This should also include a great escape route, because lets face it, bravery and overt boldness are two different things.

MONSTERS AND THEIR TREASURE

DMs like to hide treasure around their dungeons, but if a monster is aware of it, and knows how to use it, he most certainly will, and it might not just be the head boss that has the treasure, if you were an underling with ambition for better things, would you tell your boss that you have found a Ring of Protection, or a Sword+3? If you are into telling stories, this is where you should hide it. Is the party even going to notice the ring on a dead gnoll’s finger? What would his peers think about the gnoll not knowing his secret? Maybe a couple of them do know and have been looking for an opportunity to take it from him? This is role-playing! And while it won’t stop the players from beating you, it will slow them down and they won’t get anything for free, which will make the encounter more special to them in the long run.