Dreadful Deeds: The DMS Trap
Posted inDreadful Deeds

Dreadful Deeds: The DMS Trap

Today I bring to you the first of a few guest posts as I prepare to kick off my D5C initiative on twitter, it is written by the very talented (and devious) @Macrogeek so do yourself a favor and start following him on twitter if you’re not already doing so. The DMS trap is a wonderful play on a classic trap that could be found in any dungeon, a bit of a one-two punch but the twist is you’re PC’s minds will end up suffering some quite unique effects.

The role playing possibilities and hilarity that may ensue from the DMS trap are priceless so read on, and prepare to give me your best shot when I call out for D5C tweets starting next week. Also check back later today for another new Pixels & Polyhedrals baddie that will really choke your players for options.

The DMS Trap

Not all RPG traps should exist to try to cause a player death or TPK. Some of the best traps are the ones that give you, the DM, a plot hook to work from in future sessions. Thus I give you a trap designed only to cause fun role playing scenarios for your players – The DMS Trap.

It goes a little something like this:

Near the end of the dungeon the party triggers a trap. It’s not important how it’s triggered, just that it goes off.

Some ideas:

  • Have the “boss” character of the dungeon wear an amulet that triggers the trap if he dies or separates himself from the amulet. (a dead-man switch, he can intentionally trigger/drop the amulet if the PC’s don’t kill him, or it can go off when they take it from him as loot)
  • The trap can be triggered when the PC’s remove a certain goal item from the dungeon. They have to remove the item to complete a quest, but doing so trips the trap. Alternatively, when they fail a check trying to open a chest, or disarm what appears to be a simpler trap, the DMS trap can be sprung.
  • The fumbling NPC. Make the trigger for the trap obvious, supply a clumsy NPC who has much poorer skills than the rest of the party…have them fail a check. Works well with rescued prisoners, the village drunk, liberated henchmen, local politicians.

DM, you’ve made the players set off your evil trap…what happens next?

Crafting the next generation of role players starts with rpgKids
Posted inKids Reviews

Crafting the next generation of role players starts with rpgKids

character tokensLet me start by saying up front that rpgKids is probably the best 3$ you can spend in beginning to foster the love of RPG’s in a child. Mr. Enrique Bertran (aka @NewbieDM) sent a call out to fellow gamer dads on twitter a few weeks ago, so I felt complied to answer him. After speaking to him I was given the honor to play test some of this delightful project before it came to the masses. I had been familiar with his rpgKids system only vaguely before this, having glanced over it a time or two. When it came to “playing D&D” with my son before it had always been some malformed abbreviated form of 4th edition I hacked up on the spot, no consistency. Thankfully with rpgKids that’s now a thing of the past and he has a simple yet understandable system to play with rules anyone can pick up within minutes.

This evolution of the system (1.5) is somewhat of a re-vamping of his rpgKids system he’d release a year or so ago. He’s made additions, changes, and clarifications as well as extra optional rules for magical items and bonuses/penalties during combat only to name a few. Also added in are special non-combat abilities for each of the 4 class archetypes which are the Sword Fighter, Healer, Archer and Wizard. The system is so simple and so easy to pick up I believe it could be used as a gateway not only for kids but even those non-gamer adults we all have in our lives.

The rpgKids rulebook is 24 pages, comes with everything you need to begin playing immediately and also provides printable grids for creating your own maps and tokens for heroes and monsters. Therein he’s also included a full blown adventure entitled “The Lair of the Frog Wizard” which is a sizable little adventure complete with flavor text and ready to print maps of the locales within the story.

A Guide to Heroic Tier Parenting: Ages 0-6
Posted inDungeons and Dragons (D&D) Humor

A Guide to Heroic Tier Parenting: Ages 0-6

After many a silly yet somehow profound conversations with my wife, I’ve decided it’s time to turn our D&D references to parenting into a post for your reading pleasure. Granted some of this may all seem silly at first but I have hidden some true wisdom within these lines. I’ll be doing a 3 part series of posts each one focusing on one of the parenting “Tiers”. So let’s get this thing started, enjoy.

UPDATE:This got published at Kobold Quarterly as a Friday Funny. Woot!

Heroic (Ages 0-6): This tier of parenting is simple yet dirty business and somebody has to do it! It’s not glorious when you first start out, though after all it is unavoidably the foundation you’ll build the rest of your adventuring career on. You start out battling one dirty diaper at a time and your party has no real sense of cohesion or tactics just yet. It’s all fly by the seat of your pants no matter how well you think you’ve prepared, that cleansing ritual will not keep the diapers of eternal stench at bay no matter how many times or how loudly you repeat it’s canticle. Sleep deprivation is going to sap away most of your healing surges, what’s left may be consumed by that soured milk breath weapon, hope you’ve got a high fortitude defense. Oh and all those torches you packed… they aren’t going to help your reflexes any against toys you trip over when waking up in the middle of the night due to nightmares or having to prepare an alchemical concoction for the little one.

By your “party” I do mean your child(ren), yourself  and your significant other of course, if you’re lucky enough to have one that is. Some adventurers aren’t so blessed and must quest alone. So keep in mind If you’re a single parent the encounters don’t scale down and doing even the most mundane tasks can seem trying at times. You have even less time for short rests but the rewards are fantastic – bragging rights, double XP and hoarding all the loot for yourself! After a while you obtain a rhythm and things seem to get easier, challenges you face are easily overcome with at-will’s and encounter powers. You’ll have to break out the dailies when certain situations arise, such as questions like what happens when you lose all your HP, or what that funny dance is that they saw you doing in bed with mommy/daddy the other night. Not all situations are so trying however, which in this case feel free to use minor actions to make some shit up and those curiosities drop like minions.